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    Bath Tangle
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    Bath Tangle
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    Bath Tangle
    Ebook395 pages6 hours

    Bath Tangle

    By Georgette Heyer

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "Witty, humorous, a well-constructed plot."-Candace Camp, New York Times bestselling author of Suddenly

    A Delightful Tangle of Affairs...
    The Earl of Spenborough had always been noted for his eccentricity. Leaving a widow younger than his own daughter Serena was one thing, but leaving his fortune to the trusteeship of the Marquis of Rotherham, the one man the same daughter had jilted, was quite another.

    When Serena and her lovely young stepmother Fanny decide to move to Bath, Serena makes an odd new friend and discovers an old love. Before long, they're all entangled in a clutter of marriage and manners the likes of which even Regency Bath has rarely seen.

    What Readers Say:

    "Bath Tangle has all the fun and frolic that has delighted Ms. Heyer's fans for years"

    "Brilliant character portrayals, wity dialogue, vivid imagery, and smooth pacing...a novel not to be missed!"

    "Romance, history, nastalgia-who could ask for more? The story is...full of humorous suspense.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateJul 1, 2011
    ISBN9781402267963
    Unavailable
    Bath Tangle
    Author

    Georgette Heyer

    Georgette Heyer (1902-1974) was an English writer of historical romance and detective fiction. Born in London, Heyer was raised as the eldest of three children by a distinguished British Army officer and a mother who excelled as a cellist and pianist at the Royal College of Music. Encouraged to read from a young age, she began writing stories at 17 to entertain her brother Boris, who suffered from hemophilia. Impressed by her natural talent, Heyer’s father sought publication for her work, eventually helping her to release The Black Moth (1921), a detective novel. Heyer then began publishing her stories in various magazines, establishing herself as a promising young voice in English literature. Following her father’s death, Heyer became responsible for the care of her brothers and shortly thereafter married mining engineer George Ronald Rougier. In 1926, Heyer publisher her second novel, These Old Shades, a work of historical romance. Over the next several decades, she published consistently and frequently, excelling with romance and detective stories and establishing herself as a bestselling author.

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    Reviews for Bath Tangle

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      When Serena's father passes away, everyone is astounded to discover that the will stipulates that the Marquis of Rotherham is to control her fortune and give her pin money until she marries. Serena is outraged that even in death her father is still pushing for the marriage from which she cried off over five years ago. But despite their inability to do anything but bicker there may be more in store for these two than anyone expected.Picking up a Georgette Heyer novel, I always know exactly what I'm going to get and yet it is never not satisfying to read one of her books. This one won't go down as one of my favourites but I did get all the giggles, sighs, and romantic smiles I expect to have whenever I immerse myself in a Heyer novel.
    • 4/5
      I'm not entirely sure how to rate this, because I did enjoy it a lot, but it's still not on par with The Talisman Ring or The Grand Sophy for me. Having finished it, I was just a little relieved that all the tangles of the love interests were sorted out, and that everyone got to where they intended to go (though, I would almost have enjoyed it more if someone had made an irrevocable mistake, even if it were just Gerald and Emily; the way it came out was too good to be true, and Rotherham far too in control of the whole situation).

      You've got to like that this isn't just a story with a tempestuous male character pulling everyone along; Rotherham may well remind the gentle reader of Rochester from Jane Eyre with his manners. Lady Serena is no Jane, however, and she gives as good as she gets. I liked that their romance is not some insipid mutual regard, but something real and passionate.

      I especially like that Heyer manages to bring in a spread of characters across social class and attitudes. Obviously, Lady Serena and her cohort are privileged as heck and don't know it, but I don't really expect an older book like this to really deal with that aspect. I liked the realism of Serena's indifference to class while Fanny, equally likeable, has more difficulty with being snobbish. The way Heyer handles show-don't-tell is pretty instructive, too; scenes like Serena holding the thorny flowers, or Fanny and Kirkby, etc.

