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FREE TO LOVE by Ivana Trump

FREE TO LOVE

by Ivana Trump

Pub Date: Oct. 1st, 1993
ISBN: 0-671-74371-6
Publisher: Pocket

Plucky Czech socialite Katrinka Graham returns (For Love Alone—not reviewed)—this time juggling a fleet of hotels, a new marriage, a late pregnancy, a social life in St. Moritz, Palm Beach, New York, and London, a surly son, and a lethal ex-husband- -all of which give her only an occasional moment to mutter philosophically, ``Ay yi yi yi, what a world.'' Having finally rid herself of hateful Wasp spouse Adam Graham, lovely 43-year-old former model Katrinka settles down with her handsome, rich new husband—self-made newspaper magnate Mark van Hollen—in a freshly redecorated Manhattan townhouse complete with a nursery suite for their soon-to-arrive baby girl. Pregnant, in love, owner of a successful luxury hotel business and surrounded by affectionate high-society friends, Katrinka wishes only to share her happiness with the rest of the world, but, sadly, the rest of the world has other ideas. Ex-husband Adam, furious that Katrinka, who failed to bear him an heir, has so easily become pregnant with Mark, plots to destroy both her marriage and her husband's publishing empire. Katrinka, who has just located Christian Heller, the 23-year-old son she gave up for adoption when young and single in Czechoslovakia, is too busy showering Christian with a Mercedes, a Central Park West apartment, a job in Mark's company, and introductions to friends' children to note the warning signs in Adam's behavior—or, for that matter, in Christian's, as the brilliant but unsavory young man responds to her overtures with insults and betrayals. The world is filled with jackals, in short, and Katrinka and Mark must watch their step, steadfastly sticking by each other in the face of the boldfaced lies, media harassment, marital separations, SEC investigations, kidnapping, rape, blackmail, spontaneous cosmetic restructuring, and worse that come their way. Ay yi yi yi, what a world. Yet Trump's practical, optimistic heroine beguiles the reader even as her glitzy, international milieu dazzles and entertains.