What do you think?
Rate this book
Eden #1
This Other Eden
"The secret of the entire world is whispered here at Eden...." — Since time out of memory, Eden Castle had ridden the storm-swept Devon cliffs like a ghostly figurehead on a ship of the damned. — He was the last Lord of Eden Castle, Thomas Eden, a man of brooding desire and sudden passion ... — She was his servant girl, Marianne Locke, the fiery young beauty who would rather submit to the cruel kiss of the whip than suffer the lust of a man she did not love...
From the wild Devonshire coast to the glittering literary salons of London, the tumultuous union of these two proud people hazed a raging tempest of enduring love.
From the wild Devonshire coast to the glittering literary salons of London, the tumultuous union of these two proud people hazed a raging tempest of enduring love.
561 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
165 people are currently reading
2944 people want to read
About the author
Marilyn Harris
41 books81 followersHarris was born on June 4, 1931, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the daughter of John P., an oil executive, and Dora (nee Veal) Harris. Harris was educated in her home state, attending Cottey College from 1945 to 1951, then transferring to the University of Oklahoma, from which she received a bachelor of arts degree in 1953 and a master of arts degree in 1955.
Harris's first collection of short stories, King's Ex, was published by Doubleday in 1967. After that Harris proved a prolific author, publishing seventeen books, including novels, short stories, romance/ historical fiction and children's fiction in a twenty-year period from 1970 to 1989. These works, in addition to those listed above, include In the Midst of Earth (1969), The Peppersalt Land (1970), The Runaway's Diary (1971), The Conjurers (1974), Bledding Sorrow (1976), The Portent (1980), The Last Great Love (1981), Warrick (1985), Night Games (1987), and Lost and Found (1991). Harris's work has received a wide readership; in 1983, nine million of her books were in print, and her work has been translated into many languages, including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Japanese. She has also been an author in residence at Oklahoma's Central State University.
She died January 18, 2002.
Harris's first collection of short stories, King's Ex, was published by Doubleday in 1967. After that Harris proved a prolific author, publishing seventeen books, including novels, short stories, romance/ historical fiction and children's fiction in a twenty-year period from 1970 to 1989. These works, in addition to those listed above, include In the Midst of Earth (1969), The Peppersalt Land (1970), The Runaway's Diary (1971), The Conjurers (1974), Bledding Sorrow (1976), The Portent (1980), The Last Great Love (1981), Warrick (1985), Night Games (1987), and Lost and Found (1991). Harris's work has received a wide readership; in 1983, nine million of her books were in print, and her work has been translated into many languages, including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, and Japanese. She has also been an author in residence at Oklahoma's Central State University.
She died January 18, 2002.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 198 reviews
October 19, 2023
Love is...
Now, a short summary of what I think and feel about this story.
☎️ This book is undoubtedly an absolute must-read for all lovers of bodice-rippers. Can you even call yourself that if you haven't read this story? It's like saying you're a believer in Christianity but you haven't opened the holy bible once. 😇
☎️ The premise is nothing new when it comes to the historical romance genre: a poor and innocent young girl catches the attention of a notorious, powerful lord twice her age and gets caught in the web of his lies, manipulation and power abuse. But lemme tell you one thing: don't rush to conclusions. Sometimes one simply cannot tell the victim and the villain apart in this story. The lines are blurred
☎️ This book is an experience. It's sort of devilishly nefarious and ridiculously funny, embarrassingly hot and unexpectedly tragic, awfully tedious and breathtakingly addictive all in the same breath. Every character, minor or main, has layers to them, a background story, underlying motives.
☎️The hero in this book is shamelessly DEVIOUS. At first I wasn't sure what to make of him because he seemed like a clown with some bright villain moments. 🤡 But dear lord almighty, Thomas surely does fulfill his potential.
He opened my eyes actually since before him I didn't know embarrassing oneself could be turned into a form of art. Thomas Eden makes the concept of being a horny clown with no moral scruples sound hot and funny as fuck.
I'll never forget the scene where Thomas gets mad at some random London schoolboy for assuming that he is the heroine's dad. 🤣🤣🤣🖐️🖐️🖐️ The amount of trauma behind this little episode, Thomas' reactions had me rolling on the floor. Like... not him being tortured by the notion of looking too old for Marianne while he prances around London freely when he should have been rotting in prison, atoning for his multiple sins and worrying about what a despicable rapist/complete fool /unscrupulous criminal/impulsive sociopath with deviant tendencies he is. 🙂
I was dying at how normal he acts around anyone who isnn't Marianne. It's like her mere presence in his thoughts triggers some parts of his brain responsible for his impulsive behaviour and maniacal episodes. 🙂🙂 The only way he can function normally around Marianne is when he puts on the façade of a perfectly respectable gentleman, patient and sensitive, and he only does that to coax her into giving in to him. His fake kindness or phoney remorse sjsjsjsjsj. 🌚🤡 As I already said, he's a true icon.
He wasn't obsessed, as Ragland had accused him of being. He was simply a man who liked to see a thing through to its natural conclusion. Once he'd had her, that was all he wanted.
BRO, I —
I think I've never read about a hero who'd go to such lengths to get someone into his bed. The guy literally makes it his mission, his only ambition, his life goal, THE SOLE PURPOSE OF HIS EXISTENCE to catch her in his web. His scheming is entertaining, kinda silly but also devious. He hits the ocean floor of moral degradation with the speed of the sinking Titanic whilst at it. From a noble lord to a lowlife scam in a matter of a few months. 😩
As he imagined the sweet invasion of that young body, he found stimulation in every aspect of her, her face and hair, her shoulders and breasts, and most curious of all, he imagined her back, the scars for which he was responsible causing the greatest stimulation of all.
Thomas jerking off to the image of the horrible scars on Marianne's back that the public whipping performed on her at HIS orders had caused was the least of his crimes. Blessed be heroes like him. 💀
☎️ Marianne. Sweet baby Jesus. This heroine IS something else. I loved her from the very moment she brings one of her suitors to tears by calling him Fishly the Fishmonger lmao. ☠️☠️ The queen knew from the get-go she could do better than some broke lad from her village.
Regardless. ☠️ If at the beginning of the book she comes across as somewhat haughty and impudent due to her sharp tongue and independent behavior, by the end of this book I was fully convinced she could manipulate the devil himself and make him worship her on his knees, tending to her every need w/o a single complaint.🌚💅🏻 Marianne is this incredibly rare creature (within the scope of the genre) that combines intelligence and cunning, charm and stubbornness, mercy and vengefullness, overt naivety and masked craftiness.
One could argue she's the true mastermind manipulator of this story. 🌚 And I'd give in to the temptation of doing just that, but as usual my reviews are a place where no cognitive fallacies are allowed. Hehehe. 💯 🌚
So let's just point out the obvious: our homegirl knew how to wrap people around her little finger. How to make them go through a guilt trip. How to make them fascinated by her hot and cold attitude. How to make them become obsessed with her doing the bare minimum. 💅🏻🌚
He bowed his head, mindful of his past sins, the offenses he'd already committed against the young face which looked at him without humility. He did not understand the face. All he knew was that he was fascinated by it.
Marianne knew her game and there's no shame really to using a little manipulation technique here and there. A girl gotta do what she gotta do to
That evening, on her knees before him, he thought he'd seen a new submission in her face. Now he realized bitterly that he'd seen nothing. Apparently she preferred starvation to his presence.
PSHSHSHSHSHSHHSSH icon to the tips of her hair. You can tell someone doesn't know their game when they hate on this iconic female character who lost some battles and won the war. 😌
☎️ No one has ever or will ever come up with a better storyline than 'she brought him to his knees'.
What can be more gratifying than see a despicable, entitled man that fancies himself on the top of the food chain being humbled by a simple woman?? (who's not that simple after all)
Watching his moral downfall, 🤌🏻 the singular obsession, 🤌🏻🤌🏻 the elaborate scheming and ultimately her rejection, followed by his pain, self-harm and agony (his soul shrivelling up and his mental health taking a drastic fall into the void of utter madness, obviously, sjsjsjshsj) because of the separation with the love of his life (obviously #2) that leads to (obviously #3) intense sessions of grovelling, redemption and a lesson in humbleness.
WHY ONLY 3.5 STARS?
🔪 The language is way too vintage for my liking, it takes time getting used to. It should sound beautiful and sophisticated but I can't help finding it a bit cheesy and distracting.
🔪 Too much page time is dedicated to secondary and minor characters. I'm nowhere near bored enough to need to know every maid's thought on some event of the heroine's life. This book could have been easily cut by one third (if not more).
Otherwise, GREAT!!! Amazing. 🌚💅🏻
Read
July 31, 2025Source of book: Bought for myself
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.
And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.
****
So I think … I think I don’t feel able to recommend this book. Nothing about this book is okay. Except I, uh, I kind of loved this book? I don’t know what it was, per se, since I think it’s hard to call it a romance (even though a man and a woman end up together at the end) but I don’t think it has a single extant hinge and I’m here for it.
I should say before I start this review, and spoilers ahead, this is old school. The hero (male main character? hero doesn’t seem quite the right label) kicks off the novel by having the heroine publicly whipped for refusing his advances. And while he doesn’t actually SA her, he spends the next five hundred pages giving it his best attempt to a degree that, ultimately, ends up feeling kind of borderline comical. Although I guess when they do finally rub their bits together, he’s also lying to her that they’re married (they are not married) so it’s not really wholly consensual, even though she has a nice time and is into it. Also, let me be very clear, this is a mere what the fuck cherry on top of holy shit cake when it comes to this book. Which includes (all the trigger warnings):
--an old man being driven into Shakespearean madness due to the aforementioned whipping
--a developmentally challenged teenager hanging herself after the “hero” gives her to his pal, so that said pal can get his end away
--a smuggling subplot that goes nowhere and ends with an old man (who has ALSO been driven into Shakespearean madness due to the death of the aforementioned teenager) getting squashed to death in a narratively symbolic and emotionally resonant cave-in
--a man getting his arm blown off during the French revolution and the blood-maddened crowd then kind of cheerfully tossing it around in an impromptu game
--people constantly falling in and out of delirium and/or insensibility
--multiple dramatic self-prostrations in church
--a cameo from The Celestial Bed — a moment so utterly whacked out it could only be based on actual historical incident (and, indeed, it is).
--various other cameos from famous figures of the day, including Lady Hamilton and William Beckford (this last one being especially weird as he’s the virgin pal the ‘hero’ gives the teenager to, and--as far as I can tell--William Beckford was about as gay as gay can be, and needed absolutely no help debauching himself, considering that, at the age of 19, he was seducing an 11 year-old boy. Beckford is mostly portrayed herein as an amiable loon and there’s even a throwaway line from the hero when he’s like “could he be a sodomite, surely not!” and I couldn’t tell if that was yet further proof that the hero is an irredeemable parcel with the perspicacity of a squashed courgette or if the author sincerely had no idea).
