Review: Night in Eden

Night in Eden by Candice Proctor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars 

I read this as a buddy read, to see all my thoughts, comments, and quotes: Night in Eden Buddy Read 

This started off really strong for me, Bryony is sentenced in the murdering of her husband and sent to Australia. There's ample description of how horrible it was for the women convicts there and I liked how the author incorporated real historical people and places (it made me search out historical non-fiction about these women). I liked how the wildness of Australia called to Bryony and that brought a connection to the man, Hayden, who ends up taking her as his servant. 

You're going to have to accept and like power dynamic play, there's a fair amount of scenes where Bryony finds herself attracted to Hayden with his position of power over her mingled in the desire. This is where the heat comes from between the two in the beginning and I could go along with it because I 'knew' Hayden wouldn't force her and it's all in fictional play in my mind. 

The second half dragged for me because the heat scenes between Bryony and Hayden were repeated too much and there was nothing new there or growing. The author didn't seem to know how or why she was incorporating Aboriginal people and it came off clumsy. There was an ending reveal to add some angst but it made me roll my eyes more than anything. 

I liked this, until I didn't.

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