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Unexpected Inheritance
He was her first love -- now she hated him — When lawyers summoned her to St. Lucia to accept her inheritance, Alice Alexander was apprehensive. She and her mother had been disowned before Alice's birth, and Alice was bitter toward her unknown grandfather. — Now she had to spend three months on the island with Jared Duvall in order to fulfill the requirements of her grandfather's will Jared who had so cruelly rejected her fragile first love six years earlier.
Alice would have to decide. She could return to the life of poverty she'd left behind her -- or she could risk further heartbreak from Jared.
Alice would have to decide. She could return to the life of poverty she'd left behind her -- or she could risk further heartbreak from Jared.
- GenresHarlequin Romance
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 1988
2 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Mayo
352 books46 followersThere is more than one author with this name
For Children's writer see Margaret Mayo
Jessica R. Mayo was born on February 7, 1936 in Staffordshire, England, and has remained within the county all of her life. It was never her ambition to become a writer, although she always loved reading, even to the extent of reading comics out loud to her twin brother when she was eight years old. In fact her only writing experience was in letters to various pen pals around the world. She unfortunately lost touch with them now and often wonders whether any of them have ever discovered that her chatty letters were the forerunner to her writing career.
She left school to become a secretary, taking a break to have her two children, Adrian and Tina. Once they were at school she started back to work and planned to further her career by becoming a bi-lingual secretary. Unfortunately she couldn't speak any languages other than her native English, so she began evening classes. It was at this time that she got the idea for a romantic short story - to this day she doesn't know where the idea came from or why, but she thanks her lucky stars because it kick-started her career. Margaret, and her mother before her, had always read Mills & Boon romances, and to actually be writing one excited her beyond measure.
'My life began at forty' is another one of her favourite sayings - because that is when her first book was published - two and a half years after she first set pen to paper (that first book was written long before she felt confident enough to send it off).Having those books accepted was the happiest and most exciting day of her life. She waltzed her husband around the room and their two children thought they'd gone mad, until they were told the good news.
Her first two submitted novels were accepted simultaneously, and now she has over sixty-five to her credit. When she looks at them lined up on her bookshelf she wonders how she has managed to write all those millions of words. She is a hopeless romantic who loves writing. She falls in love with every one of her heroes and likes to boast about how many 'love affairs' she's had.
Margaret gets so immersed in her writing that one day - before she made writing her full-time career and did most of her writing at the office (!!) - her daughter phoned to ask whether she could come and meet her out of work. Margaret told her not to be silly because it was foggy. Her daughter said 'But it's sunny here.' And when Margaret looked out of the window the sun was shining. Her hero and heroine were lost out in a sea of fog!
Before she became a successful author Margaret was extremely shy and found it difficult to talk to strangers. For research purposes she forced herself to speak to people from all walks of life and now says her shyness has gone forever - to a certain degree. She is still happier pouring her thoughts out on paper.
Copied from Fantastic Fiction
For Children's writer see Margaret Mayo
Jessica R. Mayo was born on February 7, 1936 in Staffordshire, England, and has remained within the county all of her life. It was never her ambition to become a writer, although she always loved reading, even to the extent of reading comics out loud to her twin brother when she was eight years old. In fact her only writing experience was in letters to various pen pals around the world. She unfortunately lost touch with them now and often wonders whether any of them have ever discovered that her chatty letters were the forerunner to her writing career.
She left school to become a secretary, taking a break to have her two children, Adrian and Tina. Once they were at school she started back to work and planned to further her career by becoming a bi-lingual secretary. Unfortunately she couldn't speak any languages other than her native English, so she began evening classes. It was at this time that she got the idea for a romantic short story - to this day she doesn't know where the idea came from or why, but she thanks her lucky stars because it kick-started her career. Margaret, and her mother before her, had always read Mills & Boon romances, and to actually be writing one excited her beyond measure.
'My life began at forty' is another one of her favourite sayings - because that is when her first book was published - two and a half years after she first set pen to paper (that first book was written long before she felt confident enough to send it off).Having those books accepted was the happiest and most exciting day of her life. She waltzed her husband around the room and their two children thought they'd gone mad, until they were told the good news.