--and, my personal biggest trigger, a consistent tendency to refer to the time-period wherein the book is set as ‘the Regency’ when it opens in 1791 and concludes in 1794.
Anyway, I don’t know what it says about the book, or indeed about me, but despite all this--honestly, potentially because of it--I had an absolute blast. I think I was just in the right place to suspend most of my moral and critical faculties and enjoy the book for exactly what it was: a hell of a ride. And, to be fair to the book, on the subject of moral faculties at least, I think it’s very clear that it doesn’t think what is going on is okay. But I guess it depends on your tolerance for … I don’t know if redemption is even the right word here either … bad people in fiction getting to experience anything good at all. Like, the hero does suffer for his actions, and is haunted by them, but I don’t think it’s really possible to meaningfully atone for having one woman whipped and driving another to suicide. I mean, he does voluntarily get himself whipped at the end of the book--forty lashes that nearly destroy him--which is quite the gesture. But there’s still multiple dead people in your wake, my dude. Then again, I don’t know whether redemption is really the point here. So much as, perhaps, subjugation?
To give you a brief summary of the plot: Marianne Locke is about 15 year old when Thomas Eden (a neglected, feckless second son, inheriting a vast estate and vast wealth, for which he has not been prepared) decides he wants to hit that, as he believes is his right as lord and master. When she aggressively demurs, he has her publicly whipped to punish her for disobedience. Then four years of, like, wild wild stuff happen, with Marianne recovering from the significant trauma inflicted on her, Eden temporarily taking up smuggling, and the two eventually stumbling into each other’s orbit again. Eden makes several further attempts to claim Marianne’s virtue, finally deciding that maybe being nice to her might help maybe? It does and it doesn’t and, long and the short of it (mostly the short of it), she demands marriage from him. He feels unable to offer this (on account of him being a literal lord and she being a fisherman’s daughter) and so goes through a sham marriage with her. As they live together as man and wife, however, with Marianne doing a tonne for the estate, seems to send Eden toppling off the In Wuv for real. There’s massive further drama when Marianne discovers they aren’t actually marriage, and Eden’s has to deal with his first born son being a bastard, but several declines and a whipping later, they’re properly married and living … happily? ever after? Or at least for the next ten-to-twenty years, given it’s 1794, and he’s already nearly fifty (to her probably about nineteen).
I guess one way of looking at this book is mostly as a character study? I confess to being lowkey fascinated by both Marianne and Lord Eden, her because she’s got bollocks of absolute adamantine, and him because he’s such a fucking shitheel it’s nothing short of spectacular. Like, usually when you’ve got a shitheel hero in romance it’s meant to be at least borderline attractive in some kind of guilty-pleasure way? Lord Eden is endlessly interesting but … attractive? In any way, shape or form? Um. No? He’s weak, and selfish, and arrogant, and petty, and mercurial, and seems borderline incapable of empathy, but it’s also really clear that this is what the world has made of him. He’s not necessarily trying to hurt anyone explicitly but he’s so coated in wealth and power that he has no conception of other people as real or as possessing needs as valid as his (including the need to, y’know, not be SAed). It’s a coherent and authentic-feeling portrait of a man rendered almost completely inhuman through extreme privilege.
Also what the fuck kind of culminating-you’ve-been-trying-to-do-this-for-over-500 pages sex scene includes this:
Good job, Lord E. Good job.
Although, I guess, to be fair, if I’d been waiting for 500 pages, and four years, to get off, I’d probably finish in a line too.
In any case, that’s our “hero”. As for Marianne, she’s also kind of fascinating, in that she suffers genuine and lasting trauma from her experiences on the whipping tree (I mean, who wouldn’t) but whereas most of the Extremely Suffering Heroines of Yore I’ve read have been kind of passively resilient, Marianne seems to be both passively resilient and manipulative AF. In ways, I hasten to add, I thoroughly applauded. I think there’s almost a degree to which This Other Eden is a revenge narrative. That is, in fact, what Marianne vows after her whipping: that she’ll be revenged on Thomas Eden. And you might ask, well, how does marrying him the fuckwit accomplish this. But it kind of does: yes, there’s the whole sham marriage detour, but ultimately she does, in fact, wed him, a fisherman’s daughter, the wife of one of the richest, most powerful men in England.
It causes exactly the kind of scandal Thomas feared it might, essentially exiling both of them from fashionable society. But the public humiliation of that--of choosing Marianne above everything and everyone else, and in the case of his voluntary whipping, even above his own physical wellbeing--is his to bear. Thomas Eden does terrible, undeniably terrible things, and he is is a terrible, an undeniably terrible, person. But he has been taught to view women, especially women who are his social inferiors, as objects to be possessed and conquered.
By the end, he is the object who has been possessed. And it is he who has been conquered. Everything he is, his lands, his name, his wealth, his power, now belong to Marianne, to use freely, and frankly better than he ever has himself (he’s an indifferent land owner, that’s been clear from the beginning). By the stage, the fact she’s come to enjoy him personally (and his body) is just a bonus for Marianne.
And she accomplished all this before the age of twenty. When I was twenty, I was neglecting my degree, and pining after unsuitable boys.
I don’t normally like the implied power reversal of love that is the proposed redemption for the hero in many classic bodice rippers. You know, the whole this man has spent six hundred pages abusing the heroine, but now he’s crying, so it’s coolbeans thing. As if finally winning One Emotion TM from a man is sufficient to redress the vast gulf of privilege, cruelty and exploitation that has gone before. With This Other Eden I bought the power reversal utterly, precisely because it wasn’t presented as redemption. Nor did it try to offer personal power over a single remorseful bloke as a meaningful counterpoint to the far greater exercises of power demonstrated across the preceding pages. Instead what we got was a simple and absolute transfer of power. I mean, it’s possible Thomas Eden has learned a touch of empathy, here and there, but he’s not--as far as I can tell--a better person because of his love for Marianne. On the other hand, I did come away fairly confident that he wouldn’t be getting away with any more of his bullshit. Partly because he’d tried it all, and hadn’t succeeded with any of it. But mostly because it’s clear Marianne is in complete control and won’t allow it.
Is that, in any real sense, a happy ending? For Thomas Eden, who gives a fuck? For Marianne, better than she might have hoped for. And for the reader? Hard to tell, but for this reader, I can’t lie, it was pretty damn satisfying.
PS - I'm devastated I don't have the original cover for this toxic little gem. Because it's fucking delicious.
PPS - I meant to add, the way this book is written is also delicious. I wouldn't even say it's necessarily purple, it just has that incredible flair that feels totally unique to classic histrom.
Girl. Mood.
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.
And remember: I am not here to judge your drag, I mean your book. Books are art and art is subjective. These are just my personal thoughts. They are not meant to be taken as broader commentary on the general quality of the work. Believe me, I have not enjoyed many an excellent book, and my individual lack of enjoyment has not made any of those books less excellent or (more relevantly) less successful.
****
So I think … I think I don’t feel able to recommend this book. Nothing about this book is okay. Except I, uh, I kind of loved this book? I don’t know what it was, per se, since I think it’s hard to call it a romance (even though a man and a woman end up together at the end) but I don’t think it has a single extant hinge and I’m here for it.
I should say before I start this review, and spoilers ahead, this is old school. The hero (male main character? hero doesn’t seem quite the right label) kicks off the novel by having the heroine publicly whipped for refusing his advances. And while he doesn’t actually SA her, he spends the next five hundred pages giving it his best attempt to a degree that, ultimately, ends up feeling kind of borderline comical. Although I guess when they do finally rub their bits together, he’s also lying to her that they’re married (they are not married) so it’s not really wholly consensual, even though she has a nice time and is into it. Also, let me be very clear, this is a mere what the fuck cherry on top of holy shit cake when it comes to this book. Which includes (all the trigger warnings):
--an old man being driven into Shakespearean madness due to the aforementioned whipping
--a developmentally challenged teenager hanging herself after the “hero” gives her to his pal, so that said pal can get his end away
--a smuggling subplot that goes nowhere and ends with an old man (who has ALSO been driven into Shakespearean madness due to the death of the aforementioned teenager) getting squashed to death in a narratively symbolic and emotionally resonant cave-in
--a man getting his arm blown off during the French revolution and the blood-maddened crowd then kind of cheerfully tossing it around in an impromptu game
--people constantly falling in and out of delirium and/or insensibility
--multiple dramatic self-prostrations in church
--a cameo from The Celestial Bed — a moment so utterly whacked out it could only be based on actual historical incident (and, indeed, it is).
--various other cameos from famous figures of the day, including Lady Hamilton and William Beckford (this last one being especially weird as he’s the virgin pal the ‘hero’ gives the teenager to, and--as far as I can tell--William Beckford was about as gay as gay can be, and needed absolutely no help debauching himself, considering that, at the age of 19, he was seducing an 11 year-old boy. Beckford is mostly portrayed herein as an amiable loon and there’s even a throwaway line from the hero when he’s like “could he be a sodomite, surely not!” and I couldn’t tell if that was yet further proof that the hero is an irredeemable parcel with the perspicacity of a squashed courgette or if the author sincerely had no idea).
--and, my personal biggest trigger, a consistent tendency to refer to the time-period wherein the book is set as ‘the Regency’ when it opens in 1791 and concludes in 1794.
Anyway, I don’t know what it says about the book, or indeed about me, but despite all this--honestly, potentially because of it--I had an absolute blast. I think I was just in the right place to suspend most of my moral and critical faculties and enjoy the book for exactly what it was: a hell of a ride. And, to be fair to the book, on the subject of moral faculties at least, I think it’s very clear that it doesn’t think what is going on is okay. But I guess it depends on your tolerance for … I don’t know if redemption is even the right word here either … bad people in fiction getting to experience anything good at all. Like, the hero does suffer for his actions, and is haunted by them, but I don’t think it’s really possible to meaningfully atone for having one woman whipped and driving another to suicide. I mean, he does voluntarily get himself whipped at the end of the book--forty lashes that nearly destroy him--which is quite the gesture. But there’s still multiple dead people in your wake, my dude. Then again, I don’t know whether redemption is really the point here. So much as, perhaps, subjugation?
To give you a brief summary of the plot: Marianne Locke is about 15 year old when Thomas Eden (a neglected, feckless second son, inheriting a vast estate and vast wealth, for which he has not been prepared) decides he wants to hit that, as he believes is his right as lord and master. When she aggressively demurs, he has her publicly whipped to punish her for disobedience. Then four years of, like, wild wild stuff happen, with Marianne recovering from the significant trauma inflicted on her, Eden temporarily taking up smuggling, and the two eventually stumbling into each other’s orbit again. Eden makes several further attempts to claim Marianne’s virtue, finally deciding that maybe being nice to her might help maybe? It does and it doesn’t and, long and the short of it (mostly the short of it), she demands marriage from him. He feels unable to offer this (on account of him being a literal lord and she being a fisherman’s daughter) and so goes through a sham marriage with her. As they live together as man and wife, however, with Marianne doing a tonne for the estate, seems to send Eden toppling off the In Wuv for real. There’s massive further drama when Marianne discovers they aren’t actually marriage, and Eden’s has to deal with his first born son being a bastard, but several declines and a whipping later, they’re properly married and living … happily? ever after? Or at least for the next ten-to-twenty years, given it’s 1794, and he’s already nearly fifty (to her probably about nineteen).
