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By: Sasha Muradali, guest reviewer

Frederica is a stylish and witty Regency novel by Georgette Heyer.

The novel centers around a young girl named Frederica who brings her younger sister and the rest of their siblings to London. She is determined to secure a fabulous marriage for her astoundingly beautiful, cherub-faced sister named Charis.

If you are looking for a Jane Austen fix, and are not interested in reading any ‘remakes’ or pseudo-Austen novels, you want to read Frederica.

But be warned, like Austen, Heyer enlists the use of old English to convey the feel of her stories. So prepare yourself with the mindset of Regency dialogue.

Enlisting the help of her cousin, the Marquis of Alverstoke, Frederica embarks on a journey quite distant from the one she initially imagined.

Refreshing, lovely, smart and straight forward, Frederica more than makes a lasting impression on the dashing Marquis.

Quote from chapter 1:

But Alverstoke’s besetting sin was a tendency to become rapidly bored. It had vanquished his sisters; for although neither of them could suppose, reviewing the numerous dazzling barques of frailty who had lived under his protection, that he was impervious to feminine charms, neither was so muttonheaded as to indulge optimism very far when he seemed to be developing a tendre for some diamond of birth, beauty, and fortune, thrust under his nose by one or other of his sisters. He was perfectly capable of making the lady the object of his gallantry for a few weeks, and then of veering off at a tangent, forgetting her very existence.

Agreeing to launch Charis and Frederica into London’s high society, Lord Alverstoke who is normally cautious of his family, finds himself entertained and entranced.

Some of the best scenes in the novel are the interactions between Lord Alverstoke and his two overbearing sisters: two overbearing, shallow women whose sole purpose in life is to manipulate others, especially him, in order to get what they want.

The novel is humorous, light-hearted and smut-free.

It’s really that type of novel, ideally read, on a rainy afternoon with a cup of tea and a scone on the side.

While, Frederica is not Pride and Prejudice, it is a nice, comfortable way to get your Austen-fix.

This book is highly recommended.

Now go watch Lost in Austen and smile.

4.5 stars of 5.

Buy: Frederica

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This novel is definitely one of my overall favorites of Heyer’s so far. It’s easy to read and follow despite the language and research. I loved all the side characters and Rule most of all. The leads were very well matched for each other.

Lizzie Winwood, the Beauty, is engaged to the Earl of Rule, an older man whom she does not love. Edward Heron holds her heart, but Lizzie is too well bred to ignore the duty she owes her family to accept this great match. Her youngest sister, Horatia—Horry—Winwood, decides this situation will just not do. In a scandalously forward manner Horry approaches Rule and offers herself up in trade to her sister despite her disadvantages in looks and speech. She knows she’s not his first choice, but as Marcus obviously does not know Lizzie well enough to love her, he must agree any Winwood would do. Amused by the young girl, (he’s twice her age), Rule accepts her proposal and marries her right away.

Horry experiences wealth and freedom for the first time and goes a little wild. She learns to gamble, though she does fairly poorly, purchases things without any real thought to cost, and makes friends with unacceptable members of society. Horry comes off immature for the first half of the book because she is, but Rule keeps an eye on her in his usual casual and easy going manner and does not involve himself overmuch. He came to the marriage thinking he was in love with a widow. He did not marry the widow because he knew she could not, or perhaps, would not be faithful in the years to come and has determined Horry is and will be even if she is young and prone to fancy.

Rule’s amusement and fondness easily translate themselves to the reader. From his actions you can tell he’s falling for his young new wife. It’s harder to tell with Horry, as she spends a good portion of the book running around after Lord Lethbridge in pursuit of his friendship and the chance to pit her card skills against his. Lord Lethbridge is after revenge against Rule and uses Horry in an attempt to instigate it. Other characters seek to help him or eagerly wait in the wings watching for a chance to run to Rule with news of her scandalous ways. Luckily Rule, her brother and his friends come time and again to Horry’s rescue. A Convenient Marriage is an amusing romp through Regency England and sure to win your heart.

