Kidnap Confusion

Rating:
Summary: This Book Should be Back In Print
Review: Because I am a Heyer fan I always want a Regency to be a comedy of manners. I don't want angst, I don't want "problem stories", I want a tale of fun characters working out a humorous solution to a social situation. This is one such book.

Miss Tolliver was well pleased with her life at 28. She had a comfortable home near Yorkshire that she shared with her slightly batty Aunt Henrietta and her aunt's pet rooster, Lazarus. She had a comfortable fortune safely invested by brother Charles, who was a dreadful stick in the mud, but reliable where money was concerned.

The Earl of Manseford was the eldest of four brothers. When his third brother, Gillian was sent down from school due to a prank involving a pig, a nightshirt and a nob, he felt he should play the heavy. This led to Gillian trying to think of some way to improve his brother's mood and drawing his younger brother Peter into a madcap scheme to kidnap an actress for his brother.

When the coach they accost is found not to contain an actess but Miss Tolliver, when the coachman shoots Gillian, when Peter comes down with a dreadful fever, when the inn they repair to is descended upon by the Earl, the dowager Countess, and the second eldest brother John as well as Miss Tolliver's brother Charles and the decidedly unwelcome Chuffy Marletonthorpe, all kinds of possibilities open up including a spurious engagement that the parties, all too soon begin to wish was real.

The writing is not overplayed. The plot is outrageous but rarely descends to slapstick. The eccentrics are nicely presented although the aunts Cassandra (a hypochondriac) and Caroline (who thinks tea the cure for all ills) are probably too much of a good thing, this book is head and shoulder above any regency I've read this past year and maybe long.

Run and find a copy and enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: This Book Should be Back In Print
Review: Because I am a Heyer fan I always want a Regency to be a comedy of manners. I don't want angst, I don't want "problem stories", I want a tale of fun characters working out a humorous solution to a social situation. This is one such book.

Miss Tolliver was well pleased with her life at 28. She had a comfortable home near Yorkshire that she shared with her slightly batty Aunt Henrietta and her aunt's pet rooster, Lazarus. She had a comfortable fortune safely invested by brother Charles, who was a dreadful stick in the mud, but reliable where money was concerned.

The Earl of Manseford was the eldest of four brothers. When his third brother, Gillian was sent down from school due to a prank involving a pig, a nightshirt and a nob, he felt he should play the heavy. This led to Gillian trying to think of some way to improve his brother's mood and drawing his younger brother Peter into a madcap scheme to kidnap an actress for his brother.

When the coach they accost is found not to contain an actess but Miss Tolliver, when the coachman shoots Gillian, when Peter comes down with a dreadful fever, when the inn they repair to is descended upon by the Earl, the dowager Countess, and the second eldest brother John as well as Miss Tolliver's brother Charles and the decidedly unwelcome Chuffy Marletonthorpe, all kinds of possibilities open up including a spurious engagement that the parties, all too soon begin to wish was real.

The writing is not overplayed. The plot is outrageous but rarely descends to slapstick. The eccentrics are nicely presented although the aunts Cassandra (a hypochondriac) and Caroline (who thinks tea the cure for all ills) are probably too much of a good thing, this book is head and shoulder above any regency I've read this past year and maybe long.

Run and find a copy and enjoy!