I guess one way of looking at this book is mostly as a character study? I confess to being lowkey fascinated by both Marianne and Lord Eden, her because she’s got bollocks of absolute adamantine, and him because he’s such a fucking shitheel it’s nothing short of spectacular. Like, usually when you’ve got a shitheel hero in romance it’s meant to be at least borderline attractive in some kind of guilty-pleasure way? Lord Eden is endlessly interesting but … attractive? In any way, shape or form? Um. No? He’s weak, and selfish, and arrogant, and petty, and mercurial, and seems borderline incapable of empathy, but it’s also really clear that this is what the world has made of him. He’s not necessarily trying to hurt anyone explicitly but he’s so coated in wealth and power that he has no conception of other people as real or as possessing needs as valid as his (including the need to, y’know, not be SAed). It’s a coherent and authentic-feeling portrait of a man rendered almost completely inhuman through extreme privilege.
Also what the fuck kind of culminating-you’ve-been-trying-to-do-this-for-over-500 pages sex scene includes this:
It was over in a remarkably short time…
Good job, Lord E. Good job.
Although, I guess, to be fair, if I’d been waiting for 500 pages, and four years, to get off, I’d probably finish in a line too.
In any case, that’s our “hero”. As for Marianne, she’s also kind of fascinating, in that she suffers genuine and lasting trauma from her experiences on the whipping tree (I mean, who wouldn’t) but whereas most of the Extremely Suffering Heroines of Yore I’ve read have been kind of passively resilient, Marianne seems to be both passively resilient and manipulative AF. In ways, I hasten to add, I thoroughly applauded. I think there’s almost a degree to which This Other Eden is a revenge narrative. That is, in fact, what Marianne vows after her whipping: that she’ll be revenged on Thomas Eden. And you might ask, well, how does marrying him the fuckwit accomplish this. But it kind of does: yes, there’s the whole sham marriage detour, but ultimately she does, in fact, wed him, a fisherman’s daughter, the wife of one of the richest, most powerful men in England.
It causes exactly the kind of scandal Thomas feared it might, essentially exiling both of them from fashionable society. But the public humiliation of that--of choosing Marianne above everything and everyone else, and in the case of his voluntary whipping, even above his own physical wellbeing--is his to bear. Thomas Eden does terrible, undeniably terrible things, and he is is a terrible, an undeniably terrible, person. But he has been taught to view women, especially women who are his social inferiors, as objects to be possessed and conquered.
By the end, he is the object who has been possessed. And it is he who has been conquered. Everything he is, his lands, his name, his wealth, his power, now belong to Marianne, to use freely, and frankly better than he ever has himself (he’s an indifferent land owner, that’s been clear from the beginning). By the stage, the fact she’s come to enjoy him personally (and his body) is just a bonus for Marianne.
And she accomplished all this before the age of twenty. When I was twenty, I was neglecting my degree, and pining after unsuitable boys.
I don’t normally like the implied power reversal of love that is the proposed redemption for the hero in many classic bodice rippers. You know, the whole this man has spent six hundred pages abusing the heroine, but now he’s crying, so it’s coolbeans thing. As if finally winning One Emotion TM from a man is sufficient to redress the vast gulf of privilege, cruelty and exploitation that has gone before. With This Other Eden I bought the power reversal utterly, precisely because it wasn’t presented as redemption. Nor did it try to offer personal power over a single remorseful bloke as a meaningful counterpoint to the far greater exercises of power demonstrated across the preceding pages. Instead what we got was a simple and absolute transfer of power. I mean, it’s possible Thomas Eden has learned a touch of empathy, here and there, but he’s not--as far as I can tell--a better person because of his love for Marianne. On the other hand, I did come away fairly confident that he wouldn’t be getting away with any more of his bullshit. Partly because he’d tried it all, and hadn’t succeeded with any of it. But mostly because it’s clear Marianne is in complete control and won’t allow it.
Is that, in any real sense, a happy ending? For Thomas Eden, who gives a fuck? For Marianne, better than she might have hoped for. And for the reader? Hard to tell, but for this reader, I can’t lie, it was pretty damn satisfying.
PS - I'm devastated I don't have the original cover for this toxic little gem. Because it's fucking delicious.
PPS - I meant to add, the way this book is written is also delicious. I wouldn't even say it's necessarily purple, it just has that incredible flair that feels totally unique to classic histrom.
The mere thought of that one name [Thomas Eden] was nameless medicine, causing her thoughts to cease as she channeled a mesmerizing hate outward, a hate so exalting, so ennobling, that she found she was again capable of lifting her head, a reviving hate that warmed her as surely as though she were sitting before a fire, a hate-filled harbor, a safe hate, a hate beyond mortification and disgust, a redeeming, healing consciousness of hate, canceling all new spheres of liability to pain, converting her within the instant into a statue, sitting upright, a divine hate, feeding her, a hate without qualification or appointment, without authority or opposition, an intentional hate, like a true religion without complexity or resolution, a hate that was pure joy.
Girl. Mood.
February 18, 2024
This book came out of nowhere and sucker-punched me.
What the hell did I just read: A bodice-ripper? A historical fiction? An over the top gothic? Insane in the Membrane? I think a little bit of all of the above.
The book's namesake Lord Eden is the devil incarnate. I have read some really dark, psychotic characters but all of them, the most evil of them, KNEW they were being evil and sometimes attempted a redemption arc. This guy was COMPLETELY and TOTALLY unaware of self. He is one of those abusers who casts himself as the victim and has a long list of grievances against the people that he crushes under his shiny black boot heel. Humbert Humbert is the only fictional character that comes to mind to even come close to such a degree of completely oblivious evil.
What can I say? There is nothing as entertaining as a well written villain and the author, Marilyn Harris, has managed to crown the king of all villains in her creation of Lord Thomas Eden. And that is saying a lot in a book where the cast of characters represent the basest, most evil and disgusting facets of humanity.
As for the heroine, Marianne Locke, the author was successful in avoiding the cliche Mary Sue character, not making her a doormat or a martyr, despite all the horrendous injustices that fall on her. There was a lot of the defiant and proud Tess of D'Urberville in her but where Tess was hopelessly a victim, Marianne is the kind of heroine with the pluck to survive and thrive against her enemies and her tragic fate. Just as the aristocracy of France is being destroyed by revolutionaries, she, a fisherman's daughter, is forcing the heir to one of the oldest families in England to bend the knee to her.
The novel was not without its flaws. The beginning of it is excruciatingly snail-paced. If it wasn't for the glowing review I came across for this book, I may have set it aside. There are huge info dumps devoted to the politics of the time, the impact of the French revolution, etc. slowing down the plot development and I could have done with a little less of the history lessons.
But overall, this book, for me, cannot be anything other than five stars. It is truly unique. For those adventurous and resilient readers out there who are willing to engage in this difficult and dangerous trek of about 500 pages, I am sure they will feel moved and changed by it, even if they don't end up loving it.
What the hell did I just read: A bodice-ripper? A historical fiction? An over the top gothic? Insane in the Membrane? I think a little bit of all of the above.
The book's namesake Lord Eden is the devil incarnate. I have read some really dark, psychotic characters but all of them, the most evil of them, KNEW they were being evil and sometimes attempted a redemption arc. This guy was COMPLETELY and TOTALLY unaware of self. He is one of those abusers who casts himself as the victim and has a long list of grievances against the people that he crushes under his shiny black boot heel. Humbert Humbert is the only fictional character that comes to mind to even come close to such a degree of completely oblivious evil.
What can I say? There is nothing as entertaining as a well written villain and the author, Marilyn Harris, has managed to crown the king of all villains in her creation of Lord Thomas Eden. And that is saying a lot in a book where the cast of characters represent the basest, most evil and disgusting facets of humanity.
As for the heroine, Marianne Locke, the author was successful in avoiding the cliche Mary Sue character, not making her a doormat or a martyr, despite all the horrendous injustices that fall on her. There was a lot of the defiant and proud Tess of D'Urberville in her but where Tess was hopelessly a victim, Marianne is the kind of heroine with the pluck to survive and thrive against her enemies and her tragic fate. Just as the aristocracy of France is being destroyed by revolutionaries, she, a fisherman's daughter, is forcing the heir to one of the oldest families in England to bend the knee to her.
The novel was not without its flaws. The beginning of it is excruciatingly snail-paced. If it wasn't for the glowing review I came across for this book, I may have set it aside. There are huge info dumps devoted to the politics of the time, the impact of the French revolution, etc. slowing down the plot development and I could have done with a little less of the history lessons.
But overall, this book, for me, cannot be anything other than five stars. It is truly unique. For those adventurous and resilient readers out there who are willing to engage in this difficult and dangerous trek of about 500 pages, I am sure they will feel moved and changed by it, even if they don't end up loving it.
February 9, 2009
They really did romance the weird way back in 70s.
We have a classic setting in characters - the powerful lord and a beautiful fisherman's daughter. The hero has the heroine whipped almost to death, scarred for life, leads her father to madness, attempts rape when money and sweet talk won't work (but is stopped by a stray bullet of another suitor), stages a fake marriage and thus tricks her into living with him for a year or so, until she gives birth to a child, and then informs her of the arrangement. But surely this is all OK, since he ends up marrying her for real in the end and they live happily ever after and he kinda regrets some of his past actions and thinks he might have been a bit rash.
His liberal treatment of the ladies also causes the young ward of his oldest and most trusted servant to kill herself. And then they have to kill the father, 'cause the old fool seemed to have taken it personal. But this is OK too, since he said he's sorry.
And the heroine apparently thinks it's OK too, since a mad father or two aren't really going to make much of a difference, are they? Anyway, there's a good way to make incautious things like rape, torture, murder and smuggling go away and have people pretend they never happened. It's called MARRIAGE, in case you didn't know.
We have a classic setting in characters - the powerful lord and a beautiful fisherman's daughter. The hero has the heroine whipped almost to death, scarred for life, leads her father to madness, attempts rape when money and sweet talk won't work (but is stopped by a stray bullet of another suitor), stages a fake marriage and thus tricks her into living with him for a year or so, until she gives birth to a child, and then informs her of the arrangement. But surely this is all OK, since he ends up marrying her for real in the end and they live happily ever after and he kinda regrets some of his past actions and thinks he might have been a bit rash.
His liberal treatment of the ladies also causes the young ward of his oldest and most trusted servant to kill herself. And then they have to kill the father, 'cause the old fool seemed to have taken it personal. But this is OK too, since he said he's sorry.
