Customer Reviews

A Rendezvous To Remember (Harlequin Everlasting Love #20)

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Just how powerful can a gift of journals be?

Melinda Thompson thinks her marriage to Nick is over. How can they ever overcome the mistakes they have made along the way? But Melinda's Grammy has left her one last gift after her death... her journals of love, a love that dates back to World War II and has its share of ups and downs. Will Grammy's gift open Melinda's eyes to the love that is right before her?

I stand in total amazement that this is Geri Krotow's first published book. What a beautiful and moving story of love during two very different generations! Talk about an emotional punch.... A RENDEZVOUS TO REMEMBER is a real world story told with all the heart and emotion of real people loving each other. Things aren't always easy, and there are some rather difficult moments for the characters to endure. However, the strength and Everlasting Love (as the series name says!) of the characters shines through no matter what the circumstances.

The story of Melinda and Nick intertwines nicely with that of Esmée and Jack. The trials of living and loving during World War II dovetail nicely with Nick's involvement in the war in Afghanistan. The transitions between the past and present are seamlessly conducted as the two stories are so connected that the events of one only help build for the other. What an incredible feat!

A RENDEZVOUS TO REMEMBER is one of those heart wrenching books that makes you look deeper into your own life. Geri Krotow is to be commended for her tale that transcends generations as A RENDEZVOUS TO REMEMBER highlights the true depth and power of love.

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

Speechwriter Melinda Busher-Thompson visits her grieving grandfather Jack Busher following the death of her beloved grandmother Esmee. She too mourns her loss, but she has issues of her own as her divorce is coming soon. Grandpa Jack gives Melinda a package from his late wife.

The cover note tells her to reconsider tossing away the love of her life. Inside is a journal from the 1940s in which her grandparents documented their activities. They both worked for the Belgium Resistance during World War II when one mistake would leave your compatriots dead. As she continues to read the harrowing experiences, Melinda realizes her grandparents shared courage that kept them together as much as respect and love for one another. She also turns introspective as she wonders if she should give her marriage a second chance as granny is right; she still loves her husband.

World War II and its aftermath in Belgium comes alive through the diary of Esmee and Jack Busher, resistance fighters, who enable Melinda and the audience to understand how much freedom lovers were willing to sacrifice. Thus Melinda begins to consider whether recently she never gave her marriage a chance. Geri Krotow uses a historical backdrop to remind readers it takes work for any relationship to flourish.

Harriet Klausner

A Rendezvous To Remember (Harlequin Everlasting Love #20)

Author Geri Krotow understands family and how each generation must deal with their own set of problems and somehow survive. I was taken with Esmee's strength and her character is someone I will never forget. She and Jack feel like real people and this is the strength of the novel. You forget you are reading fiction as you get caught up in reading Esmee's journal and then Jack's. Esmee and Jack had to do some unthinkable things to survive during WWII, and their stories of hardship and love give hope and healing to their granddaughter Melinda and her husband, Nick. This is a story of family, love and heroism and Geri Krotow writes from the heart.

Kathleen M. Rodgers, author of the award-winning novel, "The Final Salute: Together We Live On."

This is a terrific story that will keep you riveted until the final page. You will laugh and cry; the characters are so real and easy to identify with. Can't wait to get Geri Krotow's next book in February!

Geri Krotow's debut book is a wonderfully written story of love nearly lost. Actually, it's TWO wonderfully written stories, interwoven through time. Visiting her Grandpa Jack upon the death of her grandmother Esmee, Melinda is given the journals her grandparents wrote during World War II. Her grandparents met when Jack was a British spy helping the Belgian Resistance, and Esmee was a young Belgian woman working against the German occupation. What Melinda learns about the fascinating way her grandparents met, and how they survived so much in staying together, causes Melinda to rethink her pending divorce from Nick, a reservist fighting in Afghanistan.
Full of love, heartfelt emotion, and passion, this is a pair of great love stories painted on the backdrop of two different global wars. The author makes excellent use of the journals to tell Jack and Esmee's story while at the same time continuing forward with Melinda and Nick's. Unlike most authors who try this technique, Krotow does an excellent job of keeping the characters and events separate, but does so in a way that keeps the stories parallel and relevant to each other.
Romance is not my usual genre, but I will anxiously await this author's next book. Her style is fast moving and easy to read, and this book is very highly recommended to anyone who enjoys romance or is just looking for an emotional book that has a military feel to it.

I have a specific reason for deciding to read each EL novel I do, and my reason for choosing this one was the setting: Belgium. With the exception that they speak Flemish and that Audrey Hepburn was born there, I know nothing about this part of Europe, so I was excited to learn a little bit about it while being entertained at the same time. I learned little, and was only mildly entertained. I am not a fan of reading journal entries--they are amateurish. It's much easier to dash off a journal entry, summarizing an event, than it is to construct a scene with dialogue, and that's what this book was mostly--diary entries.

I am beginning to think that this format (love stories spanning decades) just doesn't work with this line because of the low word count. Every EL book I have read comes across as extremely rushed, this one in particular most of all. There were two journal entries that had five years between them!

I think it's best to start at the beginning of the relationship, not the end. This book was really two love stories going back and forth, and when this is done, I tend to find one story more interesting than the other, and I found the story about the grandparents far more interesting than the granddaughter's. That means each love story was only half the size of the book. No wonder they felt rushed.


Though I knew Grandpa Jack loved Esmee with his life, I was very disappointed when there was another case of adultery (or almost adultery with Jack, who was a college professor at the time, and one of his female students), and another case of the woman being willing to "fight for her husband" by dressing slutty, and if that's what it takes to win him back, I'd rather lose him. If I had been Esmee, I would have told that little tart she could just have him. Having shell shock is an explanation for a lot of things, but it's not an excuse for cheating on your loving wife. I just don't buy it. If you don't want to be faithful, get a divorce and then pay child support (and spousal support as well, considering the time period this was set).

Though I know these stories are supposed to have a happy ending (aren't they?), I thought it was contrived that Melinda finally became pregnant after fifteen years. It was like the author couldn't conceive of Nick and Melinda (the granddaughter and her almost ex-husband) living happily ever after unless they finally had their kid.

The journals (both Jack's and Esmee's) and Nick and Melinda's story weren't really interconnected, so the book didn't form a cohesive whole. "Rendezvous" was really two love stories rolled into one.

At least I was able to finish this one, unlike "Dancing on Sunday Afternoons" (the title and cover appealed to me), which was so confusing, I couldn't get into it at all.

This is the fourth EL novel I have read, the third I have finished, and my advice is to keep looking.

Geri Krotow is a new author telling a new story and you NEED to be reading her! A Rendezvous to Remember is a heart-warming, realistic look at life after you say I Do. Geri takes on the issues most couples face but few authors are willing to tackle and she does it with such prose and grace that I'm desperately awaiting her follow up.
A Rendezvous to Remember tells the story of two couples. One a contemporary American setting. The other a WWII European setting. As a great fan of WWII stories, I found Geri's research spot on!

Geri Krotow's first published work is astounding! Intrigue, espionage, romance and history all rolled into one piece of literature, terrific!

This is a wonderful book. Couldn't put it down. Loved how it moved between the generations! The characters are interesting and the story line is great!!