I found Arabella to be wickedly entertaining; a superb comedy of manners! It is a little slow getting started. A good fifty pages are devoted to simply getting ready to go to London – the hero isn’t even introduced! When you get past that portion the story really picks up and is very exciting.

Arabella Tallant is very cheeky and clever. She has a temper that gets her into trouble and a mouth that often runs away with her. She and her family are impoverished. Her father’s a parson and it is by the ingenuity of her mother that Arabella is able to go to London to have a season. It is very important she makes an excellent match so she can help her family.

Robert Beaumaris is sick and tired of young ladies and their mothers throwing themselves at his feet in hopes he’ll trip over them and into marriage. He is defined repeatedly as a Nonpareil, which means he has no equal and is peerless. Men imitate him in fashion. Persons, male and female, strive for his approval. A glance or comment from Robert can make or break someone socially.

Reading parts of the story from his point of view opens lots of wonderful insight to what's going on and how's he's thinking of things. This novel seemed very modern to me because of the amount of head switching.

When Arabella overhears a flippant remark by Robert to Charles Fleetwood, she’s angered and in a fit of spontaneity affects superior airs and claims to be an heiress. On a whim Robert chooses to put weight behind her story and instantly Arabella is thrust to the top of society. Mamas want their sons to marry her, gentlemen want to woo her, and several fortune hunters start sniffing around her most eagerly.

In too deep, Arabella doesn’t see a way out. She can’t marry any of her suitors; they think she’s wealthy. She can’t tell the truth; it would socially ruin her. Then her brother, Bertram Tallant, shows up in London and makes matters worse by gambling far and above his means. The love of her life could also become her salvation, but how can one tell a man you just married you’re not an heiress and in fact in desperate need of funds?

Rating: 4-4.5 Stars

Buy: Arabella

Find and buy more Georgette Heyer novels.

Take a Look at These Fun Posts

• Book Review: Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
• Review: These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer
• 10 Reasons to Love Georgette Heyer
• Review: Scandal by Carolyn Jewel
• Review: Frederica by Georgette Heyer
• Review: Emma and Knightley by Rachel Billington
• Movie Review: The Masterpiece Theater version of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park
• Harry or Edward? Daniel or Robert? Wizard or Vampire?
• Review: Friday's Child by Georgette Heyer
• Review: Untouched Mistress by Margaret McPhee

Potentially Related Websites

• Three Steps to Achieve Your Goals
• Internet Network Marketing Lies And More..
• Top 20 Twilight Saga Blogs
• Leno tells his side of the story
• Star Wars Saga: A Thematic Retrospective
• Mel Gibson: what in the world happened to you?
• Reckless Abandon, by Stuart Woods
• the appearance of competence
• Thanks to Roddick Everyone Wins at China Open
• Why Do We Have Money? Part I

Online Stores

• Superior Lamps Home Lighting

Categories:

4 Stars, 4.5 Stars, ARC, Book Review, Georgette Heyer

Tags:

airs, beaumaris, Comedy of Manners, desperate need, Fleetwood, flippant remark, fortune hunters, gentlemen, glance, Heiress, hero, ingenuity, match, nonpareil, parson, spontaneity, suitors, temper, whim, young ladies