      Of course, the situation itself is one of Heyer's typical tangles, with Serena's father putting her under the guardianship of a man she jilted. It could be pretty creepy, to be honest, but Heyer handles it well -- Rotherham never takes advantage of the guardianship, and is prepared to let Serena make her mistake if necessary, even if he is manipulative.
    • 4/5
      The red-haired, fiery beauty Lady Serena Carlow has just lost her father to pneumonia. Her mother died when she was just twelve years old and she is an only child.Serena's fifty-something year old father left behind a widow, the young Lady Fanny, who is twenty three years old, which makes her a few years younger than Serena. Milverly house, Serena's home, is left to her male cousin. To Serena's horror, at the reading of her fathers will, Ivo Barrasford who is the marquis of Rotherham, is named trustee of Serena's wealth. Rotherham, who is not even a blood relative, is also Serena's ex-beau, whom she broke it off with years ago because he was 'unendurable'. Serena's father however, trusted and liked Rotherham. Added to all of this, Serena was once in love with a soldier named Hector Kirkby. This was six years ago and Serena's father made her break off the match since Hector was not wealthy.Serena and the fair and dainty Fanny get along very well and they decide to temporarily move to Bath. Once at Bath, the two ladies make new acquaintances and find some entertainment with this new change of scenery. Serena even runs into her old flame, Major Hector Kirkby and sparks reignite. If I had to describe Bath Tangle with just one word, it would be charming. Oh, what a tangled web Miss Georgette Heyer weaves in this novel.This book had me laughing from the start with all the goings on within the storyline and sighing at the sweet romance throughout.I always enjoy visiting Regency England through Heyer's stories. She describes the time, place and customs so well that I feel as though I am really there. This was a fun romance and I found myself being unable to put this one down. Heyer made me laugh until the very end. The author has a knack for putting her characters into place, then letting the story take twists and turns until the final page.This was also a story about class and social standings. Heyer weaves this aspect of class into the storyline very well. With Georgette Heyer's signature witty dialogue, sweet romance, interesting characters and a fun storyline, I thoroughly enjoyed Bath Tangle.
    • 4/5
      This is basically the romantic adventures of three women and the complications that occur. The Earl of Spenborough dies and leaves his young second wife, his daughter (older than his wife) and a complicated portion of his will which leaves his daughter's jilted ex in charge of her future. When the man who was her first love turns up she thinks that her future is sure but things get complicated.Unlike a lot of modern romance novels this explores different kinds of love and how you might think you're in love but there has to be space in both lives for each person to become a whole person.Loved this story, loved the characters and the fact that they're full people and are trying to find a good future for themselves.
    • 4/5
      One of the reasons I’m such a fan of Georgette Heyer, apart from loving a Regency romp, is her language and her humourUpon several occasions, both she and Fanny had been diverted by the startling appearance presented by an elderly female of little height but astonishing girth, who, while she adhered, perhaps wisely, to the fashions of her youth, was not wise enough to resist the lure of bright colours. She had a jolly, masterful countenance, with three chins beneath it, and a profusion of improbable black ringlets above it, imperfectly confined by caps of various designs, worn under hats of amazing opulence. Serena drew giggling protests from Fanny by asserting that she had counted five ostrich plumes, one bunch of grapes, two of cherries, three large roses, and two rosettes on one of these creations.Delightful.
    • 3/5
