Regency Reviews

Charity Girl

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While this book may start off slow and shaky, by the end Heyer has her footing again and the plot and characters sparkle. In Charity Girl a Viscount named Desford meets a young woman named Charity, “Cherry” for short, hiding away upstairs at a ball. She was foisted off on these relatives by an absent father and is treated more like glorified help then a poor relation in need. Naturally she ends up running away to London in a search for her grandfather. Desford finds her on the road to London and, after hearing her story, decides she would be better off with her grandfather and so gives her a lift. Unfortunately they arrive in London just to discover that her grandfather is out in the country and no one knows where or when he will be back.

The Masqueraders

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Born to a father set on having adventures, Prudence and Robin Tremaine have lived a life on the run. They constantly are moving (often fleeing) from one place to another, and often have to do so in disguise. After Robin and his father take part in the failed Jacobite rebellion they split up and flee into the country side. Robin meets up with his sister, who stayed out of it, and they decide to swap genders to thoroughly hide Robin in the last place anyone will ever look – in a set of petticoats – to prevent him from being hanged. Prudence then becomes Mr Peter Marriot and Robin becomes Miss Kate Marriot.

Together they travel to London and hope to meet up with their father there. That’s when they meet Sir Anthony and Letitia, Letty is currently attempting to elope with a Mr Markham only to find that he is a brute and not worth marrying, her attempt to change his mind on this score proves dangerous though. With the siblings help (a false swoon by “Kate” and a swift uppercut with the hilt of a sword by “Peter”) they rescue Letty and restore her to Sir Anthony, a friend of her father’s. In that meeting “Kate”, er, Robin falls hopelessly in love with Letty and “Peter”, er, Prudence falls hopelessly in love with Sir Anthony. Now, in true Georgette Heyer fashion, the stage is set for a romp unlike any other!

Arabella

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Impetuosity is Arabella’s only fault. That and being young and naive. At the same time she has very strong convictions about right and wrong and follows through on them, again to a fault. After Frederica Arabella is my next favorite heroine. She is not a push over, nor is she vapid or overly frivolous. Being young and naive ends up being only endearing, and her convictions are admirable considering the time and place she is in. Her impetuosity though is what got her into trouble in the first place.

Arabella is one of eight children in a large family living in a country parish. Her father, the Vicar, is a strict man who raises his children to love, respect and care for all of their fellow creatures. She is from a respectable family, but her fortune is very, very small. Through a happy circumstance her godmother writes and says that she is willing to bring Arabella under her wing in London and sponsor her for a London Season! Her mother is happy, but her father needs some convincing to allow his daughter to go. He does not believe in a girl being consumed by such frivolous affairs. She receives jewels from her mother, a carriage from her uncle, and a ballroom gown from her godmother.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

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In what should come as no surprise to anyone, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is a novel about Pride and Prejudice… and zombies. Fully living up to its publisher’s title, Quirk Classics, this novel contains the far fetched, the hard to believe, and the down right insane antics of Jane Austen’s signature characters plunked down in a world over run by brain eating, flesh rotting, and by no means bright “unmentionables” whose presence change a classic into “something people would actually want to read”.

Also, this book is illustrated! I enjoyed the art in it, even if some of the costumes depicted weren’t completely true to the era, they were far more fitting for the level of fighting that was going on in the book.

Now, I will admit right off that, aside from the occasional dalliances with Resident Evil and I Am Legend, I had no experience with zombie titles before this. I imagine that this novel was supposed to pantomime the zombie horror genre just as much as it was pantomiming this classic novel. The creatures were far fetched at best, and England’s reaction was, to say the least, not precisely consistent with the era in which it was supposed to take place.

False Colours

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Christopher “Kit” Fancot knows that something has gone wrong. He and his twin brother Evelyn have always known when the other was in trouble, wounded or worse and Kit has a very strong feeling that something has happened to Evelyn. Kit lives abroad where he works for a diplomat but he comes home to England and arrives unannounced in the dead of night. It’s to find his mother in a desperate situation. His mother is in a huge amount of debt and his twin brother Evelyn has gone missing. Evelyn needs to be able to meet with his fiance Cressida Stavely’s family or risk having an elderly matron frown on the marriage of convenience (he wants to wind up his Trust, she wants to be free of her father and his new wife) and call the whole thing off. If Kit’s twin doesn’t marry, the family fortune won’t be made available to him, and their mother’s fantastic debts will lead to trouble for all involved.

That’s when his mother hits upon an idea he wishes she hadn’t. No one knows Kit is in town, so Kit can pose as Evelyn! For just one evening, she promises. In true Georgette Heyer style the crazy idea spawns yet more crazy and untenable circumstances that have Kit living in Evelyn’s shoes for far longer than he wishes to and results in him feeling more for his twin bother’s fiance than he really should. She, on the other hand, may not be so oblivious to the masquerade as Kit might think.