Cotillion Audio CD – CD, March 24, 2015

So, what’s a Regency cotillion? Four couples facing form a square, then everyone change partners and dance! I admit I’m a Georgette Heyer fanatic, but this book is far beyond something fun for her fans. It sparkles, it shines, and it’s so laugh-out-loud funny you shouldn’t read it anywhere near someone sleeping. It even has a little something to say, in a sly way that sneaks up on you.Matthew Penicuik is a grouchy tightwad. (A tightwad named “penny-quick” – I thought only Dickens could get away with that.) He has no heirs apart from his adopted daughter, Kitty Charing, and a broad assortment of great-nephews, any one of whom can inherit the money, if he’s the one who marries Kitty. Matthew calls everyone concerned to a dinner at Arnside House, to have the fun of telling them while he’s still alive. The plot device works, for the most part because of the well-drawn characters of all the nephews. Kitty’s a nice girl with a level head, but she’s lived as a virtual prisoner, and she’s desperate to get two things – a trip to London, and a little payback from Jack Westruther, the handsome cousin she’s always adored. He is also the rakish nephew who doesn’t bother showing up for the dinner, thereby humiliating Kitty. Deeply wounded, she wheedles another of the nephews into helping her have both things, by putting on a sham engagement. Freddy Standen, Jack’s cousin, is not a rake, nor is he particularly handsome. Actually, he’s a fashion-obsessed numbskull, but he’s too nice to say no to Kitty. Despite a skeptical Uncle Mathew, the scheme works, and sets her free for a month in London, to be formally introduced to Freddy’s family as well as society.Now the dance begins, nephews, cousins, friends and acquaintances in constantly-shifting romantic motion in Regency London. The situations are funny, the dialogue bright, and Freddy Standen is one of the best characters ever put on paper. Heyer herself divied up most of her male leads into two categories she labeled Mark I and Mark II; suave, rich and world-weary, or a little more rakish and savage. But both are Alpha males, power players. With Freddy, it’s as if she decided to take a secondary character, someone goofy like Sherry’s boon companion Ferdy Fakenham in Friday’s Child, and look a bit deeper. On the surface, Freddy is Bertie Wooster down to the ground, an adorable airhead not the least ashamed of what he is. He lets his brother at Oxford be the brain-box. Freddy never whips off his glasses and becomes a superhero, but there’s a bit more to him than meets the eye, and his skewed vision of the world is hysterical. Freddy’s father, Lord Legerwood, is a person Kitty holds in awestruck admiration for his intellect and well-bred wit. His scenes with his eldest son are a riot, with a tolerant tone of, “Freddy, I’m astonished. You have unplumbed depths.” He’s the Jeeves to Freddy’s Wooster.But these aren’t the only great characters. They’re all great, and so a fast-moving book with lots of players is never the least confusing. In a brilliant stroke, one of the nephews, Lord Dolphinton, is a bit slow. Well, more than a bit, actually. “Seven-months baby,” Freddy says. It would never have occurred to me, to write an earl who was just plain simple. I have visions of the politically correct going postal over Dolph, but I don’t think Heyer has to be defended with the standard “product of her time” argument. Dolph is played for laughs, no less than anyone else, but he’s a touching character who takes a surprising journey of his own. In fact, everyone here takes a road trip, and they all come out the other side knowing a lot more about themselves.I thought Venetia was Georgette Heyer’s best historical romance, but now it has company. In fact, in some ways, Cotillion is even better, because of its flawless pace and plot. When you’re done, don’t give it away. You’ll want to read it again.

controlled by a parent, and discussion of pregnancy.OK this one took me a while to get into, I won't lie. The opening few chapters didn't catch hold of me for a good while - this is actually the second time I've tried to read it, and I only made it two chapters in before getting bored the first time. But MAN am I glad I decided I was in a Regency mood and tried it again, because this was such a ridiculously tropey romp. Fake betrothal to escape a tight fisted guardian who has never allowed our ingenue to go to London! Cousins who aren't actually cousins all expected to propose to said ingenue but being varying levels of reluctant! An actual cousin who isn't who he says he is in other ways! Elopements! Perplexed family members! Freddy being the best dressed person basically anywhere with OPINIONS on proper fashion!Seriously, it was just a delight in so many ways. The fakedating/fakebetrothed plot worked so much better than I was expecting and both Kitty and Freddy were so damned earnest I could hardly stand it. I wanted both of them to get their happily ever after and happily for me, they did indeed.So yes, if you are in the mood for a Regency romp that reads more like a comedy than many Regency romances I've read, I think you'll enjoy this one!

This was The first book I read by this author. As I started reading it I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. The writing style is very different as it uses almost all dialogue. I almost stopped reading the book. But I have heard this author is a highly praised Regency writer. So I muddled through for the first couple of chapters. I am glad I did. The dialogue was delightful and funny. I liked the main characters Kitty and Freddy. As I read, I wasn’t sure if Kitty would end up with the rake or not. Toward the end I was rooting for Freddy. The author did an excellent job of making you feel as if you are in regency London. I loved how the British Museum was described. I was in stitches. I would definitely read other books by this author.. It is sure to be a delightful 8 to 10 hours of reading!