      Daughter of the Earl of Spenborough, Serena, and Ivo Barrasford, the Marquis of Rotherham are both incredibly privileged and as a result arrogant, proud and bad tempered. Serena's father has just died, leaving her with a step-mother younger than her and, to her frustration, her fortune in the trusteeship of the Marquis - whom she was once betrothed but jilted years ago. Her home, Milverly house, has been left to her male cousin and she and her stepmother must vacate. Heyer does well to bring how just how little choice women in Regency England actually had (the upper classes only to be precise - too bad about the poor!). To be the widow or daughter of a father who died and having to be shut away in seclusion for the following year, only after which you can possibly start tentatively venturing out into society; young girls enduring forced marriages with men more than twice their age, and women having no control over their own property, money or freedom of movement.There is much to be skimmed through in this book - with irrelevant name dropping, and discussions of politics and current events, but at the story's heart are engagements between people who are very clearly unmatched and hence the 'tangle' that must be 'untangled'. Average.
    • 3/5
      Georgette Heyer's Bath Tangle is one of her more predictable Regency romances, but that doesn't preclude it from being enjoyable. Actually, most popular genres — mysteries, suspense, romance, etc. — are built from a predictable model. The fun is not so much in what happens as in how it happens. It isn't the end we want, but the experience of getting there. So this review contains spoilers, mostly because the plot is fairly transparent already.Lady Serena Carlow is saddened by her father's death, but infuriated by the conditions of his will. Several years ago she shocked fashionable society by breaking off her engagement to Ivo Barrasford, Marquis of Rotherham... and now the Marquis is to control the bulk of her enormous fortune until she marries. And that's not the worst — Serena can't even have her fortune unless her marriage is approved by Rotherham!Clearly old Lord Spenborough wanted Serena and Rotherham to awaken their former love, but Serena has other plans. When she meets another old lover, the dashing and manly Hector Kirkby, she falls head over heels for him again and soon they are engaged. Surprisingly, Marquis raises no objection to the match and even treats Hector with an offhand friendliness. It is apparent that their old flame is quite extinguished — and this is further confirmed when Rotherham becomes engaged to the lovely young Emily Laleham. It's too bad that his ward Gerard also entertains warm feelings toward Miss Laleham...What I found slightly frustrating was how long the doomed relationship with Hector dragged out. No doubt Hector's and Serena's innate incompatibility is far more obvious to the reader than it would be to them and those around them, but it seemed so clear that he and she could never change enough to suit one another. This sense of the story's lagging unnecessarily was probably exacerbated by how my schedule made me break up my reading over the course of a week, which is not the book's fault, of course.Mrs. Floore is a welcome addition to the story, and a rather unique personage to meet in the pages of a Regency story. I'm not sure that Serena's reception of her is entirely believable. She does come out with some great lines though, and reminds me of L. M. Montgomery's more garrulous females. In fact, now that I come to think of it, Mrs. Floore is very similar to Mrs. Matilda Pitman in Rilla of Ingleside. A character combining money, humble origins, and lack of pretension will always have the best speeches!Heyer's leading characters, especially the men, sometimes have an edge to them that is decidedly Brontëan. Rotherham is one such hero, striking rather than handsome and unblushingly rude where he finds courtesy superfluous or hypocritical. He's also sexually menacing. While neither the Marquis nor Serena are particularly original characters, their settled types allow Heyer to spend her energies on the dialogue, which is bitingly fun. One of the more humorous elements of the story is how Serena and Rotherham can never meet without arguing. One of their arguments (on the flaws of Serena's favorite mare) is carried