book: these old shades and the devil's cub by georgette heyer

Having now read Georgette Heyer's These Old Shades and The Devil's Cub, I can say the woman is officially one of the few authors who does not often write the same story; I can honestly say the woman who wrote that was like, five million miles from Cotillion or Frederica like whoa.

These Old Shades has the distinction of reading for the entire Leon section like the creepist creepy-creeper slash in history. I kept stopping even knowing why it was happening because hello, as reader, I knew (I mean, I hoped at that point, because I was trapped within that narrative and wanted to be able to look at myself in the mirror the next day with something like respect), but everyone else in the story didn't so what the hell, debauched French aristocrats? I get this was a different time period, and yes, I know the stories of what Louis XV's court was like, and the entire donkey and girl show of legend, but--

--seriously, the entire sitting at Monseigneur's feet while he stroked his page's face and talked gleefully--and often, let me point out--about how he owed him body and soul--I AM QUOTING--my God.

Even like, the Token Upright and Moral Friend is like "OMG SHOCKING" but I did not see him grabbing Leon and running, running, running for the hills either. Or for Champagne, anyway.

I recommend it on pure WTF AM I READING and because it's idfic at it's most blatantly glorious, Justin is so fucked up it's a surprise he stands upright, and all the characters are just not exactly lovable but it kind of doesn't answer because Georgette Goddamn Heyer must have had a blast writing it and you can damn well tell she was laughing into her very proper sheets every night.

The Devil's Cub, the sequel-ish about Justin and Mysterious I Will Not Name Heroine Because Spoilers's sociopathic offspring (if you read the first, you cannot be surprised by this), leaped upon my kinks like an Olympic gymnast Gold-medaling the trampoline--holy God, nothing she wrote ever hit like that.



The thing is, you start the story with Dominik, Marquis of Vidal, See My Sociopathy Is Fairly Inherited From Both Sides (and How!), shooting highwaymen and splattering their brains upon the ground on the way to a party. Then he kind of--leaves the body there. And you are not feeling this is going to be say, a romance you will entirely understand, which is the genius of this thing--Georgette is hitting tropes out of the park--but you really can't see it because you are so unnerved when you realize he's the hero and wtf are you reading?

Yeah, like that.

The young Marquis is a sociopathic dick to everyone, which they seem to be healthy enough to find unnerving but also, being well, really unnerving themselves, also charming. Dominik is all about shooting people. Highwaymen, peers of the realm, random passers-by, he drinks heavily, carouses, kind of seems to hate everyone, and from context, how he got to this with parents who are supposed to be sympathetic being Hero and Heroine before this is a mystery you don't care about because you kind of hate them and him anyway, so whatever.

And also, he like, duels at the drop of a wine bottle in gambling hells and trying to seduce bourgeois girls of respectable family who are not terribly bright but gorgeous and kind of not respectable themselves. He's miserable--you really get the feeling this is some kind of really anachronistic disorder--and his dad after the entire gambling hell thing exiles him to France and tells him to keep his hands off the bourgeois girls, which means he tells her he wants to make her his mistress and run away with him.

Sadly for his aspirations of ruining, Not Bright But Gorgeous has an older sister who is levelheaded, kind of even-tempered, and Not Happy Dominik is trying to make off with her sister (who may be willing, but fuck that shit, Mary is not putting up with her sister being dumb) and intercepts the letter and takes her place. Dominik, being in a hurry and rather drunk, doesn't notice until they get to--a place where you get on boats to go to France, whatever, where Mary decides to reveal herself and fuck with him liek whoa.

So Dominik, being a fucking sociopath, kidnaps her bound for France and says he'll get her drunk to get her on the ship. Mary weighs her options and declines alcoholic assistance, then gets seasick at which time Dominik has on his hands a woman with a really terrifying weapon of projective vomiting, and it's suddenly hilarious.

It's really hard to explain, but that's when I liked Dominik a little, holding the basin and thinking evil just got very strange when you are cossetting the abductee and holding a basin for her.

