The Wyckerley Trilogy, three of Patricia Gaffney's most treasured novels, are being released digitally by InterMix today. The good news: digital copies of books long out of print! The bad news: $6.99 each. WOE.
To Love and To Cherish is one of Candy's all-time favorite books. Early SBTB entries talk about Candy's love for this book, and she was the one who told me I HAD to read it. It's one of her favorites. It's a very careful and thoughtful development of character, and while the action is all in the last third, the deliberate manner of revealing each character is amazing.
Anne Verlaine's four year marriage to Geoffrey, Lord D'Aubrey, was a living hell. Her only comfort was her lovely new home–the village of Wyckerley in the heart of Devonshire. And even more irresistible was her attraction to Christian Morrell, “Christy,” the vicar of All Saints Church. He looked like an archangel, his strength something palpable, his golden-haired handsomeness a source of light in her dark life.
Anne's husband had once been Christy's closest friend, but war and life had scarred Geoffrey inside and out. Now he was going to leave her behind in Wyckerley, with the shocking truth of their marriage still hidden as deeply as his dangerous plans. Anne had no right to want Christy to love her, and no choice but to need him, even though she risked his ruin…and her own. But he was everything to her.
She would defy this world for him…and the next.
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To Have and To Hold is book 2 in the trilogy, and it is a dark, troublesome, gritty and emotionally powerful. This book is soaking in hero reformation, like Palmolive, only instead of soap, “being a total jerkwad” infuses the water.
Suave, cynical, and too handsome for his own good, Sebastian Verlaine never expects to become a magistrate judging the petty crimes of his tenants and neighbors. Nor can the new Viscount D’Aubrey foresee that, when a fallen woman appears before him, he’ll find himself beguiled against all reason to alter her terrible fate….
Rachel Wade has served time in prison for her husband’s violent death, but she soon discovers that freedom has its own price. For no one will offer her a second chance but a jaded viscount who needs a housekeeper.
Scorned by the townspeople of Wyckerley as D’Aubrey’s mistress, tempted beyond her will by the devilish lord, Rachel risks all she had to claim a life of her own…and a love that will last for all time.
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Forever and Ever is book three of the Wyckerley trilogy. It's also emotionally wrenching and replete with douchebaggery on the part of the hero and stubbornness on the part of the heroine. Many readers adore this book.
Connor Pendarvis has a bitter past and a driving ambition—exposing the harsh working conditions in Miss Sophie Deene's copper mine is only the beginning. Sophie Deene is her father's daughter—proud, fiercely independent…and bound by convention.
She might hire a handsome, insolent Cornishman to work in the mine, but she wouldn't fall in love with him. Impossible, unthinkable. What would people say?
But she swallows her pride for love, defying everyone, never thinking Connor could betray her.
And he risks everything he thought he wanted for a love that will last…
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Because the Gaffney trilogy is SO not on sale, here are three books that are. I want to satisfy your book collection urge and your shopping the sales urge, too!
Dirty Blonde by Lisa Scottoline is $1.99. This is a thriller mystery about a female judge with a questionable habit in her private life whose life goes to pieces in a few days' time. Some readers loved the adventure of it, while others questioned the heroine's choices.
Cate Fante is strong and sexy and wears designer suits like overpriced armor. She's just become a judge but leads a dark double life that she hides from everyone. Her cover is blown when a high-profile case in her courtroom takes a stunning turn.
Overnight the tabloids tell her secret, her boyfriend dumps her, and her new career hangs in tatters. But Cate's troubles are only beginning. An enemy no one anticipated sends her running for her life, and she'll have to fight her way back to the truth . . . or die trying.
Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Kobo | iBooks
Final Appeal is $1.99. This is also a thriller with a minor romantic element. The reviewers who liked this book liked the female protagonist, and how she was smart, clever, and determined.
Grace Rossi is starting over after a divorce, and a part-time job with a federal appeals court sounds perfect. But she doesn't count on being assigned to an explosive death penalty appeal. Nor does she expect ardor in the court in the form of an affair with the chief judge.
Then Grace finds herself investigating a murder, unearthing a secret bank account and following a trail of bribery and judicial corruption that's stumped even the FBI. In no time at all, Grace under fire takes on a whole new meaning.
Goodreads | Amazon | BN | Kobo | iBooks
Once Upon a Prince is today's Kindle Daily Deal. It's $1.99. This is a Christian fairy-tale-retelling romance from Zondervan, so expect faith and God to be major parts of the story.
Susanna Truitt never dreamed of a great romance or being treated like a princess—just to marry the man she has loved for twelve years. But life isn’t going according to plan. When her high-school-sweetheart-turned-Marine-officer breaks up instead of proposing, Susanna scrambles to rebuild her life.
The last thing Prince Nathaniel expects to find on his American holiday to St. Simon’s Island is the queen of his heart. A prince has duties, and his family’s tense political situation has chosen his bride for him. When Prince Nathaniel comes to Susanna’s aid under the fabled Lover’s Oak, he is blindsided by love.
Their lives are worlds apart. He’s a royal prince. She’s a ordinary girl. But everything changes when Susanna receives an invitation to Nathaniel’s coronation.
The Gaffney trilogy is tempting, but I’m holding out for a better price. Anyone know when agency pricing expires for Penguin ebooks?
I know romance novel covers usually get the clothes wrong, but I’d almost wager those castles on the Gaffney covers did not exist in England. The first one screams Mad King Ludwig—in Devonshire?
To Have and to Hold is way, way over my misogyny limit. It goes beyond that vague, “was that consensual?” rapey-ness of the old skool romance. It should come with a big warning on the cover that at least indicates that the hero’s (I use the term loosely) douchbaggery extends to sadism, emotional abuse and sexual assault. Bleh! Never again will I buy a romance without reading reviews.
Amazing story or not, I just can’t get past the “let’s use the back end of Neuschwanstein with picturesque Alpine views—nobody will notice it’s not Devonshire!” on the first cover…
Hi Sarah, I was checking out the two Lisa Scottoline books on iBooks and they come up at $9.99 each not the $1.99. I’m in Canada so wondering if this is a US deal only? Thanks so much. Love your site!
@Alice: They must be! I’m sorry. It’s difficult for me to see the prices outside the US. I’m sorry.
@Jane & Darlynne: I keep picturing this tourist saying, “I KNOW it’s in England SOMEWHERE. KEEP LOOKING FOR THAT CASTLE!”
Thanks, Sarah. No worries. I’ll keep checking, maybe iTunes Canada, eh! 🙂 will catch up eventually.
I read one Gaffney book (Lily) and was so appalled at the contents that I put Gaffney on my never read again list. I had bought 3 books when they were $2 each because Gaffney had such respectable reputation on the websites I hang out on, but yeesh. I was so angry at the misogyny that was just ok, and the victim blaming, and just outright physical violence that happens to the heroine. I need my escapism reading to take me to a happy place eventually, not a ragey one.