And the heroine apparently thinks it's OK too, since a mad father or two aren't really going to make much of a difference, are they? Anyway, there's a good way to make incautious things like rape, torture, murder and smuggling go away and have people pretend they never happened. It's called MARRIAGE, in case you didn't know.
June 23, 2021
Sometimes I'm in the mood for DRAMA! and I didn't go wrong when I chose this book to read.
Every emotion you can think of was probably in this enjoyable, light read.
I first learned of this book from voting on the list:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9....
Several people highly recommended this book as one of the best trashy novels they ever read so I was extremely curious to see what all the fuss was about.
Believe it or not, the author, Marilyn Harris, is a very talented author and this book was not written as the typical bodice ripper. Harris created so many great, unique characters and made them very believable with good traits and bad. The suspense was first rate too and I loved the gothic atmosphere.
I definitely want to read more of her books in the future and a big thank you to Diane Lynn for recommending this one.
Every emotion you can think of was probably in this enjoyable, light read.
I first learned of this book from voting on the list:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/9....
Several people highly recommended this book as one of the best trashy novels they ever read so I was extremely curious to see what all the fuss was about.
Believe it or not, the author, Marilyn Harris, is a very talented author and this book was not written as the typical bodice ripper. Harris created so many great, unique characters and made them very believable with good traits and bad. The suspense was first rate too and I loved the gothic atmosphere.
I definitely want to read more of her books in the future and a big thank you to Diane Lynn for recommending this one.
October 28, 2011
4.5 stars
Oh, how to begin describing what this book is about? Set mainly on the north Devon coast during the 1790s, the main focus of the story is Lord Thomas Eden, the Fifth Earl and Thirteenth Baron of Eden Point and Marianne Locke, fisherman's daughter. Marianne manages to catch Lord Thomas on a bad day and he orders a public flogging, which she barely survives. Marianne's recovery is slow, and she's eventually sent to live with her sister Jane in London (Jane isn't exactly thrilled to have a much more beautiful sister living with her). Circumstances bring Marianne back into Thomas' life and let's just say he's hot to have her, and his mindset just doesn't grasp the word NO. The chase is on, and Lord Thomas will go to any lengths to have her, and he's ably assisted by Marianne's double-dealing sister Jane.
"As the world was full of predators, now the King of Predators had arrived among them, a man schooled from birth in the art of selfishness and brutality."
And if and when Lord Thomas catches Marianne, you don't think it will all be smooth sailing, do you? Not on your life, just fasten your seatbelts because it's going to be a wild and bumpy ride. I can't even begin to describe the things that happen to both of our pair, and Harris is not an author to pull punches, she definitely will take you to the dark side of life and Thomas is definitely one of those characters you love to hate. Or did I hate him? I loved the way she brought in lesser known bits of history (oh, Dr. Graham and his Celestial bed ;)). This is the first book I've read from this author, and there are more in my immediate future, starting with book two in this seven book series. Highly recommended.
Oh, how to begin describing what this book is about? Set mainly on the north Devon coast during the 1790s, the main focus of the story is Lord Thomas Eden, the Fifth Earl and Thirteenth Baron of Eden Point and Marianne Locke, fisherman's daughter. Marianne manages to catch Lord Thomas on a bad day and he orders a public flogging, which she barely survives. Marianne's recovery is slow, and she's eventually sent to live with her sister Jane in London (Jane isn't exactly thrilled to have a much more beautiful sister living with her). Circumstances bring Marianne back into Thomas' life and let's just say he's hot to have her, and his mindset just doesn't grasp the word NO. The chase is on, and Lord Thomas will go to any lengths to have her, and he's ably assisted by Marianne's double-dealing sister Jane.
"As the world was full of predators, now the King of Predators had arrived among them, a man schooled from birth in the art of selfishness and brutality."
And if and when Lord Thomas catches Marianne, you don't think it will all be smooth sailing, do you? Not on your life, just fasten your seatbelts because it's going to be a wild and bumpy ride. I can't even begin to describe the things that happen to both of our pair, and Harris is not an author to pull punches, she definitely will take you to the dark side of life and Thomas is definitely one of those characters you love to hate. Or did I hate him? I loved the way she brought in lesser known bits of history (oh, Dr. Graham and his Celestial bed ;)). This is the first book I've read from this author, and there are more in my immediate future, starting with book two in this seven book series. Highly recommended.
April 24, 2023
I loved this book so much that I now need to read the author's entire backlist.
I almost dnf'd at page 50 due to Lord Thomas Eden being so despicable. However, for some reason, this despicableness became so over the top, it became endearing. I couldn't wait to see what scheme he pulled off next in order to get Marianne into his bed. The Celestial Bed scheme was by far my favorite, since it was so over the top. I do have to admit that I didn't think he could be redeemed, but he grovels the hardest I have ever seen a bodice ripper MMC grovel. The FMC, Marianne, was a perfect adversary/love interest for Thomas, she was smart, courageous, and tough. I loved her character, so much.
One thing that could have been improved were the sometimes unnecessary POVs. I almost dnf'd for this reason too. Literally everyone and their best friend gets a POV. The maids, family friends, even random people on the street get a POV. I get why the author did this, but there were times I wish it was mainly Thomas and Marianne who's POV the book was told from. Tbh this book could have been 100 pages shorter with removing some of these POVs.
If your looking for a fantastic historical romance and bodice ripper this is one of my top pics. I actually ended up enjoying this more than Savage Surrender by Natasha Peters. I think this is due to Marianne being a more likeable FMC than Elise. Where Elise came off as a spoiled child (until the end of the book), Marianne was wise beyond her years and courageous right from the start. Thomas, even though he was a total cur, was far more interesting than Garth. This Other Eden's on Kindle Unlimited too, where as Savage Surrender is not (also I think it's 30 some dollars to get a psychical copy).
Side-note: not sure if anyone else has read Giana Darling's Enslaved Duet, but Alexander Davenport comes close to the level of despicable that Thomas Eden achieves in this book. However, there's some charm to Thomas, where as Alexander I wanted to push into a deep dark hole by the end of reading the Enslaved Duet. If anyone is looking for a solid modern day bodice ripper, highly recommend that series. I hated it, just as much as I loved it.
I almost dnf'd at page 50 due to Lord Thomas Eden being so despicable. However, for some reason, this despicableness became so over the top, it became endearing. I couldn't wait to see what scheme he pulled off next in order to get Marianne into his bed. The Celestial Bed scheme was by far my favorite, since it was so over the top. I do have to admit that I didn't think he could be redeemed, but he grovels the hardest I have ever seen a bodice ripper MMC grovel. The FMC, Marianne, was a perfect adversary/love interest for Thomas, she was smart, courageous, and tough. I loved her character, so much.
One thing that could have been improved were the sometimes unnecessary POVs. I almost dnf'd for this reason too. Literally everyone and their best friend gets a POV. The maids, family friends, even random people on the street get a POV. I get why the author did this, but there were times I wish it was mainly Thomas and Marianne who's POV the book was told from. Tbh this book could have been 100 pages shorter with removing some of these POVs.
If your looking for a fantastic historical romance and bodice ripper this is one of my top pics. I actually ended up enjoying this more than Savage Surrender by Natasha Peters. I think this is due to Marianne being a more likeable FMC than Elise. Where Elise came off as a spoiled child (until the end of the book), Marianne was wise beyond her years and courageous right from the start. Thomas, even though he was a total cur, was far more interesting than Garth. This Other Eden's on Kindle Unlimited too, where as Savage Surrender is not (also I think it's 30 some dollars to get a psychical copy).
Side-note: not sure if anyone else has read Giana Darling's Enslaved Duet, but Alexander Davenport comes close to the level of despicable that Thomas Eden achieves in this book. However, there's some charm to Thomas, where as Alexander I wanted to push into a deep dark hole by the end of reading the Enslaved Duet. If anyone is looking for a solid modern day bodice ripper, highly recommend that series. I hated it, just as much as I loved it.
February 2, 2022
This is not your usual love story.
It's a romance, but love is never mentioned here and in my opinion there's no love involved here.
There are also many triggers as violence, rape, abuse, deception, so if you are a sensitive soul and you expect a romance full of roses and love this is definitely not for you.
The hero is a pitiful figure, the most un-hero of all the heroes. He's also the villain in the book.
The heroine is a servant in the hero's manor and he orders her whipping because she refused to be raped by him.
The heroine is only 16, she barely survives and afterwards she's scarred and suffers from PTSD.
Her father has a stroke and never recovers, she's sent to London to her sister, who's always been jealous of her and treats her like a servant, but the heroine is not meek and stupid, she's quite smart and decides to plays her game.
Her sister's lover, a journalist, falls in love with the heroine and tries to protect her from her sister.
Some time later she accidentally meets the hero again and since he's still obsessed with her he buys her with her sister's complicity.
Luckily he doesn't manage to rape her because the sister's lover shoots him, but some time later, when he's recovered, he decided to try again and this time he abducts her (always with her siste's complicity)
The heroine doesn't give up and so eventually he proposes marriage, but he performs a fake one with a fake priest.
The heroine accepts and gets pregnant. The hero would like to marry her fo real but the heroine gives birth to his son one month before the time due.
The hero confesses he never married her and she leaves him, taking with her her son.
After one year during which she refuses everything coming from the hero, she's forced to help him because he's trying to kill himself and eventually they get married and happy. For real.
This is the abstract of the book.
It was a very interesting and intriguing reading, there are many characters involved and their personality is described in all its facets, so you feel empathy for all of them and understand the reasons behind their actions.
The hero is an anti-hero. He's forty, not handsome, in the beginning he's fleshy and afterwards he loses weight because of his more active life and his fasting, but he's not a handsome man.
He's the villain, but a villain like Nero was, a man who has all the power but doesn't know what to do with it.
He's weak, childish and dumb.
His behaviour is not one of a psychopath, who acts without care for other people's feelings, because when he hurts other people he feels bad, and guilty. He's only not able to understand what could be the consequence of his actions.
Like a child with a gun.
And eventually, like a child with a gun, he hurts himself very badly.
All his actions reeks of irresponsibility and thoughtlesness, because he's stupid. Emotionally stupid and actually stupid.
he doesn't know why the heroine fascinates him so much, but we understand the reason why.
Because she's his opposite. She's strong and smart. She's intelligent.
She's not a crybaby as he is.
Even if she's powerless.
So when you read his foolish actions you are not angry, you are like noooo, don't don't don't, you utterly stupid creature. And you laugh at him, you pity him. You despise him for his lack of intelligence more than for his lack of morals. Because a smart man knows the consequences of his actions, and doesn't act impulsively. But he always does. And he always fails.
He's a complete failure of a man, and no, the heroine doesn't love him, even if she's attracted by some of his features, but she's never in love with him, or obsessed with him.
The obsession is all on his side. It's him who can't live without her, while she fares very well alone.