Her first two submitted novels were accepted simultaneously, and now she has over sixty-five to her credit. When she looks at them lined up on her bookshelf she wonders how she has managed to write all those millions of words. She is a hopeless romantic who loves writing. She falls in love with every one of her heroes and likes to boast about how many 'love affairs' she's had.
Margaret gets so immersed in her writing that one day - before she made writing her full-time career and did most of her writing at the office (!!) - her daughter phoned to ask whether she could come and meet her out of work. Margaret told her not to be silly because it was foggy. Her daughter said 'But it's sunny here.' And when Margaret looked out of the window the sun was shining. Her hero and heroine were lost out in a sea of fog!
Before she became a successful author Margaret was extremely shy and found it difficult to talk to strangers. For research purposes she forced herself to speak to people from all walks of life and now says her shyness has gone forever - to a certain degree. She is still happier pouring her thoughts out on paper.
Copied from Fantastic Fiction
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 18, 2019
Cast of Characters: Ninny hairdresser heroine. Judgmental hero, a former cop who now is rich from hotels or something. “Crippled” son. Obnoxious OM.
Location: Caribbean Island.
Backstory: Heroine’s mother got dumped by her bf and then found out she was pregnant at 17. Her wealthy father disowned her and moved to a Caribbean Island. His daughter and granddaughter lived in poverty on England while he lived in a grand manor.
Wealthy father lost all of his money and hero bailed him out, buying the grand manor and allowing him to live there until his death. After losing everything, the father regretted his estrangement and sent hero to England to convince his bitter daughter to have a reconciliation. Hero makes no headway with the mother, but the thirty-something hero (who is married with a “crippled” son) takes the 16 year-old heroine out to eat and to movies and spends a lot of time with her, leading up to a seductive kiss. He is shocked and harsh with the heroine when she declares her love.
Daughter dies. Father dies. Heroine gets a letter informing her of an inheritance from her grandfather but she has to go to the Caribbean island to claim it. She is afraid to travel, so her neighbor (OM) offers to go with her.
The plot:
OM thinks the heroine is going to inherit the estate so he starts putting the moves on her and that makes the hero jealous. Hero is now a widower. He judges the heroine harshly for not forgiving Grampy for kicking her mother out and not contacting her for ten years. Heroine is bitter about Grampy - and the hero for leading her on when she was sixteen.
After on too many OM handsy kisses, the Hero kicks the OM out of the manor. He also informs the heroine that she must stay for three months, but there probably isn’t much for her to inherit.
Heroine tries to get the OM to go home, but he’s got a sidepiece in town and he still thinks heroine is going to be rich. It’s all so stupid.
The author tries to soften the hero by giving him a charming “crippled son” who is away at boarding school until he’s needed for plot machinations.
Specifically, the OM threatening the boy’s life if the heroine won’t marry him. And then the boy is actually kidnapped for the black moment.
I’ll spare you breathless worry. Turns out it wasn’t the OM, it was an ex-convict the hero had put behind bars years ago. (Nice, non-existent foreshadowing there, author.)
The hero blurted out he loved the heroine before he confronted the kidnappers with his “martial art skills” and the falling action after the rescue is the H/h declaring their love.
The epilogue sees the H/h married for six weeks with heroine pregnant, reading two letters. One from the OM apologizing for being a golddigger. And one from the grandfather explaining her inheritance was three months spent in the company of the hero. He had hoped they would fall in love.
*hurl*
The heroine might have forgiven the grandfather, but I didn’t. He never tried to make up with his daughter until he was broke - so it was all about what they could do for him (make him feel less guilty) and not what he could do for them. The hero was not an honorable man – he was married and carrying on with a 16 year-old. The OM was ridiculous and we saw entirely too much of him.
The dialogue was wooden, the prose clunky, the heroine’s inner thoughts boring and repetitious.
Give this one a miss, my friends.
Location: Caribbean Island.
