Another Eden (Leisure Historical Romance) [Paperback]

Patricia Gaffney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1992 | Series: Leisure Historical Romance

Tired of lying to protect the reputation of her wealthy and brutal husband, Sara Cochrane falls easily for Alex McKie and embarks upon a forbidden love affair. Original.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Gaffney has a blunt and convincing insight into her characters, particularly the women.” —The Washington Post

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Leisure Books (Mm) (October 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0843933321
• ISBN-13: 978-0843933321
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,417,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Patricia Gaffney began her writing career with the publication of Sweet Treason, a historical romance set in revolutionary Scotland. Eleven romance novels later, she tried something different--The Saving Graces, a story of women's friendships, that ended up spending 17 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers List.

Circle of Three, Flight Lessons, and The Goodbye Summer followed, all bestsellers that established Gaffney as a premier mainstream fiction writer.

Her new book is Mad Dash, the story of a happy marriage in trouble. It's due out in Spring 2008.

Gaffney, who lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, is currently at work on a novel about a man who changes his life when he finds out he's dying--then finds out he isn't. Working title: On Second Thought.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read, July 6, 2000

By 

Eleventhour "eleventhour" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Another Eden (Mass Market Paperback)

Patrica Gaffney is fast becoming one of my favorite authors and offers quite possibly the most complex characters in Romance today.

Another Eden is the story of an unhappily married woman and the architect her husband hires to build their summer home. The hero is immediately charming but not particularly admirable at first. The heroine is admirable and long suffering to begin with but later shown to have her own flaws. As their friendship and eventual romance develops these very human failings endear them to the reader. Here is no card-board cut out of a posturing testosterone pumped male and no simpering ninny of a heroine. They are mutli-faceted and the obstacles they face are very real.

I particularly enjoyed the period of the book whis is late 1800's or possibly just after the turn of the century. It's an era not often visited in historical romances and it was quite refreshing and very well done.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book will tug at your heartstrings..., August 20, 2002

By 

L. G. Schilling "gigibookworm" (SPRING HILL, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Another Eden (Mass Market Paperback)

and will not let go. Patricia Gaffney has written a beautiful, tender, romantic tale of two seemingly star-crossed lovers set in
1890's America.

Alex Mckie is an architect and has been hired by obnoxious nouveau riche Ben Cochrane to build an opulent mansion in flashy Newport. Alex has misgivings about building this ostentatious palace named Eden but he's a driven, ambitious man who's on the rise and he'll put aside his personal qualms about wasting his talents on this monument to bad taste.
Sara Cochrane married Ben at a young age in order to flee an alcoholic mother and an unhappy life in England. Ben married her because he thought marrying a peer of the realm would help him attain his ultimate goal: entrance into New York's exclusive high society. When Sara's title failed to gain them entry into the exclusive circles, Ben blamed her for the failure and needless to say the marriage turned sour. Sara could not leave Ben because of their son, whom Ben had no use for except as a weapon to keep Sara in her place.
When Alex and Sara meet, it isn't love at first sight. He's intrigued by her and wants to take her to bed, she dislikes him. This will change when Ben sends Sara to supervise the building of their home for the summer. Alex and Sara develop at tentative friendhip which soon evolves into something more complex. Sara is determined to ignore these feelings for her sake and the sake of her child, whom she's determined to protect agaisnt the reality of his parents marriage. Alex is not so willing to cooperate, he finds that he's falling in love with Sara and her son and suddenly his driving ambitions and his plans for the future are no longer so important. What's important is the seemingly impossible love and unquenchable passion that he and Sara feel for each other. Only she will not leave Ben for fear that he might take her child.

The angst and helplessness felt by Alex and Sara because of the impossibility of their love is heart wrenching.But what makes this a great story is that the reader can see Alex's evolution from an ambitious, young-man-about-town into a caring, responsible, loving man who's willing to give up all of his dreams and ambitions for the love of a woman. Like all of the other books I've read by this author, this is an extremely well written romantic tale. Highly recommended. :)

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart-Racing Romance!, December 3, 2001

By 

Chris Cummings (OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Another Eden (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a wonderfully tender and swoon-worthy romantic novel. Sara is in her eighth year of marriage to monstrously unkind Ben, who uses their son as a pawn to keep his wife by his side. Sara nobly sacrifices all her naive young hopes/dreams of married bliss for the sake of young Michael.

Fueled by egomania and desperation to make the society papers, the wealthy Ben hires Alex, an up-and-coming architect, to construct "Eden," a ludicrously lavish home meant to impress. Almost immediately, Alex senses Sara's unhappiness and unsuitability as a wife to the obnoxious Ben. What begins, for Alex, as attraction to and curiosity about this troubled woman, gradually changes to an all-consuming passion and unrequited love. Sara, of course, develops similar feelings for Alex, but struggles to keep such emotions at bay - her son's and her very own life depend on it.

The two are thrown together as Ben quits town on business, leaving Sara to oversee the construction of Eden. Alex soon makes his feelings known to Sara, but endeavors to maintain a platonic relationship, as Sara wishes. There are beautiful moments of Alex slipping -- telling Sara she's lovely, whispering her Christian name just for the sheer pleasure of hearing it, fervently pressing her hand to his chest in entreaty for being unable to keep his feelings silent. All the while, all-consuming passion brims beneath the surface.

Alex is a magnificent hero - gallant, protective, caring and sensitive, and equally masculine.

Gaffney paints a vivid and enjoyable landscape of a young America (1890's) and it is quite evident she has done her research, yet the descriptive narrative is never obtrusive or ill-fitting in the story.

Of all of Gaffney's novels that I have read to date, I recommend "Another Eden" most highly (a difficult choice, indeed, but there it is.)

Happy reading.