has ALL you need!

A community for book lovers to create their own bookshelves, share and explore books.

• .

  • 

  • Venetia Lanyon lives with her younger brother Aubrey, managing the estate for her elder brother who is away with the army. Or abandoning his family duties, whichever option you prefer. As an unmarried woman of 25 years of age she appears to be on the verge of a life of spinsterhood, however, she doe ... Continue

    Venetia Lanyon lives with her younger brother Aubrey, managing the estate for her elder brother who is away with the army. Or abandoning his family duties, whichever option you prefer. As an unmarried woman of 25 years of age she appears to be on the verge of a life of spinsterhood, however, she does have two options in the locality. Oswald Denny is too young for her, but that doesn’t stop him pursuing her. While Edward Yardly is far too “worthy” to really attract her attention. But she has little option. For once her elder brother marries she will have to find somewhere to live, her vague plans for setting up home with the scholarly Audrey are quite eccentric, marriage would be far more prudent.

    I really enjoy Heyer’s works. Even the worst of them have something worth reading them for; whether that is the characters she creates, the humour she uses, or the way she uses language. In this case it is a combination of the humour and the characters. Venetia clearly knows her own mind. She isn’t about to let anyone force her into doing anything she objects to. While at the same time is aware that other people’s opinions are important as she cannot live totally isolated from all society.

    What is really interesting about this book is that it really does show how life for women was limited by convention and “manners”. How Venetia is hamstrung by society’s expectations. It makes for an interesting companion book to The Courtesan’s Revenge. Two contrasting views of a similar society. Harriette Wilson, the courtesan was outside polite society. Yes, she may have mixed with the men of the aristocracy, but she never would have been accepted into “proper society”. Venetia, similarly, is outside most of society simply because she is content to stay in Yorkshire, managing the estate.

    Of course this is a romance, so Venetia will not be *condemned* to a life alone. From the 2nd chapter the reader is pretty much aware of who she will end up with, but that isn’t really important. As always it is the description of how they get together that is important. And in this case it is through a growing friendship, which makes a nice change from people being swept off their feet.

    

    Is this helpful?

• ― Dee said on Oct 12, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

Her beauty rivaled only by her sensibility, Venetia Lanyon is nearly resigned to spinsterhood, thanks to the enormous amount of responsibility she inherited with a Yorkshire estate, an invalid brother and the lackluster efforts of two wearisomely persistent suitors. Then she meets her neighbor, the infamous Lord Damerel, a charming rake shunned by polite society--exactly the type of man that a woman of quality should stay away from.

Though his scandalous past and deepest secrets give Venetia every reason to mistrust him, a rogue always gets what he wants. Without warning, his demanding kiss threatens to become a bachelor's undoing…and a spinster's most passionate awakening.

Groups with this in collection

Invito ai classici (1843)

Margin notes of this book

• Regency19th Centromancefiction2007 Reading