The Night We Met

By Tara Taylor Quinn

I wasn't supposed to love Nate Grady, let alone marry him. But we found a love that triumphed over all adversity...just like Jane Eyre, my very favorite heroine. I was young, bookish, naive...on the verge of entering the convent--and then I met him.... The day I abandoned my old life, the day I agreed to marry him, now seems an eternity ago. But despite everyone's objections, I fell for Nate. An older, previously married man. My first and only love. My husband . When I looked into Nate's eyes on our wedding day, the rest of the world vanished. If I was crazy for doing this, I prayed the craziness would last forever....

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0373654081
• ISBN13: 9780373654086
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Harlequin Special Releases
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

Very emotional

A few time I had to pause and put down the book because if how deep and emotional it was I cried a few times I didn’t think I would like it but by golly I loved it. Will be staying in my collection.!

The Night We Met: a romance choice and calling from the heart

THE NIGHT WE MET is an innovative romance with a few shockers to those expecting a classic romance that adheres to prescribed genre conventions but will appeal to those wanting something unusual in their romance reads. Tara Taylor Quinn creates an emotional read that follows a marriage from the first moment a couple meets through til the end. In 1968 at the tender age of 19 years old, Eliza Crowley is two weeks away from becoming a postulant at St. Catherine's Convent when she enters a San Francisco bar to have a beer and ease her tension. She meets a much older man, Nate Grady. With little more than a conversation and a letter, Eliza agrees to marry Nate. In the beginning of their life together, Nate is the perfect man who touches her heart in all the right ways and creates a safe world. Then the unthinkable happens. Eliza no longer feels safe. Can their marriage survive loss, uncovered secrets and betrayal? Stylistically, the author prefaces the stages of Eliza's life and marriage with descriptions of the arts (mostly music) and news of the year. Often these prefaces reflect the themes of safety and hope as well as moments that threaten one's sense of safety. The author develops this theme as it plays out in Eliza's heart and life. Eliza is an intriguing heroine who chooses to be led by her heart. She is bad girl in the eyes of her church and family because she left her religious calling to marry a man --- a man who had been previously divorced. Since she is Catholic, creating a family with this man means not being able to take communion, one of the key sacraments, which cuts her off from her religious community. Eliza and and Nate's romance is not the typical we expect but rather a story of two flawed people who make bad choices andstruggle to keep love and marriage together. Some readers expecting a typical romance may not warm to the hero and heroine because of the betrayal. Eliza does the unthinkable and unforgivable in terms of romance genre conventions when she is betrayed. Although THE NIGHT WE MET includes a few genre shockers, Tara Taylor Quinn, however, prepares the reader through her characterization of Eliza. Eliza understands a calling from God as emerging from the heart and she looks to her heart for steadfastness and choices. Her heart is not a wavering bundle of emotions but a principle that guides her. Some readers may not enjoy this book if they want to read a romance that adheres to rigid genre conventions but others may welcome an innovative romance guided by the heart and true to the character. Whether or not I would make the same choices that Eliza does seems irrelevant to me when the author so clearly shows the reader Eliza's character --- and why she makes her choices as well as how those choices make her heart grow beyond needing absolute safety. Tara Taylor Quinn provides perhaps the best ending to a marriage romance but one that will provoke tears in many readers. Once Eliza chooses to marry instead of join t

interesting relationship drama

In 1968 San Francisco Nineteen years old Eliza Crowley plans to enter St. Catherine's Convent where in six months if God is willing she will become a novice. Eliza stops at a pub across the street from the convent where she meets much older Nathaniel Grady. She is stunned by her attraction to the twice divorced ski resort manager because no man has ever hooked her before. Still she knows she is no longer suited for a convent life as her heart belongs to Nathaniel. He feels the same way about her though he feels he is robbing the cradle. They marry. Over the years they remain married and raise children who give them grandchildren. Their relationship remains strong through their time together has dented some of the luster. Still Nate and Eliza are an entry although the ardor has cooled over the years somewhat. THE NIGHT WE MET is the first event of many years together for Eliza and Nate. However, Eliza is the only fully developed character as each escapade unfolds it is from her point of view. Thus the audience sees Nate and their offspring through her filter. In some ways more of a series of vignettes than a saga, this is an interesting relationship drama of a couple through the decades. Harriet Klausner

A unique love story

THE NIGHT WE MET by Tara Taylor Quinn April 9, 2007 Rating **** (4 Stars) THE NIGHT WE MET is the story of a couple, Nate Grady and Eliza Crowley, and the love they shared from the day they met. At the time, she was studying to enter the convent at the age of 19, and he was already twice divorced and in his 30's. They could have been an ill-fated couple, but because of chances and circumstances, the two meet in a bar, a very unlikely place, and eventually marry. What makes this book special is that this is the fictionalized story of Tara Taylor Quinn's parents. Like her own parents, Eliza was disowned by her family because she chose to forsake her vows to enter a life with God, to marry a man that had been married and divorced twice. This caused great unhappiness with her parents, and for quite some time, her family would not have anything to do with her. But Eliza's heart told her to follow this path. For some reason, she could not walk away from Nate, a man she had just met in a bar. But after talking to him all night, she felt a connection to him and she fell in love. Readers will enjoy the unusual love story that is told in THE NIGHT WE MET. They will share Eliza and Nate's triumphs and heartaches as they experience the birth and death of their children, infidelities, and other events that will threaten to tear their marriage apart. Eliza often wonders what would have happened if she had chosen not to follow through with Nate's wish to see her again all those years ago. But she also knows deep in her heart that she had made the right decision, that she was able to give her life to God in a different capacity, as a married woman, a wife and mother. What this reviewer is finding with these EVERLASTING LOVE books is that often the stories themselves are anticlimactic. But once the reader has come to that last page, that reader will often feel a satisfaction from reading a great love story that spanned decades. In THE NIGHT WE MET, there are plenty of bumps in the road. The EVERLASTING LOVE books are not traditional romances and often times they end with a death. As with nearly all the books this reviewer has read in this series, this one will have the reader grabbing for the tissue box. THE NIGHT WE MET is recommended. - Courtesy of Love Romances and More.