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This is a Good Book Thursday: Something About Freddy

I didn’t have enough time again to reread anything, but I’d started thinking about Georgette Heyer.  Some of her books I love and some I won’t read again, but the ones I love, I’m passionate about: The Grand Sophy, The Talisman Ring, Cotillion.  And there a lot more I like a lot–The Black Sheep, Friday’s Child, The Unknown Ajax–but those first three had a big effect on me in the days before I became a writer. (I named Sophie in Welcome to Temptation after Sophy, I was that big a fan.)

From The Grand Sophy, I learned how fascinating a really strong woman could be, along with the Oh-Hell-Not-You reaction: two people who do not want to be in love falling in love anyway is really potent romantic chemistry. And I also learned that the power of family/community under threat is great for reader tension.  That book is a master class on writing romance.

From The Talisman Ring, I learned that two contrasting romances, a strong romance between two smart people who act wisely but with humor, and a subplot with headstrong young lovers falling wildly in love as a contrast makes for a layered look at falling in love.  And that older lovers are more fun to write and read than young lovers, especially if both have great senses of humor and act like adults instead of idiots.  (Okay, young people are often idiots because it’s all new to them, lack of experience, not their faults, but it’s more fun to read about smart, mature people falling into the idiocy of love than it is to watch idiots do it.)

I would have told you those two were my faves, but I’ve come to realize that I learned the best lesson from Cotillion, the Freddy Lesson.  SPOILERS AHEAD, STOP NOW IF YOU’VE NEVER READ COTILLION.

The premise of Cotillion is that Kitty, a very innocent young orphan, will be destitute if she doesn’t marry one of her guardian’s relations.  This is not a problem: she’s crazy about the rake Jack, a dashing man-about-town, the hero of dozens of regency romances.  Unfortunately, Jack doesn’t show up to pop the question, so Kitty badgers another cousin, Freddy, into pretending to be engaged so he can take her to London where she can stay with his family and find a way to make Jack love her.

So far so good, I was in.  But then I got to know Jack, who was everything promised, a charming rake to the core, and the farther into the book I got, the more it became evident that Jack was a dick.  Meanwhile the foolish Freddy who was not a dashing rake, just a nice guy not too quick on the uptake, definitely not a romance hero, was the real deal because every time Kitty needed something he was there to hand it to her, every time she was out of her depth he hauled her back, every time she did something impulsive, he followed along behind her and fixed it, not because he was in love with her but because he was a decent guy.  And by halfway through the book, if Kitty wasn’t in love him, I was.

That’s why I love that book.  Heyer pulled a romance convention switch that absolutely enthralled me.  I don’t think anybody could improve on that climax scene where Freddy and Jack face each other down and Freddy is just so Freddy, showing up with the boring necessities that Jack would never have thought of.  Freddy has no dash, Freddy has no scholarship, Freddy is kind of dumb, but Freddy also has common sense and a good understanding of people and the way the world works, and beyond all of that, Freddy has heart, lots and lots of heart that means he takes care of people and finally, helplessly, falls in love with Kitty even though he knows she loves Jack.  Damn I love that book.

Cotillion is my favorite Heyer because it taught me that playing with conventions sets you free, and that diamonds are not as good a gift as an air conditioner in August.

What did you read this week?

175 Responses

  1. Hello! I got a nudge on insta from Jane to re-emerge from lurkland. #community

    Off-brand for me, but I read and thoroughly recommend The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson. Non-fiction that is so accessible and so tied to character and story that I glommed it like fiction. Gary is an ex-trader, and this is both his story and a brilliant explainer of trading, money markets, and one (more) way the world is fucked. Read it!

    I attempted to read Orbital. Ugh. The entire book is extended metaphor, clever etc etc, and so utterly plotless, yes so is life yadda yadda but life isn’t as boring as Orbital.

    I wish life was as boring as Orbital because I also read far far far too much news.

    So now it’s all Murderbot and Penric and yes possibly some Freddy, good call.

    5. Gary Stevenson is a great interviewee and commentator as well. He’s shrewd, and strong-minded. I don’t always agree with him 100%, but mostly, he’s on the money.

  2. I recently re-read Cotillion and it was as satisfying as I remembered. I would also recommend The Quiet Gentleman because it contains a similarly enjoyable subversion of the romance heroine archetype.

    This week I finally read The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst, which is loosely a follow up to The Spellshop and was just as charming. Thanks to all those who recommended it here.

    I also finished A Dangerous Train of Thought by Faith Martin, the latest in her Val and Arbie mystery series. It was well written and cleverly plotted, just like the others, and definitely in the style of the golden age detectives. Highly recommended.

    1. You are so right about The Quiet Gentleman. Cotillion is of course brilliant, as Jenny says. Another great favourite of mine is Venetia. The two lovers are grownups, but what I like best is that Venetia goes and gets Damerel back, after he has renounced his love for her because of his wicked past.

      1. I think Venetia is her most swoon-y book. In many, most?, of her other books the main characters fall in love gradually without realizing it but Venetia is full on romantic with poetry and big feelings and then Venetia very practically fixing things when Dameral is ready to sacrifice himself for her. Sigh.

    2. Cotillion has been my fave Heyer for exactly the reasons Jenny outlines. One thing I also love about Freddy is that he is excellently dressed and has impeccable manners.

      Another great unexpected hero is Randall, « that amiable snake » in ‘Behold, here is poison’ and KJ Charles makes an excellent case in one of her blog posts that Francis Cheviot should be the hero of ‘The reluctant widow’. That would have made it a much better book!

  3. I finished up The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab. It did and did not turn out like I thought it would. When last we talked, the MC had met someone who was able to remember her – the first time in 300 years. It turns out that he also was cursed. His curse is that he is loved by everyone. You wouldn’t think that is a curse, but he can tell that these other people are just reacting to the curse, rather than truly loving him. As the book progresses, these two fall into a romance, and she tells him her history.

    spoilery: Don’t go farther if you intend to read this!
    I knew that the FMC was going to sacrifice herself to attempt to save the MMC. And she does offer a deal to the god that cursed them both. He accepts, releases the MMC from his curse. But at the end, I realized that this really wasn’t the story. The real relationship is between Addie and her god. She loves/hates him. He’s the incarnation of her dreams, and she’s spent her 300+ years with him. By the end of the book, the MMC is free, and the FMC goes off with her god for another period of time.

    It was interesting, and a little thought provoking in the “be careful what you wish for” kind of way. I doubt I’ll reread this, but it is still vividly in my memory.

    1. Schwab is an interesting writer. I recently read her “Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil” (2025) – which was mesmerizing, but I didn’t like anyone in the end and I think I need to like at least one character to really enjoy a book. Plus the ending was rather unsettling.

      It sounds like Addie LaRue had a similar feel?

      1. Yes and no. Addie is trying to survive, and does questionable things in service of that. Henry is a very likable character, struggling with an inferiority complex from his family and made a bad decision after being dumped by his girlfriend. He is a true friend though. Meanwhile Luc, the incarnation of the god, is chaotic neutral – he follows his own rules generally. He comes across as powerful and sometimes lonely.

  4. A big confession: I never really got into Heyer. Must try again. Freddy sounds like just my guy.
    What I read this past week is something of the “old relieable” kind: EJ Russell’s later books in the Mythmatched series: Howling on Hold and Assassin by Accident were both very nice – and that’s exactly what I wanted.
    I also read the novella The Amazing Alpha Tau Fratmas Experience by Lisa Henry and Sarah Honey. About frat bros being their for one of theirs who cannot spend the holidays with his family but is too afraid to acknowledge that this makes him sad. Scout is a side character in all of the Alpha Tau books except in one novella where we learn how he gets together with his boyfriend. I don’t really get the stick-up-his-arse character, but it’s said that this is just his family and his upbringing. It’s a nice story (but nothing overwhelmingly good) that doesn’t make sense if the reader hasn’t read the prior books in the series.

