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Sunday, August 29, 2010

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cover of Heyer's 'The Masqueraders'

Prudence and Robin Tremaine are a brother and sister fleeing to London, and because Robin was involved in the Jacobite rebellion on the wrong side, they disguise themselves-- the tall Prudence pretends to be a young man, and the slight, elegant, talented actor Robin pretends to be the sister. On their way to London, they run into flighty young Letitia, who is eloping with a man because she thought it would be quite an adventure, but he turns out to be rather a brute and after her money. Robin and Prudence manage to rescue her shortly before Letitia's family friend, Anthony Fanshawe comes to help her-- a man so large that Robin teasingly calls him "the mountain" to his sister (a man large enough for so tall a girl). Anthony takes the young lad (Prudence) under his wing when they go to London, introducing him around and sponsoring him at the gentleman's club; meanwhile, Robin and Letitia become rather intimate friends (Robin has fallen in love with the silly girl, so on a few occasions-- like a masked ball-- he manages to be her mysterious, romantic hero). Eventually, Prudence and Robin's father comes to town-- he's an adventurer and master of disguise, and perhaps a bit of a con man, so even they aren't sure whether or not they can believe him when he claims to be the long lost son and heir to a nearby estate.

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Sunday, August 22, 2010

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cover of 'Devil's Cub'

This book is somewhat of a sequel to These Old Shades (which I read recently), as it follows Dominic Alastair, Marquis of Vidal. The "cub" of the title, he is the son of the Duke of Avon (who was known as "Satanas" to some, hence the title) and the fiery Leonie, and Heyer presents Vidal as a pretty believable mixture of his parents. He has his father's lack of morals and devil-may-care attitude, but he has his mother's quick temper instead of his father's subtlety and deviousness. He gets in a bit of trouble because he wounds someone in a duel-- and, what apparently makes it worse, he didn't even bother to go through the proper forms, but had the duel right then and there in the house where they were gambling. His father is quite angry with him and decides to send him to France, but this is mostly because Leonie is upset rather than that Vidal may have killed a man. Since Vidal is used to having pretty much whatever he wants, he decides to take along with him the pretty bourgeoisie girl who he has been flirting with-- but, of course, things don't go exactly as planned.

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Sunday, August 15, 2010

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cover of 'These Old Shades'

One night as Justin Alastair, Duke of Avon is walking through the streets of Paris, he collides with a poor young red-headed boy running from his rough older brother. On a bit of a whim, because something about the child's Titian hair and blue eyes reminds him of an enemy, Alastair buys the lad from the older brother and makes the child, Léon, his page. Alastair has quite the reputation for his cunning and lack of morals, such that he is known by some as "Satanas", and his good friend Hugh Davenant disapproves of Alastair taking this child with him everywhere, even serving him at gambling houses and other places of ill-repute. Of course, there is a great mystery about Léon, and it turns out to be quite an interesting story-- and the audience gets to be at least partly in on Alastair's knowledge and plans long before the other characters in the book.

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