To Love and Cherish

Rating:
Summary: Sweet Love Story
Review: This book is delightful, beguiling and well written.
The romance is between a vicar and his childhood friend's wife (not as sordid as it sounds)! It is a gentle, sweet story that stays with you long after you read it. The author draws you into the story with believable and well written main and secondary characters centered on the little village. It is a refreshing story, no game playing between hero and heroine, and no torrid characters that hate each other at first. Just a mesmerizing story and wonderful read. This book is one in a trilogy of the village of Wyckerly. The next book To Have and Hold is much darker and different than this one but also worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: Refreshing, beautifully written story
Review: This book was a delight to read because of Patricia Gaffney's beautiful prose and the unusual story line. The hero in this story, Christy, is a not a typical historical romance rakehell but, in fact, a vicar in a small town. The heroine, Anne (Lady D'Aubrey) is Christy's childhood best friend's unhappy, cynical wife. The characters are amazingly well drawn and sympathetic even in their faults. The friendship that develops between Anne and Christy and their eventual mutual (and, of course, forbidden!) attraction is very believable. I *loved* the character of Christy, a truly honorable and good man, full of good humor and optimism. What a refreshing change from the the usual angst-ridden libertine nobleman hero of most historical romances (actually the sequel to this book, "To Have and To Hold", features such a hero and is also an excellent, but much darker, book)!
Bravo to Patricia Gaffney! This book is a real treasure and the memorable characters will stay with you long after those from other books have faded into oblivion.

Rating:
Summary: One of her best
Review: This is the first book I read authored by Patricia Gaffney. A few years back, a sales woman at a used book store recommended this and the other two books in the Wyckerley triology. She is now one of my favorite authors. Although I like her most recent contemporary books, her older books, including this which are set in the past are her best in my opinion. They are better because in spite of the historical setting, the characters in her older books have current sensibilities and face timeless problems. Also, because they are set in a previous era, her older books don't have the pop culture references that make any contempory romance not just her books seem dated as soon as they are published.

To Love and Cherish is about Christy and Anne. This book is a world apart from other books of this genre. Ms. Gaffney authors with such a light touch and uses a gentle sense of humour that time is suspended while you are reading her books. How Christy reconciles his vocation with his love for Anne, a childhood friend's wife makes for a great plot--hard to put down. The suspense of "will they or won't they" holds up until the last page. You don't want to leave Wyckerly when this book is over and surprise! you don't have to! She has two other books set in this English town. Some of the characters you've met and some are new. So you can enjoy your stay in Wyckerly for a good long time.