    I’ve got so many books on my tbr pile fighting for my attention that I’m reacting scatterbrained about it.
    So I picked up a re-read to listen to when falling asleep. And pick up again after waking up, doing the household chores etc. Cait Nary’s Season’s Change is still great on the third read. The audiobook is also really fine. I loooove the very, very slow burn in this book. That they get really good friends first. Ollie Järvinen, one of the MCs, is kind of paralyzed by fear to be outed. Which resonates with what is being discussed by some around the Heated Rivalry buzz. Some viewers who’re also athletes are quite affected by the adaptation, some also criticize that it doesn’t address the hostile atmosphere in the real life locker rooms. Well, it started the discussion which is far more than what could have been expected.
    Well, the only thing I don’t particularly appreciate about Season’s Change is that the really evil team in the book is the fictional Minnesota Wolves when the real life Minnesota Wild are on of my favs (and they don’t seem to have an awful head coach or bullies but some of my fav players, too)…

    Ah, and then there’s “Die Stellung des Menschen im Kosmos” by Max Scheler, the thankfully shortish 1920s philosophical treaty which I’m also currently reading.

  5. I obviously need to re-read “Cotillion” again – I remember being impressed with Freddy’s social intelligence, a quality that is often underrated except by those of us who lack it! 😊

    Best thing I read this week, was “Of Monsters and Mainframes” by Barbara Truelove (2025), about an interstellar transport ship AI whose passengers keep dying. I guess you’d call it comic sf horror: funny and brilliant and glorious and kind – I just finished it and am on a massive high. Thank-you so much Jeanine and Kelly for the recc!

    Also finished “The Wolf Wilder” by Katherine Rundell (2015) set in the end of Tsarist Russia. Really liked the FMC, who is determined to look after her four-legged friends and rescue her mother. Middle grade rarely works this well for me but I enjoyed it. Will look for more by Ms Rundell.

    My third notable book this week was “Tea Ladies” by Amanda Hampson (2023), a mystery set in 1960s Sydney fashion house. There was a lot going on but I think Hampson pulled it together well. I liked the FMC, a socially adept tea lady in her 60s. There was one sub-plot I didn’t love but it opens up some possibilities for the sequel – which is waiting on my shelf.

    1. I’m glad you enjoyed Of Monsters and Mainframes too! Sunward by William Alexander had a few similar aspects to me (interesting non-human characters, and a kind SF vibe), if you’re looking for something to read next.

  6. Those are exactly my three favourite Georgette Heyer books plus The Convenient Marriage and Frederica. True confession: I actually stole The Grand Sophy from the school library! I was very young. I still have that book, library card intact and all.

    This week I listened to The Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen, about a gay cop in the ’50’s who is caught in a bar raid and tossed out of the police force. About to throw himself into the ocean, he instead takes a gig solving the mystery of who killed the ‘wife’ of a woman who has collected a group of queer family and staff. No it’s not Two Guys Solving Cases and Falling in Love but it was an up close view of what it was to be gay in an earlier, dangerous time. As a mystery, it was less procedural and more focussed on the characters of the people in the house but I like that flavour of mystery writing and so I’m going to continue with the series. Thank you to the Argher who recommended this – I have forgotten who so please tell me – and I tried to go back and look at the previous Good Book Thursdays but it’s not so easy to navigate them anymore without the calendar that you could click on (Jenny, could we get that back?) so I couldn’t locate the right one. Anyway – thank you.

    And thank you to Frozen Pond who recommended the A03 MM hockey romances last week – both the ones I hadn’t read were excellent! The Next Next One and Red Wine Supernova. The first one seems to borrow from the premise written by theundiagnosable that McD retires early from hockey and the relationship between him and his junior hockey best friend. I found the real players distracting this time; as always, I wonder why this story simply couldn’t have been told without real names, low on-page sex. Red Wine Supernova is likely going on my reread list – angsty-sweet and I kept bracing myself for the inevitable Big Misunderstanding or Fight or Withdrawal or whatever but it didn’t happen, real live people but not well known and post hockey career so no hockey whatsoever, very smutty but the sex completely character developing and embedded in the plot, so well written.

    And of course I’ve rewatched Heated Rivalry – this time got my husband to watch and he loved it and I now love him even more because who doesn’t love a man who watches smutty TV with you?? I did have to give him the No Jokes During Sex Scenes rule.

    1. Thanks, Tammy. I was thinking I’ should add a quick comment saying that while I adore so many of Heyer’s books, THE CONVENIENT MARRIAGE is far and away my favorite. THE UNKNOWN AJAX also has a funny and enjoyable adult romance and the long ending is a lot of fun, with all the important characters working together to pull off a con.

      1. It’s the heroine of The Convenient Marriage that makes it so great – she’s so bold and so quirky at the same time.

    2. Same here – hubby really really liked it. And for once he’s in on the inside jokes of kiddo and me. And garnered coolness points by kiddo for liking the series.
      Kid #1 (male) is not interested (I don’t blame him), but as soon as he got wind of Unrivaled, he informed me (by then, I had already placed the pre-order): he’s a good one!
      My order of physical copies finally arrived and hubby might grab a copy soon – he seemed very tempted. Kiddo asked if she could borrow HR for her bff. If only they weren’t that buried under school stuff.

    3. Glad you enjoyed the AO3s. I agree, I also wasn’t sure why real players names were used when the stories would have worked equally well or better with different names.

  7. I enjoyed The Spellshop and The Enchanted Greenhouse also, very sweet books as Georgia says above.
    In the last couple of weeks I reread the Hunger Games trilogy, which I enjoyed despite all the killing.
    Somehow I found the violence in this series easier to take because the whole thing is more of a metaphor for how our society rests on the exploitation of others, as opposed to the Fourth Wing series, which has a lot of random gratuitous death of teenagers. The mom in me found that traumatizing.
    Now I am taking it easy and enjoying Miss Grimsley’s Oxford Career, a Regency girl masquerading as man romp by Carla Kelly. Coincidentally I found it by googling ‘writers like Georgette Heyer’. There are a lot of readers desperate for more Heyer!

  8. I have never read Heyer but read your entire post anyway. Now I have to read Cotillion. Thanks so much!

  9. I must get back into Heyer. I watched the new series Bookish on PBS Passport and enjoyed it. It takes place in London just after WWII and it’s about a used book store owner who is also an amateur detective. He recommends Heyer to a woman who comes into the shop and when she comes back for something similar he recommends The Scarlet Pimpernel.

    I read three novellas this week and mostly enjoyed them. Connecting Rooms by JAK, The Way Home by Linda Howard, and Resurrection by Linda Lael Miller.

  10. •Michael Mammay, Darkside, 2024, Book 4 of Planetside series. In what has become too much of a pattern, Colonel Carl Butler is once again lured out of earlyish retirement to try to find someone who went missing on an distant world.  This time the appeal that he can’t refuse comes from a girl of 12 who lives on the other side of the planet Ridia 2 from Butler’s home.  Her father, an archeologist, has disappeared on Ridia 5H, a moon orbiting a gas giant in the same system.  The daughter has crowdfunded enough money to travel halfway around Ridia 2 and, she hopes, to pay Butler’s fee, since no one else will take her case and he has a (partly unjustified) reputation as a last resort.  Despite Butler’s reluctance and his not needing more money,  the disappearance does genuinely look fishy, and he can’t say no. By now Butler effectively has his own staff. His previous work has annoyed enough important people to make it impossible for two of his lower-ranking coworkers to stay in the military, but large financial settlements with evilcorps have induced the two coworkers also to settle on Ridia 2 near Butler.  Moreover, Butler is now rich enough to hire additional help locally.  So Butler and crew hie off to Ridia 5H.

