This will be the one that ends up as my go to recommendation for people who are starting out with Heyer. It used to be The Grand Sophy, but there is that unpleasant anti-semitic streak that runs through it which has led me to be increasingly uncomfortable with recommending that as a first experience with Heyer.Faro's Daughter, for me, is as close to a perfect Heyer as I think probably exists. It is as sparkling and effervescent as Sprig Muslin, Deb is as strong-willed and honorable as Sophy, Phoebe is as adorable as Arabella, although not so headstrong. The romance between Ravenscar and Deb is as satisfying as Sir Tristram and Sarah Thane in The Talisman Ring.Like Sprig Muslin & Talisman Ring, Faro's Daughter is a double ring romance, with a pair of younger characters and a pair of older characters. And, like both of those books, I absolutely loved the romance between the more mature characters.Deborah Grantham is the titular Faro's Daughter, a moderately impoverished woman of four and twenty, which makes her a bit older than the heroine of the average Regency romance. She and her aunt have opened up a card room in an effort to stave off bankruptcy, which is really not going very well because her aunt sort of sucks at money management, and Deb's brother is - as is so often the case in these Heyer romances - a drain on the family finances.Adrian is the young Lord Mablethorpe, who fancies himself in love with the delectable Deb. There's also a lecherous older character, Lord Ormskirk, who has bought up all of Deb's aunt's bills in an effort to force Deborah into becoming his mistress. She is having none of that, of course, but she rather likes Adrian and doesn't want to hurt him. The book begins when Lord Ravenscar decides that it is incumbent upon him to save the callow youth from the clutches of the fortune hunter. He badly underestimates Deb's integrity and kindness, and jumps to all kinds of conclusions. He is a huge conclusion jumper, which is the cause of the misunderstanding that leads to a delightful confusion at the end. Deb has no intention of marrying Adrian, she is much too honorable of a person and she isn't a bit in love with him, so when Ravenscar offers her twenty-thousand pounds to leave Adrian alone, she loses her shit."The palm of Miss Grantham’s hand itched again to hit him, and it was with an immense effort of will that she forced herself to refrain. She replied with scarcely a tremor to betray her indignation. ‘But even you must realise, sir, that Lord Ormskirk’s obliging offer is not to be thought of beside your cousin’s proposal. I declare, I have a great fancy to become Lady Mablethorpe."Ravenscar has met his match with the indomitable Deb, but he has no idea. He is accustomed to getting his own way, and is just as pissed as Deb when she turns him down flat, leaving him with the distinct impression that she intends to marry Adrian as soon as Adrian reaches majority, in a bare 60 days. The pitched battle of wills and arms occurs, with Ravenscar buying the bills off Ormskirk, and Deb actually at one point kidnapping Ravenscar and locking him in her basement with the rats."‘You have had Ravenscar murdered, and hidden his body in my cellar!’ uttered her ladyship, sinking into a chair. ‘We shall all be ruined! I knew it!’‘My dear ma’am, it is no such thing!’ Deborah said, amused. ‘He is not dead, I assure you!’Lady Bellingham’s eyes seemed to be in imminent danger of starting from their sockets. ‘Deb!’ she said, in a strangled voice. ‘You don’t mean that you really have Ravenscar in my cellar?’‘Yes, dearest, but indeed he is alive!’‘We are ruined!’ said her ladyship, with a calm born of despair. ‘The best we can hope for is that they will put you in Bedlam."These are the only two people in London who could handle each other without asbestos gloves and a welding hood.The second romance involves Adrian and Phoebe Laxton, who is rescued - by Deb and Adrian - from Vauxhall, where her mercenary family is trying to sell her like a lamb to slaughter to a way, way, way too old creepy aristocrat because in that family, as well, the men are useless, profligate gambles and women are commodities. Phoebe is adorable and sweet, and Deb figures out within about twenty seconds that she is just the girl for Adrian. While Ravenscar is accusing her of being the worst kind of gold-digger, she is neatly solving his problem for him, finding a suitable match, and watching Adrian grow up just in time to take care of the fraught Phoebe.And so, we come to the end, after Adrian has married Phoebe, he returns to town, runs into Ravenscar, and tells him to wish him happy because he has gone and gotten married. Ravenscar again jumps to the conclusion that Deb has married Adrian just to spite him. He shows up at her house to get into a big fight, and tell her that had she not been in such a hurry, she would have gained a much bigger prize - him.She tosses him out, furious, saying, in Lizzie Bennett fashion, that he is the last man in the world that she could be prevailed upon to marry.Ah, young love. If only they'd had some electronics to toss around, a DVD player would clearly have gone out the window. It does, of course, all get worked out in the end, and I am convinced that Ravenscar and Deborah are perfect for one another - honorable, fierce, passionate, and slightly nuts. Their marriage will never be boring, and regency London would have been a better place with them in it.
