Book #50: Frederica by Georgette Heyer

I finished The Grand Sophy yesterday, and then started and finished this one yesterday too! (It was a rainy day, so all we were doing was hanging out inside, and I got to read while sitting next to Dane playing with his toys on the floor. And also he took two good long naps yesterday, giving me plenty of reading time.) This was a fun read along the same lines as The Grand Sophy, with a fun, determined heroine who somehow ends up catching the hero at the end. But it's fun to compare how they are different too: Sophy planned everything that was happening in the book--she was in complete control; she planned on her cousin falling in love with her; she wasn't surprised when it happened. Frederica, on the other hand, had no thoughts of marriage and was only focused on taking care of her siblings, since they had all been orphaned a few years ago. She was the oldest of the five siblings, and brought them all to London in order to help her stunningly beautiful sister Charis have her "season" in London society. All of her goals centered around Charis being comfortably married and taking care of her younger brothers, which unselfishness was appealing enough in her character. Of course, the distant relative she applies for help to, the Marquis of Alverstoke, who is the most eligible bachelor in town and has long been considered the most selfish and uncaring man in society, discovers that Frederica and her younger brothers are some of the first people he's ever met who don't bore him excessively and he gradually falls in love with her.

So far, after reading two Heyer novels, I've found that I love how she includes events that seem totally out of the regular path of everyday life in her stories. In this novel, one of the climactic events is when Frederica and family go watch a hot-air balloon lift-off from one of the main parks in London (and all sorts of chaos ensue with Frederica's youngest brother!). It just is such a novel event to read about in a story set in this time period, when all of Jane Austen's novels are very centered on the regular, everyday lives that people lead (which I very much enjoy too--I just appreciate the contrast). I loved Frederica as the heroine and I also very much liked the Marquis of Alverstoke--he's a semi-despicable rake at the beginning of the novel but you can kind of see why, through his circumstances and surroundings. He becomes much more approachable and less self-centered through his attachment to Frederica and her family, and leads to a happy ending.