Later, he gets drunk (shock) and tries to seduce her, at which time Mary takes out the pistol she stole while in the carriage and clarifies his intentions toward her hymen are unwelcome. The entire seasickness thing did not penetrate, apparently; Dominik starts toward her and Mary shoots him. She really doesn't want to do it, and apologizes afterward and Dominik kind of stares for a while and then gets a fever, with the understanding that Mary is a lady who can shoot you with her eyes closed and still strike a direct hit and will also bandage you up afterward. But she will shoot your ass again if you threaten her virtue, and still feel bad about it. And bandage it again, of course. I'm going to say, as heroines go, I kind of love her for that. I get the feeling she would shoot and bandage until the lesson sank in, and feel terrible, but that doesn't affect her aim all that much. At all.

This is when Dominik realizes Mary is a Lady (and knows how to shoot people); conscience-stricken (I KNOW) he says he has to marry her. She's appalled at the idea. As one might very well be.

Anyway, Dominik and Mary go to Paris with grim determination while Mary makes plans to run run run to be a governess somewhere, being ruined and all, while Dominik prevails upon Juliana, his cousin, to take her BFF Mary (they were friends in school) into her house with Tante Elizabeth as chaperone. Then he realizes The Horrific Roadblock to Marriage--they're Anglicans in France and they have to find a Protestant parson.

I am not joking, this is the roadblock. (Can't go to the embassy due to teh embassy being obvious for reasons regarding ruining. It's very convoluted but it makes sense when you read it.)

Dominik's sociopathy is somehow restrained, possibly due to Mary's entire "I won't ever marry you even if it kills me" and Dominik's "You wish death would get you away from me!" which Mary finds less scary than just goddamn irritating. Unlike Dominik, she is not one to use exclamation points when periods are fine for punctuation. There's a secondary plot with the sensible Comyn, who is not a lord but rich and came to Paris to sensibly elope with Juliana. Comyn knows he is in the wrong story altogether and deals with it all very calmly and coolly, up to and including calmly and coolly (and hilariously) letting Juliana in a fit of pique break their engagement and grimly go offer his hand to Mary immediately so to get the hell away from these people.

(That would have been the scariest marriage ever. Comyn is calm, cool, sensible, and has no need whatsoever of Mary's calm, cool competence at all. They couldn't have gotten through their wedding night without backgammon. It's actually brilliant how Georgette really made you afraid of this going through. Just, no. I mean in all seriousness, the scariest part of the story was their flight to Dijon to the Anglican pastor that Dominik unearthed.)

Dominik, who had the night before showed really uncomfortable signs of returning breaks with reality when Comyn was caught doing something so ungentlemanly as visit Mary and kiss her hand, has an epic breakdown when Mary and Comyn run off together. Comyn, being as I said calm, cool, sensible, honorable, and possibly suicidal, left a letter for Dominik helpfully explaining what he's doing and where they're going. Juliana throws a fit her former sekrit boyfriend made off with Mary and the two of them hit the road like the fist of an angry god (Dominik's default setting).

Comyn, being suicidal, is not getting Mary rushing their asses to Dijon (having been there, done that with Calais to Paris with Dominik, she's aware that stopping to breathe is a bad idea, much less for anything else), and they finally get there and into beds while Mary waits for Dominik to leap from the shadows (she's a smart girl; she knows this will happen). Dominik and Juliana find them at the inn, where Comyn, being again fucking suicidal (he's seen Dominik drunk off his ass calling for a duel in a gaming hell and then Comyn was second to the guy Dominik dueled and then he ministered to the almost-dead guy, so what the fuck, Comyn) says that he and Mary are married.

At which time Dominik tries to strangle him to death right then and there.

Mary gets a urn of water and throws it at them, at which time Dominik goes with what he knows and calls for a duel in the inn to the death because widowhood would suit Mary much better. They start the duel, Juliana is hysterical, Mary is nearly bouncing with frustration and finally grabs a coat to catch at their swords and Dominik's sword makes a tiny cut in her shoulder.

