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A Taste of Eden
"FOR GOD'S SAKE, TASHA--GROW UP!"
Ben's last words to her echoed through her mind. The words stung now as they had on their wedding night so many years ago.
Even across the years the memory of Ben Craig, her husband and yet not her husband, still had the power to wound. How ironic that when Ben had said those words he hadn't known how young she was--or how much in love she'd been.
Well, she was grown up now. The old hurt had been tucked away in the secret hiding places of her heart. Only in the night the loneliness crept back. . . .
Ben's last words to her echoed through her mind. The words stung now as they had on their wedding night so many years ago.
Even across the years the memory of Ben Craig, her husband and yet not her husband, still had the power to wound. How ironic that when Ben had said those words he hadn't known how young she was--or how much in love she'd been.
Well, she was grown up now. The old hurt had been tucked away in the secret hiding places of her heart. Only in the night the loneliness crept back. . . .
381 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
34 people want to read
About the author
Abra Taylor
26 books4 followersAbra Taylor is a pseudonym for Barbara Brouse, who also wrote as Araby Scott. Brouse died in 2005. She was the author of over a dozen novels.
As an author for Harlequin Presents, she published one novel. She also published one title for Harlequin Temptation.
As an author for Harlequin Presents, she published one novel. She also published one title for Harlequin Temptation.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 7, 2018
Now this is a fever dream of a story! I don’t know quite how to describe it. Most of the events are set in the Seychelles, an island chain in the Indian Ocean. (The Eden of the title) It’s a second chance story between a super model and a nature writer.
But first, the back story: The H/h met when the heroine was 17. She took off her glasses, donned one of her dead mother’s chic dresses and went with her zoologist father to a party put on by the hero’s publishers. The hero thinks the heroine is 24 (that’s what she tells him) and vows to have her in his bed in six days.
They spend all their free time together with the heroine not really seeing too much without her glasses. On the last day, the hero takes the heroine to bed and her absent-minded father walks in on them and demands the hero marry his underage daughter. The hero has things to do, but he promises to return in a month and marry her.
The hero is a half hour late to the wedding. They go to a hotel to consummate their marriage and the heroine (without her glasses) laughs nervously when she sees the bed. The hero walks out on her and a few days later he calls and says he never wants to see her again.
Seven years later, the virgin heroine does a magazine shoot, which brings her to attention to the OM, the owner/designer of a fashion house. He is 60 (and presumably gay) who wants the heroine to be the face of his fashion house and to enter a marriage of convenience as his beard. This isn’t directly stated – just implied. Heroine agrees. She has just finished paying off her now-dead father’s debts and she would like the convenience of not fighting off men every two minutes.
She calls the hero’s publisher to contact him about a divorce. While she is on the phone with him, she does that nervous laugh again. That sets the hero off – he demands that she come to him in the Seychelles to get proof of their Mexican divorce/annulment in person.
Now it gets really weird. The OM changes the photo shoot from Greece to the Seychelles so that a not a moment will be wasted. (He’s a very interesting, practical character) The heroine is nervous about seeing the hero again (she is still in love with him, but his rejection devastated her). The hero kidnaps her and take her to a small island where he owns land. This is his revenge for her laugh on their wedding night. He’ll finally get to have sex with her and he’ll keep her for a week or until he is tired of her.
Okay, I lied. Now it gets really weird. The heroine runs away once they’re on the island. (She can’t swim) The hero doesn’t follow her. She runs into an old “witch” a Creole lady who makes potions and amulets, etc. She raves about clocks and blindness and puts a string around the heroine’s bruised leg. Then she plies her with some sort of alcoholic drink. She gives her a love amulet to help her with the hero.
The heroine is a high as a kite when she stumbles upon the hero in his hut. The hero growls and decides not to have sex with her then. (Honestly, I had a second-hand high reading some of these descriptions – this was trippy)
What follows are days of the hero being mean to the heroine and the heroine lapping it up. He withholds food for sex. Makes her take off her clothes and beg for sex. Sneers at her after sex. He is the worst kind of hero this side of Margaret Pargeter. I’m not kidding.
All this cruelty is punctuated with the heroine’s interactions with the “witch” lady and another local couple who have been saving their money to marry. They’ve been living together for decades and they have grandchildren - but the plan is to marry.
At some point, the heroine falls pregnant and realizes she can’t just hang around having sex with a cruel alpha, so she steals some money from the hero and bribes the couple to take her in their log boat back to the main island.
I’m leaving out so much – this was a Super Romance – so the author had a lot of room to devote the ‘witch woman’ and her ravings as well as a travelogue. The heroine is kind of bitchy. The hero is a cruel S.O.B so they belong together. I have no idea what kind of life they plan on leading. Neither one of them is fit to be out in polite society.
