Pursuit [Mass Market Paperback]

Elizabeth Jennings (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

With a powerful voice and unstoppable suspense, Elizabeth Jennings makes her Forever debut.


A shocking betrayal...her father's murder...and a life-threatening accusation...Heiress Charlotte Court has walked into a waking nightmare-one that sends her running from her wealthy home to anywhere she can hide.

Across the border in Mexico, Charlotte creates a new identity and finds refuge in the battle-torn arms of Navy SEAL Matt Sanders. Fleeing his past, Matt yearns to protect her and replace her pain with pleasure. But Charlotte can't trust anyone, not even someone she's starting to love. She knows she's a target-and out of sight, a soulless killer is zeroing in on his prey...

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Elizabeth Jennings lives in Matera, Italy, with her family. PURSUIT is her first romantic suspense novel.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Forever (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446618918
• ISBN-13: 978-0446618915
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #439,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've been a wordsmith all my life, starting as an avid reader. I was the one in class with an exciting novel open in her lap while the teacher droned on about quadratic equations, which I do not understand to this day. One summer I read so much I lost a dioptre of sight, but what can you expect when you live across the street from the county library? It's like an addict having access to a building chock full of crack cocaine. It's right there, the doors are wide open and all you need is a card.

Though I always knew I'd end up writing, the road there was long and fairly tortuous, as there was this tedious business of earning a living that had to come first. I'm not a starving-in-the-garret kind of person.

I moved to Florence, Italy from a small, provincial town in Central Oregon in my late teens and it took me years to get over the culture shock. I think everything about me, down to the molecular level, changed, definitely for the better. I learned that I loved language and languages, which led to interpreter's school. Being an interpreter is just about the best preparation I know of for becoming a writer, besides being a lawyer. More fun, too.

So, for more years than I care to tell, I traveled and interpreted. Simultaneous interpretation requires very close and careful listening to what the speaker is saying, to the choice of vocabulary, to the register of language, to the hidden meanings. It's intensely stressful and it burns language into your brain. Couple this with constant travel to sometimes interesting places (and sometimes not-interesting places--to wit, eight long damp years in Brussels), and with thousands of pages of translation work and you have a viable path to becoming a writer.

After traveling the world, another culture shock--marriage at a late age and residence in a small, provincial town in southern Italy, a little like circling back to square one. Matera, the unknown beauty of Italy, with its spectacular Sassi and incredible isolation from the mainstream of Italian life, became my new home. It's been an enormous privilege watching the city open up to the world like a blossoming flower.

At the age of forty, the new mother of the world's most spectacular son, it was time to finally try to achieve that lifelong dream of writing. I knew I wanted to write mainly genre fiction--romantic suspense and mysteries. I like to read exciting fiction and it's what I like to write. With a lot of help from my friends along the way, I've published 8 novels and now have a two-book contract with Berkley Publishing (Penguin USA). I'm also working on a women's fiction set in Florence.

Part of that help with becoming a writer was attending writers' conferences in the States. It was such an overwhelming experience that--again--with the help of friends, I established a literary festival and spectacular international writers' conference in Matera, the International Women's Fiction Festival--womensfictionfestival.com--where members of our tribe of writers meet, bond, talk shop, listen to top editors and agents, sell novels, overeat and get drunk on the finest food and wine this side of heaven.

I can be contacted at [e-mail] and [e-mail].

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Be warned of animal abuse and slaughter in one scene., March 13, 2008

By 

Detra Fitch (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pursuit (Mass Market Paperback)

Robert Haine, CEO of Court Industries, had originally planned to seduce the owner's daughter, Charlotte Court, and wed her so that he would inherit the eight million dollar company. That was Plan A. Problem was that Charlotte seemed to be the only female in the world that could not be seduced. So Robert went on to Plan B. Since Charlotte's father was slowly dying in the hospital, Robert sent someone to kill the old man. Afterward, his man would pretend to be a hospital employee and call Charlotte in. Once there, Charlotte was to be murdered and framed as a murder/suicide. Problem with that plan was that Charlotte was already in her father's room when the killer arrived. The hit man managed to kill the father, but Charlotte got away. However, Charlotte was shot in the shoulder as she fled. Now on to Plan C. The hit man killed the old man's nurse with a small gun, one such as a woman with small hands would use. Robert made sure he and his men were at the police station first and had already set Charlotte up to take the fall for a double murder. Since Charlotte would not be thinking clearly and be in a lot of pain, she would run, so Charlotte's home was guarded as well. Robert's men would pick her up, kill her, plant the gun, and make sure her body is found. But Charlotte saw the men at the police station and around her home. The media had already condemned Charlotte and everyone was searching for the insane, wounded woman. Charlotte could do nothing but flee in a friend's SUV. She needed to lay low, get well, and try to figure out how to clear her name. And a furious, but scared, Robert had to quickly come up with a Plan D.

Lieutenant Commander Matthew "Matt" Sanders had been shot multiple times while saving his men overseas. After a few months, he woke from his coma to find himself in a VA hospital. Once able to leave it, Matt accepted the invitation of one of his teammates to stay with him in San Luis, Baja Sur, Mexico while he recovered. During his self-enforced physical exercises, he spied his Guardian Angel. Every day she watched him work to rebuild himself. Every day she silently sent him courage to fight through the pain. Every day Matt fell more in love with the lonely lady, who had obviously suffered as much as he in some way. When they finally met, Matt saw her still healing gun shot wound and was determined to not only teach her how to protect herself, but also convince her to become a permanent part of his life. But time was not on their side, Plan D was already tracking Charlotte.

*** I found this to be a terrific plot and filled with interesting characters. However, Charlotte and Matt's romance went WAY too fast, in my opinion. Matt's character was believable except for the fact that the man who had been with lots of gorgeous women suddenly found himself head-over-heels in love with a stranger with only casual looks across a beach. And I feel that I must warn readers that there is one scene of animal abuse and slaughter. (Had I known that, I never would have read the book.) Otherwise, this story overflows with action and suspense. On a personal note, I would love to see more of Tom Reich some day. He is a buddy of Matt's and captured my attention instantly. ***

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Read, March 23, 2008

By 

C. A. Dahl (Scottsdale, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pursuit (Mass Market Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book. Contary to the other reveiwers, I did not think the romance was rushed. Matt courted Charlotte from afar for 2 months. As far as the animal abuse, I didn't think it was needed to define the character and since I was forewarned, I skipped those pages!

This was my first Elizabeth Jennings book. I look forward to her next!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars, March 25, 2008

By 

Huntress Reviews (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pursuit (Mass Market Paperback)

It only takes a moment for Charlotte Court to go from grieving heiress to fugitive. When a spurned suitor has her father killed and sets out to frame her for his death, Charlotte finds herself on the run with a gunshot wound and nowhere to turn for help. Months later, her luck turns when she nurses an injured former soldier back to health, becoming Matt Sanders' Angel, the woman he'd willingly lay down his life to protect. He might just have to, for there is a killer on her trail, and he's coming closer with every passing moment.

***** From page one until the end, this story grabs you and insists on being read. Despite the non-stop action, characterization is not skimped upon. Charlotte is someone you will be rooting for, from the edge of your seat, as her plight is played out in taut detail. *****

Reviewed by Amanda Killgore for Huntress Reviews.