I don't usually like romances with large age or power disparities between the characters, so I braced myself to dislike this story of a duke who takes in a ragamuffin less than half his age. However, my reserve was as nothing before the power of the heroine, Leonie, who has got to be one of Heyer's best. She coruscates on the page with her charm and bravery--she insists on learning to fence and handles pistols with some aplomb, and although she never gets around to it (of course), I never doubted for a moment she was mentally able to kill without regret the people she aims them at.

Add to this a delightfully melodramatic (in the best of ways) plot replete with kidnappings, dark family secrets, machinations both wicked and wise, self-sacrificing flights in the night, and a truly black-hearted villain to pit the main characters against, as well as a wonderful supporting cast, and this is possibly my favorite Heyer book. If at the end one feels Leonie is rather too good for her Duke, it's not really his fault and there's no helping it--she lives and breathes, and everyone else in the book is merely a well-written fictional character.

How much fun is it to read about drama in King Louis XV's court with the delivery of The Importance of Being Earnest? So much fun.

What a strange, strange book. The heroine is obnoxious and the romance, as it were, is ethically uncomfortable. I'm not sure I'd call it a romance. Two people are married at the end, but it's really a side plot.

But the suspense of wondering how the inevitable would actually play out (I didn't guess correctly), combined with a bizarre protagonist (he's a bit Poirot-like, I think), a fair amount of wit, and of course lengthy descriptions of court attire, made this entirely worth reading.

Glad I took the oddball recommendation.

I will try another Heyer book, but this one gave me an uncomfortable feeling from the get-go.

This is my first Georgette Heyer book, as I recently ventured into more HR territory I’ve heard of this author brought up many times. I also like to read my books in order and I read this is one of her earliest books (and one of the earliest books I can borrow from my library), hence started with this one.

Took a bit of a start for me because the writing needs a getting used to and there is a lot of French (my French is barely a scratch on the surface so there was a lot of translating while reading).

Overall, I found that I did enjoy the story. Different from the recent HR I’ve read (more focused on dialog, not much description or internal reflections or in-depth explanations of scenes/events etc). It’s really cleverly done and I really enjoy the dialog. The Alastair family dynamic is all around enjoyable. The Duke, Lady Fanny and Lord Rupert are hilarious in their own ways but I especially enjoy the Duke’s wits and his nonchalance to everything and his tender scolding of Leonie. I was surprised at the humor and found myself chuckling to myself many times.

Leonie’s character took a bit to grow on me but over time I found that she was quite sweet, knew her mind and didn’t care a whit about Polite Society (but understandably due to her history).

The development of the romance between the protagonists was really sweet over time - seeing how the characters grew and matured and the reactions of the supporting characters watching on the sideline.

I am moving on to my next Georgette Heyer book.

Pari ekstratähteä ihan nostalgiasta: tätä luin 10 + ikäisenä, sydän väpättäen. Paholaismainen herttua sai minutkin pauloihinsa. Eihän näitä voi nykyään vakavalla naamalla lukea :)

Enjoyable overall, Heyer is a good writer and the characters are vivid and dynamic. The plot was engaging and not what I was expecting, but it was fun.

I did find it a bit odd that Leonie was 19 but everyone kept referring to her as a child, and Justin always calls her 'infant.' But in other Heyer novels, women are 'on the shelf' when they are like 24, so its a pretty narrow line between 'infant' and 'crone' lol. Especially since Leonie had a somewhat traumatic upbringing, but everyone describes her as innocent and naive. It seemed more likely that she was not naive/innocent but just refused to conform to society's expectations.

It is interesting to read the novel and Leon/Leonie as gender-queer. They were living as a boy for 7 years, and throughout the novel, they are extremely resistant to being forced to live as a girl. Although they do eventually agree to present as a girl, they always seem to identify as gender-fluid, and everyone seems to appreciate how different Leon/Leonie is. However the reader is also repeatedly reassured that Leonie is very beautiful as a girl so there is a limit to the gender-bending.

2.5 stars. The writing and dialogue were pretty great, but I found much of the plot (especially the romance) to be problematic.