The Ground She Walks upon [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Meagan McKinney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1994

Destined to marry the woman chosen for him by a magical cross, British Lord Trevallyan challenges fate by marrying another, only to have his life torn apart by tragedy, until he meets the beautiful Ravenna. 30,000 first printing. $40,000 ad/promo.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rendering the fanciful plausible through strong characterization, McKinney ( When Angels Fall ) spins a romance set in Ireland in the middle and late 1800s. According to a Celtic legend, arrogant Lord Niall Trevallyan is destined to marry the woman whose identity is signaled by a magical cross. When the ancient amulet is interpreted, the intended bride seems to be an illegitimate baby, Ravenna. Trevallyan flaunts his scorn for the ancient plan, marrying several times but never finding the love and family he craves. When Ravenna matures, polished but headstrong, he feels stirrings of passion. Obstacles galore arise before the requisite romantic ending, including uprising by locals, pursuit of Ravenna by aristocratic rakes, accidents and a famine caused by the failure to honor the fated betrothal. Trevellyan is a fine if derivative hero, stern and powerful, sometimes even cruel, always amorous. Ravenna conventionally spars with and beds him, but McKinney adds another dimension to her portrayal by giving her literary aspirations: Ravenna writes and publishes a novel, with homage to Mary Wollstonecraft. While this novel is surely not for Wollstonecraft devotees, it is more than competently rendered, distinguished by its colorful setting, gothic sensibility and the interaction between its appealing protagonists.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

For hundreds of years, the Lords Trevellyan have ensured the prosperity of County Lir by following the dictates of an Irish curse placed upon their English ancestors when they were given Irish land. In 1828, a magical Celtic cross reveals the identity of his bride to Niall Trevellyn on the eve of his 20th birthday; she is an illegitimate orphan named Ravenna. Proclaiming himself a modern thinker, Trevellyan flaunts the curse and marries another, thus beginning a cycle of misfortune for himself. The emotions between Trevellyan and Ravenna are riveting: he alternates between fascination, contempt, and petulance while she is conflicted by her independence, loneliness, and parentage. The good plot could have fared even better had McKinney spent fewer pages on Ravenna's own writings and more on the action and dialog of secondary characters (rather than narrative) to support the psychological motivations of her main characters. Recommended for public libraries.
- Kimberly Martin, Washington Univ. Law Lib., St. Louis
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 599 pages
• Publisher: G K Hall & Co (July 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816174423
• ISBN-13: 978-0816174423
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,622,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars geisphobia, December 21, 2002

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Feles31 (Honolulu, HI United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Ground She Walks Upon (Hardcover)

While Lord Trevallyan's reason for not wanting to have a relationship with Ravenna --- he's resisting fate --- is plausible, it gets a zero for dramatic effect. Trevallyan is also in constant battle with his hangup about their age difference (rightfully so) which just made him seem insecure. In turn, Ravenna hates Trevallyan for sending her off to an English school where she was shunned and ridiculed. Again, plausible, but boring. Ravenna's story within the story I simply found distracting from the real story and not particularly interesting.

Having no great obstacle but stubbornness and resentment, the story just dragged on and on. Still, no matter how thin the plot, if told well, any story can be great. Unfortunately, this story just did not catch my imagination.

And last but not least --- I know it's essential to the plot, but if I had to read the word "geis" one more time . . .

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Melodrama Galore, February 10, 2002

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Passionate (Miramar, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ground She Walks Upon (Mass Market Paperback)

Nobleman Niall Trevallyan is summoned in the middle of a stormy night and told by the county council that he has a geis (pronounced "GAYSH"); if he does not follow it, tragedy will ensue. Not only is Niall eminently sceptical of all Irish lore and superstition, his intended bride is also a baby barely a few days old.

He discards the whole idea and proceeds with his life. As you would expect, things do not turn out well, and Trevallyan becomes harder and lonelier as the years go by. Finally unable to stand the living reminder of the geis nonsense, he sends a young Ravenna to a London boarding school.

She returns to Lir a beautiful young woman, harboring resentment toward Niall for sending her away from everything she knew. She is articulate and strong, but isolated from everyone because of the circumstances of her birth.

As you can predict, Niall is strongly attracted to the older Ravenna. More than that, he becomes obsessed with keeping her his own. He seeks to keep her in his bed and in his castle, while Ravenna predictably rejects this presumptuous high-handedness. She wants nothing to do with Lord Trevallyan, who treats her like a servant and simply uses her body--unfortunately, he can pretty much do as he wishes, since she has no family to protect her. The more he bends her to his will, the more she loathes him.

More than just two lovers are at stake, though; the land and all its inhabitants will be affected by their relationship. But if ruin is to be avoided, the last and most important part of the geis must be fulfilled--Niall must get Ravenna to fall in love with him.

Add to this conflict Ravenna's search for her father, another story within the story, and the backdrop of Irish Home Rule unrest, and this is definitely a story worth reading. The first few chapters have a wonderful "midnight-on-Halloween" sort of feel to them. But be forewarned--melodrama fairly oozes out of this book, and logic is sometimes sacrificed to it. The emotional ups and downs are nonstop, right up until the end.

If you happen to be a drama queen (and I am a bit of one myself), you'll love this book. If you're not, you may want to check it out at your local library.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Went on for too long, December 13, 2001

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Oddzilla - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ground She Walks Upon (Mass Market Paperback)

At first it was really interesting, but I got bored in the middle because it went on for too long and seemed to have a fakey reason they couldn't get together (he wasn't about to let the geis control him.) So I skipped to the end, which of course wasn't any big surprise.