By the way Dominik reacts to that, you wonder for serious about his time in bedlam, as in, why was he never there. Hysterical (so not kidding), he half-strips her in the middle of the inn common room so he can tenderly cover the scratch with a handkerchief and stare at Comyn hatefully and crazily promise he can marry Mary all he wants but he'll never, ever, ever, ever have her as she is Dominik's and it's so ridiculously hot I had to stop and kind of love everything in the universe.

(Oh fuck it, judge away; the entire sequence was insanely hot.)

Anyway, Dominik sends Mary tenderly to her room and Comyn admits he wasn't married to Mary, at which time even Dominik is staring at him saying "ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME? WITH THE CHOKING AND THE SWORDS AND SERIOUSLY?" As one does. At which time Dominik's mom shows up and Mary hears her say how much she hates the ruined girl Dominik will marry and decides it's time to run away again, which honestly, she's quite good at. Jumping on a stagecoach, she takes off to parts unknown while Dominik declares he'll kill everyone and be disinherited and all but he will marry Mary even if she will never ever let him near her hymen.

Meanwhile, in a different town, Mary is treated badly by a landlord and his wife before a Mysterious Yet Weirdly Familiar Older Nobleman shows up to help her get a room and beguile her into dinner. At which time he charms the story out of Mary and realizes she's actually a human-shaped anti-sociopathy treatment regime and possibly, a mid-tier deity of some kind. Mostly, she just wants a nice post as a governess somewhere, as being in love with Dominik is bound to just end in his family hating her (this is what she worries about. Not so much Dominik, which in a weird way you get. Around her his powers of I Am a Serial Killer become dimmer, like IDK, crazy-kryptonite). He'll be disinherited, which is also problematic from Mary's perspective, I suppose because they won't have the money to get all the bloodstains out of Dominik's clothes with his crazy-killing.)

Dominik shows up to stare in horror at his father and Mary; his father states he sucks and Mary could do much better than this, but if she's okay with it, he's already put a plan in place to marry them off and all is fine. Apparently, as long as they have the money for the aforementioned bloodstain problem, marriage is fine, and so Dominik's mother meets her and loves her and its' all good.

I love this book so much I'm stupid from it. It's ridiculous. It's cliched. But during the narrative, you do not see the cliches because it's just that--IDEK. Amazing.

ETA: A passage that should have badly freaked me out is this entire convo with Juliana that was a reminder that, right, Dominik is fucked up sociopathic, while he told Juliana he could force her to eat and do whatever else he wanted to her, dammit, since he had her in his power just like he had Mary but Mary was totally not having vapors about it (being one with the vomiting on him and shooting him and such). It's so goddamn creepy and it was actually just Dominik's really terrifying version of a romantic declaration. It's unreal. There's a sense of "daww" how cute while Juliana is going "I AM IN THE POWER OF MY PSYCHO COUSIN MURDERER" and yet. Daww. Dominik, you crazy-puppy.





Dominik, Marquis of Vidal to Juliana, his first cousin, on the way to Dijon:

"You think it was vastly romantic for Mary to be carried off by me, don't you? You think you would enjoy it, and you cannot conceive how she should be afraid, can you? Then think, my girl. Think a little! You are in my power at this moment, I may remind you. What if I make you feel it? What if I say to start with that you shall eat your dinner, and force it down your throat?"

Juliana shrank back from him involuntarily. "Don't, Vidal! Don't come near me!" she said, frightened by the expression on his face.

He laughed. "Not so romantic, is it, Ju? And to force you to eat your dinner would be a small thing compared with some other things I might force you to do. Sit down, I'm not going to touch you."

*****

Justin, Duke of Avon, to his son Dominik, Marquis of Vidal, on his betrothal to Mary:

"Delay your affecting demonstrations a moment longer, Vidal. I have to inform you that your late adversary** was, when I left England, on the road to recovery."

"My late adversary?" frowned his lordship. "Oh, Quarles! Was he, sir?"

"You not appear to feel any undue interest in his fate," remarked Avon.

The Marquis was looking at Mary. He said casually,"It makes no odds to me now, sir. He can live for all I care."

