To Have and to Hold

Rating:
Summary: The best romance novel I've ever read - still
Review: Four years after first reading it I this still love this book just as much, and ther romance website AAR has done a survey of its readers on their favorites among Gaffney's novels, and this book came in in #1. Updating my review from March of 1999, which 20 of 22 people found helpful:

This is my favorite romance novel; it is also one of the darkest love stories I've ever read. An extraordinary book unlike anything you'll ever read, "To Have and to Hold" is beautifully written and breaks new ground for the romance genre, but is not for those who like their romances sweet. It is the middle book in Gaffney's Wyckerly trilogy (begun in "To Love & to Cherish" and completed with "Forever & Ever") but it also stands on its own. This was the first book of Gaffney's that I read and I immediately looked for the rest of them; none of them were anything like it, although she's a wonderful writer.

The hero is by far the most complex and morally ambiguous character I have seen in popular fiction outside of Anne Rice's vampire books. Rachel and Sebastian meet after she has been released from ten harrowing years in prison for a crime she did not commit and is about to be sent back to prison for vagrancy. Sebastian is bored, previleged, and beginning to cross the line from decadence to corruption. He rescues her at the hearing and offers her a position as his "housekeeper," meaning mistress. She accepts out of desperation.

Sebastian soon finds himself obssessed with his reserved housekeeper and responds by tormenting Rachel psychologically and sexually. Just when I was afraid to read anymore the story did a stunning 180-degree turn (I don't want to give it away). Suffice it to say that "To Have and to Hold" is dramatic, suspenseful, harrowing, intensely erotic, and deeply moving. You have not encountered a love-hate relationship in a romance until you've read this one. What's more, the quality of Gaffney's prose is far above 99.9% of the authors in the romance field.

To quote Susan Elizabeth Phillips from the back cover: "An emotional roller coaster, complete with a dark, tortured hero, a complex heroine, and sex scenes so charged...I was riveted."

Rating:
Summary: A Very Dark Romance
Review: I actually bought this book because so many people here and on the discussion boards raved about it, but I found it quite disturbing.

Sebastian is a dreadful man when we first meet him, and he does really unforgivable things to Rachel even after he realises how deeply he cares for her. Ms Gaffney does make his journey believable, but it a pretty grim one, from where he incites his so called friends to humiliate and mock Rachel, ..., to his entire attitude to their relationship.

But what disturbed me even more was Rachel's history. There is something quite disturbing about giving the heroine such a dark and twisted past. In fact all the women in the book (aside from the lovely Anne, the vicar's wife, whom I understand was the heroine of the previous book) have abuse in their background. In Ms Gaffney's world it is almost standard to have been sadistically abused. That just felt wrong to me, and that is why I won't keep this book.

I really didn't like the start of the relationship between Rachel and Sebastian -..., and even though she grew to love him, I felt very uneasy about it. Even though the development of their love is handled very well, the start of it was just too awful for me.

I've just written this to warn people - strange things go on in this book. Clearly there are those who really loved it, and revelled in love conquering such bitter darkness, but I found it a bit too twisted for my taste.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book--Dark, But Full Of Hope and Growth
Review: I admit it was the mixed reviews of this book that lured me to read it. And I must say that I side with the readers who loved it. Ms. Gaffney does a wonderful job portraying characters filled with torment. But in the end, she brings them to a place full of hope and redemption.

Sebastian IS a terrible person at the beginning, but it's a believable state created by a life of excess and the envitable boredom that accompanies such a lifestyle. The awful things he does to Rachel are a retaliation to the emotions she makes him feel. He knows he is petty, shallow and weak, when faced with the true strength of Rachel. She has suffered unspeakable pain, and she is still a good and wholesome person, whereas he is only half a human, too consumed with his own gratification.

But they really save each other. Rachel makes Sebastian see the man he can be, and he makes her trust and live again. This is a fabulous book with great depth. I'm in awe of Ms. Gaffney's writing. She made me love both these characters--and believe they love each other. Great stuff!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book--Dark, But Full Of Hope and Growth
Review: I admit it was the mixed reviews of this book that lured me to read it. And I must say that I side with the readers who loved it. Ms. Gaffney does a wonderful job portraying characters filled with torment. But in the end, she brings them to a place full of hope and redemption.

Sebastian IS a terrible person at the beginning, but it's a believable state created by a life of excess and the envitable boredom that accompanies such a lifestyle. The awful things he does to Rachel are a retaliation to the emotions she makes him feel. He knows he is petty, shallow and weak, when faced with the true strength of Rachel. She has suffered unspeakable pain, and she is still a good and wholesome person, whereas he is only half a human, too consumed with his own gratification.

But they really save each other. Rachel makes Sebastian see the man he can be, and he makes her trust and live again. This is a fabulous book with great depth. I'm in awe of Ms. Gaffney's writing. She made me love both these characters--and believe they love each other. Great stuff!!!

Rating:
Summary: Scintillating
Review: I did not want this book to end. It is the kind I keep and re-read and re-read.

