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It's a while since I've read any Heyer and I confess I found this a bit slow when compared to some of the more recent Regency romances. (Bridgeton comes to mind.) But Heyer is what it is. When Sylvester Rayne, Duke of Salford, decides it's time to marry he picks out five potential young debs, with all the right qualities, and asks his mother to choose. She refuses, of course, so Sylvester decides to look over them once again, not believing for a minute that any young woman he picked would refuse him, money, title and all. He's in for a shock when he meets Phoebe Marlow who considers him arrogant and when she (mistakenly) thinks he's going to propose she runs away, knowing her mother would pressure her into the match regardless of her feelings. An accident on the road forces Phoebe and Sylvester to spend time in each other's company and she discovers he isn't the monster she thought him to be. Thus starts a chain of events which leads to the obvious conclusion but on the way there are misunderstandings semi-accidental kidnappings, a scurrilous book, and a rescue. Not my favourite Heyer, but by no means the worst.It's a while since I've read any Heyer and I confess I found this a bit slow when compared to some of the more recent Regency romances. (Bridgeton comes to mind.) But Heyer is what it is. When Sylvester Rayne, Duke of Salford, decides it's time to marry he picks out five potential young debs, with all the right qualities, and asks his mother to choose. She refuses, of course, so Sylvester decides to look over them once again, not believing for a minute that any young woman he picked would refuse him, money, title and all. He's in for a shock when he meets Phoebe Marlow who considers him arrogant and when she (mistakenly) thinks he's going to propose she runs away, knowing her mother would pressure her into the match regardless of her feelings. An accident on the road forces Phoebe and Sylvester to spend time in each other's company and she discovers he isn't the monster she thought him to be. Thus starts a chain of events which leads to the obvious conclusion but on the way there are misunderstandings semi-accidental kidnappings, a scurrilous book, and a rescue. Not my favourite Heyer, but by no means the worst.
Booklog 3/2021:
Jan. 17th, 2021 08:42 pm
Not much happens in this book but it happens (or not) in an interesting way. Venetia Lanyon has been stuck on the Yorkshire estate she was born on for all of her twenty-five years – firstly because her father was a grim recluse, secondly, her older brother who joined the army and after their father died, left Venetia in charge, and thirdly because her younger brother, Aubrey, is a brilliant scholar but crippled by a diseased hip and Venetia has, up to now, been standing in as a parent. When Aubrey has a riding accident he's rescued by their recently returned neighbour, Jasper Demerel, whose reputation as an out-and-out rake is well known. Against all odds Venetia and Demerel become good friends. He courts her and there is undeniable attraction even though all Venetia's friends warn her against him. An unexpected turn of events precipitated by her older brother sends Venetia on a trip to London where she learns a family secret that changes everything. Heyer is always interesting to read, but this is not one of my favourites, I spent a great deal of the early part of the book waiting for something to happen.
Eligible bachelor-about-town, Desford, takes pity on a young girl, Charity (known as Cherry). When she runs away from her aunt, who treats her like a Cinderella, he meets her on the road and agrees to take her to her skinflint grandfather in London, but when they get there Granddad is out of town. Taking care not to leave himself open to compromising Cherry he takes her to Henrietta, his childhood friend, for refuge while he goes in search of her grandfather, whom he eventually finds, but with no good outcome. In the meantime Cherry's father, long thought dead, reappears with no good intentions.
This is a fairly mundane story for a Heyer, and not one of my favourites. The story doesn't go quite where you expect it to go, but there's a good resolution, even though part of it comes without foreshadowing.
I generally like Heyer, but I confess I found this boring. The heroine of the piece, Miss Wychwood (Annis) is on her way to her home in Bath when she comes across a young couple whose gig has broken a wheel. On a whim Annis takes the young lady (Lucilla) into her carriage and discovers that she's running away because her parents are trying to pressure her into marrying a childhood friend. (To complicate matters the man she doesn't want to marry (Ninian) is the one who's helping her run away because he doesn't want to marry her either.) It gets complicated even more in a typically Heyer kind of way when Annis, a twenty nine year old spinster who considers herself on the shelf, meets Lucilla's grumpy guardian. You can probably guess the ending. But, oh, it seemed interminably slow. Not one of my favourite Heyers.
