To Have and To Hold

TL;DR - Many people think this is a wonderful Romance novel, I do not agree. It is a good book that you should consider reading, for reasons I will go into below.

So, I’m looking for some light-weight cheerful summer reading, and say to myself, hey! why don’t I pick up some Romance, you get a happily-ever-after with those right? Look at some blogs, pick a few from the lists, one of which is this Patricia Gaffney “To Have and To Hold”. It has a pretty estate pictured on the cover of the Kindle edition I have. Lots of sun! Looks light and cheerful.

First few pages I’m introduced to the “Hero” Sebastian Verlaine, I’m thinking, ‘oh he’s a little edgy, great, don’t want it too sappy’

Few more pages, ‘hmmm this is a bit show more dark isn’t it?’

Few more, ‘ WHAT THE HELL AM I READING????’

Light read, not so much. Excellently written character study of a ’rake’, a charismatic, abusive, emotionally controlling rapist (reminiscent of Lovelace from[b:Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady|529243|Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady|Samuel Richardson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1373639647s/529243.jpg|2767990]) is what I got.

The first half of the book did an incredible job of putting me in the head of a privileged member of the aristocracy. There is very little romanization of what many authors consider an idyllic time in history. The author touches upon the power disparity between the classes, how the lower classes go to prison for crimes the upper classes are never even charged with. We see how very vulnerable certain members of society are.

The last half of the book becomes more of a conventional romance, replete with a puppy and bubble bath.

We meet the heroine, a woman convicted of a crime who has no alternative but to accept work with Villian/Hero knowing full well there would be extra ‘duties’ e.g. multiple rapes.

It is here that I feel this book distinguishes itself. For the first half of the book it is made clear exactly how helpless and vulnerable Rachel is. We are also put inside Sebastian’s head and see how he plans his emotional and physical assaults.

Why in the world would anyone consider this a Romance? I guess some readers think the rapes are really ‘seductions’, but no, no, there is no ambiguity here. I was really surprised in 1995 this could still be considered a grey area. Sure, probably 1850 would have considered it a forceful seduction, but this is a Romance written for modern readers. Surely our concepts of consent have advanced since then?

Sebastian is a very interesting character and the book is worth reading (with trigger warnings) just for him. If you don’t mind your hero raping your heroine, then yes it might be romantic. show less

This is a tough book to review. The writing is superb, and the character work is excellent, but the subject matter is often uncomfortable and sometimes unbearable.
Sebastian Verlaine, acting in his capacity as magistrate, hires Rachel Wade to be his new housekeeper. It's to keep her out of gaol but he also makes it quite clear she is to serve as his mistress. Rachel has just served ten years for murdering her husband but is now destitute (a crime in Victorian England and elsewhere).
Sebastian is a rake, depraved, bored, and without morals. He's much like the men in Anne Stuart's Rohan books and definitely not like the fun-loving rakes who get drunk, visit a whorehouse, and then race their curricles to Brighton. Rachel has been sexually show more abused so their interactions are much like a bad car wreck that you can't look away from. I'm trying, very badly I think, to say that the first part of the book is horrifying but written so well that you can't put it down.
The second half of the book is more of the traditional rake reformation of a HEA that one expects in a historical romance. It's still well-written but just a tad weaker in the overall storytelling. The character work is compelling. We get a lot of inner monologue from both Sebastian and Rachel that emphasizes their confusion at their actions.
This is one of those books that I'll think about for a long time. It's not for every HR reader, but I did enjoy it a lot. show less

Here's the problem with To Have and To Hold. If you like the first half, you won't like the second half. If you like the second half, you won't like the first half.

The first half has Sebastian as this self-indulgent aristocrat who happens to be amazingly lucid - the sections of the book written from his POV are just gripping. He's blithe and bitter and although he has a dark sense of humor, he's not a brooder.

During this time Rachel is a withdrawn, dead-in-spirit woman who has no pride and not much sense of self. She's been in a prison for ten years and whatever happens at Sebastian's house, it's better than prison.

So for the first half of the book, Sebastian is playing a cat-and-mouse game with Rachel. He pretty much rapes her; he show more certainly gets off on her fear of him. Gaffney does a really good job showing how his emotions are getting involved without his being aware of it, it's a very convincing transformation. On the other hand, any kind thoughts Rachel has about Sebastian make no sense at all and sound pretty awkward.

