Written November 9, 20144 1/2 Stars - Magnificently adventurous, fun and romantic in a still strong 1930's 'Pre-Regency'Devil's Cub is an quite old romance novel from 1932 by Georgette Heyer. Mrs Heyer is an British classic author that I completely missed in my earlier reading-life. I'm so glad i "found" her at last. - From a recommendation and help from Sofia of course. ~ Thanks dear!~ This ended in a very fun last-minute weekend "buddy-read & buddy-listening" with my always so sweet book-loving friends: Sofia, Irina and Rosa, with great support from Kathleen. ~ I loved it. Simply perfect for an old Ms Austen loverJolly Good!! ~ I just finished my listening to a lovely old classic. This was so much fun and a lot of chuckling. What a journey with so many nice and amusing characters, a great romance plot and so very well told. ***********************************************************London and Paris in the 1780:s... From the audiobook blurb: ‘The excesses of the young Marquis of Vidal are even wilder than his father's before him. Not for nothing is the reckless duelist and gamester called the Devil's Cub. But when he is forced to leave the country, Mary Challoner discovers his fiendish plan to abduct her sister. And only by daring to impersonate her can Mary save her from certain ruin...’And there start this adventorous love tale Devil's Cub about a well-known, quite charming but still very young (24), noble rake: Dominic Alastair, Marquis of Vidal. The only son of the famous Duke of Avon. We also get a lovely quite impressing heroine. She is both 'resourceful' and energetic as well as brave. A twenty years old very modest and wise older sister: Miss (Mary) Challoner. They both kind of needed each other in different ways and soon they are in France and there'll be a lot of fun events with their relatives and friends. I will not try any more attempts to describe what is actually happening here, but I promise you grand drama, pistol duels and hot emotions combined with many comic scenes.“Ah, but I’m not a gentleman,” said the Marquis. “I have it on the best of authority that I am only anobleman.”“Good gracious, Vidal, who in the world dared to say such a thing?” cried his cousin, instantlydiverted.“Mary,” replied his lordship, pouring himself out a glass of wine.” It was a bit hard to understand it all at first but when I had all names, characters and understand the plot it all cleared. [Sofia wrote a much needed character list for me (see in the spoiler below) and Kathleen tried to explain the main story plot (excellent done).] After a few chapters was the story also much more concentrated on those young so sweet languorous love-doves (two future couple actually..) and their escapades. This was written 80 years ago so of course we don't get any kinky details from any bedchamber, a lot of steamy smut, or barely even a kiss, but beautifully romantic is it anyways. That's what I call well written. ~ Recommended! ***********************************************************In my opinion an perfect pleasing audio...I listened to the audiobook narrated by Michael Drew. It felt as listening to what we call radio theater up here. ~ Nicely done with unique voices for each character. For me, worked this quite theatrical style excellent for this type of old-fashioned story. ***********************************************************I'm sure it will be more Georgette Heyer novels in the future for me. I've read / listened to / watched Austen's and the three Brontë sisters novels and stories so many times by now so it feels GREAT to have another pile of romantic well written old classics to chose from and read between all these new (very smexy, sexy, steamy...) romances I usually read every day. A romantic drama in an old witty Errol Flynn spirit is also always a welcome favorite. I LIKE - definitely, a new favorite author is on my list*********Extra, if you need more facts: (view spoiler)[#1 The author - Ms Heyer (view spoiler)[Georgette Heyer (1902 – 1974); British historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921. Heyer essentially established the historical romance genre and its subgenre Regency romance. Her Regencies were inspired by Jane Austen, but unlike Austen, who wrote about and for the times in which she lived, Heyer was forced to include copious information about the period so that her readers would understand the setting. To ensure accuracy, Heyer collected reference works and kept detailed notes on all aspects of Regency life. While some critics thought the novels were too detailed, others considered the level of detail to be Heyer's greatest asset. (Although the British Regency lasted only from 1811 to 1820, Heyer's romances were set between 1752 and 1825.) A first printing of one of her novels in the Commonwealth often consisted of 65,000–75,000 copies, and her novels collectively sold over 100,000 copies in hardback each year. ~ Her paperbacks usually sold over 500,000 copies each. At the time of her death 48 of her books were still in print. (...from Wikipedia) (hide spoiler)]
