The Trevarton Inheritance - Hardcover

Prolific and reliable, Macdonald (Kernow & Son) again offers sound commercial fiction that combines history and romance. Only 16 years old but precociously mature, Crissy Moore is the author's strongest female protagonist yet. Crissy is determined to keep her five siblings together after the mesalliance of her upper-class mother and brutish coachman father ends in their deaths within a day of each other. Searching out her mother's family, the Trevartons, at Fenton Lodge in Falmouth, she finds a kindly grandfather and a cold, vindictive grandmother who does everything in her power to keep the Moores apart. Yet Mrs. Trevarton hires Crissy as her "lady's maid" and brings her close, at least in physical proximity, to the rest of the family, which includes an assortment of good and wicked characters. Meanwhile, Crissy's siblings are all in peril: her baby sister is sold for adoption, her elder sister is in a reformatory, her brothers are in an orphanage and a farm school?and her own recourse as a female in late 1800s Cornwall seems non-existent. Ingenuity, faith and love begin to triumph with the help of several minor characters and her brilliant beau, Jim Collett. But then Crissy's burning ambition to bring her family together threatens to stand in the way of her future as a wife. Macdonald always maintains a brisk narrative pace, and his sound social commentary adds to the reader's enjoyment.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Crissy Moore, the spunky heroine of Macdonald's latest historical romance (e.g., For I Have Sinned, St. Martin's, 1995), loses both parents and her grandfather within a few days. Determined to keep her orphaned family of six together, she puts herself at the mercy of the grandmother who years ago disowned Crissy's mother. The old woman offers Crissy the position of lady's maid while secretly arranging to break up the family by having all the other children placed in agencies throughout Cornwall. A secondary plot concerns the attempt of Crissy and Jim, the young man she eventually marries, to establish a business photographing tourists at the seaside. Macdonald is on familiar ground in his native Cornwall, and his novel is peppered with accurate details of the country in the 1880s. Additionally, his depiction of the burgeoning photography business is fascinating. The portrait of Crissy as a woman obsessed with maintaining her family is a strong one. Fans of the author's previous novels are sure to enjoy his latest offering as well.?Andrea Caron Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, Kan.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.