Title: Night in Eden Author: Candice Proctor
Published: September 28, 1997
Genre(s): Romance: Historical
Page Count: 345
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Bryony Wentworth, once a wealthy, privileged English landowner, is convicted of murdering her husband. After being transported to a penal colony in New South Wales while pregnant, Bryony gives birth to her child, then loses it to fever. Captain Hayden St. John collects her from the prison so that she can become a wet nurse for his son. Grief stricken over the loss of his wife, Hayden is bitter and untrusting. Bryony, fearful and angry at her fate, finds much to resent in Hayden, but his child offers her a new will to live. Although Hayden and Bryony fight their attraction, their union is so deeply passionate that it seems nothing can threaten their happiness until Bryony's past comes to haunt her.
There are, generally speaking, two types of historical romance. 19th century British romance (subdivided into Regency and Victorian romance), which is all about lords and ladies and balls; and there is also 19th century Western romance, which is about cowboys and settlers and Indians. There is not, however, a particularly dedicated outflow of historical romance about 19th century Australian penal colonies, and after reading Night in Eden, I really must wonder why the hell not? In this book, Candice Proctor delivers a sensual tale of two broken people brought together by death and loss and a cruel society who, somehow, forge a life together. This book is well-written and sexy, and maybe even more importantly: unique.
Convicted with manslaughter on account of her husband’s death, Bryony is transported to New South Wales to serve a 7 year sentence, during which time she’s basically the property of anyone who wants her. Like, literally a man can show up and decide he wants her and then legally rape her, because being a convict in Australia is not like being a convict back in England. Luckily, the dominating and powerful man who claims Bryony to serve as his infant son’s wetnurse isn’t much of a rapist, otherwise I would have been done with Night in Eden before it even began. Hayden St. John, as I said, is a controlling man with a forceful personality, and he wants Bryony from the very moment he sets eyes on her, but he wants her to choose him. So he hauls her back to his homestead in the bush and does his very best to stay away from her, because he knows that a) she wants him, but b) is terribly afraid of him and the power he has over her. So he waits. For months. And probably drives himself crazy with horniness, but whatevs.
Not being a reading particularly drawn to the Alpha Male character type, I think I was wary of the power dynamics between Bryony and Hayden from the start. Proctor has already established a scenario in which the woman is powerless: she is his servant and his prisoner. And while, in 1808, even being a wife rendered you little better than your husband’s slave, in Night in Eden it’s so very pronounced and palpable. Not only is Hayden a dominant, assertive man, he’s also in a position of extreme power over Bryony. And he pushes it—they both do, honestly. Like I said, the sexual attraction between these two characters is nearly instantaneous, even though they don’t particularly like each other in the beginning. There’s a lot of sexual tension and a lot of scenes that end abruptly because, at the last minute, Bryony says “No”—but here’s what’s important. Hayden respects Bryony’s nonconsent. Every time. He never blames her for “teasing” him or “leading him on”. Ever.
That is so important.
Uncomfortable as the relationship dynamic might have initially made me, I loved that Proctor used it in this way, and didn’t fall into the easy Alpha Male trap of “dubious consent” (that is not even a thing, okay?) or pressuring the female protagonist into sex. Night in Eden does it right, and so this book is thick with tension and lust, and it makes you wait for that consummation, but it’s sweeter for knowing it wasn’t coerced or rushed into.
And I very, very much loved both Bryony and Hayden. At the outset, they’re both grieving. Him for his wife, and her for her freedom and her children. Bryony resists Hayden’s authority over her and her conflicted fear and desire for him. Hayden wrestles with guilt for wanting a woman so soon after his wife died. But on the homestead in New South Wales, manned by thieves and murderers and cheats, Bryony and Hayden learn about each other and come to respect and admire each other, and they make it work And I’m not going to lie, I really did wonder how the author was going to pull it all off, because if there were ever a couple stuck in impossible circumstances, it seemed to be this one. I was not sure how the requisite Happily Ever After was going to work. But it worked; it really did.
While I think the unique setting and premise pulled me in, Candice Proctor was able to hold me because of these characters and their story. Night in Eden is, I think, one of the best historical romances I’ve ever read, for many reasons. I loved the Australian setting and the slow burn romance and the way the characters came together in partnership. Even the things that seemed tricky came out all right in the end. I am very, very impressed by this book.