It is quite dark for a romance. The heroine has real problems and the hero is far from noble. The combination of the harrowing dangers the heroine has to face and the incredibly erotic love scenes makes this a heart thumping page turner.

It is one of my favorites because the hero and heroine are so unlike the typical romance characters.

I went on to read the next book in this series but the only thing I liked about it were the glimpses of these two characters from To Have and To Hold.

I've since read a lot of Gaffney's other books, but nothing grabbed me like this one.

Rating:
Summary: dark, somewhat disturbing and absolutely wonderful!
Review: I had not ever heard of this author until recenly when I came across her while perusing a listmania on favorite romances on this site. I was immediately intrigued by the plot and decided to buy it. I am so glad I did! This is a wonderful romance full of darkness and love and intrigue.
Sebastian Verlaine inherits the title of viscount from a cousin and moves to the village of Wyckerley not to take his newly acquired responsibility seriously but simply because he's bored with the aimlessness of his life. One drunken night he's talked into acting as magistrate and this is where he meets Rachel Wade, who was brought up on charges of indigence. She is a murderess who was paroled after having served ten years in prison for killing her husband. Sebastian is intrigued and attracted to her and offers her employment as a "housekeeper" not out of kindness but basically because he thinks it will be amusing to have someone around who's completely helpless at his beck and call. Of course he also plans to make her his mistress. Rachel is completely at his mercy and she knows it. However, she no longer cares very much about anything. She has been in prison since she was eighteen for a crime she didn't commit. Her accounts of the brutality and the cruelties she was subjected to in prison made me cringe. She doesnt care one way or another what happens to her as long as she doesn't have to go back to prison.
Sebastian is selfish and mean, completely unlikeable throughout the first part of the book but by the end I was left totally breathless at how the characters, especially Sebastian, changed and matured before my very eyes.This, I believe, is what makes both the book and the author brilliant. She was able to show through poignant, sometimes disturbing scenes that love is powerful enough to change even the most jaded, cynical and hopeless of people. Overall this is an excellent read.
I can't wait to read the rest of the books on this author's backlist. Highly recommended. :)

Rating:
Summary: good novel, dark romance
Review: I have to agree with the reviewer who found this story too dark for a romance. I was really looking forward to reading it, because of this very warning, but found it disappointing. It took me a while to pinpoint why. It boils down to the fact that while it is well characterized, developed, written, and more original than most romance novels, it is almost too realistic to be in this genre altogether. It has a gothic feel to it, but without enough of the gothic trappings to keep us fastened.

Sebastien Verlaine does things in the first half (and even later) that are truly unforgivable. His languid ennui somehow makes it all worse; better a quietly enraged villain who can feel something, even the wrong thing. The novel does get very fascinating in the middle as Sebastien changes, but the resolution of his character evolution is not clear nor sufficient. It made me "uneasy" as the other reviewer said, not so much because of who Sebastien is, but who he comes from. His horrid familial background is so realistically sketched that it's hard to fathom him changing to the point where he and Rachel will find happiness in love.

The novel is definitely worth reading for its rich and unusual character and setting development. I loved the intelligent dialogue and shades of perceptions between the two lovers. However, I found most sex scenes distasteful or dissatisfying rather than erotic and exciting, because of how Sebastien treats the whole experience and because of the heroine's stoic detachment, another obstacle in the novel.

I didn't quite buy the premise that he looks for his opposite in her, someone who feels more because she is just a survivor; she is not his opposite in this sense but his equal. They both have lost the capacity to express their feelings, though for different reasons. The feeling I kept getting is that the story kept asserting one thing, but showing something else. There was a gap in the telling and showing that made it unsatisfying as a romance but intriguing as story, in the final analysis.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing but well - written.
Review: I liked the premise of the story - jaded, world-weary Sebastian, practiced seducer and charmer of women, rescuing troubled Rachel Wade from a life of despair (i.e. prison) and employing her as his "housekeeper" for his own amusement; however, I found the so-called "forced seduction" scenes quite upsetting. It was rape, pure and simple, as Rachel was an unwilling participant throughout.

Of course, Sebastian changes his ways midway through the book and is chagrined (though not nearly enough) over his behavior, now desperate to win Rachel's acceptance, but I could not forget that he was capable of such dastardly deeds. He even teased her later a few times about "tying her up," etc., which I found revolting, given their past history. I was also disappointed that, though Sebastian was aware that the townspeople were calling Rachel his "whore," he did nothing about it.

I still must give Gaffney some points for her skill as an author, but I don't recommend "To Have And To Hold" very highly.

Rating:
Summary: "A Definite Should Try"
Review: It's a wonderful book. Rather on the dark side but a deviation from your usual the-female-save-the-suffering-male type. If you ever read a book titled Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers and love it, you will enjoy this one.

Rating:
Summary: He's a monster
Review: The "hero" rapes the heroine multiple times. Not "she says no but really means yes" - it's RAPE. No book recovers from that for me. I wish I could give it zero stars.