So that's the first half. And then, in order to make up for how bad Sebastian was, and give Rachel reason for fall for him, Sebastian has his awakening, he realizes what a jerk he's been, he decides to be better. From that point on he is a puppy dog. He does nothing but think of ever-more-sensitive gifts for Rachel; the sex is gentle, and then gentler; he's always having warm fuzzy thoughts and smiling.

Meanwhile, Rachel is reborn - comes to life again after her years in prison - and although I admit that she has plenty of reason to be wary around Sebastian, she does all the things that I can't stand it when heroines do: Sebastian says one dumb thing and she's going to storm out forever and apologies will never be enough; she refuses a marraige proposal because it's too late.

If you enjoyed the cat-and-mouse game, all the snoozy gushing at the end is a bore. But if you like tender meetings of the mind and heart, the mental and physical violence of the first half is offensive. show less

This is a tough book for me to rate. It's definitely somewhere between a four and a five for me.

On the one hand, this book is a phenomenal character study. Too often authors use the term "rake" as shorthand for a fun-loving libertine. When Gaffney uses the term here, she means business. Sebastian Verlaine is a rake of the first order. Debauched, selfish, lazy, and privileged, Sebastian uses the people around him for his own enjoyment. As the book begins, there's nothing lovable about him. He's not a bad boy with a big heart underneath, he's just a plain ol' douchebag.

Rachel Wade is the completely damaged woman who catches his eye while he plays at country magistrate. Rendered scared and meek from ten years spent in prison for the murder show more of her abusive husband, she's brought up on the charge of vagrancy, as she's been unable to find employment to pay for lodging. Seeing a fun little diversion, Sebastian offers her a job as his housekeeper as an alternative to prison, with the intention of seducing her, of course.

Gaffney didn't mess around with Rachel's emotional scars either. Girl is busted up. From the rigid discipline of incarceration she now has trouble making the simplest of decisions. Far from the typical genre fare of feeling an inexplicable attraction to the hero, she's friggin terrified of him. Their first coupling is not quite consensual and there are no miraculous orgasms caused by the hero's magical wang. In many ways it's ugly and sad, and she resents him for it, even though she accepted it.

Despite this ugliness, Sebastian's transformation is believable, as is Rachel's recovery. Upon a visit from his libertine friends from London, Sebastian begins to see in them his own ugly nature and resents it. He throws them out of his home and, after wallowing drunk in self-pity for a few days, begins to show through his actions that he is a changed man and worthy of Rachel. For her part, Rachel stays wary of Sebastian, while taking comfort from him at the same time. You see Sebastian act more and more selflessly while Rachel becomes braver and more independent.

Where I take issue with the book is with Sebastian's journey. I felt that he did not suffer enough or grovel enough for his truly despicable behavior earlier. All he had to do was change his ways, and he got what he wanted. I wanted more penance from him, for him to feel loss, humiliation or pain of some sort. Just being sorry wasn't enough.

Regardless, To Have and To Hold was a superbly written book of truly memorable characters. It is absolutely worth the trouble of tracking down a copy. show less

3.5 stars

Wow! Talk about deceiving covers. I don't mind a darker romance on occasion but I picked this up when I was looking for something tamer. Sure the blurb had me expecting an angsty read but I saw the pastels and the English country idyll on the front and thought it probably wouldn't be to heavy. Never, NEVER, was I expecting the sado masochism, incest, torture, bondage, forced seduction/rape and abuse that lies between the seemingly innocuous cover of this book. All I can say is if you're squeamish about abused heroines or if you believe that a good Knights armour should never become tarnished, then this is definitely not the book for you. Rachel gets the rough end of the stick (to put it mildly) for most of this book and show more Sebastion frequently behaved in ways that made me want to punch him. Having said all that, I personally found the story engrossing and the characters engaging. show less

Interesting plot with extreme key events that were riveting but the rest of the story had too many details and I skimmed a lot. I felt so sorry for the heroine and I'm not convinced the hero gave sufficient atonement. Rogue Viscount Sebastian hired ex-convict accused murderer Rachel as his housekeeper.

I really had trouble with this story line and could barely finish the book, but I persisted. It was hard for me to get into it and Sebastian was so unlikeable at first. I cringed over the way he treated Rachel. Not really my cup of tea, much too dark and angsty and the spectre of what happened to Rachel by her husband just creeped me out too much. Obvious what the real story was, but I kept reading to the end to confirm it. By then, it seemed anticlimatic.