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Trevallion
Anna and Rick had become engaged for "mutual protection", not intending to marry. Then, in his beautiful Cornish home, she learned to love him... but would he ever be free of Alix, his cousin and first love, who, with his family's approval, had every intention of recapturing him?
- GenresHarlequin Romance
Paperback
First published January 1, 1957
1 person is currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Sara Seale
71 books21 followersSara Seale was the pseudonym used by Mary Jane MacPherson (d. 11 March 1974) and/or A.D.L. MacPherson (d. 30 October 1978), a British writing team who published over 45 romance novels from 1932 to 1971. Seale was one of the first Mills & Boon's authors published in Germany and the Netherlands, and reached the pinnacle of her career in the 1940s and 1950s, when they earning over £3,000/year. Many of Seale's novels revisited a theme of an orphaned heroine who finds happiness, and also employed blind or disfigured (but still handsome) heroes as standard characters.
Mary Jane MacPherson began writing at an early age while still in her convent school. Besides being a writer, MacPherson was also a leading authority on Alsatian dogs, and was a judge at Crufts.
Mary Jane MacPherson began writing at an early age while still in her convent school. Besides being a writer, MacPherson was also a leading authority on Alsatian dogs, and was a judge at Crufts.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 6 reviews
September 28, 2024
The book blurb, short as it is, is indeed accurate. This is a fake engagement story set in my most favorite part of England, so of course it was the first book I chose from my latest thrift store treasure hunt. This sounded like 1000% my catnip!
Upon first opening the tattered cover, and upon registering this on Goodreads, I was rather impressed that I was holding at least the third edition of this book. It must've been very popular when it was first released to earn so many print runs, so my hopes were already raised. The opening scene from the hero's POV? They got even higher.
Rick Peveril is brooding away at a London convalescent home. He's both ready to get back to his life, and dreading it. His cousin Alix's husband recently died, so they all expect him to return to Cornwall and marry her. That had been the plan all their lives; practically from childhood, it was just anticipated that they would marry and take on the run of Trevallion, the family estate. Only, Alix dumped Rick in a huff one day and ran off with another man. Rick washed his hands of her then, and has no intention of taking her back, no matter what his family says. But it would be much easier if he returned home with a new fiancée on his arm.
He spots a young girl running out into the courtyard in tears. He recognizes her as a regular visitor to another patient, a young military officer recovering from an injury. He's surprised to see her crying as she looks up into the sky and watches the planes go by.
He approaches her and learns her sad tale: she arrived at the home that morning to find a Dear John letter from her man, ending their hasty engagement. Unfortunately, she's already planned her life around being able to escape her terrible current situation, and has gone as far as to quit her job and give notice to her boardinghouse. She's an orphan, and incredibly poor, and too proud to slink back to her job or ask for an extension on her room. Now what's she going to do?
Even though Rick perceives her as a child (and learns during the course of their conversation that she is, indeed, only 19), he also sees her as the means to his end. She is unlike anyone else in his life and will do nicely as his means of sabotaging his family's expectations of him. Given her circumstances, she seems likely to agree to his deal, so he asks her.
Anna Crewe is taken aback at his offer. She doesn't know him at all, and he's much older than her (36, he confirms). On the other hand, she has nothing to go back to in London. Homeless, jobless, without family, what does she have to lose? He offers to bring her to his estate in Cornwall for the summer, where she can rest, lick her wounds, and plan her next move. After some thoughtful consideration, she agrees to accompany him home.
They arrive in Cornwall a few days later, and Rick basically dumps her at Trevallion with his sister and his grandmother, and returns to his daily grind at the nearby mine. Neither woman is welcoming to Anna, whom they perceive as an interloper; they even tell her that they believe she won't last very long as Rick's fiancée, because guess who is also lurking about? Alix!
Rick is furious that his grandmother let out a cottage on the estate to Alix without telling him. She's there for the summer, and she makes it quite clear that she is still very much in the hunt for him. His domineering grandmother, old Mrs Peveril, sees in Alix someone who can rise into her place as lady of the house; his sister, Ruth, absolutely worships the ground she walks on. Anna begins having second thoughts about the whole thing.
We haven't had a scene from Rick's POV since the first one, and we continue with Anna as she struggles with life at Trevallion. Rick is of absolutely no help; he spends long days at the mine and doesn't return until dinner usually. Ruth is sullen all the time, Mrs Peveril spends her days holding court from her bedroom, and Alix taunts Anna. Even the Peveril poor relation, Birdie, shies away from Anna; he keeps to his garden and his piggeries and fades into the background during the family meals.
Ruth eventually starts to open up the tiniest bit to Anna, especially when the latter realizes that Ruth is head over heels for the local veterinarian, David Evans. He comes out to the house rather often to check on the animals. The Peveril family doesn't approve of him because he is Welsh and new to the village, and Ruth has been beaten down her entire life to the point where she has no spine whatsoever. She bends to the will of her grandmother and her cousin early and often, but Anna encourages her to keep seeing David if she wants to. Ruth still brushes her off most of the time.