Mary Challoner is in a bind, she have to stop her feather brain sister from running away to Pairs and becoming the mistress of the Marquis of Vidal. Knowing only one way , Mary takes her sister’s place and tricks the Marquis, only her plan backfires when she’s dragged along to Pairs with him! Vidal can’t believe his rotten luck of late, after shooting a man for calling him a cheat at cards, then having to run off to Pairs to avoid going to trial, Vidal thought getting a girl to run away with him would be the easy part, but when her straight laced sister tricks him into thinking she was her sister, in a fit in a rage drags her along with him. Only when he finds out her a woman of virtue, asks her for her hand in marriage, only to be surprised again when she says NO. Mary and Vidal match wits and trade banter between them as their family closes in on them from both sides and when all hells breaks loose, they find out they just can’t live without each other and their love. What a wonderful read that once I started I couldn’t put it down almost zooming through 250 pages. Vidal is hell on two legs, a rake with a true devil may care attitude that can kill without a blink of an eye. Which gets him over his head in trouble when he shoots a well known gentleman when he’s called a cheat. Mary is proper, sassy with a great head on her shoulders and when you met the rest of her family (her mother and sister) you understand someone had to have the brains in the family. Both comes from different walks of life, while Vidal adores his mother and respects his father, he’s pretty much a spoiled little boy with his toys..at first glance. When Mary walks into his life he starts to slowly change his ways, but you also see he has a truly kind heart as he starts to fall in love with Mary. Mary also discovery her love for Vidal gives her a hidden strength she didn’t know she had. When the two are together sparks fly, making you laugh at the banter between the two and the trouble they get into. Like a true regency romance there’s only few scenes with the two main leads in them which can be kinda of a bummer and the only fault I found through the whole book, so they have to count and do they ever. Vidal and Mary’s families are a hoot, as they track down the wayward lovers across England and Pairs, with crazy mismatched stories on what happen to the pair following them. The ending was very fitting like the passing of the torch from father to son, with the Duke of Avon listening and adding his few words of wisdom onto his son and Mary.Overall: such a delightful read that is fast pace with crazy antics that will have you laughing and cheering for these two people and their happy ever after!
What do You think about Devil's Cub (2004)?
What a delightful introduction to this wonderful author! I'm so ashamed to have just discovered Georgette Heyer. Thank you, Sofia, for bringing her books to my attention!Devil's Cub has made me happy and put a wide satisfied smile on my face. This kind of books is the reason I love romance genre so much. I can easily put Heyer on the same level as my favourite Jane Austen or even higher still. This had similar feel. Written with class, propriety, wit and humour, weaved into a simple yet masterful plot, it was a pure indulgence. I'll bypass the details about the plot and the characters. I'm sure it has all been said numerous times already. All I can add is that to me, this kind of books are timeless, and I would love to add this to my precious paperback collection. I might confess though, that my favourite part of the story was oddly the conversation between Mary and the older gentleman who turned out to be (view spoiler)[her future father-in-law (hide spoiler)]
—Irina
Update: I found it a LOT funnier on second reading! I laughed from the beginning with "What have you done with the corpse, my boy?" "Done with it? WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH A CORPSE?!?!?!?!!!" to the end "Give Sophia a glass!! We're drinking your health!" "IT'S MARY!!!"**Contains spoilers and strong language** " 'They're all mad, every one of 'em,'" That's what I thought at about 1/3 of the book, and then I decided to view this story as just a fun, silly screw-ball comedy.And....I loved it. When I
—Anne
My review is partial and prejudiced. This is the sequel to These Old Shades so of course I'm going to love it. I wanted more of Avon and Leonie in the book, though. You could tell Heyer still loves them and the pages shine when they come back on stage.Dominic's an okay hero, though he's even more pushy and headstrong than the norm with a pushy and headstrong hero, and he lacks Avon's polish and wit. He is redeemed somewhat by his occasional charm, and his passion when it isn't overboard possessive. Mary's kind of a boring heroine, nowhere near as fun as Leonie, but she brought some sense to a cast of totally insane characters that pretty much had no moral or realistic center without her. My favorite scene is when Mary and Avon finally meet. The book would have been MUCH more interesting if Mary was the daughter of Avon and Dominic the "unsuitable" one. Dominic might've been forced to grow up and shut up some more.Also- The brother from These Old Shades is back too! Rupert! I missed him!
—Kelly
