Hilarious Escapades and a Lovable Hero!
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Source: Giveaway Win!
The Earl of Rule, at the age of thirty-five, has finally decided that it is time for him to marry. Surprising his family, friends, and the ton, Rule selects the youngest and plainest Winwood sister to be his bride. Horatia, at the tender age of seventeen, nobly sacrifices herself in marriage to Rule to save her family from financial ruin and give her sister, Lizzie, the opportunity to marry her true love. She enters her marriage to Rule full aware that they aren’t in love and promising “not to interfere” in his lordship’s affairs.
What begins as a marriage of convenience quickly turns into a delicious romp of madcap adventures! Marriage with Horatia keeps Rule quite busy with paying her extravagant shopping bills, saving Horry (as she is affectionately called) from gambling her jewels, and protecting his young wife from damaging her reputation. Horatia is ball of fire and is in desperate need of a firm hand, but her husband does his best to not “interfere.” Out to thwart the newlyweds marital “bliss” is a jealous mistress, a greedy heir-apparent, and a dastardly rake set on exacting revenge! Yet, through it all, the chances of happiness in this marriage seem to grow as both parties begin to secretly and unexpectedly develop tender regards for each other. 🙂
Oh my! How I loved the men in this novel! They stole the show! Our hero, Lord Rule, won my heart by becoming adorably enchanted with his troublesome and extravagant young wife. His loyalty, trust, and gentle attempts to woo her were so sweet and endearing to witness! Furthermore, Lord Rule’s comments and conversation kept making me bust out with laughter – he delivers countless rejoinders, dripping with sarcasm, and with the driest of wit! I loved his calm retorts, verbal sparring, and brilliant word-play!
In addition, I adored Horatia’s hapless, wastrel brother, Pelham and his simple-minded, but dependable, friend Pommeroy. They get completely wrapped in Horry’s scrapes and are extremely kind and supportive by offering her their services and assistance. I loved the comical succession of escapades and screwball schemes they took us through! Moreover, their verbal exchanges are highly amusing and quite farcical (especially since at least one of them is usually inebriated!)
I must admit though, that Horry is not high on my list of favorite characters. I found her admirable and endearing at first, but when she started behaving a little too much like Lydia Bennet, my approbation started to wane. I didn’t mind that she was an immature and flawed heroine, but I wish she displayed some more sense as she had at the beginning of the novel. But she does redeem herself in the end…
What a vastly entertaining Georgian Romance! As always, I delight in Heyer’s entertaining characters, uproariously funny plots, and clever repartee! I highly recommend!
** I thought it would be fun to post a Georgette Heyer review today in honor of her birthday! Glad I was able to stick to that plan!
In honor of Georgette Heyer’s Birthday, feel free to share your favorite Heyer novel with us!
I love Georgette Heyer! I have too many favourites though:
1) Frederica – this one is unusual I think as it focuses more on the hero’s feelings than the heroine’s. she is too busy being the backbone of her orphaned family
2) The Grand Sophy (which gave me the idea of giving my daughter the middle name Sophia, I didn’t tell hubby it was after a Georgette Heyer character!) – Sophy is fantastic
3) Friday’s Child which has just about the sweetest heroine,
4) Cotillion (sweetest hero, Freddie is a darling)
5) Arabella – delicious hero. Sigh!
6) The Unknown Ajax – kind of male version of Sophy
7) Reluctant Widow – bit of mystery in this one
8) the Nonesuch
These are my favourites of my favourites but I’d also recommend Cousin Kate, the Talisman Ring, These Old Shades, Devil’s Cub, Venetia, Regency Buck, Faro’s Daughter and the Toll Gate…..and any of the others set in this period, except for The Black Moth which I wasn’t keen on.
Thank you for the awesome list of faves Ceri!! I’m dying to read Frederica, Friday’s Child and especially The Grand Sophy – those two seem to be on everyone’s lists! Isn’t so wonderful that Georgette Heyer was so prolific?!?
I’m in the process of reading them, in publication order of course :-), and I am so in love with her stories. The banter and wit is just wonderful, I find myself laughing outloud quite often.
LOL! That’s smart, Danielle! Yes, these books cannot help but make you laugh, over and over!
good plan…nice to have a strategy..
I admit I haven’t yet read any GH but I’ll be sure to ask you (and Ceri) which one I should start with.
Isn’t today your birthday too?
I didn’t realise that it was your birthday, hope you had a good one!
The first one I read was April Lady. It’s not one of the best but still not bad. That one is similar to A Convenient Marriage but the hero not as likeable. I’d recommend any of the ones that I’ve named, particularly the first list. Most of Heyer’s books are stand alone but there are a few which are linked, for example Devil’s cub kind of follows These Old Shades, it’s about the son of characters from TOS. Also a character we meet in An Infamous Army first appears in Regency Buck, and there are also characters from Devil’s Cub in An Infamous Army. aside from these 4 books though, they are stand alone.
The heroines tend to be either very young, about 17/18 or ‘on the shelf’ at about 25-30. The heroes vary from early twenties to early 40s, some rich, all-knowing types, some dashing young men, some alpha males, soldiers etc, whatever takes your fancy! If you try one I hope you will enjoy it. Have you ever read Candice Hern? Her stuff is along the lines of GH, but in my opinion GH is better.
Thank you, Monica! So happy to share my birthday with such an awesome author! Yes, Ceri is definitely the person to go to for a recommendation! 😉 Hope you get to read one soon! WIth your sense of humor, I think you will just love it!
I love Georgette Heyer. Her novels are very witty, fun, cute, a bit sappy, laugh out loud hysterical for the most part. Sad thing is that after reading most of them I can’t recall which is my favorites. I had a list but lost it. “The Quiet Gentleman” was one I enjoyed. It seemed to take a little bit to get into it but the plot was very good. Ones I keep on hand are: Arabella, Frederica, The Convenient Marriage, The Grand Sophy, The Nonesuch, Cotillion, Lady of Quality, Regency buck and Sylvester. These are all in paperback form and usually the older copies. The first GH I read was “Sprig Muslin”. It was a very simple read and a library book but it got me hooked. I have read some of her historical fiction and mysteries as well. I wasn’t keen (is that even a word anymore?) on the historical ones and I don’t keep the mystery ones either but a couple of those were enjoyable just not as enjoyable for me personally. I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed GH. I thought it would be right up your alley. I think I am impressed with the witty dialogue & humor more than anything else. I loved your review.
I like “keen!” 🙂 I know what you mean, Suzan. It is hard to pick favorites when you are constantly adding more to the list! Out of the 5 I’ve read so far I think I like Devil’s Cub and Sylvester the most. 🙂 Yes the dialogue and humor just astounds me! So marvelous!