**The gambling hell thing that made Avon send Dominik to France.

Same convo:

"I comfort myself with the reflection that your wife will possibly be able to curb your desire--I admit, a natural one for the most part - to exterminate your fellows."



Ms Heyer, I salute you. You are brilliant.

Comments

[musesfool]

Devil's Cub is MY VERY FAVORITE Heyer. Possibly because I read it at an impressionable age. But Mary is the BEST HEROINE EVER because she SHOOTS VIDAL. And pukes on him. But mostly because of the shooting. I know it has some seriously problematic stuff in it, but I love it anyway.

[seperis]

I think These Old Shades innoculated me from pretty much half of Devils' Cub. It's awesome. Just the shooting of Vidal is awesome. And she's sorry! But it's not like she won't do it again if she has to. I love her.

[commodorified]

This. Pretty much this. And now you must go and get Infamous Army and see how the great-grandchildren turned out, because we already know how Waterloo turned out...

[seperis]

*g* Got it. It's up as soon as I finish Nonesuch and marvel how the same woman wrote such utterly disparate books.

[dine]

this is the most brilliant summation of everything I love about these two books! they push every single one of my buttons, and I still crush so hard on Dominic (at least 35 years after first reading them). it really is astonishing how different they are in flavour from so many of her other titles, most of which I also enjoy, but not to such a demented degree

[seperis]

*nods* I just boggle at her sheer range. Most authors period don't have this kind of both style and character range and complexity, it's staggering.

[alas]

What I love about These Old Shades is that it is essentially Heyer writing fanfic for her own work - I don't know if you've read her first novel, The Black Moth or not, but she very obviously found the villain of it too interesting not to flesh out and give a romance of his own XD, even though she changed everyone's name.

I just boggle at her sheer range. Most authors period don't have this kind of both style and character range and complexity, it's staggering.

I also love how she adjusts her entire writing style, not just the dialogue, for the time period she's writing in - the Georgian books are much heavier feeling then her fluffy regency romances, and her more modern mystery novels are again different.

[fyrdrakken]

I read The Black Moth last week right before going on to These Old Shades, because I had it already waiting for me because it's $.99 on Kindle, and was absolutely delighted to discover that it's basically a prologue to the later pair of books.

[stranger]

You know, I read all of Heyer back when I was young (and it was the 70s), so a lot of things that are now problematic didn't impinge on my radar at the time. I just loved them all uncritically, or anyway most of them. (There are a couple of duds that are Too Gothick or Too Historical for me.) Devil's Cub is terrific, and you have described it in such a way that it becomes completely clear that Mary Challoner is one of the literary mothers for Bujold's Cordelia Naismith. She knows her society, and she makes it conform to her will instead of vice versa.

I could argue some about These Old Shades, about Justin being a former, if not entirely reformed, rake rather than the real bad thing. (The real bad thing was in Black Moth, a very early Heyer rather heavy on Gothic atmosphere.) He has the tools and knows how to use them, but just because of that, he's *bored* with raking for raking's sake, and he's at least looking for another agenda. So many heroes need the Love of a Good Woman for this, but Justin has made his fortune and got some sense, before the book started. Not that there isn't a certain creep factor, now that you mention it, and not just in the excesses of pre-Revolutionary France. You're never sure whether the reform or the rake is going to win.

[meredyth]

You made me laugh like a loon - Devil's Cub is definitely my favourite of all Heyer's (and I pretty much love them all) and Vidal is on my list of fictional characters I would like to ... know. >.>

Sadly I don't have Mary's innate sense and perception, or her calm, so I'm sure he would murder me almost instantly, but it would be worth it.

I was ready to strangle Rupert in DC - he is amusing, but also damned annoying.

Despite all the various hotnes and declarations throughout DC, the one moment I love most is when Mary and Leonie come back downstairs and the men are drinking a toast, and Mary and Dominik exchange that look. *happy sigh*

[seperis]

Rupert and the wine. I kind of just boggled at him through that, "OKAY WHATEVER LIFE IS GOING ON BUT THIS BURGUNDY, YO."