    As in much adventure sf, so also in Mamay’s universe, the economy of an interstellar civilization has a bizarre need to extract ore in pretty much the old fashioned way from near the surfaces of planets and moons, and two competing evilcorps, both already having it in for Butler, operate on Ridia 5H. As usual, the local military outpost is underresourced and tries to ignore as many things as possible. Mammay does manage to ring some changes on his established pattern before coming to the usual noir semi-resolution.

    I could do without the noir entirely–I don’t read genre fiction to be depressed–but I know that some people like it. Even so, if Mammay does not display some more plot originality in the next Butler book, I’m giving up on Colonel Butler. (Mammay’s Blindside is due our in March. The author has also written some non-Butler sf, which I haven’t read.)  The present novel is recommended for what it is.

    1. I enjoyed the first two Col. Butler books. I should go find the next one, even if it does get a bit repetitive. Thanks for the reminder.

  11. Speaking of people who don’t want to fall in love, I reread Man Hunting and enjoyed it immensely. Kate and Jake are fun to watch fall in love, and are so clueless about it.

    I also read Jayne Castle’s After Dark, a Harmony novella. It was long for a novella, and there was not enough dust bunny cuteness for me. I also read a beginning Harmony book, People in Glass Houses, and liked the MCs and the dust bunny. The haunted house was scary and intriguing. I’m staying with this series, despite Jayne’s love of the made-up words “rez” and “rezzed”, which appear in every other sentence. The Harmony world is fascinating, and the characters have weird talents.

    I also like Heyer’s The Grand Sophie. I may have to read Cotillion, and reread Welcome to Temptation with The Grand Sophie in mind.

  12. •Mary Lancaster, Petteril’s Portrait, … Wife, … Folly, … Christmas, … Baby.  Books 4 through 8 of the Lord Petteril Mysteries series, 2024–2025.   I had been holding off on this Regency detective series with a background romance arc in favor of novels that I could read either in return for my tax money to the library or in return for my subscription fee to Kindle Unlimited.  However, over the holiday season I broke down and bought the five short novels in the series that I had not already gotten around to.  I’ve already forgotten much of their mystery plots, but the main characters are likeable, and without relying on any excessive suspension of disbelief, Lancaster manages to make plausible April’s gradual rise from being a London street waif disguised as a boy to being Lord Petteril’s wife, while throughout being his partner in solving various mysteries.  It’s a feel-good series at a time when that is a welcome respite.  Recommended.

    •Mary Lancaster, Murder in Moonlight, 2024.  Book 1 of Silver and Grey.  This is a Victorian mystery series, starting in 1852 (after an 1851 prolog), again with a background romance arc. Solomon Gray is a wealthy London shipping magnate.  He is even more socially marginal than others of the merchant class, however, since, Jamaican-born, he is part African, although this is not immediately discernable to the unpracticticed white British eye.  (The cover makes his black ancestry far too obvious, but artist Dar Albert did better for the cover of the second book.)  Constance Silver, for her part, is a strikingly beautiful blonde who has fought her way up from the gutter to become the owner of an exclusive London brothel.  (To an American it seems odd that she has chosen the pseudonym Silver. Although the surname has various origins, in the US it is likely that someone with the name is ethnic Jewish, not a desirable connotation in 1852 Britain even for the owner of a high-tone brothel.  But with less Ashkenazi immigration to Britain than the US [and less even to the US by 1852 than later] possibly the surname may not sound Jewish to contemporaries.)

    Both Grey and Silver have contrived to receive invitations (Silver under a false identity) to a weekend gathering at a country manor owned by a banker.  Silver wonders if the banker could be her biological father.  Grey wonders if he could know anything about the fate of Gray’s twin brother, who was snatched away onto a ship (kidnapped? rescued?) during the 1828 Jamaica slave revolt.  (Slblings are the willing or unwilling causes of a remarkable amount of worry in historical mysteries.  Did it all start with with Mycroft Holmes and with John Watson’s alcoholic brother?)  It appears that the answer is no to both Silver’s and Grey’s  questions for the banker (not her father, knows nothing about his brother), but the banker gets himself killed before matters are completely clarified.  Grey and Silver collaborate in solving the murder and are starting to become aware of their attraction for each other.  Socially marginal crimesolvers do not represent a new concept in fiction, but the application here is new to me and appealing.  This series is in Kindle Unlimited.  Recommended.

  13. I just re-read Cotillion and loved it again. I’m beginning a re-read of another one, but my great loves are the first two Alistair books. I love the
    duke and Leonie, their son and Mary Challoner, another very capable, intelligent woman.
    Also just dipped back into Welcome to Temptation.
    I don’t read as a novelist or future novelist, but I like hearing what you lessons about the genre you learned, Jenny.

    1. Yes! I also love the two Alistair books THESE OLD SHADES and DEVIL’S CUB. Humor, romance and strong smart heroines. These two also go to the top of the list.

  14. Not much reading for me this week. I need to get back to it because it makes me feel better, but I am having focus issues. Mostly webtoons. Smutty and otherwise.

    More Tamara Pierce.

    My first Heyer was False Colors. I found my mother’s battered paperback and ripped through everything she had. Much much better than Joan Aiken Hodge, which she had several of as well. Yuck.

    I have a special place in my heart for her mysteries, which I guess were contemporaries for her. I think it is a time period thing that fascinates me. You don’t get much in the 1910s-30s aside from Christie, who I also read a lot of at that point. I wonder why that era didn’t take off like regencies? Also, I really like her dislikable heroes and there are several in the murder books.

    I also remember being very impressed with the plot twist in Mary Stewart’s The Ivy Tree. Once you read enough it’s hard not to see things coming but that one caught me off guard.

    1. I love Heyer’s mysteries. My fave might be No Wind of Blame just because I love the characters, especially the dramatic daughter and her romance with her opposite, so good even though the murder method is far-fetched. I don’t care, it’s funny. Also Envious Casca is great.

      1. Whichever one has Randall, the snake in it, I adore. I can’t keep her mystery titles apart in my head. The historicals are distinct enough that I remember which is which even years later.

        2. Randall is a great character. Krissie’s (Anne Stuart’s) favorite. I love how supercilious he is, masterminding everything, knowing his family so well and taking care of them (in his own way), master of all he surveys until he gets to his cousin and then he’s just kneecapped by her. It’s a great story with Heyer’s usually wonderful supporting cast of flagrantly selfish people who don’t realize how funny they are.

    2. If you want that time period the early Marjorie Allingham s are ok although her later ones are better and the early Ngaio Marsh’s are strong and remain so and of course there are all the Dorothy Sayers. And I think the early Michael Gilbert’s are also pre WW2.
      I wish I could get my son who may have read nearly every Christie to read these. He has tried them and for some reason they don’t click.

      1. Unfortunately I agree with your son, at least with Ngaio Marsh. Maybe I read it to late in my life, but the one I tried didn’t work for me.

        K.J. Charles has done several now and they are fun.

      1. Me too. I hated the Ivy Tree the first time I read it because of the plot twist and took a long time to reread it, now I love it and love the twist.

    4. Regencies from my recollection only really took off in the late 1990s, and mostly due to everyone trying to replicate the success of a few authors like Julia Quinn and Stephanie Laurens.

      Up until that point, medieval romances were huge and you were just as likely to get a Western, a Georgian or a Victorian set romance as anything else.

    5. Yes to the plot twist in Mary Stewart’s The Ivy Tree. I found a hard cover in my aunt’s library (she was the librarian for the lake community in the 60s). Love that book. I devoured almost everything by MS. Nine Coaches Waiting is also another favourite.

      Funny, I have been thinking about revisiting Heyer books bc, you know, the world and all it’s turmoil, anyway, Cotillion, Fredrick’s, Venetia, The Grand Sophy, The Unknown Ajax; top five.

        1. Yeah. I’ve considered turning autocorrect off, but I make enough mistakes on a small keyboard when thumb typing that for me it’s not a good option.

