Rating: 
Summary: A different, more intimate Georgette Heyer book...
Review: This is a superior Georgette Heyer work; a bit darker and more serious than most of her other books, but as always there is the fast wit, and a happy ending.Kate Malvern is the orphaned daughter of a goodhearted, gambling-prone father and a beautiful but poor mother. Her father's death leaves her alone and impoverished in the world, and she comes to stay with her old nurse, Sarah, while looking for a new job. An aunt comes along and kindly and affectionately invites her to stay in her husband's family estate. Kate agrees, reluctantly-- because none of her relatives have never acknowledged her existence before. Staplewood, the estate, is beautiful and cold, and there she meets her cousin Torquil (a young man with the face of an angel), her sickly uncle Sir Timothy, and Sir Timothy's nephew Phillip. At first, everything seems too good to be true, and slowly, Kate unravels the deep secret that haunts the family. Kate is a very charming and appealing heroine. She is mature yet innocent, is very witty and charming without being obnoxious, and is spirited without being willful or heedless. The hero, kind-hearted Phillip, is neither a dandy nor a cynical Corinthian, which is quite refreshing. Although still a Cinderella story of sorts, the romance between them is much more satisfying and believable than those in most other Heyer works. Overall, a very interesting and different book from Georgette Heyer, and one of her best.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointingly different from Heyer's usual Regencies
Review: When I first read Cousin Kate, many years ago, I didn't like it much. But I decided that it was time to give it another try, to see whether my tastes had changed with maturity. Not in this case, it seems. I realise that this book is in the Gothic style, and of course even Jane Austen tried one Gothic novel - which I don't like anything like as much as the other Austens. My problem with Cousin Kate, however, wasn't its Gothic content, but the fact that much of it is extremely boring. Heyer's other works are full of witty dialogue and entertaining characters; here, the dialogue is dull, the characters uninteresting (even the hero, Philip Broome, failed to excite me), and the narration and introspection tedious. I realise that Heyer is trying, for some part of the book, to indicate Kate's boredom with her situation, but there's no need to bore the readers at the same time! I couldn't really come to like Kate much, at the same time. She's a young woman of quality - lower-ranking aristocracy - fallen on hard times, like a number of Heyer's other heroines, but without the character or determination or resilience of those other heroines. She hasn't got an ounce of Ancilla Trent's independence and resourcefulness, for example. I found myself gritting my teeth at the way Kate takes her old nurse, Sarah Nidd, for granted: the woman left her family's employ many years earlier and is married with her own family, and yet Kate assumes that she can simply descend on Sarah any time she wants, and be waited on hand and foot - for nothing - in Sarah's own home. No wonder Sarah wrote to Kate's aunt Minerva! However, this is clearly an aberration among Heyer's usual excellent work. And I don't agree with a previous reviewer that it marked a decline in her talent; Lady of Quality, to which that reviewer refers, is another highly enjoyable Heyer.
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat darker than usual
Review: When Kate Malvern finds herself unable to obtain another post as a governess, her future looks bleak.As a penniless, orphaned daughter of an army officer of good family, her chances of a good marriage are negligible.Unexpectedly,she is visited by an aunt whom she has never met before and whisked off to the country.Aunt Minerva plies her with gifts and clothes,but, to her horror, realises that she's been chosen as a bride for her mad cousin Torquil.She then meets Philip, a nephew and possible heir of Sir Timothy, Torquils father, and they fall madly in love. Terrible tragedy befalls the family before the obligatory happy ending.It's a likeable quick read and quite a bit darker than Miss Heyers usual tales.
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