The characters in this book are so delicious you can't bear to see the end of them. Kitty is put into an impossible situation where she must choose from a group of suitors that does not include devil may care Jack, the crush of her young life. She talks Freddy into a sham engagement and a trip to London to get back at Jack. There are just so many unforgettable moments and people from there on I find myself reading and rereading the book to wring it dry of every last witty turn of phrase and sparkling scene. A truly perfect Regency romance, with a funny, affectionate look at one of the greatest Tulips of the Ton ever written.

Always a Heyer fan, this book is one of my favorites! I love this atypical romance that is filled with light frothy comedy, amusing word play, ridiculous situations and tremendous insight into real romance. All of Heyer’s witty dialogue, unique characters and detailed plot development are here so it holds your interest and brings this story to life. Best of all, it is totally different from Heyer’s typical formula so the unfolding of the story takes you totally by surprise. For hardened readers of Regency Romance it is a breath of fresh air. The delight the reader feels at its unconventional conclusion is very satisfying!

This is probably my favourite Georgette Heyer and I have read it many times. I think it is her funniest book and it is so light, frothy and amusing that you can easily miss the great skill involved in creating the plot and how cleverly the writer subverts her own standard themes and characters.Heyer throws us a misdirection in the first chapter and initially it is not at all clear who the hero is meant to be. Jack Westruther is a romance hero classic, tall, handsome and a dashing rake, Freddy seems to be a bit of a silly fool. But as the story progresses, we start to see the lack of moral fibre in Jack, in the cruel way he hunts down an impoverished beauty who he wishes to make his mistress and in the way he treats people generally. Conversely we start to see that while Freddie is by no means the traditional romantic hero, he is truly kind and sweet natured, and while he says himself that he isn't a 'clever cove' he is possessed of a great deal of common sense and always seems to turn up to rescue Kitty whenever she particularly needs him. The heroine is also sweet and decent and kind, and I particularly enjoyed how she was turned from a drab country mouse into a fashionable young lady with pretty clothes.As is often the case with Heyer's novels, the secondary characters are at least as entertaining as the hero and heroine. I particularly like Freddie's sarcastic father and the unusual romance between Kitty's feeble minded cousin Lord Dolphinton and his middle class lady. Meg is also very well drawn, with her dreadful taste in clothes and flirtations with unsuitable men.A reviewer of another Heyer book said that she wondered what the future might hold for the fictional couple she had just been reading about - romance novels tend to end at the engagement after all. I imagine Freddie and Kitty being perfectly happy together, best friends as well as lovers and becoming the most fashionable young couple on the town, going to all the ton parties and having a splendid time together.

One of my favourite Heyer romances. It all starts very conventionally with our heroine heiress in love with her hero. And what a hero, a handsome corinthian who sets all the ladies a flutter. But when he fails to respond to pressure to make her an offer she decides its time to take matters into her own hands and sets off to London as someone else's fiance in the hope he will be jealous. Freddy Standen, the fiance, is a marvelous character, he starts out as a dandy who is not particularly bright. Kitty persuades him to enter into a fake engagement to get her to London for a short holiday away from her parsimonious guardian.As the couple face adventures and set backs we see them grow, especially Freddy and by the end of the book we get a much better idea of what a hero needs to be. Some of the secondary characters are wonderful, especially Lord Legerwood who's dry wit is a delight.I can read this book over again just for the sight seeing around London. Very enjoyable escapism.

Kitty’s rich (but tight-fisted) guardian has decided to leave his fortune to her provided she marries one of his great-nephews. When her preferred choice doesn’t show up to offer for her, she persuades the good-natured Freddy to enter into a pretend engagement so she can travel to London where she intends to make Mr Jack Westruther very jealous indeed.Except once there she finds herself helping the beautiful (but to be honest slightly irritating Miss Broughty) whose mother is hunting for a rich husband for her, and she also becomes tangled up in the surprisingly complicated love life of her slow-witted cousin, Dolphinton.Normally I’m not so keen on the Heyer books with teenage heroines, but I did enjoy re-reading this one, perhaps because Kitty is quite a level-headed heroine, and Freddy is not A pink of the ton, or a Corinthian, or A regular bruiser, or the various other qualities given to Heyer’s leading men. He is, however, a kind-natured young man, who proves to be rather more resourceful than his family had ever expected.It’s a satisfying, well-paced, story, that draws to a neat conclusion.

I decided to read this book after a particularly difficult week; the effects of the pandemic are still reverberating in my life in various ways and I have taken solace from Georgette Heyer's genius in the past.This novel was one I had not previously encountered; but what a gem.The young heroine is an heiress, raised quietly in the country by a miserly guardian. When the guardian announces his pretty mean-spirited intentions regarding his will, Kitty hatches a plan.This book is hilariously funny in parts and as always with GH, has some lovely secondary characters; notably Lord Legerwood, a cool silver fox of a prospective father-in-law, Hannah who is all set to rescue her Irish Lord and the long-suffering butler, Stobhill.I enjoyed this Regency romance which has a little touch of mystery, an excellent 'forget all your troubles' plot and a lot of skillfully woven in knowledge of the time and place. And for once, the sarcastic big head doesn't necessarily get the girl.Thank you, Georgette Heyer.

When you read other writers of Regency romances and then come back to Georgette Heyer, you see just how good she was. She far outshines those who followed her lead. And this one is no exception. I hadn't read it for years and years and it was so good to reread it and enjoy her ability to tangle everything up and then successfully untangle it. And she doesn't use any overdramatic devices so it's not relying on device to make it work. Really worth reading.