  15. I too would add “The Convenient Marriage” and “Frederica” to the list of Very Best Heyers. And because “angsty” is one of my things, I also love “A Civil Contract” and place it near the top as well. In times of stress a good friend and I will go for long walks and debate which is the best Heyer. Always a very satisfying and soothing discussion where different books will “win” depending on our mood but where the same 5-10 books are always the main contenders.

    This week I decided to try some of the hockey romances being suggested in the If-you-loved-Heated-Rivalry-try-this lists. All were DNFs for me so far. I also came across a great spread sheet of hockey romances (both M/M and F/M are included) which has a lot of unknown-to-me authors. I will post the link separately in case the link sends me to arbitration limbo.

    With all the hockey romance DNFs I decided to take a break and I went back to Josh Lanyon in order to “reset.” This week I reread The Art of Murder books (M/M – FBI agents investigating and falling in love,) specifically my favorites — The Mermaid Murders, The Monet Murders and the Monuments Men Murders. I love this series so much.

    And of course, no week is complete without watching the Heated Rivalry show — again.

    1. Yes, please share the link to the spread sheet.
      Even before the tv adaptation, with the high number of hockey romances flooding us, it gets more difficult to find good ones. As there are still many Argher recommendations I haven’t read, there’re still quite a few potentially really good ones for me/us to discover 🙂

      1. Oops, that’s Christina who already is a pro in hockey romances, correct? I was thrown off the loop by the different name…

  16. I too would add “The Convenient Marriage” and “Frederica” to the list of Very Best Heyers. And because “angsty” is one of my things, I also love “A Civil Contract” and place it near the top as well. In times of stress a good friend and I will go for long walks and debate which is the best Heyer. Always a very satisfying and soothing discussion where different books will “win” depending on our mood but where the same 5-10 books are always the main contenders.

    This week I decided to try some of the hockey romances being suggested in the If-you-loved-Heated-Rivalry-try-this lists. All were DNFs for me so far. I also came across a great spread sheet of hockey romances (both M/M and F/M are included) which has a lot of unknown-to-me authors. I will post the link separately in case the link sends me to arbitration limbo.

    With all the hockey romance DNFs I decided to take a break and I went back to Josh Lanyon in order to “reset.” This week I reread The Art of Murder books (M/M – FBI agents investigating and falling in love,) specifically my favorites — The Mermaid Murders, The Monet Murders and the Monuments Men Murders. I love this series so much.

    And of course, no week is complete without watching the Heated Rivalry show — again.

    1. Weird – we got this post twice, once from Christina and once from Christina Rocca. I like them both, just saying.

      Do you think The Convenient Marriage and Frederica are angsty?

      1. I wonder if Christina meant to post the spreadsheet link and instead inadvertently reposted the first post from a different account.

      2. No no, the only angsty one is A Civil Contract and I love that one despite the definite bittersweet tone.
        The Convenient Marriage and Frederica are the opposite of angsty! For me they are totally wonderful comfort reads, even when you know them almost by heart.

        Re duplication of my postings, there may be more to come with more random names. My IT Dept (son) has fixed this weird thing but my email appears to have taken on a life of its own so it will have to be changed. Sigh.

        1. Actually, that might be my fault. I dropped by to check the comments and found one of those in Pending, so I approved it. Sorry!

  17. I was a Heyer addict as a teenager. My favorite was Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle, because I strongly identified with Phoebe Marlow.

    This week, at the suggestion of someone here, I’ve been reading Turns of Fate by Anne Bishop. It’s excellent, so thanks!

    2. I liked all Paladin books. I want more of them. I read somewhere that Kingfisher had ideas for 7 paladin books – one for every survived paladin. So far, only 4 are published, but I’m hopeful.
      I also dislike horror as a genre, so her horror novels are not for me. I tried once or twice, but no more. Sadly, she seems to graduate almost exclusively towards horror these days.

        1. I desperately want to read the one about the Paladin who was married, and who has not returned to his wife because he’s sure she won’t want him any more. He’s been mentioned in a couple of books now, and clearly needs his own HEA.

  19. I remember that at the conclusion of Cotillion, Kitty tells Freddy that he has “address.” I think the sense in question was obsolescent even in Heyer’s time. The closest meaning in the Wictionary seems to be “resourcefulness. ” From context, I would have guessed something more like social dexterity. Ivan Vorpatriril in Bujold has some of the same qualities, possibly borrowed from Freddy. (Bujold reportedly came late to romances, but Ivan’s personality is modified as the series goes on.

      1. I think Heyer means the ability to know how to behave and what to say in all situations and I think Ivan can really miss the mark on occasion. His mother has that kind of address. But I do love A Civil Campaign.

    2. Ivan is a good comparison to Freddy. Except Freddy is generally not so smart or competent whereas Ivan is trying to level down deliberately to stay off everyone’s achievement radar.

      1. I do love Ivan for this. He’s so much smarter than he appears to be, and he so desperately doesn’t want Gregor’s job or any more responsibility than he can manage. He’s probably one of the sanest people in the series.

    3. Oh, yes! LMB was open about Cotillion’s influence on the Ivan book. The dedication includes Georgette along with Jane, Dorothy, and Charlotte. We even have the mix of couples. Some of them dance 🙂

      “Unhand Lady Vorpatril!”

      Love it.

  20. Cotillion is probably my favorite of the Heyers I’ve read. Have to point out that Freddie is definitely queer-coded. He’s possible demi/ace as he’s surprised about falling in love with anyone and he’s certainly spending a lot of time with other queer-coded men in colorful clothes. Not sure if Heyer was saying the love of a good woman could “fix” homosexuality it if she was cool with people being bi. She want the most enlightened of thinkers, necessarily.

    Speaking of queer coding (what a segue!) (Also a reference to Heyer’s Reluctant Widow) I got my hands on a digital ARC of KJ Charles’ next book, How to Fake it in Society. It’s not her absolute best work, but it’s very good. It’s the story of a man who gets dragged into marrying a dying woman, inherits her fortune, then meets a man who might be trying to con him out of it. Worth the read.

    And I’m reading Goldenboy by Michael Nava, which is queer mystery written in the 1980s. A gay teen boy stabs his bullying coworker to death in the basement of the restaurant where they both work. Or does he???

    1. Huh. I do not see Freddie as queer coded. He’s definitely a Beta male who gets misread as therefore not being a threat to other men’s women but that doesn’t make him queer coded. Heyer probably was somewhat homophobic but when she wanted to write queer men that’s what she did—some good guys and some evil but not interested in women. Francis Cheviot, Claud in the Unknown Ajax, Beau Lavenham, all come to mind.

      1. Agreed. Colourful clothes didn’t have the same connotation then as now – I think its more to indicate youth and an adherence to the fashionable or sporty set in contrast to their more soberly dressed elders.

          1. I think that’s more about having lots of mistresses or lots of sex with women as a regular activity. That’s how it’s used in Sprig muslin for example —both Sir Gareth and his father are described as not being in the petticoat line and they are pretty clearly hetero. But Gareth has never recovered from losing his first fiancée.

          2. There’s a discussion of not in the petticoat line here. It seems to be a more polite was to say not a womanizer, not a skirt chaser.

            Interestingly (although I did not check the cited source) Heyer seems to have admitted making up “Cheltenham tragedy”.

            Lords of the Seventh House: Regency Slang https://share.google/Vnb6dOkag8p50ygAX

    2. I never saw Freddy as queer-coded. Ace maybe, but he seems pretty passionate in the carriage at the end. He’s very socially conscious, very much a gentleman, so that may be slowing him down, but I think she really drew him very much in counterpoint to Jack, who as a rake would have made a nightmare husband. Actually as I thought about it later, I realize that Freddie is Competence Porn in a good suit. He does everything well except museums and guide books.

      1. That’s the thing about him. Everybody undervalue him including his father and himself but he is so competent and it takes Kitty seeing it for everybody else to realise it.

