Helpful Score: 1
My first Heyer and it didn't disappoint. It's really a great book. Sophy is the master of sticky situations and what could be better than solving problems and falling in love in the process?
Helpful Score: 1
Great fun! In some ways it's the counterpoint to Jane Austen's "Ema," since Sophy meddles dreadfully but it all works out very well according to her plan.
Helpful Score: 1
First a word about the author. If youve never read a Georgette Heyer Regency she is the gold standard against which other Regency Romance authors are compared. Her work is beautiful researched but still delightfully readable: filled with fascinating characters, complex plots and beautiful settings.
Sophy is the daughter of a diplomat who is sent to stay with English relatives who do not know her. They are expecting a shy and timid mouse are they in for a BIG surprise!
Sophy arrives complete with a monkey and a parrot [which was not raised in a vicarage] for the children, an Italian greyhound at her feet and her personal groom and maid in attendance. She is tall and although not classically beautiful, her vivacious charm wins over all the family members in the first meeting except Charles, the dour eldest son.
Charles is pained by his cousins behavior. She is forward, bold, out-spoken and a bad influence on his family. Already she is encouraging sister Cecilias unfortunate infatuation with a poet, encouraging brother Hubert to confide in her rather than himself, fascinating the children and befriending his mother. Everyone loves her except Charles fiancée
Sophy is never bored, there is always something, or someone, to put to rights and she finds ample situations in her newly acquired family. Theres Cecilia who is weeping over her poet and the older man they want her to marry, theres Hubert who is obviously laboring under a heavy burden of worry, and Charles who has become a domestic tyrant and is engaged to a truly tedious girl which he intends to inflict on the family by moving her into the house after the wedding. But shes set worse situations to rights, its only a matter of planning and initiative
The book abounds with wits, rakes, snobs and eccentrics, all fashionably dressed and involved in a whirlwind of social activities. It sparkles with intelligent, witty and charming conversation. The plot has a satisfying number of twists without anyone stumbling over a dead body or kidnapping the king or even losing a diamond necklace. The romance is warm and believable. Like most of Georgette Heyers work, this is a stand alone novel.
Sophy is the daughter of a diplomat who is sent to stay with English relatives who do not know her. They are expecting a shy and timid mouse are they in for a BIG surprise!
Sophy arrives complete with a monkey and a parrot [which was not raised in a vicarage] for the children, an Italian greyhound at her feet and her personal groom and maid in attendance. She is tall and although not classically beautiful, her vivacious charm wins over all the family members in the first meeting except Charles, the dour eldest son.
Charles is pained by his cousins behavior. She is forward, bold, out-spoken and a bad influence on his family. Already she is encouraging sister Cecilias unfortunate infatuation with a poet, encouraging brother Hubert to confide in her rather than himself, fascinating the children and befriending his mother. Everyone loves her except Charles fiancée
Sophy is never bored, there is always something, or someone, to put to rights and she finds ample situations in her newly acquired family. Theres Cecilia who is weeping over her poet and the older man they want her to marry, theres Hubert who is obviously laboring under a heavy burden of worry, and Charles who has become a domestic tyrant and is engaged to a truly tedious girl which he intends to inflict on the family by moving her into the house after the wedding. But shes set worse situations to rights, its only a matter of planning and initiative
The book abounds with wits, rakes, snobs and eccentrics, all fashionably dressed and involved in a whirlwind of social activities. It sparkles with intelligent, witty and charming conversation. The plot has a satisfying number of twists without anyone stumbling over a dead body or kidnapping the king or even losing a diamond necklace. The romance is warm and believable. Like most of Georgette Heyers work, this is a stand alone novel.
Helpful Score: 1
This is one of the best of Georgette Heyer's novels. For anyone unfamiliar with her works, she is Jane Austen with an even strong sense of the absurd and the wit to see through people's pretensions. Sophy is the "not-so-little any more" niece of Lady Ombersley, whose arrival promptly sets the family's well ordered world on its ear. Her cousin, Charles, is at first infuriated and then gradually charmed by her no-nonsense ways, and it is clear that the family is in dire need of someone like Sophy to get them out of the doldrums. Charles' intended fiancee, Eugenia, who has a very fine opinion of herself and a very low opinion of everyone else, is one of those prim and proper young ladies who delight in point out others faults "so that they may improve". His younger sister, Cecilia, is in the midst of forming a disasterous relationship with a pretentious young man who writes very bad poetry, and his brother, Hubert, is into gambling debts up to his eyebrows. Sophy, very much the managing female she's accused of being, decides she's arrived in the nick of time to save the family from a disasterous ruin.
This is one of Heyer's most delightful books, full of fun and amusing characters, including Sophy's soon to be mama, Sancia, who seems to be straying from her desire to marry Sophy's papa. Through it all, Sophy maintains a firm hand on the reins, steering the family from the brink of disaster until all of them, most especially Charles, realize what a prize they have in Sophy. For anyone who's never read a really well-written Regancy novel, I highly recommend they start with The Grand Sophy. It's one of the very best.
This is one of Heyer's most delightful books, full of fun and amusing characters, including Sophy's soon to be mama, Sancia, who seems to be straying from her desire to marry Sophy's papa. Through it all, Sophy maintains a firm hand on the reins, steering the family from the brink of disaster until all of them, most especially Charles, realize what a prize they have in Sophy. For anyone who's never read a really well-written Regancy novel, I highly recommend they start with The Grand Sophy. It's one of the very best.