Backstory: Heroine’s mother got dumped by her bf and then found out she was pregnant at 17. Her wealthy father disowned her and moved to a Caribbean Island. His daughter and granddaughter lived in poverty on England while he lived in a grand manor.
Wealthy father lost all of his money and hero bailed him out, buying the grand manor and allowing him to live there until his death. After losing everything, the father regretted his estrangement and sent hero to England to convince his bitter daughter to have a reconciliation. Hero makes no headway with the mother, but the thirty-something hero (who is married with a “crippled” son) takes the 16 year-old heroine out to eat and to movies and spends a lot of time with her, leading up to a seductive kiss. He is shocked and harsh with the heroine when she declares her love.
Daughter dies. Father dies. Heroine gets a letter informing her of an inheritance from her grandfather but she has to go to the Caribbean island to claim it. She is afraid to travel, so her neighbor (OM) offers to go with her.
The plot:
OM thinks the heroine is going to inherit the estate so he starts putting the moves on her and that makes the hero jealous. Hero is now a widower. He judges the heroine harshly for not forgiving Grampy for kicking her mother out and not contacting her for ten years. Heroine is bitter about Grampy - and the hero for leading her on when she was sixteen.
After on too many OM handsy kisses, the Hero kicks the OM out of the manor. He also informs the heroine that she must stay for three months, but there probably isn’t much for her to inherit.
Heroine tries to get the OM to go home, but he’s got a sidepiece in town and he still thinks heroine is going to be rich. It’s all so stupid.
The author tries to soften the hero by giving him a charming “crippled son” who is away at boarding school until he’s needed for plot machinations.
Specifically, the OM threatening the boy’s life if the heroine won’t marry him. And then the boy is actually kidnapped for the black moment.
I’ll spare you breathless worry. Turns out it wasn’t the OM, it was an ex-convict the hero had put behind bars years ago. (Nice, non-existent foreshadowing there, author.)
The hero blurted out he loved the heroine before he confronted the kidnappers with his “martial art skills” and the falling action after the rescue is the H/h declaring their love.
The epilogue sees the H/h married for six weeks with heroine pregnant, reading two letters. One from the OM apologizing for being a golddigger. And one from the grandfather explaining her inheritance was three months spent in the company of the hero. He had hoped they would fall in love.
*hurl*
The heroine might have forgiven the grandfather, but I didn’t. He never tried to make up with his daughter until he was broke - so it was all about what they could do for him (make him feel less guilty) and not what he could do for them. The hero was not an honorable man – he was married and carrying on with a 16 year-old. The OM was ridiculous and we saw entirely too much of him.
The dialogue was wooden, the prose clunky, the heroine’s inner thoughts boring and repetitious.
Give this one a miss, my friends.
abrierto-to-read-hr-other
July 1, 2022He was her first love -- now she hated him — When lawyers summoned her to St. Lucia to accept her inheritance, Alice Alexander was apprehensive. She and her mother had been disowned before Alice's birth, and Alice was bitter toward her unknown grandfather. — Now she had to spend three months on the island with Jared Duvall in order to fulfill the requirements of her grandfather's will Jared who had so cruelly rejected her fragile first love six years earlier.
Alice would have to decide. She could return to the life of poverty she'd left behind her -- or she could risk further heartbreak from Jared.
Alice would have to decide. She could return to the life of poverty she'd left behind her -- or she could risk further heartbreak from Jared.
October 12, 2015
8/10. Good story. Alice must spend 3 months on an island to fulfil requirements of her grandfathers will. Enjoyed the storyline. She had the romance story with Jared but also had Tony hanging around which added decent conflict. The only thing is if there was a threat on 5yo Luke then why wouldn't Jared have him under constant surveillance? Instead it was on Tony. At the beginning of the book Alice says Tony and his parents are neighbours who she knows well. Then why didn't she phone Tonys parents when he started going psycho. They may have helped sort him out. Some might question why Jared defended Daniel over his disowning his daughter. He may have mellowed in his old age and Jared knew a different man to the tough heartless scrupled man he once was which is the only man Alice has heard about from her mother. Overall I enjoyed this one.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews