April Lady (by Georgette Heyer)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m enjoying very much re-reading my Georgette Heyer books yet again, at a rate of around one per month. I hadn’t read ‘April Lady’ since 2012, and have just finished it. I don’t think I would class it as one of my favourites, but even my least favourite Heyer novels are still well-written and, in places, amusing.

This one is set, as most of this author’s historical fiction is, in Regency England. It features 18-year-old Nell, who has been married for about a year to Giles, Lord Cardross. Giles is very wealthy, and rather older than Nell, and a lot of people were very surprised when he fell for a girl barely out of the schoolroom.

Indeed, unusually for the era, both married for love. However, Nell’s mother has assured her daughter that husbands all have mistresses, and that she should be dutiful and well-mannered, but not look for love.

Nell has also been rather extravagant; unused to having much money, she has spent her generous allowance rather unwisely, including lending quite a bit to her brother Dysart, who is a gamer and extremely expensive. We meet her when she’s being confronted by her husband with a sheaf of unpaid bills; he’s not unwilling to pay them, but is curious about some of the expenditure. Even by 21st century standards, some of the amounts spent sound very high. They must have been astronomical 300 years ago.

Unfortunately Nell had entirely forgotten about a huge bill for a ballgown, so when she starts receiving reminders, she panics… and daren’t mention them to Giles; not because he would be angry, but because she’s beginning to realise that he loves her, and doesn’t want him to think she only cares about his money.

The main part of the book is a series of incidents as Nell, aided - and, at times hindered - by Dysart attempts to find ways to raise the money necessary to pay the dress-maker. As they become more embroiled in deception, they come up with more and more ingenious ideas. And Nell becomes more and more anxious.

There’s a sideline too with Giles’ half-sister Letty, who is seventeen and very lively, yet she has fallen in love with a delightfully staid (and sometimes tedious) young man called Jeremy Allenham. Nobody can understand why these totally mismatched people have become so attached; and Giles is not willing to allow his sister to become engaged to a young man with no fortune, and few prospects while she is so young.

It’s the characters and their interactions that make these books so very readable, even when the storyline is somewhat predictable. I had remembered several of the details of the plot but it didn’t matter at all.

Not the best book for an introduction to Georgette Heyer, but certainly recommended if you enjoy this author’s style of writing.

'April Lady' is sometimes available in paperback form, often available second-hand, and now in Kindle form too.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews