Another Eden

by Patricia Gaffney

Book Overview

A New York Times Bestselling Author 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? Available only in Americana 5.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0843933321
• ISBN13: 9780843933321
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Leisure Books
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

A gilded age romance

A portrait of Gilded Age New York that isn't heavy handed with the period details, in Another Eden Patricia Gaffney easily describes the ostentation and stuffiness of the 1890's and how difficult it was to be surrounded by it. Sara Cochrane is trapped in a horrible marriage to an industrial millionaire who wants to break into the cream of society. All of his actions are done with an eye towards social advancement. He's also never kind to her and she stays with him only out of fear of losing her son. Then she meets Alex McKie who is going to build an overblown new mansion on Long Island for her husband. Alex and Sara first become friends and then before they realize it, they've fallen in love without intending to. She won't leave her husband, though, and they quickly stop their affair. The ending is a bit too convenient, but I enjoyed this book. The characters and their worlds are well-drawn and the last chapter is really sweet. This is a kind of happier version of the 19th century adultery novel!

Another Eden

My second Gaffney, not as good as Lily , but well worth the money!

This book will tug at your heartstrings...

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. :)

Heart-Racing Romance!

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.

A Good Read

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.