Faro’s Daughter by Georgette Heyer (final thoughts)

From the publisher’s website:
When Max Ravenscar, renowned gamester, and by his own definition, untroubled by a romantic disposition, meets Deborah Grantham, beautiful mistress of her aunt’s gaming house, all his experience of risk and gambles finds him unprepared.

I am officially a Heyer convert.

Faro’s Daughter was my first foray into Heyer’s massive catalog and I have no idea what took me so long. Well, yes, I know what took me so long – the fact that her catalog is so huge and I had no idea where to start. If you’re at that place right now, let me give you some advice: Just pick one. Any one. Or this one.

So. Young Lord Mablethorpe is two months shy of becoming of age, but has decided he is in love and must be married pronto. The object of his desire is Deb Grantham, who, as the description above explains, whiles away her evenings and nights in the rooms of her aunt’s gaming house. Obviously this type of woman would jump at such an advantageous marriage, at least according to Mablethorpe’s cousin and trustee, Max Ravenscar. So, in an attempt to protect the family name, Ravenscar steps in and offers to pay Miss Deb off. Deb becomes highly offended that Ravenscar would assume that she’s the type who could be paid off and inwardly vows her revenge.

And hi-jinx and carefully crafted insults ensue.

It was so very delicious. I gobbled the story up, my eyes wide as I cackled with glee and exclaimed to the hubster again and again “Ha! This is so good!” I loved Heyer’s writing, especially the banter and the sly remarks that are slipped in here are there, both in dialogue and narration.

I’m going even going to bother with analyzing whether or not the characters were well rounded or how probable the story line was, because that’s not what these books (can I generalize after only reading one?) are about. They’re pure entertainment and I’ll be scouring the next library sale for more.

I’m so glad I picked Faro’s Daughter up on a whim, but now my to-read shelf is sadly Heyer-less. Help! What should I read next? Or does it really even matter what I pick?

My rating: 8/10

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