on throughout the story and is more amusing each time it surfaces. Another source of humor is the relationship between Serena and her stepmother Fanny (who is several years younger than Serena, but expected to act as Serena's duenna in London, poor girl). And of course there is always Heyer's straight-faced sarcasm in the narrative voice, as here:A letter from Lady Theresa followed hard upon the announcement in The Gazette... Lady Theresa prophesied disaster for all concerned, and hoped that when Serena was dying an old maid she would remember these words, and be sorry. Meanwhile she remained her affectionate aunt.Heehee.Despite the predictability of the plot (yes, Serena and Rotherham get together again, and all romantic tangles are smoothed out!), I found the characters vivid and the dialogue crisp. I wouldn't recommend this as your first foray into Heyer's work, but it's a respectable little story in its own right, and fun besides.
    • 1/5
      Yaaaawwwwwwnnnnnnn. Irritating, prancing characters. Insipid dialogue.
    • 3/5
      One of my least favourite Heyer novels: highly predictable plot, just a replay of earlier themes. The usual amusing twists to the characterizations seemed missing in this story.
    • 5/5
      You need to read this book with a dictionary in one hand (one advantage of reading this as an ebook is the easy dictionary access).Having said that, I LIKE the detailed historical vocabulary. I don't have to look up words like barouche unless I want to, but it adds a lot more to my enjoyment of the book if I do.I can only compare this with another so-called 'Regency romance' I read recently in which I didn't need a dictionary, but did get really annoyed by historical errors. I know which I prefer, and Heyer wins hands down.The fact that the characters are mature, intelligent and understand their own natures is also a big plus. When things get tangled up, you know that they understand their predicament and how they got into it and their problem is to try and get out of with without dishonour.I like the fact that this novel is upfront about the reasons why a pretty young woman may marry a much older man - and it's not always because he's loaded with sex appeal.
    • 3/5
      Not the best Heyer novel I’ve read. Although we have numerous entertaining dialogue exchanges, these are not as frequent as those of the author’s superior works.The characters were not on the whole strong or appealing enough to lift the lacklustre plot.I wasn’t keen on the heroine of the piece - Serena - nor did I rate the elusive hero - Ivo - as much as Hector, one of the secondary characters. Fanny was my favourite cast member.In short, good in parts, disappointing on the whole.
    • 4/5
      I could have sworn I'd read this before, but nothing was familiar. Lovely Heyer - interesting characters running themselves into the most absurd tangles. The love...well, I think it got up to pentangles before the end...were particularly amusing. The girl was utterly soppy, good thing she has a sensible man in the wings. I like both Ivo and Serena (was there ever a person so misnamed?), and find Hector and Fanny quite pleasant in the book (they'd drive me mad in real life). I found myself trying to pair off absolutely everyone who had a name, in the middle of the book - it wasn't quite that comprehensive, but there were a lot of HEAs in here. Enjoyable, and probably rereadable (in a few years).
    • 3/5
      The Earl of Spenborough dies, leaving behind his daughter Serena, a spirited woman of 25, and his second wife Fanny, so timid that she seems younger than 22. The women have become good friends, although they are utterly unalike, and resolve to live together in Fanny's dower house. They find their year of mourning in a smaller house very boring and lonely, and travel to Bath for a change. There, Serena rekindles a romance with Hector, the handsome and chivalrous soldier she'd loved as a teenager. But if Serena is engaged to Hector, why then is she so upset by Rotherham's engagement to a friend? And if Rotherham loves his intended, why is he trying to scare her out of marrying him? Obviously everyone is engaged to the wrong people, but it all works out in the end.

