The Cornish Heiress

Heiress #2

by Roberta Gellis

Megaera's father sold her in marriage at fifteen to Edward Devoran. Edward's extravagance mortgaged her estates and induced him to join a band of smugglers. Meg paid the interest by selling her jewels and when they were gone-Edward was gone too, murdered by his partner Black Bart. Meg became the smuggler Red Meg, took Edward's place and Edward's profits and kept paying her mortgages.Philip St. Eyre wanted to fight Napoleon. Raised as a Frenchman and able to pass as French, he was the perfect spy and had a way to reach France through his father's old friend, the smuggler Pierre. Thus Philip met Red Meg and fell in love.Meg thought Philip was Pierre's by-blow, Philip thought Meg was a common smuggler. To both gently born lovers the match was impossible. Until Black Bart tried to murder Meg, and Philip had to take her to France where her handiness with a pistol saved his life and his mission and exposed all their secrets.Publisher The book was previously published elsewhere in 1981.

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Historical, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Regency, British Literature

420 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1981

About the author

Roberta Gellis has been one of the most successful writers of historical fiction of the last few decades, having published about 25 meticulously researched historical novels since 1964. She was married to her husband Charles for over 50 years and they lived together in Lafayette, Indiana with a lively Lakeland terrier called Taffy. She has one child called Mark.

Her page at the Internet Speculative Fiction DataBase

Reviews

[Misfit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gellis is at her "explainatory" worst in this one. More on the above statement later. This book, the second in Gellis' English Heiress trilogy continues the story of the St. Eyre family begun in The English Heiress as Roger's son Phillip (who speaks French like a native) is sent by the English government to ascertain the size and condition of Napoleon's Navy. Phillip plans to sneak into France aboard the ship belonging to Roger's long time friend Pierre who is a smuggler by trade. Whilst waiting his boat in Cornwall, Phillip meets up with smuggler "Red Meg" who is in reality Meg Devoran - well born heiress forced into smuggling to pay her drunkard father's debts. One thing leads to another and love blooms amidst spies, danger and the constant misunderstandings between the two - neither of the two realize the other is "well born" and thus have no hopes of marrying each other. **yawn**

Frankly, I found this one to be a serious bore of a book and only finished it by skimming quite a bit. Phillip's trip into France as a spy was a serious sleep inducer, as were the constant misunderstandings between the two over each other's misperceived social standings - it became quite mind numbing after a while as Gellis explained it over and over and over again. What with that and the antics of some of the most inadequate bad guys I've come across in a long time, all I can say is that I am now most grateful this book is over and I can move on to something else. Recommended for die-hard Gellis fans only.

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is about smuggling on the English south coast. The son of the first book, who is half-French, is sent to France during Napoleon's early years to see if Napoleon really intends to invade. He's aided by his father's old smuggler friend and the current English partner who is a widowed lady pretending to be servant-class so she can run the local smuggling gang. The hero and heroine fall in love while smuggling and sneaking in and out of France.

[Paschalis]

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[Frances · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was bored.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Small quibbles and a lot of bodies, but wonderful historic stuff. Really fun.

[NatalyaVqs · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first by Gellis and I loved her style, lots of historical insight, heavy emotional load, spunky heroine who is daring and adventurous, yet still vulnerably female. Lots of vivid secondary characters. The baddy plot was a bit silly and the highborn confusion overdone, but overall it's a delightful read, one of those that makes u wonder what will happen next when you are forced away from it. Reminded me of other fun adventure reads - outlander by gabaldon, pale moon rider and straight for the heart by canham.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved it. Roberta Gellis is my all time favorite historical romance author. I'm so happy to get this in kindle edition. I've read it more than once in print edition. Loved the whole series.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like this author, which was the only reason I didn't abandon the book a third of the way through. I liked Meg and Philip's relationship, but the rest was lacking.