Oh Rupert. And that random moment of boot-advertising, where he and Dominik compare their bootmakers. I just--*hands*. Really, guys? Really?

[torch]

Isn't there a bit where someone says oh that Dominic, so bad, but he's not a patch on his dad in the day. Which makes you really wonder what Justin got up to (maybe it's just that he had more years getting up to it, whereas Dominic ends up in sociopathic love and presumably married at a much younger age), apart from having an affair with his best friend at some point; clearly they had an amicable breakup, and Justin decided he really liked girls, though preferrably girls who were boys who looked like girls who... well, who are less than half his age. Mm, Heyer. Age difference and occasional transvestism. (And of course all those protagonists keep the clothes in their wardrobes for later use.)

[seperis]

Justin decided he really liked girls, though preferrably girls who were boys who looked like girls who... well, who are less than half his age. Mm, Heyer. Age difference and occasional transvestism.

With RP elements and kneeling at his feet for cuddling purposes. Just. Oh Heyer.

(Not that Leonie in her own right wasn't scary; she was homicide on two feet.)

[snakeling]

I haven't read These Old Shades and have been spoiled enough that I have no desire to, but I love Devil's Cub. I love heroines who don't put up with the hero's nonsense :) My favourite Heyers are Black Sheep and Venetia, which are two others of these heroines (and Venetia has definite shades of Harriet Vane going on, too).

[pepper]

Sorry, passing by on the network page and I had to comment because OMG I adored both these books. I read them when I was a teenager, and found them hysterically funny and romantic at the same time. It's the humour that sets them above the average, I think. And the thought that Mary, once she's officially The Wife, will enjoy the hell out of all that money and privilege and being with Dominic. Much though he's a bastard, and kind of a big baby, he knows how to have a good time - and they both seem to love just heading off without a suitcase and having adventures.

My crush on Justin, Duke of Avon simply will. not. go. away., though - possibly because I was watching Avon on Blake's 7 at the time, who has a lot of the same villainous charm. I'm forever awed at Georgette Heyer's ability to convince me he could actually kill someone with just a gold suit and a story. *fans self*

(I recommend 'Sylvester', if you've not read that one yet, it has a charming variation on the seasickness-as-weapon theme. And 'The Talisman Ring' for the sensible heroine who fucking rocks, and how sensible heroine+sensible hero can also work, and scenes that made me laugh so much it hurt.)

[venetia_sassy]

The Talisman Ring! I love Miss Sarah Thane, she is marvellous. And I utterly adore her brother. He will put up with a great deal (if he notices it) but he will not stand for corpses littering the premises. I laugh every time I read that scene.

[pollyanna]

I've read all the Heyer romances, and loved these descriptions, particularly of "Devil's Cub" which for some reason didn't really register as so bat-shit crazy when I was a teenager :-)

But Kindle is leading me into bad habits, not only is it so easy to download old favourites, but reading this I was suddenly flummoxed at my inability to highlight Unlike Dominik, she is not one to use exclamation points when periods are fine for punctuation. so I'll just have to quote it to show my admiration

[liviapenn]

Having now read Georgette Heyer's These Old Shades and The Devil's Cub, I can say the woman is officially one of the few authors who does not often write the same story; I can honestly say the woman who wrote that was like, five million miles from Cotillion or Frederica like whoa.

Oh heck yeah. All of her books are wonderfully different.

Also, yes to everything you said about "these old shades" and the "leon" section. Seriously when I read it I did not actually get that Leon was a girl until the big reveal, so I was like "okay so this creepy creepster creeping is part of Justin's big plan to... I DON'T EVEN KNOW, what is going ON here?!" .....

But yes, you know that Georgette Heyer would have looked all innocently at anyone who suggested such a thing and been like "Creepy and wrong? What are you saying?" and then gone away and snickered herself to DEATH. Oh, man, so wrong.

[seperis]

"okay so this creepy creepster creeping is part of Justin's big plan to... I DON'T EVEN KNOW, what is going ON here?!" .....

