I'm getting quite at home down in this Regency rabbit hole of English high society, "the ton" in the years 1811 to 1820.
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.
Friday's Child by Georgette Heyer A
This is my favorite Heyer story so far. It is a delightful mashup of Austen and Wodehouse. It is more a comedy more than a Regency romance, or perhaps more accurately, a comedic Regency romance.
Young Lord Sheringham, a rather wild, free-spending, gambling, but kindhearted young man finds his marriage proposal to the beautiful neighbor of his, Incomparable Isabella Milborne rejected. He leaves for London vowing to marry the first woman he meets. He doesn't get far before he meets another childhood friend, the 17 year old Hero Wantage sitting on a wall crying. Orphaned, she has been brought up in the household of a cousin without love. She is crying because she's to be shipped off to be a governess at some school in Bath the next day. The kindhearted Lord Sherry feels for her, and after explaining his own troubles, she points out that she's the first woman he's met. Realizing this is true, and that he's known her all his life, and likes her, he asks her to elope with him. She does. They get married, and story then recounts her introduction to the life of "the ton", which is to say high society, the free and easy life of a wealthy and rather foolish young man about London.
In London we are introduced to Sherry's three pals, all three of them straight out of a P G Wodehouse book. They become friends with our cheerful and naive young bride, Hero, otherwise known as Kitten. There are, of course, all sorts of escapades that Hero innocently gets into as she tries to fit into both high society, and the free and easy life that her husband lives prior to his marriage. However there is one question, does Sherry love Hero? She loves and is devoted to him, but is he in love with her? Oh, he is very devoted to her and goes to great length to look after her. But is he in love with her? I'm not sure if this is really a friends to lovers story, but we do see, over the course of the story Sherry growing up as he finds himself now having to consider more himself.
As I said at the top, this is a very lighthearted comedic romance, written with a very witty and lively prose - in may ways comparable to P G Wodehouse with just a little more dose of realism. Just a little. In any event, just my cup of tea.
If you care to learn a little more about Georgette Heyer, Stephen Fry has a nice piece on her that you can read HERE.
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