To Have and to Hold
The most controversial romance novel of its decade and, for many readers, the most emotionally devastating. A story about power, abuse, and whether redemption is possible for a man who has done terrible things. Gaffney doesn't flinch and doesn't make it easy; the love that emerges is hard-won and complicated, which is exactly what makes it feel real.
Sebastian pressures Rachel into sex early on by threatening her with a return to prison, and a large share of readers call this exactly what it is: one flatly writes about “romance after a man rapes you,” and another notes he tells her not to call it rape while doing precisely that. The redemption that follows strikes many as too cheap, since he isn't made to grovel or lose anything close to what he took; one reader complains he “did not suffer enough or grovel enough,” and another sums up the redemption arc bluntly: he “gets her a puppy and makes her orgasm, so it's all good.” A vocal share reject the premise outright, arguing no craft justifies a heroine falling for the man who coerced her, and one calls the book “a twisted bag of dicks.” The murder-mystery subplot around Rachel's late husband wraps up in a rush that clashes with everything psychological that came before.
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
