To Love and To Cherish by Patricia Gaffney
Dec. 6th, 2005 08:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksRosario (http://rosario.blogspot.com) recommended Patricia Gaffney's Wyckerly books to me a few weeks ago. In the past, I had picked up and then discarded her more recent works, which are very much Women's Fiction. Women's Fiction is very much hit or miss for me, even more so than Chick Lit or any other subgenre of romance. I'm the right age to enjoy it (32), but it doesn't work for me, mostly because if I want to know about people having issues with their children, spouses and jobs, I can just call my friends and family. Anyway, that's why I've never really "gotten" people who rave about Patricia Gaffney. Turns out, she started out writing European Historicals and American Westerns, although they are a little harder to find at the library and at bookstores than her more recent WF. Based on Ro's recommendation of the Wyckerly trilogy, I found a copy of To Love and To Cherish at half.com.
Christy Morrell is the vicar in Wyckerly, the village in which he grew up. At the opening of the book, Lord d'Aubrey is dying and has sent for his son, Geoffrey, who was once Christy's best friend. Geoffrey ran away from home as a teenager, joining the army and following it to various fronts in the British Empire for twenty years. Geoffrey returns, just after his father dies, with his wife, Anne, in tow. After a short period of time, Geoffrey is off to the wars again, leaving Anne behind, isolated in a village where she knows no one and is separated by class. Anne, British but born and raised on the Continent, has led an eclectic and somewhat unhappy life. Slowly she and Christy become friends and fall in love. There's a bit more to the plot than that, but really that is the basis. The main conflict is the attraction versus the morality of loving a married person. The conflict is accented (exacerbated?) by the fact that Anne is an atheist or agnostic (I think she was atheist, but need to reread those passages to be sure).
I really liked this book for several reasons. First, I thought the conflict was very well done. Christy is a genuinely good man, who loves his god and wants to do a good job; he has doubts and fears, but he keeps working and trying. He is truly torn between his calling and his feelings, and he tries to Do The Right Thing. There is no trumped up mystery or suspense created to bring the hero and heroine together or keep them apart. Second, the characterization of the people of the village as secondary characters is excellent. Anne and Christy do not live in a vacuum. The village of Wyckerly and the social structure are what throw Christy and Anne together initially, and it does not disappear once their attraction becomes paramount. The village and the villagers continue to interact with them and influence the story. Third, religion is a huge part of this book, but Gaffney is not preachy; I finished the book knowing that religion and god are a huge part of the story and the lives of the h/h, but did not feel proselytized, which is a problem I often have with inspirational romances. The only knock I have is that I felt like I never really knew or understood Anne as well as I did Christy. Her motivation is much murkier.
All in all, a pretty good book. Maybe not a Desert Isle Keeper, but good enough for me to see out the other books of the Wyckerly trilogy to see what happened next.
Christy Morrell is the vicar in Wyckerly, the village in which he grew up. At the opening of the book, Lord d'Aubrey is dying and has sent for his son, Geoffrey, who was once Christy's best friend. Geoffrey ran away from home as a teenager, joining the army and following it to various fronts in the British Empire for twenty years. Geoffrey returns, just after his father dies, with his wife, Anne, in tow. After a short period of time, Geoffrey is off to the wars again, leaving Anne behind, isolated in a village where she knows no one and is separated by class. Anne, British but born and raised on the Continent, has led an eclectic and somewhat unhappy life. Slowly she and Christy become friends and fall in love. There's a bit more to the plot than that, but really that is the basis. The main conflict is the attraction versus the morality of loving a married person. The conflict is accented (exacerbated?) by the fact that Anne is an atheist or agnostic (I think she was atheist, but need to reread those passages to be sure).
I really liked this book for several reasons. First, I thought the conflict was very well done. Christy is a genuinely good man, who loves his god and wants to do a good job; he has doubts and fears, but he keeps working and trying. He is truly torn between his calling and his feelings, and he tries to Do The Right Thing. There is no trumped up mystery or suspense created to bring the hero and heroine together or keep them apart. Second, the characterization of the people of the village as secondary characters is excellent. Anne and Christy do not live in a vacuum. The village of Wyckerly and the social structure are what throw Christy and Anne together initially, and it does not disappear once their attraction becomes paramount. The village and the villagers continue to interact with them and influence the story. Third, religion is a huge part of this book, but Gaffney is not preachy; I finished the book knowing that religion and god are a huge part of the story and the lives of the h/h, but did not feel proselytized, which is a problem I often have with inspirational romances. The only knock I have is that I felt like I never really knew or understood Anne as well as I did Christy. Her motivation is much murkier.
All in all, a pretty good book. Maybe not a Desert Isle Keeper, but good enough for me to see out the other books of the Wyckerly trilogy to see what happened next.