Rating: 4 Stars

Buy: The Convenient Marriage

Georgette Heyer wrote over fifty novels in her lifetime. Forty of them were full length romance novels or historical novels. Wow! This was all before computers! Now with new trade versions of her books coming out again, her name is cropping up everywhere: on blogs, on Twitter, in emails.

Vote for your favorites! Let new readers of Heyer know which ones they simply can not miss!

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How many have you read? Which ones are your favorites? Leave a comment below and share your opinion!

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The second Georgette Heyer novel that I read was a lot easier to get through. It helped that there was few if any references to my lord or my lady in the narrative. The diction used is as exacting and up there as Devil’s Cub. This novel was longer but I read it in less time devouring it with enthusiasm. I do have one question, when did the term Tom, Dick, and Harry first get used? Heyer used it in the novel and I thought it was a modern term not one that dated back to the Regency period.

In a single sentence Friday’s Child is a fantastic tale of a poor besotted girl and a rich spoiled Viscount. Lord Anthony Sherington, Sherry to his friends, is in a pickle. He has a few years left on his trust until he can access his money in full. Worse, both of the two uncles managing his estate are not doing so in his best interest; one is negligent and the other is pulling money aside to feather his cap. Sherry has gambling debts to pay and refuses to get another loan from loan sharks. His idea is to marry.

Of course Sherry goes after the Incomparable Beauty of the season, a girl from his past that he has known all his life who also happens to be an heiress. Sherry is just one of the men that float around the Incomparable, others vying for her affections include a Duke, a nasty man who disguises his true face underneath a mask of charm, and a volatile soul who also happens to be Sherry’s friend George. (George for his part loves Isabella, the Incomparable Beauty and tries his hardest to gain her affections throughout the book.)

When the Incomparable turns him down flat, Sherry in a fit of pique vows to marry the first girl he sees. That girl is the penniless Miss Hero Wantage. Hero has also known Sherry all her life and when she was younger she used to follow Sherry around and be his fetch and go girl. They marry in London through a special license with Sherry’s friends as witnesses. Sherry nicknames Hero and everyone starts to call her Kitten by this point.

Well Kitten gets into scrape after scrape not meaning to do so but unable to stop herself. She doesn’t know the rules of society having been bred as the poor relation in her cousin’s home with the idea she would become a governess. All of Sherry’s friends are sympathetic and watch out for her the best they can – Sherry too when he pays attention. Unfortunately for Kitten one scrape gets to be one too many and Sherry explodes causing her to run away. Will spoiled Sherry realize his mistake? Will he realize he loves having her in his life? Will he find her? Will his friends help him or Kitten, whom they adore?

In short I find Heyer’s Regency set tales quite unique – we should start a Heyer Book Club! She after all has written over fifty novels, it could be fun!

Rating: 4 Stars

Originally posted 2008-09-08 05:07:11. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Devil’s Cub by Georgette Heyer is enchanting and will assuredly transport you to another world. Georgette Heyer, praised to be the new Jane Austen, was born in 1902 and her tales are quite old but hold the same classic feel as any one of Austen’s novels. I can picture the whole novel as a movie and am surprised that I’ve not seen it made into one. Of course I haven’t checked in at IMDB so I could be quite wrong about its silver screen status.

This is my first time reading Heyer and such I found it tough to start (as such it’s affected my rating). The writing while at first difficult to read and to get into because of the level of vocabulary and particular word phrasing which is unusual for today’s standard’s. However it gets easier the more you read. By the end of the book you’re practically flying through the pages trying to get to the end of the story and see the leads get their happily ever after.

In the true spirit of a Regency novel, this novel includes a secondary romance to entertain us. Neither romance goes to the bedroom, in fact the first and only kiss mentioned is at the very end of the tale. My one fault with the story was there was much too much time spent on ditherings going on around the leads and not nearly enough time focused on them. They were more thrown together in the beginning when Dominic kidnapped poor Mary than later.