Even when she thinks she's married to him and is quite happy, seeing him with her sister's lover, she thinks that her dream man would be a mix of the two.
Not the thought of a woman in love!
In the end the author describes him as an aging man, easily tired, almost fifty, while the heroine is a young woman full of energy and life.
Through all the book he does nothing useful and spends his time drinking or walking and musing when he's at his best. He's not smart enough to find noble purposes in his life so he becomes obsessed with the only woman who rejected him.
Even if he's a nobleman there's nothing noble or superior in him, he could have been born a peasant because there's nothing distinctive in him, not physically or intellectually.
The final scene where he's cold and tired and the heroine takes care of him is very cute and I almost felt a tender feeling to him, in his utter fragility compared with the strenght both physical and emotional of the much younger heroine. Of course she'll survive him.
No dream man here!
But I enjoyed this reading very much, I enjoyed the characters, all of them, good and bad, and there's a good historical part because the story is set during the french revolution.
Never boring, never disappointing, very gothic and dark.
I love this author, I think I'll read others of her books.
It's a romance, but love is never mentioned here and in my opinion there's no love involved here.
There are also many triggers as violence, rape, abuse, deception, so if you are a sensitive soul and you expect a romance full of roses and love this is definitely not for you.
The hero is a pitiful figure, the most un-hero of all the heroes. He's also the villain in the book.
The heroine is a servant in the hero's manor and he orders her whipping because she refused to be raped by him.
The heroine is only 16, she barely survives and afterwards she's scarred and suffers from PTSD.
Her father has a stroke and never recovers, she's sent to London to her sister, who's always been jealous of her and treats her like a servant, but the heroine is not meek and stupid, she's quite smart and decides to plays her game.
Her sister's lover, a journalist, falls in love with the heroine and tries to protect her from her sister.
Some time later she accidentally meets the hero again and since he's still obsessed with her he buys her with her sister's complicity.
Luckily he doesn't manage to rape her because the sister's lover shoots him, but some time later, when he's recovered, he decided to try again and this time he abducts her (always with her siste's complicity)
The heroine doesn't give up and so eventually he proposes marriage, but he performs a fake one with a fake priest.
The heroine accepts and gets pregnant. The hero would like to marry her fo real but the heroine gives birth to his son one month before the time due.
The hero confesses he never married her and she leaves him, taking with her her son.
After one year during which she refuses everything coming from the hero, she's forced to help him because he's trying to kill himself and eventually they get married and happy. For real.
This is the abstract of the book.
It was a very interesting and intriguing reading, there are many characters involved and their personality is described in all its facets, so you feel empathy for all of them and understand the reasons behind their actions.
The hero is an anti-hero. He's forty, not handsome, in the beginning he's fleshy and afterwards he loses weight because of his more active life and his fasting, but he's not a handsome man.
He's the villain, but a villain like Nero was, a man who has all the power but doesn't know what to do with it.
He's weak, childish and dumb.
His behaviour is not one of a psychopath, who acts without care for other people's feelings, because when he hurts other people he feels bad, and guilty. He's only not able to understand what could be the consequence of his actions.
Like a child with a gun.
And eventually, like a child with a gun, he hurts himself very badly.
All his actions reeks of irresponsibility and thoughtlesness, because he's stupid. Emotionally stupid and actually stupid.
he doesn't know why the heroine fascinates him so much, but we understand the reason why.
Because she's his opposite. She's strong and smart. She's intelligent.
She's not a crybaby as he is.
Even if she's powerless.
So when you read his foolish actions you are not angry, you are like noooo, don't don't don't, you utterly stupid creature. And you laugh at him, you pity him. You despise him for his lack of intelligence more than for his lack of morals. Because a smart man knows the consequences of his actions, and doesn't act impulsively. But he always does. And he always fails.
He's a complete failure of a man, and no, the heroine doesn't love him, even if she's attracted by some of his features, but she's never in love with him, or obsessed with him.
The obsession is all on his side. It's him who can't live without her, while she fares very well alone.
Even when she thinks she's married to him and is quite happy, seeing him with her sister's lover, she thinks that her dream man would be a mix of the two.
Not the thought of a woman in love!
In the end the author describes him as an aging man, easily tired, almost fifty, while the heroine is a young woman full of energy and life.
Through all the book he does nothing useful and spends his time drinking or walking and musing when he's at his best. He's not smart enough to find noble purposes in his life so he becomes obsessed with the only woman who rejected him.
Even if he's a nobleman there's nothing noble or superior in him, he could have been born a peasant because there's nothing distinctive in him, not physically or intellectually.
The final scene where he's cold and tired and the heroine takes care of him is very cute and I almost felt a tender feeling to him, in his utter fragility compared with the strenght both physical and emotional of the much younger heroine. Of course she'll survive him.
No dream man here!
But I enjoyed this reading very much, I enjoyed the characters, all of them, good and bad, and there's a good historical part because the story is set during the french revolution.
Never boring, never disappointing, very gothic and dark.
I love this author, I think I'll read others of her books.
November 16, 2023
DNF at 150.
This is not a romance. She's soooo young (like 15?) and he's almost 40??? After 150 pages, only a few things happened and I couldn't force myself to continue this. No, thanks.
This is not a romance. She's soooo young (like 15?) and he's almost 40??? After 150 pages, only a few things happened and I couldn't force myself to continue this. No, thanks.
October 19, 2022
⭐️ one star -
This was beyond awful. This is getting shelved to my zero stars shelf, and that hasn’t happened in a while, but this rubbish deserves it.
This book now ends my bodice ripper kick. Well, that was a very short lived passion (pun intended) 😂 I’m not even sure this would classify as a bodice ripper, tbh. I’d say, it qualifies more as trash 💁♀️
The only reason I even picked this up (one would think that the cover would’ve deterred me, but no) is due to the fact that I enjoyed two old school bodice rippers in a row (both from Teresa Denys). This story is nowhere near the quality of the other books I’ve come across in this genre; in fact I would guess that you could most likely pick up any Mills and Boon or a Harlequin and get a better written romance than this one.
This book appears on a bodice ripper list, and that’s how I found it. I feel somewhat bad that I’m trashing it since it does have a place on a few lists, but not that bad to stop me from warning others to save themselves from this time drain.
This book is poorly plotted, and it reads as if the author is just spewing off whatever comes to the top of her head. There is no care for any historical accuracy as far as character arcs are concerned, and that is just one issue I have with it.
I did know going into it that it would have a few outlandish actions (the public flogging of the heroine for starters), but I was hoping to get a soap opera type of read out of this. That is not what developed here at all.
This whole story is convoluted, outrageous, and written so carelessly, that it was in no way enjoyable to this reader. I ended up speed reading/skimming the last two thirds after it became quite clear that it was not going to get any better, but was, in fact totally tanking.
I also haven’t shelved anything to my rubbish bin shelf in a while, either, but this hot mess gets that honor.
Save yourself from this trash. Zero stars.
This was beyond awful. This is getting shelved to my zero stars shelf, and that hasn’t happened in a while, but this rubbish deserves it.
This book now ends my bodice ripper kick. Well, that was a very short lived passion (pun intended) 😂 I’m not even sure this would classify as a bodice ripper, tbh. I’d say, it qualifies more as trash 💁♀️
The only reason I even picked this up (one would think that the cover would’ve deterred me, but no) is due to the fact that I enjoyed two old school bodice rippers in a row (both from Teresa Denys). This story is nowhere near the quality of the other books I’ve come across in this genre; in fact I would guess that you could most likely pick up any Mills and Boon or a Harlequin and get a better written romance than this one.
This book appears on a bodice ripper list, and that’s how I found it. I feel somewhat bad that I’m trashing it since it does have a place on a few lists, but not that bad to stop me from warning others to save themselves from this time drain.
This book is poorly plotted, and it reads as if the author is just spewing off whatever comes to the top of her head. There is no care for any historical accuracy as far as character arcs are concerned, and that is just one issue I have with it.
I did know going into it that it would have a few outlandish actions (the public flogging of the heroine for starters), but I was hoping to get a soap opera type of read out of this. That is not what developed here at all.
This whole story is convoluted, outrageous, and written so carelessly, that it was in no way enjoyable to this reader. I ended up speed reading/skimming the last two thirds after it became quite clear that it was not going to get any better, but was, in fact totally tanking.
I also haven’t shelved anything to my rubbish bin shelf in a while, either, but this hot mess gets that honor.
Save yourself from this trash. Zero stars.
May 23, 2012
It's hard to call this story a romance. To me, this is more a dark story of an older man who becomes obsessed over a young girl and the lengths he would go to to "have" her after a major faux pas(*cough*;) at the beginning in response to her rejection of him. Gradually the obsession becomes a romance and you start to warm up to the guy along with our heroine.
However, I still can't call him a hero, which is one things I love about the story. The lead male character is very real from his selfishness and immaturity to his gullibility and knobby knees.
If you like it grittier, can tolerate everything not being tied up in a neat little bow, and can see a woman learning to love a terribly flawed man who's done some really bad things, then I highly recommend this book.
However, I still can't call him a hero, which is one things I love about the story. The lead male character is very real from his selfishness and immaturity to his gullibility and knobby knees.
If you like it grittier, can tolerate everything not being tied up in a neat little bow, and can see a woman learning to love a terribly flawed man who's done some really bad things, then I highly recommend this book.
May 22, 2019
How dare you Harris? I was fully prepared for a cliffhanger, or every sort of maddening havoc to unleash at the final page but lo--she surprises again, with normalcy. Ultimately, this is a story that's positively human. This will likely be all-over-the-place review and drudgery in itself, so, if you've got anything else to do, don't feel compelled to read further. I forgive you. ;P
Most writers, I've found -- tend to keep a certain archetype and follow through with the character, rarely straying beyond that character's alignment(yes, kill me, I'm a former D&D dweeb). Harris seems to defy that with utter, depraved glee, to my thankfulness. I never, at any point, felt as if she cookie cut a character into a corner and dared not exceed their general makeup. If anything, she let the characters write themselves, they were on their own. She didn't tell me what I wanted to hear, or tell me about them, in particular. I didn't glean this, "oh, so this character is like this ONLY, so it's all safe and neat with Sunday's laundry freshness abound and I'll never ever--ever let you down!" What the cast of characters said to me was this; they're capable of anything. Anything. Just as capable of good, as they were menace....and with no clear villainous character to set all of my frustrations against, sending my emotional chagrin into a frenzy with a lynch mob or witch hunt to cut that character down. You are completely on your own, when you feel the urge to villianize one of them. Steeple fingered, chair spinning villains are nonexistent, and you're forced to begrudgingly accept the faults and vices of these otherwise, seemingly harmless characters. So many times, I've stopped and attempted to analyze the cast, in hopes of predicting the ultimate villain...because obviously we sort of write in these justicar roles, and people aren't allowed to realistically make mistakes to a degree they'd be unforgivable.