  21. I too would add “The Convenient Marriage” and “Frederica” to the list of Very Best Heyers. And because “angsty” is one of my things, I also love “A Civil Contract” and place it near the top as well. In times of stress a good friend and I will go for long walks and debate which is the best Heyer. Always a very satisfying and soothing discussion where different books will “win” depending on our mood but where the same 5-10 books are always the main contenders.

    This week I decided to try some of the hockey romances being suggested in the If-you-loved-Heated-Rivalry-try-this lists. All were DNFs for me so far. I also came across a great spread sheet of hockey romances (both M/M and F/M are included) which has a lot of unknown-to-me authors. I will post the link separately in case the link sends me to arbitration limbo.

    With all the hockey romance DNFs I decided to take a break and I went back to Josh Lanyon in order to “reset.” This week I reread The Art of Murder books (M/M – FBI agents investigating and falling in love,) specifically my favorites — The Mermaid Murders, The Monet Murders and the Monuments Men Murders. I love this series so much.

    And of course, no week is complete without watching the Heated Rivalry show — again.

    1. Wait – another last name for you? I now know you as: Christina, Christina BR, Christina Rocca and now Christina Rossetti. Do you have passports for all these people??

      1. Ha! Good question! I want to know how they were allowed into my computer… My laptop went insane. I’m assured it has been put back in its place and severely disciplined — so apparently the latest posting should be the last one to appear on Argh. Again, many apologies! Meanwhile, a whole bunch of emails went out under still more crazy names…

  22. I read a lot this week.

    1. ‘Counterpoint’ by J.E. Birk, in the In Vino Veritas series. Starts off as the usual uptight overachiever hookup with playboy underachiever and subsequent ‘we must never speak of this’ which is complicated because of friend group & families. But it goes somewhere much more interesting after they find themselves working together and fall into bed again. There’s a real shadow hanging over the future and they both have to decide how to deal with it. Plenty of communication and friend support, family reconciliation, good stuff.

    2. a short: ‘Moderating Love’ by Jax Calder, sweet & funny, definitely something I’ll enjoy re-reading.

    3-5. ‘Code Red,’ ‘Code Blue,’ and ‘Code Word’ by N.R. Walker, which are all MM about members of an enormously successful pop group and all hinge to some extend on the logistics of existence (security, privacy, etc) in that milieu. ‘Red’ features one of the musicians and his manager, ‘Blue’ another musician and the group’s head of security, ‘Word’ two of the musicians. That one felt a bit of a stretch for me and I didn’t connect with the MCs as much. The first two were satisfying in all ways.

    6. a short: ‘The Shoemaker’ by Megan Derr, a very sweet, lovely fairy-tale retelling, into the holiday shorts re-read collection.

    7-8. ‘Promises of Forever’ and ‘Symphony of Salvation’ by Nicky James. The first book features a retired hockey pro, now physiotherapist, who comes across a trove of his letters while cleaning out his recently deceased parents’ house and tracks down his teenage pen pal. The love interest is a teacher at a Toronto-area private school and is *deeply* traumatized by childhood events which aren’t laid out until very late in the book. Well done high angst, gripping & very sympathetic to both MCs. The second book features the best friend (ex-boyfriend) of the traumatized teacher. This MC is the music teacher at the school and I’m guessing James loved him so much a book for him felt necessary. I loved him too. He’s a terrific character. His love interest, I wanted to kick in the balls for about an hour. High angst, high conflict, a good resolution but communication had fallen apart for no good reason and I was annoyed. Also this book used language in a weird way, with repeated use of words that are uncommon variations (e.g. indignance instead of indignation) and that I found highly distracting in the context of these two MCs, who are musicians, not language arts people, and who had different cultural backgrounds so their internal monologue should not have sounded the same. Not a bad book at all, just some tripping hazards.

    1. Just want to say how much I love your book summaries! I can always tell which I want to read and even the ones I don’t I get a real feel for the book.

      1. I’d say that “Promises” took a good long while to write, much care was taken, then maybe there was a demand for a book featuring the ex-bf and “Symphony” got a bit thrown together. It’s worth a read, especially if you are drawn to creative characters, but not as well crafted as “Promises.”

  24. I read The Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller, recommended by an Argher so thank you. It was a somewhat weird experience because I enjoyed his writing but somewhere around the middle he disliked Pride and Prejudice and I concluded that he reads for very different things than I do and promptly realized that pretty much all the books he liked I will dislike . Also he reads a lot of British books I had never heard of, including children’s books, which made me realize my so far hypothetical grandchildren will get exposed to two different sets of children’s literature. I will clearly be mailing boxes of books to London.

    When I was a kid a family friend who was a writers agent would go through all the books on her shelves every holiday and pull off ones she thought we were the right ages for and send us a box of books. Heaven! I particularly remember and recommend “The Young Visiters or Mr Salteena’s Plan” written by Daisy Ashford in 1890 when she was 9. I am including the wiki page link because it has an image of the first page which gives you a flavor of the book. It could be called a romance as three couples end up married. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Young_Visiters

    I also read and enjoyed another Argh recommendation, What WH Auden Can Do for You. I started and will undoubtedly read in small bits Inventing the Renaissance. I also started Lucy Worsley’s Jane Austen at Home which starts with a discussion of her childhood home as revealed by archaeology, and also makes it clear that actually her mom did a lot of the farming (cows and poultry) and didn’t just sit around sewing and waiting for visitors. I am eager to read more of it. We have also been watching the documentary of Jane Austen’s life and I find it thought provoking and interesting —I didn’t realize her brother may have subsidized her first book publication. But I am really annoyed at how much they attribute their own feelings and ideas to Jane as fact. And I don’t like their using movie clips to show the books and then talking as if the movie script was what happens in the book when it wasn’t. I am particularly grumpy about the question the movie shows Fanny asking her uncle about slavery when I think one of the fascinating questions is what that question was supposed to be. Grumble.

    I really am in a history and a Jane Austen season. I may buy A Companion to Jane Austen, Mad Tuscans and Their Families, and Claire Tomalins biography of Jane. I learned Jane grew up next to Selbourne and I may read Gilbert White‘s Natural History of Selborne which I DNFd once. I have the Zorg on my Libby about slavery in England which I hope will also shed more light on how people saw Mansfield Park when it came out.

    Meanwhile the stack of book holiday presents next to my recovery chair is not shrinking. Maybe I will read a skinny one just to feel I am making progress.

    1. I am slowly reading ‘A Year with Gilbert White’ by Jenny Unglow which is a kind of biography but arranged day by day along with his 1781(?) diary entries. I am reading it daily in line with the current date. It is nice atmospheric reading as he’s also experienceing January weather. After his weather entry and other comments, it then discusses some of his life, or Selbourne, which is very interesting (I least enjoy the parts where the author inserts herself but thankfully she doesn’t do it much). Anyway, I have a long way to go as it is only 22nd January! I will report again at the end of the year.

      I read most of ‘A Natural History…’ a long time ago and then ran out of steam. It is probably best read by dipping in and out, which I do more now than I used to, so I may go back to it.

      1. Forgot to say, thanks Debbie for the link to Jane Austen. I hadn’t thought of them being so close to each other. It is interesting to think of Jane being influenced by, and enjoying, the same landscape and countryside.

  25. I, too, love Cotillion. A while ago, I tried to read the Grand Sophy, but it had too slow a start for me. Maybe I’ll try again sometime, especially if I can listen to an audiobook.

      1. I am having the same trouble. Hoopla used to have a lot of them on audio, but only the German versions remain. Why?!

        1. Try searching individual titles maybe. If I search Agatha Christie I only get Swedish versions but if I try individual titles I get English. Very weird.

  26. Okay, seems my message has been duplicated under random different names so I had my “IT Department” look at what was going on. The problem is definitely on my end and my email may have to be changed but I believe they have fixed whatever was going on. Apologies! I’ve been assured we’ve nipped this one in the bud. It did require a “factory reset” of my laptop. Sigh.