Mary Challoner is determined to save her sister from scandal and intercepts a letter from Marquis of Vidal to her sister Sophie arranging an illicit tryst. A daring scheme to take her sister’s place and fool Vidal comes to her and Mary rushes through with it, barely thinking out the consequences.

When Vidal finds out he’s most upset and assuming her to be like her untoward and loose sister, Vidal forcibly takes her the rest of the way to France. Once there, Mary is able to make her true nature known and flummoxed Vidal is forced to do the one thing he never thought to do – propose marriage. Imagine his surprise when Mary refuses! What’s a Marquis to do?

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Originally posted 2008-09-02 05:43:56. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer is one scrumptious romp of trouble after the next. It all begins when Miss Charity Steane was found wandering the hillside, luggage in one hand and very sore feet. She is picked up by Viscount Ashley Desford and whisked away in his curricle as blasé as anything you please. He knows he can’t convince her to return to her miserably wretched aunt and so must take it upon himself to see that she is taken care of.

Cherry (Charity) is of course pleased beyond measure that he is not putting her through a lecture and more than willing enough to carry her the rest of the way to London. She has high hopes of running down her grandfather and begging him to take her up. Even if she has to resort to another menial position like the one she held at her aunt’s inside his home.

But the pickle of it becomes when Cherry and Desford find out that her grandfather is not in town. The neighbors do not know his direction, and the sole man inside the home refuses to speak about his master. Desford immediately sets about getting Cherry off his hands and into some more respectable ones. He doesn’t want to damage her reputation and as a single bachelor he can’t feasible continue to keep her in his care. So he settles her at Lady and Miss Silverdale’s home.

Miss Henrietta Silverdale and Desford were once a long time ago thought by their fathers to be an excellent match. They of course both knew better. Now Henrietta is entertaining new suitors and Desford seems to have his eye on Cherry. He is certainly gong well above and beyond the call of duty to locate her grandfather and find her a respectable situation.

What will happen when Desford confronts her grandfather with the charge of his granddaughter? Will Cherry remain in the good graces of Lady Silverdale? Will Henrietta’s brother, Charles, whisk Cherry off to call his own? What will Henrietta’s suitor think of the whole affair? Full of messes as well as larks, Charity Girl will have you alternately tutting like an old hen and giggling like a schoolgirl over all the crazy shenanigans.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Buy: Charity Girl

Originally posted 2008-12-05 09:04:24. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Faro’s Daughter by Geogette Heyer is an excellent read, but fairly short. The whole story gets told in 285 pages. This is one of the first novels of hers that I’ve read that has a lot of lead interaction. In fact they’re nearly at each others throats in every other scene. It makes for a fun read.

Who is Deborah Grantham?

If you asked Adrian Maplethorpe he would say she is like a living goddess. She is beautiful, poised, elegantly mannered, full of grace, and charm. He would ask her to marry him if she would have him.

If you asked Max Ravenscar he would liken her unto a harpy, a jade, a doxy, a trollop, a wench, a cheating baggage, and a Jezebel. The woman would strangle a kitten for money and power. In short Deborah Grantham is vulgar.

What’s a Faro’s Daughter to do?

She’ll make Max Ravenscar pay for the ill treatment and poor manners he’s bestowed upon her person, that’s what she’ll do. What better way to make him regret his folly but to do the exact thing he fears and agree to marry his cousin? No money could bribe her to relinquish Adrian from his calf-love. The only thing she wants is for Ravenscar to admit his faults and misconceptions of her person.

So for the first time, Deborah caters to Adrian’s infatuation. She lets him think she will marry him upon his majority but begs him not to tell his mother about their plans. It is however a most excellent idea to inform his trustee and cousin Max all about it!

On a public excursion surrounded by good ton, Deborah chooses most willfully to look and behave in the worst of fashions. Let Ravenscar see how a true harpy would behave! Adrian is disturbed by the affectation but writes it off to nerves.