Beyond the loverly saga of doomed love affairs, I believe that was completely excluded by me, as I took far more delight in the characterization. Yes, Thomas is able to be jilted, made a fool of, shot without the heroine bandaging him up and eventually leading to the ultimate bathtub dip. His moments of spilling his heart out, you perceived it as, "AWWW..FINALLYYY!! FINALLY I CAN CLASSIFY HIM AND COMFORT MYSELF WITH PREDICTABILITY AND A HERO WHO IS MASTERED! HE IS NO LONGER A THREAT AND HAS REDEEMED HIMSELF! AND THE PEASANTS REJOICE! AHH, FINALLY MODERNIZED!" -- then five minutes later, he's snickering behind the door, wondering where the hell he got that material to wine and dine Marianne. I was tricked. I was just as much soaking it up, as Marianne was.
What Monson only scrapped the surface of, Harris is enforcing into every scene. Dear, merciful cheese. She has the capacity to center on every dark recess of a soul and somehow beautify it shamelessly.
William - who had admittedly raped women in his past, whom he felt the need to... had this free spirited, defy-the-mainstream Conservative view aura to him, that was adequate for his role. Marianne showed him a certain engaging purity and interest in the world, that he didn't immediately want to jade. His role as a protector was likely the most heroic deed done unto Marianne within the entire novel. ..and still, he was still not safe from Harris' Terror brigade. XD
Harris overjumped those bounds again, and refused for the read to only find the most pure minded and heroic males as the man the heroine ends up loving. She tested our response with flinging William into the mix, laughing at us for thinking any of them were without skeleton decorated closets.... and in some cases, moreso than the other...
Broken, utterly jaded, and still capable of peering through the scrim of immorality and thereto humanity, somehow. This seems to defy all historical anachronisms we're systematically force-fed.
Harris takes an old, safe archetype, and twists it inside out, till it's wearing sheaths of intestinal monstrosity. The unknown fellow's skull used as a mock, Shakespearean prop for Thomas's soliloquy? Thank you, Harris. For rekindling the art of surprise and setting me back on my rocker..... *struck dumb by a thunderclap*
I won't go into further details on the conduct and acts of debauchery inflicted on the heroine Marianne, but I will say this to wrap up this half-assed review for good measure:
Yes, his endless depravity and selfishness utterly destroyed everyone's lives around him, and it wasn't as if he actually learned from his mistakes, but he definitely, and fully paid for them. Furthermore, it took her survival of his destruction to save his wretched life.
Most writers, I've found -- tend to keep a certain archetype and follow through with the character, rarely straying beyond that character's alignment(yes, kill me, I'm a former D&D dweeb). Harris seems to defy that with utter, depraved glee, to my thankfulness. I never, at any point, felt as if she cookie cut a character into a corner and dared not exceed their general makeup. If anything, she let the characters write themselves, they were on their own. She didn't tell me what I wanted to hear, or tell me about them, in particular. I didn't glean this, "oh, so this character is like this ONLY, so it's all safe and neat with Sunday's laundry freshness abound and I'll never ever--ever let you down!" What the cast of characters said to me was this; they're capable of anything. Anything. Just as capable of good, as they were menace....and with no clear villainous character to set all of my frustrations against, sending my emotional chagrin into a frenzy with a lynch mob or witch hunt to cut that character down. You are completely on your own, when you feel the urge to villianize one of them. Steeple fingered, chair spinning villains are nonexistent, and you're forced to begrudgingly accept the faults and vices of these otherwise, seemingly harmless characters. So many times, I've stopped and attempted to analyze the cast, in hopes of predicting the ultimate villain...because obviously we sort of write in these justicar roles, and people aren't allowed to realistically make mistakes to a degree they'd be unforgivable.
Beyond the loverly saga of doomed love affairs, I believe that was completely excluded by me, as I took far more delight in the characterization. Yes, Thomas is able to be jilted, made a fool of, shot without the heroine bandaging him up and eventually leading to the ultimate bathtub dip. His moments of spilling his heart out, you perceived it as, "AWWW..FINALLYYY!! FINALLY I CAN CLASSIFY HIM AND COMFORT MYSELF WITH PREDICTABILITY AND A HERO WHO IS MASTERED! HE IS NO LONGER A THREAT AND HAS REDEEMED HIMSELF! AND THE PEASANTS REJOICE! AHH, FINALLY MODERNIZED!" -- then five minutes later, he's snickering behind the door, wondering where the hell he got that material to wine and dine Marianne. I was tricked. I was just as much soaking it up, as Marianne was.
What Monson only scrapped the surface of, Harris is enforcing into every scene. Dear, merciful cheese. She has the capacity to center on every dark recess of a soul and somehow beautify it shamelessly.
William - who had admittedly raped women in his past, whom he felt the need to... had this free spirited, defy-the-mainstream Conservative view aura to him, that was adequate for his role. Marianne showed him a certain engaging purity and interest in the world, that he didn't immediately want to jade. His role as a protector was likely the most heroic deed done unto Marianne within the entire novel. ..and still, he was still not safe from Harris' Terror brigade. XD
Harris overjumped those bounds again, and refused for the read to only find the most pure minded and heroic males as the man the heroine ends up loving. She tested our response with flinging William into the mix, laughing at us for thinking any of them were without skeleton decorated closets.... and in some cases, moreso than the other...
Broken, utterly jaded, and still capable of peering through the scrim of immorality and thereto humanity, somehow. This seems to defy all historical anachronisms we're systematically force-fed.
Harris takes an old, safe archetype, and twists it inside out, till it's wearing sheaths of intestinal monstrosity. The unknown fellow's skull used as a mock, Shakespearean prop for Thomas's soliloquy? Thank you, Harris. For rekindling the art of surprise and setting me back on my rocker..... *struck dumb by a thunderclap*
I won't go into further details on the conduct and acts of debauchery inflicted on the heroine Marianne, but I will say this to wrap up this half-assed review for good measure:
Yes, his endless depravity and selfishness utterly destroyed everyone's lives around him, and it wasn't as if he actually learned from his mistakes, but he definitely, and fully paid for them. Furthermore, it took her survival of his destruction to save his wretched life.
December 7, 2025
So, this is a Gothic novel.
⋇⊶⊰❣⊱⊷⋇ ⋇⊶⊰❣⊱⊷⋇⋇⊶⊰❣⊱⊷⋇ ⋇⊶⊰❣⊱⊷⋇
I was prepared for a lot, and I still had to take a break when reading this story. I also needed time because I didn't know what I wanted to say in my review. I'm still not very coherent, but if I don't put words into it, I can't move on to my next read.
・
・
・
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🕮⋆˚࿔✎𓂃 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⋇⊶⊰❣⊱⊷⋇ ⋇⊶⊰❣⊱⊷⋇⋇⊶⊰❣⊱⊷⋇ ⋇⊶⊰❣⊱⊷⋇
I was prepared for a lot, and I still had to take a break when reading this story. I also needed time because I didn't know what I wanted to say in my review. I'm still not very coherent, but if I don't put words into it, I can't move on to my next read.
・
・
・
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🕮⋆˚࿔✎𓂃 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
May 16, 2017
Three stars for the writing, despite the misleading meaning of "Liked it" that this rating has on GR, because I definitely was left unimpressed by the purported Gothic plotline and I found the male MC unlikable throughout, even for a "bad boy,"and the female MC wasn’t much of an improvement either.
January 4, 2023
I’m not quite sure what to say about this one. 😂
I despised it. I loved it.
It wasn’t a romance til maybe 60% and even then it was on shaky ground.
The first 85% is about sex and the motivations are sexual but there’s very little steam.
The hero is a loser of epic proportions… and then by the end he’s someone else all together.
I desperately wanted to stop reading around 40-50%… and then was really glad I finished.
🤷🏼♀️🥴😍😵💫🫣🤡💀
I despised it. I loved it.
It wasn’t a romance til maybe 60% and even then it was on shaky ground.
The first 85% is about sex and the motivations are sexual but there’s very little steam.
The hero is a loser of epic proportions… and then by the end he’s someone else all together.
I desperately wanted to stop reading around 40-50%… and then was really glad I finished.
🤷🏼♀️🥴😍😵💫🫣🤡💀
March 19, 2013
I picked up This Other Eden on the recommendations of several GR friends, and didn't expect to like it as much as I did. If more historical romance was like this, I'd read more historical romance.
The novel starts with young Marianne Locke about to be publicly whipped for defying the local lord, Thomas Eden. After this punishment, a traumatized Marianne is shipped off to live with her jealous sister in London, while Lord Eden continues to dwell on Marianne and wonder if he should have been more lenient with her. Not because he thinks having her whipped was wrong, mind you, but because he thinks it was a waste of his chance to sleep with her. From there it's a sprawling, twisty plot with betrayals and lies and secrets all over the place, culminating finally in a redemption arc that will wring you out.
Thomas is, at the beginning of the book, a spoiled brat. A 40-year-old spoiled brat. His entire life has shaped him to be one--he's always had everything he ever wanted and could satisfy any whim as soon as he thought of it. He's like the toddler who breaks his toys and then can't understand why they're no fun anymore. And he's utterly befuddled by Marianne.
Marianne, while more sympathetic, was actually harder for me to get a handle on--she can be elusive as a character. She can go from nearly catatonic to guileless to sophisticated in five minutes. She's a bit of a puzzle and I was never quite sure I had her figured out, though I liked and sympathized with her.
Really, all of the characters--even the ones I "boo! hiss!"ed at--are complex individuals with many facets.
I also loved that there was such a palpable sense of the time the novel was set in, and of place (both in London and in Devon). This Other Eden felt meaty, like there was as much book here as I could have wished for, and none of it filler. This reminds me less of the average romance novel and more of something hefty and epic like Forever Amber.
And still I kept telling myself I wasn't going to get emotionally involved with this one. Instead, I must confess, Marilyn Harris got me.
It's a really dark book and definitely not for the squeamish; there's a fair amount of gore and rapeyness. I think part of the reason I enjoyed the book was that I knew this going in, and so I was able to switch on my "gritty book goggles" like I do for GRRM. I doubt I'd have been able to stomach this if I'd gone in expecting fluff. NOT FLUFF, PEOPLE. Really. I mean it.
The novel starts with young Marianne Locke about to be publicly whipped for defying the local lord, Thomas Eden. After this punishment, a traumatized Marianne is shipped off to live with her jealous sister in London, while Lord Eden continues to dwell on Marianne and wonder if he should have been more lenient with her. Not because he thinks having her whipped was wrong, mind you, but because he thinks it was a waste of his chance to sleep with her. From there it's a sprawling, twisty plot with betrayals and lies and secrets all over the place, culminating finally in a redemption arc that will wring you out.
Thomas is, at the beginning of the book, a spoiled brat. A 40-year-old spoiled brat. His entire life has shaped him to be one--he's always had everything he ever wanted and could satisfy any whim as soon as he thought of it. He's like the toddler who breaks his toys and then can't understand why they're no fun anymore. And he's utterly befuddled by Marianne.
