ladybusiness | (Reply)

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Re Heyer, I do think it's important to point out that some of her books have been visited by the Suck Fairy over the years. The Grand Sophy, for example, has an ugly splat of anti-Semitism in the middle of it. The Reluctant Widow features a heroine being severely gaslighted by virtually everyone else in the story -- it would take very little tweaking to turn it into a horror story. Attempted rape is used as a major plot point in several books, the most disturbing being either The Black Moth or Devil's Cub. And some of the accepted customs of the time can clang oddly to contemporary ears; a number of the romances are between relatively young women and much older men -- men old enough to be their fathers or in at least one case their grandfather (These Old Shades). Frankly, I wouldn't recommend any of her books as YA unless you plan to discuss them with your young reader afterwards.

That said, I do enjoy a lot of Heyer, and some of the books don't have major Issues. Among my favorites:
- Venetia
- A Civil Contract
- The Quiet Gentleman
- The Unknown Ajax
- The Masqueraders
- False Colours (yes, British spelling)
- Cotillion

A good way to dip your toe into Heyer is her one short-story collection, Pistols for Two.

Also, be warned that Heyer also wrote a series of mysteries. These are nothing like the Regencies in either content or style. I tried one or two and gave up.