Frederica by Georgette Heyer

I just finished reading Frederica by Georgette Heyer. I only started reading Heyer’s books a couple months ago and now I am obsessed with getting all of her best novels. So far I have bought 9 of her books and Venetia came in the mail yesterday to total 10. Yippee! I now own the following: The Devil’s Cub – Reviewed These Old Shades The Black Sheep – Reviewed Reluctant Widow – Reviewed Faro’s Daughter Frederica Friday’s Child Cotillion Sylvester Venetia I have been debating whether to buy The Talisman Ring, The Grand Sophy and The Convenient Marriage. What do you think? Anyone recommend these stories too? Other Georgette Heyer novels? Frederica has been my favourite novel of the four I have read now and I think Frederica Merriville is the strongest female character created by Heyer so far. Frederica is determined to give her beautiful younger sister Charis a season in London to make a comfortable marriage. She asks very distant relation Marquis of Alverstoke to hold a ball at his London home to present her sister to the Ton and the Marquis agrees, but only to gain revenge upon his sister and relieve his persistent boredom. So follows the tale of the Merriville family in London and all the scrapes they get into. Frederica is only 24 but has been raising her three younger siblings for years since their father died and her brother Harry went to Oxford. She has not much thought for herself and has determined to never marry, only thinking of a beau for Charis. At turns I thought Frederica lighthearted yet serious, ardent yet distant, knowledgeable yet naïve. Heyer has given her wit, an independent spirit and although she may not be the most beautiful woman in the story but she is certainly the most vibrant, loyal, determined and unassuming. I was really captivated by the Merriville family dynamic. Heyer certainly thought up some creative scrapes for the younger Merriville children, Charis, Felix and Jessamy, to get into…running the gamut from balloon adventures to almost elopements. Too funny. Their brother and the heir to the estate, Harry, rusticated from Oxford arrives in London and is shocked by all the goings-on. He is mostly self-absorbed as only young men can be but eventually puts his hand in to take up the reins of the family…with disastrous results! But somehow the Marquis is always there to save the day… Frederica is a delight and I highly recommend it. I only wished the story was longer. My Rating: 4.5 More Georgette Heyer Reviews at Jane Austen’s World Chapters Amazon