  27. I regularly reread all the Heyers mentioned above and many others. I do particularly like An Infamous Army which does the best job of any book I have read of combining accurate history about Waterloo with a novel (although I am also fond of the Nita Abram’s series about Jewish spies during the Napoleonic wars). And while I don’t reread it Heyer’s the Spanish Bride which tells the true story of a 14 y o Spanish girl who marries a British officer is fascinating.

    It would be easier to say which Heyers I don’t like—her medieval ones.

    1. Heyer’s descriptions of the battle of Waterloo were so accurate and meticulously researched that AN INFAMOUS ARMY was recommended reading for officers at the Royal Academy Sandhurst.
      When I was younger those were the parts I skipped but now I can see just how brilliantly she brought that battle to life.

  28. I also love Cotillion, An Unknown Ajax and The Grand Sophy along with Frederica, Venetia and Sylvester. False Colours is fun, and The Quiet Gentleman is quite different. I loved an Infamous Army but I don’t tend to reread it. Likewise, A Civil Contract is really excellent but I find it too sad for rereading.
    The only one I actively hated was ‘Cousin Kate’, and I am not too keen on the Toll Gate. Everyone seems to love The Talisman Ring so I must try it again.

    Didn’t get much reading done this week, I am in the middle of about 3 books so I won’t discuss any here.

    On audio I am enjoying ‘The Glass Hotel’ Emily St John Mandel, but at times it requires more concentration than I have, so I am also listening to ‘Fatal Shadows’, the first Adrien English, which is, as ever, good fun despite the murders.

    1. I vaguely recall disliking The Talisman Ring the first time through, but I also dimly recall liking it better on a reread. I haven’t done much Heyer in a while. Back when, I generally liked the Regencies a lot, liked less the non-Regency historicals, and could not stand the contemporary mystery novels. I should give the last another try sometime.

  29. Oh yeah I also don’t like Cousin Kate. It is funny to think about it in comparison with Northanger Abbey which makes fun of such gothic tales and then gives a much more likely evil outcome.

    I’m also fond of a couple of Heyers where the romance is basically background for what Heyer really wants to write about: Charity Girl, the Quiet Gentleman, The Foundling, Sprig Muslin. She just wants to write about the characters in her head many of which are hysterically funny.

  30. I loved Cotillion too! Looking forward to more Heyer novels on my Kindle. This week I read Agatha Christie’s The Secret of Chimneys and loved it. I’d recently watched a new video version of her Why Didn’t They Ask Evans and found the same twisty-type of mystery with engaging young people there. Chimneys involves international affairs and a jewel thief.

    I also read Death and the Final Cut set in Cambridge about a murder on a film set. It’s part of the St. Just detective series, and was set up with chapters devoted to each of the involved parties, which was quite a few since it was a Viking film. The wrap-up was a bit anti-climatic, and the multiple POVs made it difficult to engage with the characters. Overall a good mystery.

    I also read Jayne Anne Krentz’s Grand Passion, one of her 1990s books set in a seaside inn with a mystery involving missing artwork. I really loved the characters. She has such a knack of creating quirky but relatable secondary characters. Great chemistry between Max and Cleo, and Cleo is an author as well, so there are interesting discussions about the craft as well. No dogs or dust bunnies in this one, but a cute little boy and his Lucky Ducky.

  31. I just finished “The Wizard’s Butler” and “The Wizard’s Cat” – a series by Nathan Lowell which is about an ex-Army vet becoming a butler to a supposed wizard. There was no real “enemy” to fight, except there was an underlying theme of loss of self. Which, frankly, I found to be really terrifying. The series is pretty enjoyable and I liked all the characterizations.

    Another book I read was “The Wedding People” by Alison Espach which is about a newly divorced woman going to a high-end hotel for a last hurrah. It has the normal plot of the woman learning how to reconnect to life again after the divorce, but I really liked everyone. And, it had some really funny moments as the divorcee has to deal with the bride-to-be who has no filters.

    I also read “An Unlikely Coven” by Am Kvita which is Book 1 in the upcoming Green Witch series. Witches rule the world and the Greenwoods are the top witch family in the US. Joan Greenwood is the youngest witch in the family with a problem in that she cannot control her magic. The story kicks off with a rumor that some unknown witch has given a human – the lowest species in this world – the ability to do magic which promises to upset the apple cart. I nearly liked everything in this book, except how Joan got involved in such a major event. I felt it happened too fast, with no thought involved.

    Finally, I read Jim C. Hines’ latest “Slayers of Old” which features a Buffy-like slayer named Jenny who has retired from slaying. Slayers are known as Hunters of Artemis in this world and are bonded with Artemis – Goddess of the Hunt and Healing – rather than demons. Each continent gets one Hunter of Artemis, rather than 1 Hunter in all of the world which makes more sense. I really liked this book and hope Jim continues writing in this world.

    1. I’m very glad you mentioned this – I read The Wizard’s Butler a couple of years ago, and forgot to check for the second one. I mostly read (and re-read) his Solar Clipper books, which my husband and I refer to as “Engineering Manager in Space”.

  32. Been reading The Dressmakers of Auschwitz and Four Red Sweaters–about textiles and being able to sew/knit saving your life at that time–and those are very interesting, albeit also with depressing subject matter. I like the perspective about textiles as well.

    1. Jennifer my son read and liked
      The Fabric of civilization which I now have on hold. And my TBR pile has Jane Austen’s wardrobe. Given your interest in fabric art I suspect both might interest you.

      1. I was just given The Fabric of Civilization for Christmas. I haven’t started it yet, but I have an 11-hour flight tomorrow, so it’s going with me.

          1. It was his brother Hank Green and apparently that’s how my son found the book. My son is a big Hank Green fan.

  33. I don’t know whether it’s worldwide or not, I’m not familiar enough with the site yet, but a lot of Georgette Heyer’s books are on sale over on libro.fm, for my fellow audiobook-lovers. I should pick some up, too, since she’s such a well-loved author among my favourite people.
    I haven’t been reading much at all lately, my brain is still hiding somewhere in a corner. Surprisingly it seems to be able to handle cookbooks, so I’ve read two of those: AMAZING FOOD HACKS by Peggy Wang, and KAWAII SWEET WORLD COOKBOOK by Rachel Fong. The former had some recipes that made me want to experiment with stuff, but I don’t think I’ll go back to it very often otherwise. The latter was cute – probably even cuter if you can see the pictures – but it also included incredible amounts of frosting, of which I am not a huge fan. I think I might go back for the base-cakes, pastries etc though, even if I probably won’t ever be able to decorate cakes like that myself. Some of the tips for how to bake things better were really good, I’ll try that out at some point.
    I am also still reading THE SELF-CARE PLAN FOR THE HIGHLY SENSITIVE PERSON, day for day…the days that I remember, that is. It’s very bite-sized, so it works.
    I did binge 3 seasons of Lucifer, however, and now I understand why you guys think it’s such a good series. I’ll watch the last 3 seasons too, once my brain is out of the gutter of gutters.
    I heard on the radio this morning (local station from where I grew up in Sweden) that they’re planning to close down another small village library because “the local government needs to save money”. I don’t know why this fills me with such dread and despair, but it’s like numbness is spreading from the chest out. It isn’t even MY former small village library, but it just as well could have been – heck, that one might be up next. It makes me more sad than it has any right to.

    1. Shass, years ago friends and I had a dinner party club. The host picked the theme and cooked the main course and the other courses were assigned so that over the course of a year every body had a chance at different courses. We did Indian, French, German etc. The most successful dinner was the one where your course had to be from a Patricia Wells cookbook either as sole author or contributor- so basically French or Italian. Absolutely every dish turned out well. On the other hand we all discovered that with early Jacques Pepin cookbooks, your best results occurred if you also found the same recipe elsewhere and compared ingredients and techniques.

