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Tuesday, May 26, 2009
title: Frederica
author: Georgette Heyer
genre: regency romance
published:1965
pages: 437
rated: 5 out of 5
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. Frederica makes such a strong impression that to his own amazement, the Marquis agrees to help launch them all into society. 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...
Frederica Merrivale is guardian to her siblings since her parents have passed away. She travels to London to find her younger sister, Charis, a suitable husband. Frederica looks to her distant cousin, the Marquis of Alverstoke for help. The Marquis is rich and arrogant and tends to give a hard time to anyone who crosses his way. Frederica however, is not easily intimidated. She lets the Marquis know what she wants and he is amused by her straightforwardness. The Marquis agrees to host a coming out party for the beautiful Charis.
The Marquis has a reputation for being a ladies man, he loves them and leaves them, getting easily bored. Before you know, the Merrivale sisters are the subject of everyones conversations.
Frederica thinks of herself as an old maid, being that she is 24 years old, and this annoys the Marquis very much. He lets her know that she is not past her prime like she thinks she is.
Soon enough Frederica herself has a few admirers in London.
I really liked this one scene, I won't give it away and say who it is that grabs her hand and kisses it:
She would have drawn her hand away as he spoke, but he prevented her, lifting it from the banister, and lightly kissing it. She had the oddest sensation of having suffered an electric shock; she even felt a trifle dizzy; and it was several moments after he had left her before she went back into the drawing room. It was no longer customary for gentlemen to kiss hands; and although oldfashioned persons frequently kissed the hands of married ladies, his lordship was not oldfashioned, and she was not married.
I liked Frederica, she is smart and sassy and does not let others intimidate her. The Marquis is another great character, I like how he doesn't care what others think and actually enjoys getting his uppity family members in a huff.
Even Frederica's dog, Lufra, is a fun character and had me laughing out loud.
I had previously posted on my blog that I was looking for that next favorite book, and I found it here with Frederica. This book is funny, charming and full of interesting characters. The story just keeps going and going, and has plenty of plot twists. Georgette Heyer has a way of taking you into the story and keeping you there. I lived inside this book for a while, I hated to put it down. Heyer's writing style reminds me a bit of Jane Austen.
Then came Frederica, upsetting his cool calculations, thrusting responsibilities upon him, intruding more and more into the ordered pattern of his life, and casting him into a state of unwelcome doubt. And, try as he would, he could discover no reason for this uncomfortable change in himself. She had more countenance than beauty; she employed no arts to attract him; she was heedless of convention; she was matter-of-fact, and managing, and not at all the sort of female whom he had ever wished to encourage.
About the author:
http://www.georgette-heyer.com/
Author of over fifty books, Georgette Heyer is the best-known and best-loved of all historical novelists, who made the Regency period her own. Her first novel, The Black Moth, published in 1921, was written at the age of fifteen to amuse her convalescent brother; her last was My Lord John. Although most famous for her historical novels, she also wrote eleven detective stories. Georgette Heyer died in 1974 at the age of seventy-one.
I found this older cover at the authors website:
Special thanks to Danielle Jackson over @ http://www.sourcebooks.com/ for sending me this book to read and review.
