The Vintage Romance Reader

Horatia Winwood is a plain girl with a stutter. When she rescues her sister from an undesired marriage to the Earl of Rule by proposing to him herself, he is thoroughly impressed by her spirit and enjoys watching her take the ton by storm. When Rule's archenemy, Sir Robert, tries to kiss Horatia, she spurns his advances, and in the ensuing scuffle loses an heirloom brooch. Horatia's brother's hare-brained scheme to recover the brooch fails, and then the Earl himself must step in, challenging Sir Robert in a swordfight that is Heyer at her most stirring.

Original Publisher: Heinemann
Original Year of Publication: 1934 [2009 reprint]
Page Count: 307

In spite of elements for which I'm not fond (May-December romance, immature heroine, Georgian period setting, Big Misunderstanding trope), I found this novel to be absolutely charming. There are elements of Col. Brandon in the Earl of Rule, which made him quite appealing to me: he was older, wiser, calmer, and competent, moving in exact ways to get exactly the result he wanted without a lot of drama. He is decisive, loyal, and has a very dry wit, so I was all about that!

I wasn't as big a fan of the heroine (especially her name - Horatia is bad enough, but the nickname of Horry was just unpleasant), as she is immature and impetuous, but her heart's in the right place, and once she makes up her mind about the odious Lord Lethbridge, she doesn't waffle - and she even saves herself from danger in the form of kidnap and attempted rape, which was a quite dark element for an otherwise very light novel. She offers herself to the Earl in her sister's place, because her sister is in love with another man, but she realizes soon enough that she doesn't really want one of those fashionable French marriages of convenience.

The side characters were absolutely hilarious, and what really made this novel for me. First there's Crosby, the Earl's mincing Macaroni of a cousin, who's just hilarious, in general. Picturing his crazy outfits and wigs and shoes was quite amusing, and he was weak in a way that wasn't annoying, just funny. Horatia's brother Lord Pelham and his friend Pom were fantastic. Pelham's reaction at the very end of the story literally made me laugh out loud - he's the sort of farcical character that I enjoy, because it doesn't feel like he's trying too hard to be funny, he is just naturally that facetious.

There are quite a few hijinks, including masked highwaymen, a drunken card party that leads to a dawn duel with swords, and the Earl's mischievous plots to save his silly wife from herself. This was a fun and easy read, and makes me look forward to exploring more of Heyer's work.

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