Snowballing problems due to stupidity, fear, and dishonesty didn’t entertain me, but I enjoyed the dialogue and the narrator.REVIEWER’S OPINION:I did not enjoy reading about the heroine Nell. She did too many stupid things. She was not honest with Giles her husband which resulted in inaccurate assumptions by both of them. They each thought the other didn’t care, so they acted in stand-offish ways, which reinforced the beliefs that the other didn’t care. How did this start? Nell’s mother was ignorant and told a lie. The mother told Nell that Giles only married her for convenience, would never love her, would always have a mistress, and Nell should not show her true feelings or any insecurities. From the stupidity of youth Nell believed her and felt she could not go to Giles with her problems, and she never let him know that she loved him. Nell avoided being with Giles for various reasons. In one scene, Giles wanted Nell to stay home with him, but Nell said she wanted to go to a play with Letty. She really didn’t want to go, but she chose to go because she feared Letty might argue with Giles if they stayed home. This was not following Nell’s feelings, and it was a stupid reason (IMO). Another problem was Nell frequently acting afraid of Giles, and he saw this. Giles loved Nell, but he never told her. He believed she married him only for his money which was not true. The plot starts with Nell telling a lie to Giles. Then she had to keep making up more lies to cover previous lies which snowballed into a mess by the end of the book. At one point Giles was angry at Nell believing she stole something which was not true, but she didn’t deny it which was another lie. This did not work for me. I was more annoyed than enjoyed.Another example of stupidity: midway in the story Felix offered to loan Nell the money, and she said no. I’m shaking my head – what? She was desperate and that would have solved her problem.On my profile page, I have a list of pet peeves. This story used three of them: (1) conflicts due to vague communication and inaccurate assumptions (2) lying with does not fit with one’s feelings and motivations and (3) heroine doing stupid things. Sometimes a small amount of these can work, but this story had too much.I loved the narrator, Eve Matheson. She spoke slowly, was easy to understand, and had such a pleasant, lovely voice. She’s my favorite female narrator so far.STORY BRIEF:Nell’s brother Dysart is an irresponsible gambler. He borrows 300 pounds from Nell which means she can’t pay her clothing bills. She doesn’t tell Giles that Dysart borrowed from her. She doesn’t tell Giles she has an unpaid bill of 300 pounds. She goes to Dysart for help, and they consider and attempt various schemes to get the money.A second story is about Giles’ half-sister Letty who is 17 and wants to marry Jeremy who has no money. Giles is against the marriage at this time due to Letty’s age. But he will support it in a couple of years. This is unacceptable to Letty who is furious and plans her own schemes. Letty is selfish, foolish, and very stupid.DATA:Unabridged audiobook length: 9 hours. Narrator: Eve Matheson. Swearing language: none. Sexual content: none. Setting: 1813 England. Book Published: 1957. Genre: regency romance.