In counter Max wins her aunt’s debts from the brute who would use them to finagle Deborah into a position as his mistress. But even holding the debts and mortgage over her head, Deborah refuses to relinquish Lord Maplethorpe. Instead, Deb comes to the most brilliant of ideas!

She is going to kidnap Lord Ravenscar….

Overall this was a wonderful farce that included some of the best tit for tat I’ve had the pleasure to read. I simply couldn’t put it down. For a wager between hearts that is full of flair and humor read Faro’s Daughter. This is definitely going on my favorites shelf!

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Originally posted 2008-11-25 05:18:34. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer is loosely based on the premise of Pride and Prejudice. I would not go so far as to say it’s a retelling of the classic tale, but there are elements of this Regency romance that bring to mind the farce that Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet went through before getting out of their own way to declare love for one another.

For instance, Lord Worth is the Mr. Darcy character of this little drama. While not despised to the extent of Mr. Darcy by his heroine, Lord Worth is on the brunt end of a lot of negative criticism from his ward Miss Judith Taverner. He can do nothing right and is as cold an aloof in presence as Mr. Darcy appeared to be. His manners and arrogance nettle Judith beyond the telling many times throughout the novel.

So how did Judith and Peregrine get to become Lord Worth’s wards?

Their father wrote in his will that they would be placed under the fifth earl of Worth until coming of age. Of course he meant to direct them into the hands of Julian Audley’s father, the fourth earl of Worth but confused the matter and bungled it entirely. Julian finds the matter tiresome and can’t wait to be rid of them fast enough though maybe not for the first reasons that come to mind. He tells them to stay in the country.

Of course Judith and Peregrine disregard this and the novel starts with them en route to London. They stop overnight in the village of Grantham, where a fight is about to occur. Peregrine is ecstatic and decides they must stay longer in order to see it. Of course the room they wrote ahead to let has been given away because of the crowd swarming the village. Distressed, Judith presses on the innkeeper to make amends. However it is not the innkeeper but a charming stranger that gives up his room for them.

Similarly later that day before the day of the match, Judith and Peregrine are wheeling about the country in search of ruins when they happen upon another carriage speedily racing down the lane in the opposite direction. A near accident occurs, nobody is hurt, but the horses are startled and the stranger driving is unaccountably rude. Both Judith and Peregrine take exception to the man’s behavior and write him off as a bad sort indeed.

Shortly thereafter, Judith and Peregrine recognize their estranged cousin as the kind stranger at the inn and formally establish the acquaintance.

Once in London, the siblings look up their guardian and are dismayed to find the nasty aristocrat from Grantham is their keeper.

Add a dash of mystery - who wants Peregrine dead?

Peregrine as heir to the Viscountcy is being attacked left and right. The attacks are not always obvious; they come in many forms upon his person. Sanguine and completely obtuse, Peregrine does not notice them for what they are. Even Judith, usually kept in the dark on some of her brothers less savory ongoings, sees a pattern and admits her qualms to Worth who prevails upon her to keep her suspicions to herself.

The question becomes who will profit most from Peregrine’s death. His sister will receive even more money for her dowry, making the current 80,000 pounds seem paltry. But Judith loves her brother enormously, it can’t be her. It must be the man who vies for her hand… Julian Audley, Lord Worth, their guardian or Mr. Taverner, their cousin. Each man lays the blame on the others feet, but Judith trusts them both. What’s a girl to do?

Locales: primarily London and Brighton.

Real famous people who appeared in the book: Beau Brummell, Prince Regent.

This novel has a sequel in An An Infamous Army.

Overall I found it focused less on the romance and more on the mystery. I almost wished Brummell was the lead male because he and Judith found teasing and comfortable conversation between themselves on many occasions.

Rating: 3 Stars.

Originally posted 2008-11-24 05:43:45. Republished by Old Post Promoter

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