Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Frederica by Georgette Heyer (Book Review)

Title: Frederica
Author: Georgette Heyer
Publisher: Sourcebooks

I read this book as an ARC from Sourcebooks. Thanks Danielle!




First sentence: Not more than five days after she had despatched an urgent missive to her brother, the Most Honourable the Marquis of Alverstoke, requesting him to visit her at his earliest convenience, the widowed Lady Buxted was relieved to learn from her youngest daughter that Uncle Vernon had just driven up to the house, wearing a coat with dozens of capes, and looking as fine as fivepence.

About the book: When Frederica brings her younger siblings to London determined to secure a brilliant marriage for her beautiful sister, she seeks out their distant cousin the Marquis of Alverstoke. Lovely, competent, and refreshingly straightforward, Frederica makes such a strong impression that to his own amazement, the Marquis agrees to help launch them all into society.

Lord Alverstoke can't resist wanting to help her.

Normally wary of his family, which includes two overbearing sisters and innumerable favor-seekers, Lord Alverstoke does his best to keep his distance. But with his enterprising - and altogether entertaining - country cousins getting into one scrape after another right on his doorstep, before he knows it the Marquis finds himself dangerously embroiled. . . (from the back cover)

My thoughts: I am slowly becoming a Georgette Heyer fan. I was a little concerned after I read Why Shoot a Butler? that this was not going to be the author for me. But then I read The Convenient Marriage and quickly changed my mind. This book, Frederica, was more in line with The Convenient Marriage. It was full of family, humor, society do's and don'ts and of course, romance.

The heroine, Frederica, though just in her 20's, is caring for her younger sister Charis and three younger brothers, Harry, Jessamy and Felix. She has decided that Charis' chance to meet a suitable husband would be better in the city than in the country. This is where Lord Alverstoke comes in. He is their father's cousin, but Frederica thinks he would be Charis' best chance at being introduced into society. She is very honest with him about her request, and after Lord Alverstoke finds out her sister is beautiful, he decides to help her. You see, Lord Alverstoke is pretty selfish and used to getting what he wants - he is also tired of everyone asking him for favors. But he thinks this would be a good "game" to play with his sister who has been asking him to help introduce HER daughters into society - and her daughters are no where near as beautiful as Charis. So, in offering to help Frederica, he forces his sister to take Charis under her wing and introduce her also. Confused?

This book does take awhile to get into and to get invested into the characters - but once you do it flows. Please be sure to give it a chance as I think you will be happy you did!

About the author: Georgette Heyer wrote over 50 novels, including Regency romances, mysteries, and historical fiction. She was known as the Queen of Regency romance, and was legendary for her research, historical accuracy, and her extraordinary plots and characterizations.

Frederica
Publisher/Publication Date: Sourcebooks Casablanca, January 2009 (original 1965)
ISBN: 978-1-4022-1476-9
446 pages

1 comment:

bermudaonion said...

I'm glad you liked this, but I'm still not sure that Heyer's work is for me. I guess I need to give it a try one day to see for sure.

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