I worship at the alter of Heyer; I love every single one of her books - but April Lady (along with some of her other regencies) has a special place in my heart. I love this book with an unholy love, I can't count the number of times I've reread it. Yes - I get the many, many similarities between this and Heyer's Convenient Marriage, but for all its critics I still can't see how this book hasn't gotten the same rep as Sophy. (Which I love dearly, but probably with less unholiness.) I have to admit, though, that I prefer Nell to Horry (from the Convenient Marriage), and Giles to Rule. I much preferred Nell and Giles' reserved, tender, development to Horry's disjointed, 'he-doesn't-love-me-like-I-love-him-time-to-disguise-my-love-through-partying' brashness and Rule's controlling tendencies. But I digress, and of course, people are entitled to their own opinions. (Only I wish that someone liked AL as much as I did.)Heyer's heroines, of course, always get into scrapes, but none of that oddly contemporary regency seduction stuff that appears to be the norm nowadays - and April Lady is one big massive heroine scrape, unraveled through Heyer's bubbling, charming, storytelling. Heyer is probably the only writer with such a high! usage! of! exclamation! points! that I can stand. But then, Heyer's books are always delightful. Why, then, did April Lady stand out, and grab at me so much?April Lady is the good thing that hurts. This is angsty, delicious misunderstanding written in the best possible way. Really, no kidding. As Nell - Helen - descended from one level of deception to another, my heart hurt alongside hers - especially when Giles - Cardross snipped at her, or looked at her in that terrible, lovely angsty way that people in misunderstandings (misunderstandment? Can you be struck by it?) are wont to do. And there is no doubt that these two people love each other dearly, and could be absolutely happy together, but really, everything must go wrong before it starts going right, I guess. Because hey, that's fiction! Beyond that, however, it is misunderstanding with a solid foundation and it rolls at a proper pace. Oh, it snowballs, of course, but never descends into a crazy screwball mix, but rather a series of unfortunate events, timings, and circumstances. When it all came to a crescendo at that fantastic scene in his office, I was hooked along with Nell - white-faced, tongue-tied, possibly even heartbroken (I think it was amazing that she didn't really cry at all; I would have sobbed like a baby) and I was amazed at how much feeling Heyer can put in a simple sentence, without telling us explicitly what is happening. She does this in all her writing, of course, but my heart stuttered quite seriously at some of her zinger, feeling sentences in this book - (view spoiler)["Ah, no! Giles, Giles!" along with Nell's poor, beseeching hand, and her poor darling "I can't answer you, you s-see. Later, I will. Not now!", followed by the extremely emotional, "No, come back! I didn't mean it, Nell! I didn't mean it!". (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about April Lady (2005)?
"April Lady" is a Regency romance novel, except it isn't really a romance. The hero and heroine are rarely together. They only act like lovers toward each other at the very end, and Giles doesn't save her from anything except her bills. It's more a humorous historical.The story revolves around Nell getting into debt because she isn't used to having so much money and it seemed limitless. Giles pays her bills, but scolds her. She assures him there are no more bills and she won't go into debt again. Only, there was one major bill that she overlooked.There are so many ways--moral ways--to deal with this situation. Two characters keep suggesting very poor methods, and I liked that Nell didn't give in to them. However, it's a story where everything would be quickly solved if the hero and heroine would simply talk to one another. Instead, Nell lies, then gets nervous, and Giles gets suspicious and acts coldly toward her. Things spiral downhill. Yet even when Nell learns her lesson about lying, she immediately does it again.If anyone but Heyer had written the story, I would have thrown the book across the room. As it was, Nell's brother, his friend, and her sister-in-law add a lot of comic relief that made the story bearable. I think I would have liked the story better if Heyer hadn't tried to sustain the unpaid bill storyline for so long. There were other misunderstandings that could have become the focus. The characters acted realistically, and I could understand how a girl as young as Nell could get trapped into the course that she did. Yet I still found it frustrating.There were no sex scenes. There was some bad language (most of it swearing using "God"). Overall, I guess I'd recommend this novel to Heyer fans, but I have no plans to read the book again.
—Debbie
Very fun. The only downside is Heyer's inexplicable fondness for matching grown-up men with teenaged women, and endowing her men with annoying ruthless sternness and condescension toward their sweethearts. However, happily, in this romp we spend very little time with the ostensibly romantic pair, and instead enjoy the comical interactions of a host of friends and cousins, a wayward half-sister, and several upstanding (if sometimes tipsy) young men who attempt to shepherd our naive heroine (Nell) back towards a path of respectability. A cousin to Friday's Child, and an excellent candidate for reading aloud.
—Debrarian
This one was fun, but sadly more forgettable than my favorite Heyer stories. It utilizes one of Heyer's favorite plots - that of miscommunication and misunderstandings, as well as similar to Bath Tangle that I just finished, spends the majority of the plot with the two main lovers separated. while I thought the characters were fun and enjoyable, there was too little face time with Cardross. Also, Nell's semi-wastrel brother and his best friend seem modeled along similar lines to Pen and his partner-in-crime in A Convenient Marriage, so it felt mainly like familiar territory with a bit of a new spin.
—Jenn