      I kept expecting to like this book more than I did. I was impatient with Fanny and annoyed by all the monetary and social constraints placed upon Serena. I enjoy willful, "mannish" heroines, but everyone in this book was so continually shocked by her perfectly reasonable actions that I spent the whole book steaming. I did like Rotherham, who despite being the usual tall/superb horse rider/very rich/very powerful/sarcastic hero was acknowledged to be wrong several times in the narrative...but somehow I didn't believe his love for Serena. It seemed more like these two high-spirited gentlefolk were just good friends who ended up together because everyone else was ninnies. It seems like they end up getting together more because no one else understands them than because they really enjoy each other. Whatever, the banter (see below for a favorite selection) is ok and although there isn't much of a plot, the side characters are at least fairly well drawn.

      "My poor girl, did you really think you could be happy with a man that would let you walk rough-shod over him? For how long did you enjoy having your own, undisputed way? When did you begin to feel bored?"
      "Let me tell you this, Rotherham!" she flung at him. "Hector is worth a dozen of you!"
      "Oh, probably two or three dozen! What has that to say to anything?"
    • 3/5
      What a mess, or should I say tangle. I can't spoil anything but it gets messy when people fall in love, or think they are in love. The title sure suits the book.

      Serena has quite the temper and is not afraid to say what she thinks. She is a real whirlwind. I can't help to like her because she is just so different. She moves to Bath with her step-mum, who is younger and a very timid thing. Fanny can't see any faults with Serena (and trust me, she does have faults.) Then we have Rotherham who is an ogre, but then his temper does suit Serena as they yell at each other and call each other things. They used to be engaged but that did not work out. I am not sure about Rotherham because I do feel at times that he is not a gentleman, but then again, oh I can't tell you, the plot has to be read or else I will spoil things.

      Moving on to secondary characters. Major Kirkby who is, yes what is he? Just smitten and not much of a personality. Young Emily who plays the part of the brainless beauty. Mr Goring, who we do not see much of at all but who seems to be the only true gentleman and he has a brain.
      People will get engaged, people will fall in love, worship others and in the end all will end well and those who should be together will be together. But the way there is long and there will be misunderstandings, elopements, engagements, and general craziness. Because this was after all a time when you did not say what you felt and people in love have always been idiots.

      Again it amuses me when she uses a certain sentence, how someone made violent love to another. That has me giggling like crazy since that only means kissing. I do hope she uses the word in all her books and I will continue to be amused by all the silly little things.

      Another fun Heyer book where for once they may act very proper but Serena and Rotherham sure do not talk like that all the time. Quite shocking.

      Conclusion:
      Very sweet and it did have me worried if the right people would get each other.
    • 4/5
      I found Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer a slightly different book than her usual light romance. In this story the focus is originally on the social expectations of widows and daughters of upper class. The story opens with the funeral of the Earl of Spenborough. The Earl has left behind a young wife of 20, Fanny, and his daughter Serena, 26. As he had no sons, the title and estate now passes to a distant cousin. Fanny is a docile, shy person and is thankful to have been left a steady income and is more than willing to move to the Dower House. Serena plans to go with her but she has been raised in many ways more like a son and the quiet life does not always suit her. Well used to managing the huge household, hosting parties, accompanying her father on trips she feels trapped by the smallness of her life. Of course, being a unmarried woman, she doesn’t even have control of her money that duty has been turned over to the Marquis of Rotherham.Eventually the ladies take a house in Bath for a few months, even though they must restrain themselves from society, they are able to have small dinners, go for walks and take the waters. One day Serena bumps into an old flame and before too long she and Hector have made plans to announce their engagement. At this point the story becomes more of the familiar, as various unsuitable couples get together too quickly and then realize their mistake. In those days one didn’t make and break engagements easily but in this case, there truly is a tangle that needs to be sorted. There were things I really liked about this book, but there were also a few that I didn’t. Heyer’s heroes are often rather brusque and high-handed but Rotherham was the rudest one yet and his treatment of Emily, a young girl that he engaged himself to as a payback to Serena, was cruel. I wasn’t overly fond of Serena either, she tended to run rough-shod over other people, especially Fanny, and seemed to feel that her opinions were the only ones that counted. I much preferred the slower relationship that developed between Fanny and Hector. Also Bath Tangle was a different perspective from Heyer’s usual, her conversational writing was as always, a delight to read and she added a few colourful side characters that definitely added to the books flavour. Emily’s grandmother, in particular was a stand-out.
    • 4/5
      Serena takes a house with her young widowed stepmother, although she is furious that Rotherham, to whom she was once engaged, is her trustee according to her late father's will.