Read when you’re in the mood for an old skool trainwreck/mind-bender. I can't vouch for the romance, but as a page turner, I was hooked. It's at Open Library.
But first, the back story: The H/h met when the heroine was 17. She took off her glasses, donned one of her dead mother’s chic dresses and went with her zoologist father to a party put on by the hero’s publishers. The hero thinks the heroine is 24 (that’s what she tells him) and vows to have her in his bed in six days.
They spend all their free time together with the heroine not really seeing too much without her glasses. On the last day, the hero takes the heroine to bed and her absent-minded father walks in on them and demands the hero marry his underage daughter. The hero has things to do, but he promises to return in a month and marry her.
The hero is a half hour late to the wedding. They go to a hotel to consummate their marriage and the heroine (without her glasses) laughs nervously when she sees the bed. The hero walks out on her and a few days later he calls and says he never wants to see her again.
Seven years later, the virgin heroine does a magazine shoot, which brings her to attention to the OM, the owner/designer of a fashion house. He is 60 (and presumably gay) who wants the heroine to be the face of his fashion house and to enter a marriage of convenience as his beard. This isn’t directly stated – just implied. Heroine agrees. She has just finished paying off her now-dead father’s debts and she would like the convenience of not fighting off men every two minutes.
She calls the hero’s publisher to contact him about a divorce. While she is on the phone with him, she does that nervous laugh again. That sets the hero off – he demands that she come to him in the Seychelles to get proof of their Mexican divorce/annulment in person.
Now it gets really weird. The OM changes the photo shoot from Greece to the Seychelles so that a not a moment will be wasted. (He’s a very interesting, practical character) The heroine is nervous about seeing the hero again (she is still in love with him, but his rejection devastated her). The hero kidnaps her and take her to a small island where he owns land. This is his revenge for her laugh on their wedding night. He’ll finally get to have sex with her and he’ll keep her for a week or until he is tired of her.
Okay, I lied. Now it gets really weird. The heroine runs away once they’re on the island. (She can’t swim) The hero doesn’t follow her. She runs into an old “witch” a Creole lady who makes potions and amulets, etc. She raves about clocks and blindness and puts a string around the heroine’s bruised leg. Then she plies her with some sort of alcoholic drink. She gives her a love amulet to help her with the hero.
The heroine is a high as a kite when she stumbles upon the hero in his hut. The hero growls and decides not to have sex with her then. (Honestly, I had a second-hand high reading some of these descriptions – this was trippy)
What follows are days of the hero being mean to the heroine and the heroine lapping it up. He withholds food for sex. Makes her take off her clothes and beg for sex. Sneers at her after sex. He is the worst kind of hero this side of Margaret Pargeter. I’m not kidding.
All this cruelty is punctuated with the heroine’s interactions with the “witch” lady and another local couple who have been saving their money to marry. They’ve been living together for decades and they have grandchildren - but the plan is to marry.
At some point, the heroine falls pregnant and realizes she can’t just hang around having sex with a cruel alpha, so she steals some money from the hero and bribes the couple to take her in their log boat back to the main island.
I’m leaving out so much – this was a Super Romance – so the author had a lot of room to devote the ‘witch woman’ and her ravings as well as a travelogue. The heroine is kind of bitchy. The hero is a cruel S.O.B so they belong together. I have no idea what kind of life they plan on leading. Neither one of them is fit to be out in polite society.
Read when you’re in the mood for an old skool trainwreck/mind-bender. I can't vouch for the romance, but as a page turner, I was hooked. It's at Open Library.
September 10, 2014
Story was good but didn't like the heroine too much she was too whiny with her inner monologues about hero not being in love with her.
March 16, 2024
***SO many spoilers ahead. SO many opinions ahead. Please skip this review if you don't want spoilers or opinions***
Okay, I finished this book last night and had the intention to blast it with a one-star review, but after I slept on it, I realized I was unnaturally harsh. Once I took a step back, I saw that the author clearly had a hatred/torture kink theme. That's not my particular cup of reading tea, but I won't yuck someone else's yum. If that's the type of read you're looking for, then this is definitely your next book. I would strongly caution you if you're offended by the mention of animal abuse, though. There are a few rather unsavory scenes that I could've done without and wish I hadn't read. But if you can make it through those types of scenes unscathed, you'll be golden. Onward.
For me, the two MCs were extremely unlikable. Tasha lied to Ben from the moment she met him (when she was 17 and pretended to be 24), yet she couldn't understand why he hated her. Ben was unequivocally cruel to Tasha throughout most of the book, some of which she brought upon herself and some of which she didn't. He acted like he knew everything about her when he didn't know her at all. It was extremely strange. These two people deserve each other and should not be inflicted on other human beings, so I'm ultimately glad they got together.
