There are some unrealistic romance conventions that I enjoy (marriages of convenience, tortured heroes) but others are just too far outside reality for me. The “forced seduction” is one of those – no matter how much the author tries to convince me it’s true love, I keep thinking of Stockholm syndrome…
To Have and To Hold by Patricia Gaffney
(1995, Victorian) 9/2/12
Grade: 3
Jaded Sebastian Verlaine is the new lord at Wyckerley, but when he sees Rachel Ward about to be sent to prison for vagrancy, he impulsively hires her as his new housekeeper. Rachel spent ten years in prison for murdering her husband, and she has no illusions about what Sebastian really wants, but she is willing to take her chances – and finds an unexpected love.
This is another difficult book to judge. It had moments of beauty and emotion, but I couldn’t get past the initial setup and “forced seduction” of Rachel by Sebastian. It was difficult to believe in any kind of real love between these two characters when the threat of coercion was always there, and where the relationship was always unequal. Rachel may have grown to love Sebastian, but she was always aware that she was in his power and could have been sent back to prison at his whim. As a reader we know that Sebastian is the “hero” and a happy ending is really happy, but as a realist I found the whole thing more troubling than romantic.
I will at least try to read the third book in this trilogy, in part because the Wyckerley setting is so well depicted, but so far it’s been a disappointment.
Karen Wheless
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