Marianne, while more sympathetic, was actually harder for me to get a handle on--she can be elusive as a character. She can go from nearly catatonic to guileless to sophisticated in five minutes. She's a bit of a puzzle and I was never quite sure I had her figured out, though I liked and sympathized with her.
Really, all of the characters--even the ones I "boo! hiss!"ed at--are complex individuals with many facets.
I also loved that there was such a palpable sense of the time the novel was set in, and of place (both in London and in Devon). This Other Eden felt meaty, like there was as much book here as I could have wished for, and none of it filler. This reminds me less of the average romance novel and more of something hefty and epic like Forever Amber.
And still I kept telling myself I wasn't going to get emotionally involved with this one. Instead, I must confess, Marilyn Harris got me.
It's a really dark book and definitely not for the squeamish; there's a fair amount of gore and rapeyness. I think part of the reason I enjoyed the book was that I knew this going in, and so I was able to switch on my "gritty book goggles" like I do for GRRM. I doubt I'd have been able to stomach this if I'd gone in expecting fluff. NOT FLUFF, PEOPLE. Really. I mean it.
August 27, 2016
Wow! What a book! Haunting, shocking, dark, edgy, with violent passions.......great, great storytelling by a new-to-me author, and I'm very much looking forward to reading more of the Eden series. Definitely not for those who like their romances sweet and chaste, as Thomas Eden is a dark, passionate lord of his times and Marianne a headstrong and stubborn servant (which gets her in deep trouble with his lordship in the first place!) Unlike anything I've ever read!
January 10, 2015
Dark, delicious, disturbing, and madder than a box of frogs. Loved it!
April 4, 2014
Emotionally Wrenching, Enthralling Tale from 18th Century England
It’s hard to see how this book could be rated anything other than 5 stars just for the effort it is. The writing is meticulous, the plot intricate, the characters well drawn and the story enthralling. It’s a well-told tale of cruelty, deception, dishonor and treachery—and, yes, it’s emotionally wrenching. I also thought the ending was melancholy. There are a few other negatives that I will point out that might turn away readers who would prefer a more sedate historical romance. Just so you know, this was my first by Harris, and it’s the first in the Eden series (see list below). I’ve already got book 2 waiting on the shelf to be read though I may take an emotional break before I come to it.
Set in England, beginning in 1790, it tells the story of Thomas Eden, the Fifth Earl and Thirteenth Baron, lord of the stone monolith, Eden Castle, on the Devon coast, and the servant girl, Marianne Locke.
Marianne is no ordinary servant, being both beautiful and taught by a well-educated tutor to young ladies. She is smart and, for the most part, quite a reflective thinker. However, she is naïve and too trusting, and thus taken advantage of by those who would manipulate her, including her sister and Lord Eden. Somehow, through all the betrayals (and there are many), she maintains her kind heart. That I wanted to slap her at times was a reflection of how easily she was misled.
As the story begins, 16-year-old Marianne is being publicly flogged for rebuffing Lord Eden’s advances. The event scars her for life and nearly kills her. (It also drives her father to madness.) All that changes her. Once a spirited beauty, she is now a shell of a young woman, sent to London by friends of her father to see if she can be revived. There she lives with her conniving sister who is jealous of Marianne’s beauty. Jane is the kept mistress of a journalist named William who quickly falls in love with Marianne.
Alas for Marianne, Lord Eden has not forgotten her. No matter he is more than twice her age (she is 16, he is 40), he lurks in the background plotting to have her and willing to do any unethical thing to achieve his goal. Thomas Eden is a man who sees himself above all those who serve him, who thinks he is entitled to take any young girl’s virginity simply because she is “low born.” To their shame, most of his acquaintances aware of his dirty dealings either enable him or look the other way. He goes from one “heinous deed” (his words) to another. I was 3/4ths of the way through the book when I decided this man was beyond redemption. I so wanted to see him fall, and fall hard. In the end, he did not fall hard enough for me.
If you don’t like stories where the hero and heroine are separated for a time, or a “hero” who seems truly evil, this may not be the book for you. Still and all, it kept me up to the wee hours of the morning reading—-two nights in a row. So, for the brave among us, I do recommend it!
The Eden series: (All are Victorian save for the first)
This Other Eden (late 18th century)
The Prince of Eden
The Eden Passion
The Women of Eden
Eden Rising
American Eden (Civil War)
Eden and Honor
It’s hard to see how this book could be rated anything other than 5 stars just for the effort it is. The writing is meticulous, the plot intricate, the characters well drawn and the story enthralling. It’s a well-told tale of cruelty, deception, dishonor and treachery—and, yes, it’s emotionally wrenching. I also thought the ending was melancholy. There are a few other negatives that I will point out that might turn away readers who would prefer a more sedate historical romance. Just so you know, this was my first by Harris, and it’s the first in the Eden series (see list below). I’ve already got book 2 waiting on the shelf to be read though I may take an emotional break before I come to it.
Set in England, beginning in 1790, it tells the story of Thomas Eden, the Fifth Earl and Thirteenth Baron, lord of the stone monolith, Eden Castle, on the Devon coast, and the servant girl, Marianne Locke.
Marianne is no ordinary servant, being both beautiful and taught by a well-educated tutor to young ladies. She is smart and, for the most part, quite a reflective thinker. However, she is naïve and too trusting, and thus taken advantage of by those who would manipulate her, including her sister and Lord Eden. Somehow, through all the betrayals (and there are many), she maintains her kind heart. That I wanted to slap her at times was a reflection of how easily she was misled.
As the story begins, 16-year-old Marianne is being publicly flogged for rebuffing Lord Eden’s advances. The event scars her for life and nearly kills her. (It also drives her father to madness.) All that changes her. Once a spirited beauty, she is now a shell of a young woman, sent to London by friends of her father to see if she can be revived. There she lives with her conniving sister who is jealous of Marianne’s beauty. Jane is the kept mistress of a journalist named William who quickly falls in love with Marianne.
Alas for Marianne, Lord Eden has not forgotten her. No matter he is more than twice her age (she is 16, he is 40), he lurks in the background plotting to have her and willing to do any unethical thing to achieve his goal. Thomas Eden is a man who sees himself above all those who serve him, who thinks he is entitled to take any young girl’s virginity simply because she is “low born.” To their shame, most of his acquaintances aware of his dirty dealings either enable him or look the other way. He goes from one “heinous deed” (his words) to another. I was 3/4ths of the way through the book when I decided this man was beyond redemption. I so wanted to see him fall, and fall hard. In the end, he did not fall hard enough for me.
If you don’t like stories where the hero and heroine are separated for a time, or a “hero” who seems truly evil, this may not be the book for you. Still and all, it kept me up to the wee hours of the morning reading—-two nights in a row. So, for the brave among us, I do recommend it!
The Eden series: (All are Victorian save for the first)
This Other Eden (late 18th century)
The Prince of Eden
The Eden Passion
The Women of Eden
Eden Rising
American Eden (Civil War)
Eden and Honor
October 27, 2011
This is one of those dark, not quite a bodice ripper, historicals that I read long ago as a teen. Actually, it's not awful, and pretty good, covering the Eden family as the head of the family, Lord Eden, makes a terrible choice that will haunt his family for generations. Perhaps not politically correct, but still fun all the same. Lots of drama, plenty of description and some very memorable characters. Not to mention that Celestial Bed.... Oy! Five stars overall and a not to be missed read.
For the longer review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/review/Marily...
For the longer review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/review/Marily...
April 3, 2019
Favorite quotes:
January 25, 2023
I usually enjoy the old-school literary bodice rippers . . . but this one tipped over waaay too far into something else.
Writing style and depth: 5 STARS
Characters and story: -2 STARS
Not ever in my 1500 years of reading romance 😂 have I come across a book like this one. Every single character was either despicable or shallow, and even past the 85% mark there still hadn't been any growth.
It's possible I'm being unfair to the heroine - who was basically still a child when the book began - but the Hero? What an absolutely repulsive cretin. My eyeballs bled with most of his inner thoughts.
Honestly I love dark romance. I would have eaten this entire story up - and been happy about it - if there had been any kind of comeuppance or moments of satisfaction to balance things out. But there was nothing! Why was the sister not pushed off a cliff? How did the best friend not end up at the end of a rope? And, aaargh, why weren't certain events/actions ever mentioned again?
Ugh! So unfulfilling.
Writing style and depth: 5 STARS
Characters and story: -2 STARS
Not ever in my 1500 years of reading romance 😂 have I come across a book like this one. Every single character was either despicable or shallow, and even past the 85% mark there still hadn't been any growth.
It's possible I'm being unfair to the heroine - who was basically still a child when the book began - but the Hero? What an absolutely repulsive cretin. My eyeballs bled with most of his inner thoughts.
Honestly I love dark romance. I would have eaten this entire story up - and been happy about it - if there had been any kind of comeuppance or moments of satisfaction to balance things out. But there was nothing! Why was the sister not pushed off a cliff? How did the best friend not end up at the end of a rope? And, aaargh, why weren't certain events/actions ever mentioned again?
Ugh! So unfulfilling.
May 23, 2012
It's hard to call this story a romance. To me, this is more a dark story of an older man who becomes obsessed over a young girl and the lengths he would go to to "have" her after a major faux pas(*cough*;) at the beginning in response to her rejection of him. Gradually the obsession becomes a romance and you start to warm up to the guy along with our heroine.
However, I still can't call him a hero, which is one things I love about the story. The lead male character is very real from his selfishness and immaturity to his gullibility and knobby knees.
If you like it grittier, can tolerate everything not being tied up in a neat little bow, and can see a woman learning to love a terribly flawed man who's done some really bad things, then I highly recommend this book.
However, I still can't call him a hero, which is one things I love about the story. The lead male character is very real from his selfishness and immaturity to his gullibility and knobby knees.
If you like it grittier, can tolerate everything not being tied up in a neat little bow, and can see a woman learning to love a terribly flawed man who's done some really bad things, then I highly recommend this book.
dnf
October 5, 2025I really wanted to like this but it’s so boring 😔 DNF @ 22%
October 5, 2021
I don't think I've had such an equivocal 5 star rating since To Have and To Hold. To be candid: this book is an epic gothic sufferfest with a romance that feels more like punishment than pleasure. It's also an amazing character study into the banality of evil, weak-kneed aristocrats, and the price we pay for saying "No."
In true bodice ripper convention, Thomas Eden is a villain, rather than a hero. He's a weak man with no strong principles or outstanding character traits, yet he occupies his role of Lord of the Manor (he's an earl) as though his value is unquestionable. He's dipped his toes into smuggling because he's bored, and when Marianne Locke, a young serving girl sees more than she should, he propositions her to keep her quiet. Marianne knees him in the groin and runs away, and thus her fate is sealed. Partially for knowing too much, and partially for rejecting him, Thomas Eden sentences her to ten lashes on the whipping oak. And this is where the book starts.