      Serena is another outspoken and strong heroine, while Fanny, her stepmother, is sweet and rather naive. There's a typical Heyer resolution to romantic difficulties that seem inextricably knotted at times. Enjoyable Regency story.
    • 2/5
      Lady Serena Carlow, only child of the late Earl of Spenborough, was shocked to learn that her father had named Ivo Barrasford, Marquis of Rotherham, as her guardian. A strong-willed man with a temper to match her own, Rotherham was also Lady Serena's erstwhile fiancé, and the two never met but that they quarreled. Outraged but resigned, Serena soon took up residence with her very young step-mother, until a chance encounter with a man from her past set in motion a seemingly hopeless tangle of romantic mis-matches...I have heard it said that Bath Tangle is the perfect expression of Georgette Heyer's notions of class, with "like seeking like" in the form of the three couples. In this schema Lady Serena and Rotherham are of the nobility, Fanny and Major Kirkby of the landed gentry, and Emily and Mr. Goring of the merchant class, and the process whereby they all find the "right" romantic partner reinforces the author's evident preference for class endogamy.I have nothing to say against such an interpretation, whatever I may think of the underlying social philosophy. My dislike of Bath Tangle arises, not from any distaste at the antiquated class structure - it is, after all, hardly the most extreme example of such ideas in Heyer's work - but rather from the wretchedly dishonorable conduct of the "hero." I don't despise Rotherham for wanting to marry Serena, but for manipulating and exploiting Emily, all while excusing his conduct by reference to the vulgarity and greed of others... Rotherham may be Serena's social equal, but in all other ways he is not, and I have trouble understanding why she would be attracted to him.
    • 5/5
      The characters in Heyer's Bath Tangle aren't always loveable. They make mistakes, and do some things that are less than considerate where the emotions of others are concerned. However, this is much of the book's charm. Serena Carlow, the main character, is anything BUT serene. Ivo Barrasford, the man she jilted just before their wedding years before,has a reputation for being a difficult man, and scares virtually everyone else in the book except for Serena. In fact, whenever the two are in the same room they inevitably start to argue. Several other characters believe it's a sign of how much the two don't suit; readers, of course, figure out early on that it means the exact opposite! How they get from formerly engaged friends of the family back to almost married, is, naturally, a fun read. The secondary characters are wonderful, the plot twists amusing--I laughed out loud several times toward the end. Highly recommended to fans of both Heyer and Austen.
    • 3/5
      A little shrill but still entertaining.
    • 3/5
      I thinks it's been years since last I read a romance, not out of finding romances contemptible, just because I had not seen anything that caught my attention. When a friend pointed out Georgette Heyer my curiosity came into play. I took Bath Tangle as I could have taken any other of her books. I will say that there are no surprises at all in the plot, so one is not breathlessly turning the pages to see what's gonna happen next.But I found the whole book surprisingly conforting. The storyline is well constructed, with enough twists not to be tiresome. The characters are solid and believable, as the circumstances that shaped them are usually explained and congruent. And,of course, the Bath setting is as charming as Bath itself has been for centuries.
    • 3/5
      Enjoyable light reading. Not the best Heyer - the main characters are irritatingly over-tempestuous - but still a bit of fun.
    • 3/5
      Georgette Heyer's Bath Tangle is one of her more predictable Regency romances, but that doesn't preclude it from being enjoyable. Actually, most popular genres — mysteries, suspense, romance, etc. — are built from a predictable model. The fun is not so much in what happens as in how it happens. It isn't the end we want, but the experience of getting there. So this review contains spoilers, mostly because the plot is fairly transparent already.Lady Serena Carlow is saddened by her father's death, but infuriated by the conditions of his will. Several years ago she shocked fashionable society by breaking off her engagement to Ivo Barrasford, Marquis of Rotherham... and now the Marquis is to control the bulk of her enormous fortune until she marries. And that's not the worst — Serena can't even have her fortune unless her marriage is approved by Rotherham!Clearly old Lord Spenborough wanted Serena and Rotherham to awaken their former love, but Serena has other plans. When she meets another old lover, the dashing and manly Hector Kirkby, she falls head over heels for him again and soon they are engaged. Surprisingly, Marquis raises no objection to the match and even treats Hector with an offhand friendliness. It is apparent that their old flame is quite extinguished — and this is further confirmed when Rotherham becomes engaged to the lovely