      1. This sounds like fuuun! I’ll see if I can get a few people together so we can do this. I don’t have a lot of friends here in NL, but if I can maybe also rope in friends of friends and we can be a group of… four or so, it might be a real hit. Thanks for the tip! Are you still cooking any of these recipes today?

      2. Years ago, I was at a one-off gathering where we did something like this with foods mentioned in Aubrey-Maturin novels. It was fairly successful, but we were spread over such a wide geographic area (although all within two hours drive of our host) that we never repeated the experiment.

  34. I could almost cut last GooBooThurs’s post and past it here. Only minor changes. (I could make this a running gag!)

    My first mention is, as always, the word opera, VARIATIONS ON A THEME Book 6 by Grey Wolf, found on StoriesOnline.net. This week was chapters 161 and 162 of 163. I am expecting to be Gravely Disappointed with chapter 163. There are too many unresolved threads to tie off in a single chapter, and though GW says he dislikes cliffhangers, well, I cry, “Bullshit!” The only way to avoid said cliffhanging is to end the book with “Then a giant meteor stuck Texas and destroyed all intelligent life.” In the next chapter, they need to attend a family reunion in Wisconsin with homophobic religious fanatic Aunt Helen, travel home to Texas, sign up for summer semester at Texas A&M, fly to a wedding in California between two gay former debaters and lifelong friends (who danced together at their prom, the first [known] lesbians to do so without legal intervention.) Harumph! Harumph!

    More Reddit stories! They are addictive. On average, I listen to them for a half hour each. I’ve begun to wonder if they might be AI generated.

    1. I read one of those once and started another but DNF. The seem so overwhelming nasty. People behave really badly and the person they mistreated gets even. And sometimes the legal actions seem unlikely to work or are a real stretch to believe.

      The last two years have been really hard but the amazing thing is that people have gone out of there way to do good things: people we barely knew and in some cases people who over the years have seemed cold or even indifferent. So yes, those probably are AI generated

  35. I can’t even name my favorite Heyer romance. I love them all. As I was reading the comments, every time someone mentions a new title, I thought: yes, that one too. And by a strange coincidence, I just re-read The Grand Sophy. A wonderful story, funny and charming, if a bit slow. Sophy is such a delight.

    A new book for me this week – Naomi Novik’s recent novella, The Summer War. It read like a myth or a legend from an exotic land. I can’t say that I enjoyed it, but it was an OK read, satisfying and mercifully short. I don’t think I could’ve read such a story to the end if it was a novel length.
    As usual for mythology, it sported lots of gaps in the plot’s logic. You know, of the sort “it is what it is, just because.” Another similarity to mythology: the narrative was somewhat emotionally distant. Lots of flowery descriptions and summarization, not enough dialog or action.
    The first half of the story was especially culpable of the above faults, as it transpired over several years and very few pages. Of course, summarization was required. The second half was better: it only took a few days, so the author had more pages to delve into the feelings and melodramas of her characters.
    But overall: I wasn’t much amused.

    I also wanted to share with you a meme from Linzi Day’s latest newsletter:
    “The older I get, the more I understand why people live in the woods and talk to squirrels.”
    How apropos. I’m turning 70 in February. I’m contemplating the squirrels too.

  36. I re-read The Talisman Ring and Cotillion often. It took me getting older to appreciate Freddy.

  37. I read Emily Henry’s The Book Lovers this week, and am rather baffled as to why it didn’t really grab me, since it seems to have all the right ingredients. I’m now nearing the end of Laura Wood’s Let’s Make a Scene, and enjoying that much more – definitely a keeper.

    1. Jane, I totally agree re THE BOOK LOVERS. It was sort of “meh” for me despite having all the right ingredients.

  38. I was captivated by These Summer Storms by Sarah McLean
    This is one of those rare novels that I felt changed me at a cellular level. The writing, the beautifully held tension, the unraveling secrets, the craft (chefs kiss).
    I feel inspired and REALLY wishing I read it before I met her at the Australian Romance Writers conference last year. She held a workshop on mastering the art of great conflict… I learnt a lot, but this book… it’s a masterclass in writing conflict!
    And I loved how everything on the page is there for a reason. Every single thing loops back around. Highly recommend.

  39. Jojo Moyes’ The Giver of Stars – romance, friendship, and based on true story of women who rode horses to deliver books during depression.

  40. Heyer was so formative for me. Some of the earliest romances I read (I thought they were historicals at the time). She spoiled me. I’ve been obsessed lately with redcoats and greenjackets, a collaborative Heyer fanfiction series in an alternative universe. Here, Lady Barbara Childe married Major Hugo Darracott during the Peninsular campaign which changes some things. Alastairs,Tremaines, and Rivendells are intertwined into the stories. One of my favorites is Lady Barbara recieving letters from friends and relations (cousin Francis Cheviot) about her protege Sophy Stanton-Lacy’s escapades in London. One of the more recent had a Freddy sighting. It’s so much fun. I’ll put the link to the series page on AO3 here. https://archiveofourown.org/series/2423650

    Right now I’m still working on the Renaissance book by Ada Palmer and I’ve started an ARC by Jeaniene Frost for her new romantasy, Curse of Beasts and Magic. Also cleared next Tuesday for Ilona Andrews’ new Hidden Legacy novella, Beast Business. Lot of beasts! But I’m excited to finally get Augustine’s story. And Jessie Mihalik’s new book, Silver and Blood releases Tuesday as well. Big reading week ahead!

    1. Oh I hadn’t even thought to look on Ao3 for Heyer fanfic! That could be most interesting!

  41. I have not finished anything this week. I am in the middle of some good stuff, most of it rereads, and you have all just added to my reread list.
    I DNFd Ruby Lang’s Acute Reaction early on, and I’m still trying to pinpoint why. The characters and the set up were interesting, but at ten per cent I just couldn’t take any more of it. I didn’t dislike anyone, and the writing was good and there were no implausible events, but I did not want to be there. Has anyone else read it and had a similar or different experience?

  42. I asked this before but several days into the blog post so trying gain. Has anyone read Clea Simons? Mostly detective books where the cat is the detective ? Turns out my DH went to school with her and want feedback before trying her.

    1. Sorry, the only cat detective I’ve read is Midnight Louie from the late Carole Nelson Douglas.

  43. I agree with you on those three Heyers. I read The Talisman Ring when I was twelve, when Tristram and Sara seemed much older to me than they were, so it was actually a surprise to me when their romance came into the story.
    A favorite of mine is also Sylvester, in that Sylvester is a young man with a tremendous amount of responsibility and social status, and not a warm personality, completely the Duke. But Heyer creates a moment when he shows how much he grieves his twin brother, a moment of vulnerability and grief, that humanizes him to our heroine, and to the reader. Later he does humble himself to Phoebe and wins her trust.

  44. I reread Game Changer and liked it quite a bit more the second time around. It didn’t hurt having the visuals from the TV series. Not that I’ve actually seen the TV series, but it’s hard to avoid all the reaction videos!
    Then I reread Heated Rivalry, which was also delightful.
    It’s been a delight watching those reaction videos, and also the interviews with the two stars. I’m so deeply impressed with the acting, particularly the bloke who plays Ilya. In the interviews, he’s kind of puppyish, all bouncing energy and good humour, the complete opposite of the character he plays.

    1. I had trouble with the Scott Hunter character on the series since he wasn’t accurately modelled after the character in the book. And the sexual dynamics between the two MC’s were also quite different.

        1. A complete book pressed into ca. 50 minutes: It’s basically a *very * condensed Game Changers story which had to compromise nuance and above all the time line. But it seems to resonate strongly with many viewers (just yesterday I came across the comment of the Dutch premier’s husband, a former field hockey player, on how the story mirrored their experiences).