The only way I didn't get really nervous during the entire Leon Oh Wow I Swear Something Like This Happened on NAMBLA was assuming the girl thing. Though granted, I was trying to work out Justin's entire plan there. As there didn't seem to be much of it other than creepy-creeper creeping things.

But yes, you know that Georgette Heyer would have looked all innocently at anyone who suggested such a thing and been like "Creepy and wrong? What are you saying?" and then gone away and snickered herself to DEATH.

Oh man, she would. And be like "I see no creepy-creeper undertones at the beginning; what did you think happened?" which--well done, Georgette. Well done indeed.

[rike_tikki_tavi]

Best summary of The Devil's Cub ever.

She shot him and then she bandaged him up and then SHE MADE HIM DRINK GRUEL. Bwahahahahaha!!!

[venetia_sassy]

MARY IS AWESOME. GEORGETTE HEYER WRITES MANY AWESOME HEROINES.

This whole post made me laugh so much because it's all true. And I agree that the prospect of Mary/Comyn was one of the scariest bits of the book. That ... would have gone so very wrong.

I love this book so much I'm stupid from it. It's ridiculous. It's cliched. But during the narrative, you do not see the cliches because it's just that--IDEK. Amazing.

This is how I feel about The Talisman Ring in particular. It's utterly ridiculous, makes no logical sense and yet, it is so much fun, such glorious, hilarious fun that it's only once you've put the book down that you think ... wtf just happened?

It's possible that I really, really love Georgette Heyer novels. And have read them all dozens of times. Except ... for These Old Shades. It's the only one I haven't read. And once I've read it there will be no new Heyers. *horrified*

(And yes, the first part of my username is a tribute to the intelligent, capable, self-aware heroine of Venetia, she of the sneaky sense of humour and clear-eyed view of the world. I can only wish to be so awesome.)

[twistedchick]

Best summary of Devil's Cub ever. I love that book.

Of course, in my mind, the only person who could ever play Justin Alastair (at any age) is Leonard Nimoy. Especially in this book. Imagine him at the inn, where Mary is having dinner with Justin...

[seperis]

...oh my God. Yes. YES. Perfect. He'd rock the ebony cane and sinister yet brilliant air of consequence. Yes, this.

[malkingrey]

I think the best way to describe These Old Shades and Devil's Cub is "gloriously over-the-top." Readers in search of psychological realism need not apply.

(I, too, imprinted upon those books when I was but a mere high-schooler, and found the scene where Mary shoots Vidal to be a thing of wonder. Fiction is full of trembling heroines who at some point in the story hold another character at gunpoint . . . but Mary actually pulled the trigger.)

[seperis]

I love that scene; she didn't even debate, just went for it. And her very real apology. And the knowledge she'd totally do it again if he didn't stop the creepster-creeping already.

I also liked her wistful thoughts going "I could totally manage him," between Shall I Governess or Milliner? Just. I love her.

[everbright]

HOLY BALLS. I just wiki'd the book and it was written in 1926! How did I not know this? I thought she was a modern author! They put her stuff in with Joanna Lindsay for godchrist!

[seperis]

Oh, ouch. *winces*

She's so ridiculously awesome.

[supermouse]

Devil's Cub is a very well worn favourite book of mine, but you took me through the story with fresh eyes. I was, quite literally and without exaggeration, *crying* with laughter by the time I finished reading this post.

You seem to love it for all the same reasons I do.

[lastscorpion]

Brilliant summaries!

When I first read These Old Shades I was all, "Didn't I read a Clex slavefic like this???"

[liviapenn]

Ha! I was like "OK, did someone TRAVEL BACK IN TIME and file the serial numbers off their Harry/Snape regency fic?"

[artekka.livejournal.com]

I have read "These Old Shades", but not "Devil's Cub". Yet.
Meanwhile, I want to read MORE of your reviews of Heyer novels. This was brilliant, and I was practically ROLLING.

[winter-elf.livejournal.com]

The Devil's Cub is one of my favorites :)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

ME TOO. I KIND OF BOGGLE AT IT BUT MY GOD IT WAS AWESOME!!!!