young Emily Laleham. It's too bad that his ward Gerard also entertains warm feelings toward Miss Laleham...What I found slightly frustrating was how long the doomed relationship with Hector dragged out. No doubt Hector's and Serena's innate incompatibility is far more obvious to the reader than it would be to them and those around them, but it seemed so clear that he and she could never change enough to suit one another. This sense of the story's lagging unnecessarily was probably exacerbated by how my schedule made me break up my reading over the course of a week, which is not the book's fault, of course.Mrs. Floore is a welcome addition to the story, and a rather unique personage to meet in the pages of a Regency story. I'm not sure that Serena's reception of her is entirely believable. She does come out with some great lines though, and reminds me of L. M. Montgomery's more garrulous females. In fact, now that I come to think of it, Mrs. Floore is very similar to Mrs. Matilda Pitman in Rilla of Ingleside. A character combining money, humble origins, and lack of pretension will always have the best speeches!Heyer's leading characters, especially the men, sometimes have an edge to them that is decidedly Brontëan. Rotherham is one such hero, striking rather than handsome and unblushingly rude where he finds courtesy superfluous or hypocritical. He's also sexually menacing. While neither the Marquis nor Serena are particularly original characters, their settled types allow Heyer to spend her energies on the dialogue, which is bitingly fun. One of the more humorous elements of the story is how Serena and Rotherham can never meet without arguing. One of their arguments (on the flaws of Serena's favorite mare) is carried on throughout the story and is more amusing each time it surfaces. Another source of humor is the relationship between Serena and her stepmother Fanny (who is several years younger than Serena, but expected to act as Serena's duenna in London, poor girl). And of course there is always Heyer's straight-faced sarcasm in the narrative voice, as here:A letter from Lady Theresa followed hard upon the announcement in The Gazette... Lady Theresa prophesied disaster for all concerned, and hoped that when Serena was dying an old maid she would remember these words, and be sorry. Meanwhile she remained her affectionate aunt.Heehee.Despite the predictability of the plot (yes, Serena and Rotherham get together again, and all romantic tangles are smoothed out!), I found the characters vivid and the dialogue crisp. I wouldn't recommend this as your first foray into Heyer's work, but it's a respectable little story in its own right, and fun besides.
    • 5/5
      I love all Georgette Heyer novels; noth romance and mystery. I'm not sure I could say I have a particular favorite because I like them all. You should read Bath Tangle as well as the rest of them!
    • 3/5
      I like a regency romance as much as the next person, but this one didn't really appeal to me. At the end I found myself just feeling meh. Am not going to take the time to figure out why, just going to pass this one along.
    • 3/5
      A love tangle that takes place in Bath, where Serena and her stepmother Fanny go to stay after the unexpected death of Serena’s father, the 5th Earl of Spenborough. It’s fairly obvious who will end up with whom when the music stops, but I found that an entertaining amount of predictability, because it isn’t obvious what will happen in the interim and I enjoyed spending time with these characters. I particularly liked that Serena and Fanny cared a lot about each other, in spite of their different temperaments (and the potential awkwardness of Fanny being a few years younger than Serena). Serena is confident and fiery; her father brought her up to hunt, host political parties and involve herself in managing his estate, and because of his encouragement and position in society, Serena hasn’t worried about other people considering her choices unconventional. Fanny is quieter and more interested in domestic details; her main motivation for marrying a man over twice her age seems to be that it offered an escape from her family of origin, and she has more understanding than Serena does of the difficulties of having limited choices.I also liked how the novel portrayed Serena’s grief -- she’s very defensive of anything that feels like criticism of her father.The ending didn’t quite hit all the notes I thought it needed to, but on the whole, it was satisfying. The old lady chuckled richly, all her chins quivering. “Ay, so I am, and I’ll be bound you know it because you asked someone who the deuce that old fright could be, dressed in a gown with panniers!” “I did ask who you might be, but I did not so describe you!” instantly responded Serena. “Lord, I wouldn’t blame you! I’d look a worse fright if I was to stuff myself into one of these newfangled gowns you all wear nowadays, with a waist under my armpits and skirt as straight as a candle! All very well for you, my lady, with the lovely slim figure you have, but I’ll tell you what I’d look like, and that’s a sack of meal, with a string tied around it! Ay, that makes you laugh [...]”