    2. Lian,
      both actors of HR are really, really good (this being their first big roles, too). Shane’s portrayal is much more subdued (true to the character, referenced with the author) but not less impressive.
      Agreed, Williams and Storrie come across as the total opposite of their roles in real life which hopefully helps the audience with not mixing up fiction with real life.
      Tidbit: Both actors have been named torch bearers for the upcoming Olympics. HBO is sponsor, so might have had a say in this: HR starts streaming in Italy in February (Germany Febr. 6), perfect PR for the Olympics.

      1. That’s so lovely that they are torch bearers for the Olympics, Dodo. Because this is a very torch bearing story. And I think audiences will still mix up fiction with real life – there’s going to be enormous interest in whoever they are dating. I saw an interview with Williams where he said he had had to learn (in dealing with the media etc) in about three weeks what most actors learn over five years or so.
        So far, from what I’ve seen, they are both handling it beautifully, though it must be pretty overwhelming. It probably helps that there are two of them, rather than just the focus on one.

        1. Dear Lian,
          from what I’ve heard, the fandom or so-called fandom already goes crazy with making up stories, claiming the actors date whoever.
          What I find fascinating is how well spoken everyone of them is and how reflected. Williams has been interviewed on Shut up Evan (podcast) and agreed that the craze is quite overwhelming. Who could have guessed that a small production (albeit realized with lots of love, talent and dedication) would become such a huge wave.

  45. Back from a scheduled routine light shopping expedition (I spent less than $80, which these days shows you it was light). The big snowstorm is not forecasted to arrive here until Saturday evening, but so shrilly have the media been hyping what’s coming that already today Lidl was unusually crowded for a weekday afternoon and they eventually ran out of available shopping carts. Fortunately they had enough checkout clerks that the wait in line was not horrible. I am now stocked up on bread and milk and various other stuff. I did have to settle for full milk and even supplies of that were low.

    1. Um, whole milk is the usual term, on reflection. The kind with the most fat in any case.

    2. You can always water it down, Patrick – though I’m a believer in whole milk. I only have a spoonful most days, though, since I don’t usually drink tea or coffee.

      1. Yes, I’m not much for cold cereal in winter, so I’m using milk mostly in small quantities for tea, and the fat content matters little in absolute terms. I might end up using some in cooking.

    3. We did our storm shopping yesterday. Then I realized that since we have a generator if the power goes out we may be hosting refugees aka neighbors so we tried to get chicken soup ingredients. It was largely an excuse for taking pictures of empty shelves. I got the last parsley. There were lots and lots of chicken wings and no whole chickens or other parts or celery or mushrooms or scallions or… or… or… (fortunately I have some frozen chicken).

      We live just far enough south that the government doesn’t invest much in snow clearing equipment and so it takes days to get out of the house if the snow is deep. Anyone who was near for the last bad storm promptly panics. That would be a decade ago. Meanwhile the folks who moved here since then (and the DC area has a lot of turnover) are baffled and probably insufficiently prepared.

  46. Venetia was the first Heyer I read waaay back when I was in high school. I remember crying over it. The Grand Sophy is my favorite. This week, I read The King’s Ransom by Janet Evanovich and reread A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett. I too am looking forward to Beast Business.

    1. I think Venitia was my first Heyer as well, although I was in college at the time. As I have explained here before, Heyer became popular among science fiction readers about then, perhaps because of Heyer publication in paperbacks then. (There seems to be an affinity between sf and the Regency. The Aubrey -Maturin novels by Patrick O’Brian, set in the same period, became similarly popular later.)

  47. Wednesday, I mentioned shopping with the Dotter (Her Greenland name is “Jen Garsdotter”) at Kroger, which is not my favorite grocery store. For Thursday, I placed a delivery order with WallyWorld for stuff that I either did not see or was Too Darn Expensive at the other place. I am adequately stocked for being Snowed In. Mind you, snow-in in Virginia does NOT take a foot of snow nor six inches of ice. I expect massive power outages.

    I received all my 1099Rs and SSA 1099, so I have officially Filed My Taxes for 2025, and I did not owe. I used the free version of TurboTax. I managed to do this before the internet and/or power went out. If only it wasn’t Already SpentⓇ .

    Happy Winter Storm Fern. 🙁

    1. I think she’d have her mother’s name, in fact. I’ve always understood I’d be Jane Lornasdottir and my brother Michael Michaelson.

  48. One of the many things I love about Cotillion is Freddy’s growth as seen through his father’s eyes; Freddy’s surprise when his father is sure he can take care of Kitty and Meg is lovely.

  49. I re-read The Grand Sophy last week (after my DIL returned it to me) and then decided to dig out more of my Heyer collection. Unfortunately I pulled out The Reluctant Widow and Cousin Kate, thinking I would enjoy them more this time around (I didn’t) and Venetia, which had its moments but isn’t a keeper.
    I’ve also been working my way through Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels. They were stuck up in the attic for ages but emerged when I forced hubby to clear it out as we were having a new roof. I was worried they would feel very dated but I’m really enjoying them.

  50. I also read The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie – I read that a new Netflix version was coming out and couldn’t remember if I’d read that one. Book was ok, but I abandoned the Netflix version halfway.

  51. I checked my Kindle ap and found A CIVIL CONTRACT (because Bujold), GEORGETTE HEYER’S GREATEST HITS which contains ARABELLA, FREDERICA, THE GRAND SOPHY, and a bonus novella TO HAVE THE HONOUR. I’ve read them all, but I’m not feeling a need to reread this winter.

    If I feel an urge to read Regency-esque stories, I think I’ll turn to Bujold’s MILES IN LOVE. It contains KOMARR (Miles meets Ekaterin), A CIVIL CAMPAIGN (Miles woos Ekaterin), and WINTERFAIR GIFTS (Miles weds Ekaterin while Armsman Roic meets and woos Sergeant Taura).

  52. I spent the past three weeks re-reading the last five or six Kate Shugak books by Dana Stabenow, Adrian Tchaikovsky‘s Children of Time series, and a handful of Heyer (The Grand Sophy, Venetia, almost done re-reading Frederica).

    I imagine this topic has already been exhausted, but I remain feeling somewhat guilty that I enjoy Sophy despite its grossly offensive anti-semitism—it would certainly keep me from recommending the book to anyone else. I know enjoyment is endorsement, Heyer is dead, etc, but it strikes me every time I pick the book up.

    I guess it hasn’t all been re-reads but I’m very ready to see more of this year’s new releases. Belle Burden’s memoir is not the kind of thing I’d usually read but I was intrigued by the massive scale of its publicity campaign and read it for the hell of it. It’s certainly well written and/or well edited and a fascinating insight into a world quite distant from my own. JA Krentz’s latest was what I expected and hoped for from her. Jesse Q Sutano’s Read Between the Lines was disappointing—I think I just prefer her Vera Wong books so much more.

    Honestly, I must be suffering from a case of the Januaries because even La Nora fails to hit the spot. I’ve DNF The Lost Bride trilogy 1/4 into the last book, which I never thought would happen. I may need to start restricting myself to her romantic suspense.

    1. I put the Belle Burden book on hold at the library for exactly the same reason. Not my sort of thing at all either, but the story about the book in the NYT caught me up and I’m intensely curious.

  53. Have you read “The Blue Castle” by Lucy Maud Montgomery? Her most famous work is “Anne of Green Gables”, which I also love but haven’t reread in a while.
    I read “The Blue Castle” for the first time last year and I loved it. It’s about a woman growing up in a very restrictive/uppity family and she very miserable for like one or two chapters. But THEN there is a catalyst I won’t mention and it breaks her free to live her life. It was very good & I would recommend

  54. Since we don’t seem to have a Sunday post, I will do a late one here. My dear husband’s favorite part of “Cotillion” is Freddy and his father. Freddy says something about the British Museum being a dashed take in, and then moves on to other topics. Father says “but first I must and will hear about the British Museum”, which DH still exclaims from time to time, decades later.

About the Author

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.

Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com

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