ANOTHER EDEN by Patricia Gaffney

PUBLISHER: Leisure, 10/1992
REISSUED: Leisure, 2000
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: New York, late 1800′s
MY GRADE: B-

SYNOPSIS: Beautiful, sensitive and aristocratic, Sara was tired of lying to protect brutal, grasping Ben Cochrane, tired of pretending that her life of luxury was anything but a gilded cage. And from the moment her eyes first met Alex McKie’s, she knew that he saw through the tissue of lies to the desperate, yearning woman beneath. Their love was forbidden, but how could it be wrong? Only in Alex’s arms could Sara taste ecstasy, and only his tender kisses could gain her entry to… Another Eden…

MY THOUGHTS: Sadly, this story was a predictable letdown. The English heroine, who I assume is in her late 20′s, is pretty passive and spineless, not at all the type of lead character I like to read about. She’s in a dysfunctional, abusive marriage and has no plans to leave it. Though it is the late 1800′s, people did get divorced and I can see no reason for Sara to have stayed married to Ben. He was wealthy and somewhere along the way she could have saved up enough money to leave with their seven year old son, Michael.

I have no complaints about the architect hero, Alex. He’s around 30. They meet because her husband, Ben, hires him to build them a vacation home/mansion in Rhode Island. Alex had an abusive childhood but has made something of himself and has become successful. I didn’t like Sara’s son Michael’s attachment to Alex and thought it very odd that Sara would allow him to correspond with Alex via letter. I don’t think that would have happened in real life.

Tasha was a scheming character and I don’t really see why she was put in the story.

The predictable part of the story: for married Sara and Alex to have their happily-ever-after, something bad (or good?) would have to happen to Ben. So, surprise, surprise, something did happen, which we all knew would.