We get a tense, multi POV buildup to the whipping. The punishment is too harsh, and it's likely that Marianne will die. Even Eden starts to have doubts, but he can't bring himself to call it off.
And it is excruciating. I highlighted this sentence where we experience the whipping (10 lashes) from Marriane's point of view:
Of course, Marianne doesn't die, but she's not really alive at this point either. Uncomfortable with the listless young girl, the townspeople pack her off to London to live with her sister. Marianne and her sister, Jane, have a competitive relationship, and Jane is not enthusiastic about Marianne being dumped back into her life.
There are so many things I want to convey about this book but it would be a disservice to do a summary, so I'll say this: Thomas Eden circles Marianne Locke throughout the book. Ever since the whipping oak, he's had a morbid fascination with her that bleeds into obsession. He thinks if he sleeps with her, he'll be able to purge her from his system. There's no form of manipulation, force, or coercion that he will not attempt to get her into his life.
While Thomas Eden is the true villain, a despicable man that might get his Happily Ever After with a big ol' asterisk, you're not safe in anybody else's point of view either. We spend time with the maid that's a bigot, Jane's beaux who secretly prefers Marianne, and townspeople that aid in extreme violence. It's a portrait of misery that was so beautifully written I couldn't look away.
Heavy trigger warnings for rape and violence.
In true bodice ripper convention, Thomas Eden is a villain, rather than a hero. He's a weak man with no strong principles or outstanding character traits, yet he occupies his role of Lord of the Manor (he's an earl) as though his value is unquestionable. He's dipped his toes into smuggling because he's bored, and when Marianne Locke, a young serving girl sees more than she should, he propositions her to keep her quiet. Marianne knees him in the groin and runs away, and thus her fate is sealed. Partially for knowing too much, and partially for rejecting him, Thomas Eden sentences her to ten lashes on the whipping oak. And this is where the book starts.
We get a tense, multi POV buildup to the whipping. The punishment is too harsh, and it's likely that Marianne will die. Even Eden starts to have doubts, but he can't bring himself to call it off.
And it is excruciating. I highlighted this sentence where we experience the whipping (10 lashes) from Marriane's point of view:
In all her careful planning, she underestimated one small matter - the oceanic distance, under certain circumstances, between one and ten.
Of course, Marianne doesn't die, but she's not really alive at this point either. Uncomfortable with the listless young girl, the townspeople pack her off to London to live with her sister. Marianne and her sister, Jane, have a competitive relationship, and Jane is not enthusiastic about Marianne being dumped back into her life.
There are so many things I want to convey about this book but it would be a disservice to do a summary, so I'll say this: Thomas Eden circles Marianne Locke throughout the book. Ever since the whipping oak, he's had a morbid fascination with her that bleeds into obsession. He thinks if he sleeps with her, he'll be able to purge her from his system. There's no form of manipulation, force, or coercion that he will not attempt to get her into his life.
While Thomas Eden is the true villain, a despicable man that might get his Happily Ever After with a big ol' asterisk, you're not safe in anybody else's point of view either. We spend time with the maid that's a bigot, Jane's beaux who secretly prefers Marianne, and townspeople that aid in extreme violence. It's a portrait of misery that was so beautifully written I couldn't look away.
Heavy trigger warnings for rape and violence.
May 18, 2016
Currently Reading (5/12/16):
It's time for me to read another bodice ripper!
I'm lacing my corset as we speak. :P
It's time for me to read another bodice ripper!
I'm lacing my corset as we speak. :P
February 19, 2021
This Other Eden - Marianne & Thomas
This is a hidden gem that not many know about it!
WARNING: dark, gothic, rape, abuse, male character selfish but by the end he pays for his sins and you fall for him...
I honestly did not expected to enjoy this book as much as I did, mainly because I hate dark gothic romances but this book is an exception and I feel the all series will be astonishing!
The story begins in 1790 at Castle Eden where Thomas Eden is the lord of the place and because of boredom he engages in illegal trade in his own house. Marianne , a 15 year girl works at the castle as a maid and unfortunately finds out about the illegality. Thomas furious tries to bribe her, and as the lords of that time were accustomated he tries to bed her. What he did not expected was that Marianne to refuse him and above that even kick him in his family jewels. Enraged by the act, because how come this poor girl refuses a lord!!!, Lord Eden gives order to whip and humiliate her in public view.
Years go by but Lord Thomas can not forget Marianne so instead he makes a plan with her sister to have her but the plan backfires and instead Thomas finds himself shot in the shoulder by William, who is the man of Marianne's sister but also who finds becoming attracted to Marianne.
This book is full of dramas and if you except that Thomas gets better you have not even seen what a deceitful man he can be only to have Marianne. He actually deceives her in marring him but I let you read it because were will be the fun if I spoiled you !
What is really interesting about this book are the characters who are all full of flaws, even the heroine is not the pure, innocent girl you think she is. Marianne is very prideful and in some ways she is wicked but with a dignity that you cannot love.
Despite that the star of the book is none other then Thomas Eden! I know what you think: " But he is the evil man ?! Oh wait I get it, he is only bad at the surface but when we get to know him you realize that he is not so bad as the heroine does, that he had a bad childhood and we forgive him all!"
Well WRONG! He is literally the most selfish man in the literature, yeah he incorporates the cliché of the bad guy that wins the woman in the end but oh boy Lord Eden is not a cliché, actually he really is selfish, and arrogant and has not a soft spot and being a lord he always expects to receive all that he wants so when he clashes with Marianne's dignity he is baffled by her attitude so much that she becomes an obsession to him. What is entertaining about his character is that you hate him for his actions but by the end he really is punished and you feel sorry for him that you tear for him and by the end you love him so much! I shed tears for him and I did not expected to that because of all the bad things he did!
The first half it is all about the background of the few characters that move the plot, which by the way I think Marilyn Harris does a great job in penning the flawed characters, but from the moment Thomas plans his deceiving plan to get Marianne in the form of a fake wedding, the book becomes a quick turn of the pages...
(this is Thomas when he made the deceitful plan, I imagined this when he started laughing because of how he outsmarted Marianne)
And yes by the end both of them fall madly in love with each other and even I shed tears when Thomas looses her and the way he punish himself was too much for my heart.
This is how you create a bad man that by the end he is punished and learns the hard way his mistakes and truly repents and for that this book is a jewel. Cannot wait to read The Prince of Eden, which follows the eldest son of Marianne and Thomas!
This is a hidden gem that not many know about it!
WARNING: dark, gothic, rape, abuse, male character selfish but by the end he pays for his sins and you fall for him...
I honestly did not expected to enjoy this book as much as I did, mainly because I hate dark gothic romances but this book is an exception and I feel the all series will be astonishing!
The story begins in 1790 at Castle Eden where Thomas Eden is the lord of the place and because of boredom he engages in illegal trade in his own house. Marianne , a 15 year girl works at the castle as a maid and unfortunately finds out about the illegality. Thomas furious tries to bribe her, and as the lords of that time were accustomated he tries to bed her. What he did not expected was that Marianne to refuse him and above that even kick him in his family jewels. Enraged by the act, because how come this poor girl refuses a lord!!!, Lord Eden gives order to whip and humiliate her in public view.
Years go by but Lord Thomas can not forget Marianne so instead he makes a plan with her sister to have her but the plan backfires and instead Thomas finds himself shot in the shoulder by William, who is the man of Marianne's sister but also who finds becoming attracted to Marianne.
This book is full of dramas and if you except that Thomas gets better you have not even seen what a deceitful man he can be only to have Marianne. He actually deceives her in marring him but I let you read it because were will be the fun if I spoiled you !
What is really interesting about this book are the characters who are all full of flaws, even the heroine is not the pure, innocent girl you think she is. Marianne is very prideful and in some ways she is wicked but with a dignity that you cannot love.
Despite that the star of the book is none other then Thomas Eden! I know what you think: " But he is the evil man ?! Oh wait I get it, he is only bad at the surface but when we get to know him you realize that he is not so bad as the heroine does, that he had a bad childhood and we forgive him all!"
Well WRONG! He is literally the most selfish man in the literature, yeah he incorporates the cliché of the bad guy that wins the woman in the end but oh boy Lord Eden is not a cliché, actually he really is selfish, and arrogant and has not a soft spot and being a lord he always expects to receive all that he wants so when he clashes with Marianne's dignity he is baffled by her attitude so much that she becomes an obsession to him. What is entertaining about his character is that you hate him for his actions but by the end he really is punished and you feel sorry for him that you tear for him and by the end you love him so much! I shed tears for him and I did not expected to that because of all the bad things he did!
The first half it is all about the background of the few characters that move the plot, which by the way I think Marilyn Harris does a great job in penning the flawed characters, but from the moment Thomas plans his deceiving plan to get Marianne in the form of a fake wedding, the book becomes a quick turn of the pages...
(this is Thomas when he made the deceitful plan, I imagined this when he started laughing because of how he outsmarted Marianne)
And yes by the end both of them fall madly in love with each other and even I shed tears when Thomas looses her and the way he punish himself was too much for my heart.
This is how you create a bad man that by the end he is punished and learns the hard way his mistakes and truly repents and for that this book is a jewel. Cannot wait to read The Prince of Eden, which follows the eldest son of Marianne and Thomas!
Read
August 31, 2021Still processing. The H is incredibly badly behaved and continues to do and say what’s needed to get what he wants instead of showing true remorse until the final 10% or so. But even then, the remorse comes from a reflection of what his life is like without the h vs actual empathy.
There is a lot to unpack in this book. It is well written. Some tragic moments and lots of betrayal to both the h and other supporting characters. Still reeling over Elfie and Ragland.
The h is a balance of innocent naivety and worldly. For the most part, she forgives relatively easily but shows caution with those who betrayed her.
There is a lot to unpack in this book. It is well written. Some tragic moments and lots of betrayal to both the h and other supporting characters. Still reeling over Elfie and Ragland.
The h is a balance of innocent naivety and worldly. For the most part, she forgives relatively easily but shows caution with those who betrayed her.
October 26, 2021
Thomas Eden is a spoiled brat in a perpetual hormonal mood swing, all wrapped up in the body of a forty-year-old man. Marianne Locke never gave me a reason to care about anything that happened to her. I was not enjoying myself at all so I've decided to quit at page 308. I'm not sure what author Marilyn Harris was trying to accomplish in writing this unholy mess. If it was to piss me off to no end, then she has succeeded beyond her wildest dreams.
April 12, 2017
This book was well written, dark and intense. I loved the gothic feel of this story with the main male character, Thomas Eden and his brooding selfishness, becoming obsessed with his need for the strong willed Marianne, the main female character. What these characters go through and still come out the other side kept me reading into the night. That and the settings of the story between a gloomy London city to the storm swept Devon cliffs and Eden Castle were fantastic.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 198 reviews