Anna continues to have a hard time. She is not athletic like the other members of the family, so she can't join them when they swim in the sea off their bit of coast. Rick continues to be of no help whatsoever; he told her back in London that "anyone would do" for his predicament, so Anna doesn't believe Rick will keep his end of the bargain. She's waiting for the other shoe to drop - for him to realize that he still loves Alix and wants to be with her. God knows no one misses the chance to tell her that.
Anna does the best she can while she waits out the summer, and the inevitable. Somehow she manages to fall for her fake fiancé, though I'm not sure how or why. He's indifferent to her most of the time, mocks her when they do talk and calls her a child on more than one occasion. The family seems to take some grim joy in constantly tearing strips off each other, so its a pretty miserable place. Between him, Alix, and old Mrs Peveril, Anna is about ready to give up entirely.
But Ruth is determined to have her romance with David; Anna learns that her last boyfriend was run out of town by her grandmother, also for the crime of not being "good enough" for a Peveril. Anna encourages Ruth to stand up for herself: she's 30 years old and no one can tell her what to do. If she wants to get married and leave Trevallion, she should do it! Her grandmother can go kick rocks, and Rick doesn't care either way. So what's stopping her?
As Ruth starts to pull away, Alix begins to realize her power over her cousins is waning. Rick is still spending time with her (why??) but refuses to return to their past relationship, and she's near the end of her rope. She does some especially cruel things to Anna at the end, but gets her just desserts when old Mrs Peveril learns of the incident and drags Rick along with her to confront Alix.
We have our requisite happy ending, with Rick professing his love to Anna and Mrs Peveril directing her to call her Gran as the rest of the family does. Ruth is allowed to marry her vet, Alix is kicked out of the cottage, and they all live happily ever after.
Considering this novel was originally released in 1957, it's not a half-bad book; it's a bit more like proto-women's fiction than actual romance, considering how much time Rick spends off page, and how much time Anna is interacting with the other Peveril women. By today's standards, there are plenty of problematic elements. Anna is a pretty weak heroine. Rick is cold and aloof, when he's around.
I didn't love it, but I don't hate it, either. It's firmly in the "meh" category for me, probably because of my love for Cornwall. I'll keep it, but I won't exactly be rushing out for the rest of this author's backlist.
Find more reviews at The Vintage Romance Reader
Upon first opening the tattered cover, and upon registering this on Goodreads, I was rather impressed that I was holding at least the third edition of this book. It must've been very popular when it was first released to earn so many print runs, so my hopes were already raised. The opening scene from the hero's POV? They got even higher.
Rick Peveril is brooding away at a London convalescent home. He's both ready to get back to his life, and dreading it. His cousin Alix's husband recently died, so they all expect him to return to Cornwall and marry her. That had been the plan all their lives; practically from childhood, it was just anticipated that they would marry and take on the run of Trevallion, the family estate. Only, Alix dumped Rick in a huff one day and ran off with another man. Rick washed his hands of her then, and has no intention of taking her back, no matter what his family says. But it would be much easier if he returned home with a new fiancée on his arm.
He spots a young girl running out into the courtyard in tears. He recognizes her as a regular visitor to another patient, a young military officer recovering from an injury. He's surprised to see her crying as she looks up into the sky and watches the planes go by.
He approaches her and learns her sad tale: she arrived at the home that morning to find a Dear John letter from her man, ending their hasty engagement. Unfortunately, she's already planned her life around being able to escape her terrible current situation, and has gone as far as to quit her job and give notice to her boardinghouse. She's an orphan, and incredibly poor, and too proud to slink back to her job or ask for an extension on her room. Now what's she going to do?
Even though Rick perceives her as a child (and learns during the course of their conversation that she is, indeed, only 19), he also sees her as the means to his end. She is unlike anyone else in his life and will do nicely as his means of sabotaging his family's expectations of him. Given her circumstances, she seems likely to agree to his deal, so he asks her.
Anna Crewe is taken aback at his offer. She doesn't know him at all, and he's much older than her (36, he confirms). On the other hand, she has nothing to go back to in London. Homeless, jobless, without family, what does she have to lose? He offers to bring her to his estate in Cornwall for the summer, where she can rest, lick her wounds, and plan her next move. After some thoughtful consideration, she agrees to accompany him home.
They arrive in Cornwall a few days later, and Rick basically dumps her at Trevallion with his sister and his grandmother, and returns to his daily grind at the nearby mine. Neither woman is welcoming to Anna, whom they perceive as an interloper; they even tell her that they believe she won't last very long as Rick's fiancée, because guess who is also lurking about? Alix!
Rick is furious that his grandmother let out a cottage on the estate to Alix without telling him. She's there for the summer, and she makes it quite clear that she is still very much in the hunt for him. His domineering grandmother, old Mrs Peveril, sees in Alix someone who can rise into her place as lady of the house; his sister, Ruth, absolutely worships the ground she walks on. Anna begins having second thoughts about the whole thing.
We haven't had a scene from Rick's POV since the first one, and we continue with Anna as she struggles with life at Trevallion. Rick is of absolutely no help; he spends long days at the mine and doesn't return until dinner usually. Ruth is sullen all the time, Mrs Peveril spends her days holding court from her bedroom, and Alix taunts Anna. Even the Peveril poor relation, Birdie, shies away from Anna; he keeps to his garden and his piggeries and fades into the background during the family meals.