The side characters were all as horrible/vapid as the MCs except for Eulalie. I wish I could hug her wrinkled, old body and steal her out of the pages to shelter her from the people surrounding her. Eulalie is this book's saving grace. She's the only reason it got two stars.
I'm all about kidnap plots. Call me perverse, but I love a good dark romance where the dude is like "If you won't come with me of your accord, I'll take you with me instead." But only when the kidnappee is kind of into it and the kidnapper wants to lavish the kidnappee with lusty pleasure!
This kidnap plot had all the makings of amazing hotness --being set on a desolate tropical island--until Ben starved Tasha, agreeing only to feed her if she'd have sex with him. That's ick to the max for me for many reasons.
Tasha's relationship with Max was purely a cover/used for convenience because Max was implied to be gay. Max was probably the most logical character of the bunch, so I might give him a pass after the fact, but he was super-controlling and operated as more of a father figure than a partner. Tasha basically would've been marrying her dad, and...I won't explain why there's an issue with that.
The whole concept that women were dirty/used up/beyond their expiration date if they weren't virgins on their wedding night is g-dd-amn baffling to me. Ben mentions that the women he's dated have had morally questionable characters ever since the pill became widely available. Birth control pills were legalized in 1960 and widely used by 1967. This book was released in 1982. Ben was supposed to be in his mid-thirties. How the hell would he know how the characters of women have changed in the last 15 years? It's implied he's been messing around for the better half of two decades with random women, but Tasha had better prepare herself for a life of solitude because now--at the ripe, old age of 24--she's SCREWED literally and figuratively because she finally gave in to physical desire and consummated her marriage to a man who never wanted to be married to her.
I just...I don't...I CAN'T understand this book. I'd recommend this one if you have zero triggers and if you need a good escape read. Other than that, I'd strongly suggest a pass.
Okay, I finished this book last night and had the intention to blast it with a one-star review, but after I slept on it, I realized I was unnaturally harsh. Once I took a step back, I saw that the author clearly had a hatred/torture kink theme. That's not my particular cup of reading tea, but I won't yuck someone else's yum. If that's the type of read you're looking for, then this is definitely your next book. I would strongly caution you if you're offended by the mention of animal abuse, though. There are a few rather unsavory scenes that I could've done without and wish I hadn't read. But if you can make it through those types of scenes unscathed, you'll be golden. Onward.
For me, the two MCs were extremely unlikable. Tasha lied to Ben from the moment she met him (when she was 17 and pretended to be 24), yet she couldn't understand why he hated her. Ben was unequivocally cruel to Tasha throughout most of the book, some of which she brought upon herself and some of which she didn't. He acted like he knew everything about her when he didn't know her at all. It was extremely strange. These two people deserve each other and should not be inflicted on other human beings, so I'm ultimately glad they got together.
The side characters were all as horrible/vapid as the MCs except for Eulalie. I wish I could hug her wrinkled, old body and steal her out of the pages to shelter her from the people surrounding her. Eulalie is this book's saving grace. She's the only reason it got two stars.
I'm all about kidnap plots. Call me perverse, but I love a good dark romance where the dude is like "If you won't come with me of your accord, I'll take you with me instead." But only when the kidnappee is kind of into it and the kidnapper wants to lavish the kidnappee with lusty pleasure!
This kidnap plot had all the makings of amazing hotness --being set on a desolate tropical island--until Ben starved Tasha, agreeing only to feed her if she'd have sex with him. That's ick to the max for me for many reasons.
Tasha's relationship with Max was purely a cover/used for convenience because Max was implied to be gay. Max was probably the most logical character of the bunch, so I might give him a pass after the fact, but he was super-controlling and operated as more of a father figure than a partner. Tasha basically would've been marrying her dad, and...I won't explain why there's an issue with that.
The whole concept that women were dirty/used up/beyond their expiration date if they weren't virgins on their wedding night is g-dd-amn baffling to me. Ben mentions that the women he's dated have had morally questionable characters ever since the pill became widely available. Birth control pills were legalized in 1960 and widely used by 1967. This book was released in 1982. Ben was supposed to be in his mid-thirties. How the hell would he know how the characters of women have changed in the last 15 years? It's implied he's been messing around for the better half of two decades with random women, but Tasha had better prepare herself for a life of solitude because now--at the ripe, old age of 24--she's SCREWED literally and figuratively because she finally gave in to physical desire and consummated her marriage to a man who never wanted to be married to her.
I just...I don't...I CAN'T understand this book. I'd recommend this one if you have zero triggers and if you need a good escape read. Other than that, I'd strongly suggest a pass.
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November 29, 2011could have been more enticing and the writer could have also given more details at certain parts of the book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews