A lightsome, brightsome comedy.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Nimble, light-hearted chronicle of high London society in the time of the Regency.” —The New Yorker
Georgette Heyer’s sparkling romances have charmed and delighted millions of readers. Her characters brilliantly illuminate one of the most exciting and fascinating eras of English history—when drawing rooms sparkled with well-dressed nobility and romantic intrigues ruled the day. Heyer’s heroines are smart and independent; her heroes are dashing noblemen who know how to handle a horse, fight a duel, or address a lady. And her sense of humor is legendary.
When the incomparable Miss Milbourne spurns the impetuous Lord Sherington’s marriage proposal (she laughs at him—laughs!) he vows to marry the next female he encounters, who happens to be the young, penniless Miss Hero Wantage, who has adored him all her life. Whisking her off to London, Sherry discovers there is no end to the scrapes his young, green bride can get into, and she discovers the excitement and glamorous social scene of the ton. Not until a deep misunderstanding erupts and Sherry almost loses his bride, does he plumb the depths of his own heart, and surprises himself with the love he finds there.
Dear Readers,
Occasionally I have a fancy to read Heyer and when I do I try to look for her more humorous books. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. I did not find this story as funny as some of my favorites like Federica or Sprig Muslin), but I am glad I stuck with it, because it certainly amused me quite a bit as the story unfolded. I also probably mentioned in the past that I still have and will always have some kind of trepidation talking about classics originally written in English and Heyer certainly counts as such for me. So the grade here is solely based on how much I enjoyed the story and the characters (or not). I am certainly not critiquing her writing.
The blurb describes the story very well. Lord Sherington a/k/a to his friends and very soon us as Sherry, proposes to Isabella, she refuses him and Sherry decides to marry the first female he meets on his way to London. And the first female ends up being young Hero, who was following Sherry around when they were kids. Now, she is almost seventeen, has no money, is about to be forced into governess school by the cousin who does not really want her in their house anymore, and is not really in good spirits at all.
Sherry feels bad for her and feels that marriage can help them both. Sherry is twenty four, but honestly I did not feel that their maturity level was very far from one another. I want to stress that he is not a bad man, he is planning to treat Hero very well in their presumably fake marriage and I would say he did, up to a certain point when his emotions about Hero started to change from friends to feeling something more for her.
And after being married early in the book our newly weds start to figure out married life and boy some very funny things come out of it and of course as the blurb tells you they will live happily ever after (not a spoiler that I hope).
Sherry introduced Hero to his three friends and a lot of hilarity ensued. Now these boys may not have been very educated as the conversation below may show, but I thought they ended up all being very decent to her and helped Hero several times during the course of the book and I thought Hero took to them too as good friends.
“Can’t make it out at all! You’re sure you’ve got that right, Sherry?’
‘Got what right?’
‘Hero,’ said Ferdy, frowning. ‘Look at it which way you like, it don’t make sense. For one thing, a hero ain’t a female, and for another it ain’t a name. At least,’ he added cautiously, ‘it ain’t one I’ve ever heard of. Ten to one you’ve made one of your muffs, Sherry!’
‘Oh no, I truly am called Hero!’ the lady assured him. ‘It’s out of Shakespeare.’
‘Oh, out of Shakespeare, is it?’ said Ferdy. ‘That accounts for my not having heard it before!’
‘You’re out of Shakespeare too,’ said Hero, helping herself liberally from a dish of green peas.
‘I am?’ Ferdy exclaimed, much struck.
‘Yes, in the Tempest, I think.’
‘Well, if that don’t beat all!’ Ferdy said, looking around at his friends. ‘She says I’m out of Shakespeare! Must tell my father that. Shouldn’t think he knows.”
I laughed several times and smiled a lot, which I much appreciated, and I liked most of the characters, but because the two main characters were so immature during the most of the book (and I don’t blame them , they were young), some of the things they did irritated me. I was thinking something like, oh maybe think before doing? Just occasionally so? Still fun.
Grade B
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Sirius
Sirius started reading books when she was four and reading and discussing books is still her favorite hobby. One of her very favorite gay romances is Tamara Allen’s Whistling in the Dark. In fact, she loves every book written by Tamara Allen. Amongst her other favorite romance writers are Ginn Hale, Nicole Kimberling, Josephine Myles, Taylor V. Donovan and many others. Sirius’ other favorite genres are scifi, mystery and Russian classics. Sirius also loves travelling, watching movies and long slow walks.
