
Lovely Ellen Kellaway knew very little about her past. Orphaned as a child and taken in by her arrogant mean-minded cousin as a "poor relation," she was grateful when the handsome young son of a wealthy family asked for her hand. But mysteriously, the marriage never took place.
Ellen was unexpectedly rescued from a bleak future by a summons from her newly discovered guardian, Jago Kellaway, Lord of the Far Island, off the wild coast of Cornwall.
There, on the special island of the Kellaways, Ellen was drawn deeper and deeper into the secrets of a past as alive and threatening as the present. There the enigmatic Jago Kellaway offered her the fabled Island Necklace worn by the mistress of Kellaway Castle. Was it a promise of happiness - or a dark symbol of death?
Original Publisher: Fawcett
Original Year of Publication: 1975
Page Count: 320
The
August 2025 #TBRChallenge is "Do the Hustle." My mind immediately went to
the song, which is not exactly conducive to my personal Mount TBR, LOL. So I decided to pick a book from the mountain that was released the same year as the song. I actually had a couple of choices, and settled fairly quickly on this one. Victoria Holt + Cornwall = 1000% my jam!
Ellen Kellaway is a twenty-year-old Poor Relation, and she has never been allowed to forget this fact. Her mother left her father when she was 3 years old, returning to the home of her mother (Ellen's grandmother), and tragically died a few years later. Grandmother wasn't too long for this mortal coil, either, and when she passed away, Ellen passed into the hands of her mother's distant cousin, Agatha. Agatha enjoys doing good works, and being seen doing good works, hence taking the poor orphan child into her home.
Ellen was a companion for Esmerelda, Agatha's only child. Esmerelda, like everyone else in Agatha's vicinity, is cowed by her mother's overbearing dominance. Ellen is the only one who is not intimidated by Agatha, and she grows up to be pretty resilient, considering she is expected to perform gratitude 24/7 to Agatha for the roof over her head, the clothes on her back, and the education she's given by being allowed to share in Esmerelda's lessons.
Agatha has Great Plans for Esmerelda, which basically culminate in wanting her to marry one of the sons of the great Carrington family. The son that is the girls' age, Philip, is introduced to them when they are tweens. Philip takes an immediate dislike to the milquetoast Esmerelda, but Ellen's fiery personality won't let him get the best of her. The three of them grow up together, and Agatha is carefully maneuvering her plans so that at Esmerelda's coming-out ball, it is expected that her engagement to Philip will be announced, thus linking their two families.
Ellen is not given a coming-out ball; in fact, she is given a big push out of the house towards a governess post with Agatha's friend and the equally odious Mrs Oman Lemming. Agatha is desperate for Ellen not to outshine her daughter (though Esmerelda herself wouldn't mind in the least). But it is much to
everyone's surprise when, on the night of the ball, Philip proposes to Ellen instead, insisting that he's loved her since they were children and no one would make him happier. Ellen is not in love with Philip, but she certainly can see that marriage to a dear friend would be a much better fate than being a governess for the notoriously awful Mrs Lemming.
So plans are made and are moving smoothly. Philip finds a house he'd like to rent so that when they are married, they have their own place. Ellen does not like the house - she gets a really awful gut feeling and can barely even step foot in the place. She's starting to second-guess her decision to marry so young, to someone equally young, especially knowing her mother's marriage was not happy.
Six days before the wedding, Philip is shot and killed. It is ruled a suicide, but Ellen fervently believes he was murdered.
Her life is now falling apart. Agatha crowing all the while that she knew the marriage would never actually happen; Philip's brother accuses Ellen of being the reason he killed himself; Ellen herself has a horrible fall over Dead Man's Leap (though she is caught on a bush instead of tumbling to her death); and it seems she has no choice but to go with Mrs Lemming after all. Only - she receives a mysterious note in the mail, claiming to be from her long-lost father's family, inviting her to "the far island" to meet her relatives. She immediately decides to do this, even though it means leaving poor Esmerelda and Philip's family behind, and walking into a great unknown.
Ellen has never been told anything about her family of origin, other than her father basically ran her mother off. She travels to Cornwall to await a boat ride to the island a few miles off the coast, and she immediately starts asking questions of the locals. She learns that Jago Kellaway, the head of her family and lord and master of the isle, is feared and respected. Nobody wants to talk about her late father OR her mother, but she is desperate for answers. She gets a nasty surprise when she meets Jago Kellaway for the first time - he is a man she met in London, who claimed to be a "connection" of the Carrington family, who followed her around and even cornered her in the creepy house. Jago explains their (distant) familial relationship and starts pressuring her to forget her past and move forward with her future, there on the island with him.
The island is lovely, and Ellen is able to settle there, but there are lots of mysteries poking at her from the gothic castle interior. What really happened to her mother? Did her father really not care for children? Why did he not seek her out until he was dying? Who is the mysterious "SK", whose journals Ellen finds in her room? And why are the only other female members of the family watching her so closely and jealously guarding their own relationships with people from the mainland?
This is a deliciously gothic story with a refreshingly bright heroine who knows what she's about. She is very resilient and has common sense, enough to know that Philip didn't
really commit suicide, and that Jago is not all he appears to be. She knows that he is pressuring her to marry him and stay on the island, but she's not going to give in until she learns the truth about her family - even, and especially, him.
The plot moves at a fairly steady clip throughout. Ellen not only has a powerful gut feeling about places, but she's also had a recurring dream of a certain room since she was a child, and she is more curious than even to discover if its a real place once she lands on the island and starts exploring her mother's history. I pretty much figured out all the links in the chain from the moment "SK" surfaces in the story, but it was still fun to go along for the ride with Ellen as she doggedly pursues her goal.
I was not much of a fan of Jago, unfortunately. He is somehow "only thirty" but grew up with Ellen's father (???) and he has a habit of being melodramatic all the time. He really pushes Ellen to marry him fairly quickly, and when the reasons why surface (she is the actual heiress to her father's estate, not him, which would make her incredibly wealthy and give her control of the island, which he has made known far and wide he considers his own personal kingdom), I liked him even less. Ellen deserved better than him.
Still, this was a good read. If you enjoy Holt's gothics you will gobble this one up.
⭐⭐⭐ 1/2