My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.
Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below
April Lady by Georgette Heyer B+
Georgette Heyer's Regency Romances vary somewhat in intent. Some are more serious or at least more soap operaish, while others are more light hearted, even comedies. This was one of the latter. Clearly Heyer was having fun writing this lighthearted story, since it is full of sly and dry humor which are the ones I most enjoy and this outing proved to be a good one.
The set-up is Nell, a daughter of a count whose fortunes had been largely gambled away, has been the wife of Giles Cardross for a year, she, under the impression that the marriage was one of convenience. Her papa need the money, her husband needed a heir. Even so, she was desperately in love with Giles, and though she did not realize it, he with her. Prior to his marriage he had a mistress, and so she strove to be a perfect wife, expended only fondness in return. She spent more money than her generous allowance allowed her and gave some of it to her brother, a somewhat wild young man about town as well, against her husband's wishes. As a result, she had bills that she could not pay and had to approach Giles about paying them. He did cheerfully enough, without more than obtaining her promise that these bills were all of them.
However, as it turns out, she forgot one big bill from a dressmaker who was pressing her for payment. She was afraid to bring yet another bill to him, after promising that she had given him all of them. Since she did not want to appear to have married him for his money, she, with the dubious help of her brother, set out to get the money to pay the bill. Somehow. Add to this plot line, Giles' 17 year old half-sister and ward, Letty, who is living with them. She's in love with a young man working at the foreign office - a sensible but boring young man, totally opposite of Letty. She wants to marry him before he goes off to South America as a diplomat, and Giles refuses; saying that she is too young, and her lover hasn't the fortune needed to keep her in the style she is accustomed to. It is one of those stories where two minutes of conversation would have solved Nell's problem anyway... but that wouldn't have been anywhere near as much fun.
As I said at the top, Heyer's romances vary in tone and approach. All concern themselves in the romantic couple discovering that they love each other, but only at the end of the story. While not a page turner, Heyer takes her time with this story, it features her signature characters, including the noble, tolerant, somewhat remote gentlemen, young goodhearted rakes about town, and naive, well-bred young ladies.
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