Unlike Mary, I will allcap and exclamation point like whoa.

thing i read today

[pingback-bot.livejournal.com]

User insaneneko referenced to your post from thing i read today (http://insaneneko.livejournal.com/482753.html) saying: [...] writes about These Old Shades and Devil's Cub in a rather difficult to read but fun post [...]

[leonie-alastair.livejournal.com]

Hi, I'm a lurker. And as you might guess from the user name - a long time Heyer fan. The Duke and Duchess of Avon, my first and still favorite OTP!

"These Old Shades" is one of Heyer's earliest books (I think it's her first published romance) and owes more to the Baroness Orczy then it does to Jane Austen. It doesn't explain the creepiness, but it does explain the stylistic differences.

Now that you've read the middle two books, you should read "The Black Moth" (a prequel even though the characters don't have the same names) and "The Infamous Army" in which Vidal's granddaughter flirts her way through Brussels on the eve of the battle of Waterloo. "The Infamous Army" may have the best five page description of the battle of Waterloo ever written.

Or if you haven't read them read "Venetia" and "The Grand Sophy" which are probably her best books and maybe tied for best regency romance ever.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

The Grand Sophy up until Devil's Cub was with Cotillion my favorite Heyer. But Devil's Cub is just--insanely awesome. Now I have a thresome of awesome.

I'm re-reading the Nonesuch (God, talk about whiplash) but I downloaded Infamous Army and Venetia both and they are up next. Kindle makes this ridiculously easy, dammit. Next up after that is to grab The Reluctant Window and Sebastian I think.

...Venetia is moving up now into next, I think.

[fairlyironic.livejournal.com]

I so totally have to read this again now!

Georgette Heyer is all over the place for me. There are some of her works that I love, some that I love but find problematic, and some that I find problematic period, and then a few that I find actually boring.

Oh, and hey, perfect timing. Did you know that Georgette Heyer is one of the 10 top selling authors in the world? Georgette Heyer sells better than *JK Rowling.*

[be-a-rebel.livejournal.com]

--seriously, the entire sitting at Monseigneur's feet while he stroked his page's face and talked gleefully--and often, let me point out--about how he owed him body and soul--I AM QUOTING--my God.

*grins* I love that ridiculously kinky book. The Devil's Cub is my favourite but I love These Old Shades as well.

Also, totally with you on the insanely hot here:

By the way Dominik reacts to that, you wonder for serious about his time in bedlam, as in, why was he never there. Hysterical (so not kidding), he half-strips her in the middle of the inn common room so he can tenderly cover the scratch with a handkerchief and stare at Comyn hatefully and crazily promise he can marry Mary all he wants but he'll never, ever, ever, ever have her as she is Dominik's and it's so ridiculously hot I had to stop and kind of love everything in the universe.


Try A Civil Contract. It feels even more completely different from her other books.

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

Civil Contract is my hands-down favorite, for its sheer ADULTNESS. Not in the sexytiems way, but because it is filled with people who think about their actions.

I love a lot of different Heyers, but yeah, Devil's Cub is for when I want more DRAMA.

[innocentsmith.livejournal.com]

The Devil's Cub is flippin' glorious. I love it like pie. It's so aware of and mocking the tropes it's using, and simultaneously just...working them for all they're worth. Sort of like the Mary/Vidal pairing, really! Half level-headed sense of humor, half batshit crazy and obviously everything that's bad for you but really goddamn hot.

The whole sequence of,

VIDAL: I sexually menace you now!
MARY: Do you have any Pepto-Bismol? *ulp!*
VIDAL: ...LOL. Okay, here, I'll hold your hair back.

followed by

VIDAL: I sexually menace you now (again, for serious)!
MARY: I will so totally shoot you.
VIDAL: Pfft, you don't have the guts.
MARY: *totally shoots him*
VIDAL: ...Okay, you have the guts.
MARY: OMG poor baby, are you okay?

Is one of my favorite things in any book ever.