Ruth eventually starts to open up the tiniest bit to Anna, especially when the latter realizes that Ruth is head over heels for the local veterinarian, David Evans. He comes out to the house rather often to check on the animals. The Peveril family doesn't approve of him because he is Welsh and new to the village, and Ruth has been beaten down her entire life to the point where she has no spine whatsoever. She bends to the will of her grandmother and her cousin early and often, but Anna encourages her to keep seeing David if she wants to. Ruth still brushes her off most of the time.
Anna continues to have a hard time. She is not athletic like the other members of the family, so she can't join them when they swim in the sea off their bit of coast. Rick continues to be of no help whatsoever; he told her back in London that "anyone would do" for his predicament, so Anna doesn't believe Rick will keep his end of the bargain. She's waiting for the other shoe to drop - for him to realize that he still loves Alix and wants to be with her. God knows no one misses the chance to tell her that.
Anna does the best she can while she waits out the summer, and the inevitable. Somehow she manages to fall for her fake fiancé, though I'm not sure how or why. He's indifferent to her most of the time, mocks her when they do talk and calls her a child on more than one occasion. The family seems to take some grim joy in constantly tearing strips off each other, so its a pretty miserable place. Between him, Alix, and old Mrs Peveril, Anna is about ready to give up entirely.
But Ruth is determined to have her romance with David; Anna learns that her last boyfriend was run out of town by her grandmother, also for the crime of not being "good enough" for a Peveril. Anna encourages Ruth to stand up for herself: she's 30 years old and no one can tell her what to do. If she wants to get married and leave Trevallion, she should do it! Her grandmother can go kick rocks, and Rick doesn't care either way. So what's stopping her?
As Ruth starts to pull away, Alix begins to realize her power over her cousins is waning. Rick is still spending time with her (why??) but refuses to return to their past relationship, and she's near the end of her rope. She does some especially cruel things to Anna at the end, but gets her just desserts when old Mrs Peveril learns of the incident and drags Rick along with her to confront Alix.
We have our requisite happy ending, with Rick professing his love to Anna and Mrs Peveril directing her to call her Gran as the rest of the family does. Ruth is allowed to marry her vet, Alix is kicked out of the cottage, and they all live happily ever after.
Considering this novel was originally released in 1957, it's not a half-bad book; it's a bit more like proto-women's fiction than actual romance, considering how much time Rick spends off page, and how much time Anna is interacting with the other Peveril women. By today's standards, there are plenty of problematic elements. Anna is a pretty weak heroine. Rick is cold and aloof, when he's around.
I didn't love it, but I don't hate it, either. It's firmly in the "meh" category for me, probably because of my love for Cornwall. I'll keep it, but I won't exactly be rushing out for the rest of this author's backlist.
Find more reviews at The Vintage Romance Reader
January 30, 2018
Love Sara Seale for old fashioned romance but am a bit annoyed about heroine running away all the time and the hero not communicating with anyone!
December 30, 2016
Heroine was gentle, kind, and sweet. Almost too much so.
June 12, 2012
nemu buku ini terlantar dibawah lemari bagian pojok, udah dekil, agak keriting dan hampir jadi sarang kecoa. hehehehe seremnya....
ceritanya tentang seorang gadis yang kehilangan arah karena habis diputusin pacarnya, ketemua ma seorang pria yang juga lagi patah hati dan bingung bagaimana caranya pulang kampung tanpa harus merasa malu n risih ketemu keluarga karena harus dikasihani....
jadilah mereka berkolaborasi untuk menjalin hubungan pura-pura, yang merupakan hubungan saling menguntungkan. dan dari sinilah jenis percintaan opera sabun, atau telenovela atau sinetron yang membosankan (tapi tetap menarik hatiku) dimulai.
alur ceritanya enak. terus ..... hhhmmmm apalagi ye....???
ya gitu deh, bingung mo ngasih review apaan... just enjoy the book... ;p
ceritanya tentang seorang gadis yang kehilangan arah karena habis diputusin pacarnya, ketemua ma seorang pria yang juga lagi patah hati dan bingung bagaimana caranya pulang kampung tanpa harus merasa malu n risih ketemu keluarga karena harus dikasihani....
jadilah mereka berkolaborasi untuk menjalin hubungan pura-pura, yang merupakan hubungan saling menguntungkan. dan dari sinilah jenis percintaan opera sabun, atau telenovela atau sinetron yang membosankan (tapi tetap menarik hatiku) dimulai.
alur ceritanya enak. terus ..... hhhmmmm apalagi ye....???
ya gitu deh, bingung mo ngasih review apaan... just enjoy the book... ;p
March 9, 2025
Anna and Rick had become engaged for "mutual protection", not intending to marry. Then, in his beautiful Cornish home, she learned to love him... but would he ever be free of Alix, his cousin and first love, who, with his family's approval, had every intention of recapturing him?
Displaying 1 - 5 of 6 reviews