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Book Review By L. Watson
To Love and to Cherish by Patricia Gaffney

Anne Verlaine, Lady D'Aubrey, moves to the village of Wyckerley with her husband, Geoffrey, who has just inherited the title of Viscount D'Aubrey. Geoffrey is a soldier, jaded, dissolute and in the tertiary stages of syphillis contracted from women he has been cheating with. In Victorian England, Anne cannot divorce Geoffrey and because they have little money, they must live together. The move to Wyckerley finds them living near Geoffrey's old boyhood friend, Christy Morell. Christy is now the vicar of the parish.

Christy and Anne are immediately attracted to one another, but Christy does not act on his attraction to Anne because he is a deeply committed religious man and does not believe in adultery.

Anne gets very involved in parish life. But Christy, as he starts to fall in love with Anne, gets trapped in a very uncomfortable situation. Geoffrey does not suspect Christy and Anne's feelings for one another.

Geoffrey re-enters the military because of a pressing wartime need, leaving Anne leaving Christy and Anne alone in the village. Anne and Christy cannot avoid one another and find it harder not to give into physical passion. They love and respect one another but Geoffrey stands in their way of finding a happy future together.


Plot & Themes
Time/era of story
Marriage/Married Yes
Marriage subplot:
Inner struggle subplot Yes
Struggle with...

Main Male Character
Profession/status:
Age/status: - 20's-30's

Main Female Character - 20's-30's
Profession/status:

Setting
Europe Yes
European country: - England/UK

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
What % of story is romance related? - 80%
How explicit is the sex? - descript of kissing - touching of anatomy - actual description of sex - rape/molest (yeech!)
Focus of story - equally on him and her
How much dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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