In my bid to read more romance, I hit upon two awfully similar books. I couldn't help but compare this to The Notorious Countess Confesses. It's a sweet story, but it suffers by comparison.

Christian "Christy" Morrell is the vicar of Wyckerly, a small English village. His best friend, Geoffrey Verlaine, returns on the death of his father, bringing with him his lovely wife, Anne. Geoffrey is considerably more bitter and mean than Christy remembers. Anne and Christy grow close, especially when Geoffrey goes off to war.

To Love and to Cherish is formula historical romance, even if the hero is beta all the way. (Apparently lovable men in the past were either rakes or priests.) Man and woman meet, are attracted to one another, are kept apart by circumstances, until they aren't. The final obstacle is easy to guess.

I was able to identify with the characters, and feel invested in their success. Their relationship unfolds realistically, with no artificial constructs to hold them back. Everything that keeps them apart is fully supported by the rest of the story and the setting. The characters lack the dynamic energy of the last romance novel I read, but, by themselves, they're well-rounded.

This book carries a content warning for rape, though it has to be the strangest handling of rape I've ever read. The act redeems the perpetrator, instead of illustrating how irredeemable he is, and the person it happens to seems unaffected, except to provide that redemption. It seems like a milder course of action might've taken the place of the rape, with no effect on the narrative whatever.

The religious theme runs strong in this book. Anne's subplot is that she finds religion, while Christy's faith strengthens. It's too smutty to be a Christian romance novel, but those of a Christian bent will appreciate its themes more.

This is a fun romance novel for those seeking historical with a beta male hero. I do not recommend reading it soon after reading another one you really liked, though; it lacks the tension of other historical romance novels I've liked, and the choice to include a rape, rather than ramping up that tension, just proves puzzling.

It's a rare author who can make a truly good, selfless, godly and religious man into an interesting and sexy hero -- one whose beliefs don't make him insufferable when you don't necessarily share them as a reader. Who can create the perfect foil for this kind of hero in a woman who is a cynical, bitter, depressed atheist yearning, whether she knows it or not, for friendship, love, and community. Who is capable of writing a villain who isn't just a roadblock to the hero and heroine's happily ever after, but a believable, nuanced, and even heartbreaking character in his own right, in spite of the unlikeable and even wicked things he does. Who can bring an entire village of secondary characters to life, giving all the people we meet personalities and lives of their own, even if we're only seeing those lives in brief snatches. Patricia Gaffney is good. Very, very good. I love her lyrical, evocative writing style and found myself highlighting passage after passage in my Kindle.

There were things I wasn't crazy about. The middle of the novel loses a little steam as the conflict veers into a moral conundrum for the hero that might be a little difficult for most modern readers to relate to. There's also a big plot twist about 3/4 of the way through the book that seemed much too convenient, plot-wise, in terms of the timing -- though I forgave it when it led to an increase in the angst and tension of the story and to some of my favorite sections of the book. Some of the things that happened toward the end of the novel were gut-wrenching and so emotional. I teared up several times before the story reached its conclusion.

I feel like I'm being super vague. Here, read this for more details, it says a lot of the things I didn't. I can see why this book is considered a historical romance classic -- it's pretty wonderful. I'm looking forward to reading the second book in the Wyckerley trilogy.

I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump this year and needed something easy. This definitely fit the bill! I was pleasantly surprised with the character development and enjoyable writing. Really late to this party, but I’m looking forward to checking out more of her work.

Charming, if poorly paced, historical romance. I really liked both protagonists, which made for a nice change; the highly moral, sweet, and slightly repressed Reverend Christy was especially a treat. I got the recommendation for this book from a list in [b:Beyond Heaving Bosoms|5660117|Beyond Heaving Bosoms The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels|Sarah Wendell|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1226683697s/5660117.jpg|5831642] of the Smart Bitches’ favorite non-alpha heroes, which I am very grateful for; I only wish there were more romantic heroes of this type. As far as I’m concerned, all those caveman-types can go bludgeon themselves.

Less generally, I also wish that the whole middle section of this book, in which Christy and Anne angst a lot but very little actually happens, could have been a whole lot shorter. Far too much of the plot is shoved into the very beginning and the very end of the narrative. Nevertheless, I found this to be an above-average romance: I liked and cared about the characters, and I even enjoyed the little Victorian village Gaffney creates. If I come across any used copies of other historicals by her, I’ll probably snap them up.