Flushed with success from my recent read of Venetia, I cast caution to the wind and decided to take on another Georgette Heyer Regency novel. I should have known I wasn't mentally up for another contrived plot yet. Even Heyer's witty writing didn't save this one for me.Deborah Grantham is a 25 year old with decent parentage, but gambling runs in the family and between one thing and another, she's ended up as a faro dealer at a London gambling house run by her aunt. She's beautiful enough that she's attracted some attention from gentlemen who frequent the gambling house, mostly the wrong sort of attention, but there's the 20 year old heir to the Mablethorpe title who has fallen head over heels for her and wants to marry her. His mother and uncle want to squash this inappropriate romance, and they have two months to do it before he turns 21 and gets control of his fortune. So the uncle, Max Ravenscar, finds Deborah, and decides the best way to handle her is to offer to pay her money (a lot of money) to send his nephew Adrian packing. Deb and her aunt are in desperate need of money, but Deb finds Max's offer so insulting that she not only declines the money, she declares that she'll marry Adrian just to spite him (which she actually has no intention of doing). And so begins a battle royale between this obstinate couple, and of course we all know where it's going from there, but the fun is in the journey. Except it just wasn't that much fun for me.Look--I get that Regencies aren't exactly the poster child for plausibility. When you look up the word "contrived," there's a picture of a Regency romance there, or should be anyway. And I'll confess that when I like the main couple and the plotline, I'll do contrived plots with the best of them (Knave's Wager, anyone?). So I guess what it amounts to is that I didn't care for the characters or their choices enough to really make this a winner for me. Deb was basically an intelligent, kind-hearted, cultured person, but being around Max brought out the worst in her. Her decision-making process around him was kneejerk and irrational, and I just don't do irrational. Max--well, he's kind of a jerk even at the best of times, though he does care about his family. And they both have a sense of humor, which saves the story from going completely off the rails. The secondary characters didn't help me out a lot here: Deb's aunt is one of those extravagant spendthrift creatures that I dislike so much in fiction; Adrian, though he has potential, is young and foolish; Deb's brother grovels; and so on.But most of this story is the feud between Max and Deb. So if you love this kind of battle of the sexes plotline, complete with farcical events like a kidnapping, a cultured woman dressing up like a tart and acting low class to embarrass the guy and his family, gambling away of fortunes, etc., this might be a really great read for you.
What do You think about Faro's Daughter (2004)?
Definitely among my favorite books from Georgette Heyer.The heroine was among those older, wiser, not eligible and not looking for a husband, which I usually prefer to the younger needing maturing ones. The hero was the usual rich peer uninterested by marriage falling in love despite himself with the heroine.I liked the overall plot which lied on Max and Deborah having a disaster of a first encounter, each finding the other even worse than whatever bad they already expected and trying to best the other out of wounded pride nourishing spite. Each of their further encounters fueled those feelings and gave way to outrageous dialogues and competition.Although I would have liked knowing a little more about Max and Deb's growing feelings, self-doubts and hesitations, the love declarations came less as a surprise than in other books.Overall this book made me smile throughout all of it and even laugh a few times. And this helped me forget its flaws.
—LaFleurBleue
The UnexceptionableThe heroine was amazing. Deborah was charming, funny, and probably best of all: acerbic. Some of the set downs she gave Ravenscar were awe inspiring. Yes, I seem to like that trait. :-)Extra romance! We get two romances in one with this story which I always enjoy. It’s a nice bonus. :-)Fun side characters! Heyer seems to really excel at this in some of her novels. The secondary characters are nearly as interesting as the primary characters and we get to find out how things go for them. Fun back and forth between the hero and heroine. For most of the story the two are engaged in a sort of mental chess match with both trying to outdo the other. It was really quite amusing to read. Though I admit I was entirely on Deborah’s side. :-)Happy ending!! :-DThe PassableI was torn on Ravenscar. He’s rather pompous and so sure of his superiority that he initially came across as just dull. Well, until he started insulting Deborah in which case he came alive but not in a good way. I am happy to say about midway through a certain event totally restored him in my opinion. At least until he lost more points towards the end. He at least makes up for it at the last minute. Mostly. :-)ContentRather respectable given the setting. Ravenscar goes off on tangents calling Deborah all manner of rude names (though admittedly nothing horrific in the modern sense.) And there is talk of Deborah essentially becoming the mistress of a horrific older man. (However despite his horridness, he was rather funny.) Other than that, nothing to speak of. ;-)Thoroughly enjoyed this and it will certainly be reread many times in the future. :-)Spoiler Comments(view spoiler)[The scene in the cellar is my absolute favorite in the whole story. It also completely restored Ravenscar to my good opinion. I also was very happy to see a good resolution for Adrian and his rather starry eyed wife. I really like how Heyer saves characters like that in some of her stories. :-) (hide spoiler)]
—Valshar ⚜ Jonathan
I've given this a B+ for narration and B for content at AudioGals.It’s been quite some time since I read Faro’s Daughter, and given my memories of it are rather hazy, listening to this was almost like listening to something completely new. It’s a little different to many of the author’s other romances in that the heroine, while certainly well-born, is not “respectable” because she runs the genteel gaming establishment that is owned by her aunt, Lady Bellingham. It also contains one of the most highly antagonistic central relationships that I can remember reading in her books – the hero and heroine’s barbed banter is often cutting to the point of unpleasantness and in fact, some of the epithets the hero flings at the heroine’s head are downright offensive.Deborah Grantham and her younger brother were taken in by their aunt upon the death of their father, a man with a large appetite for gaming and very little luck. Lady Bellingham opens her home to “select gaming parties” as a way of making ends meet; preserving the illusion that people attend by invitation only allows her to maintain a façade of respectability.Deborah is quick-witted, intelligent and practical, although at twenty-six years of age, she is pretty much on the shelf, and the fact that she presides over her aunt’s gaming salon renders her ineligible as a wife for any man of good breeding. Yet the young Viscount Maplethorpe professes himself in love with her and makes clear his desire to marry her – which throws his mother into a panic. She cannot possibly countenance Adrian’s marrying a common hussy – and while he is not yet of age, his birthday in two months’ time will see him finally independent and able to bestow his person and his considerable fortune anywhere he pleases.In her desperation to prevent such an imprudent marriage, Lady Maplethorpe turns to her nephew, Max Ravenscar for help. Ravenscar is Adrian’s other guardian and is very shrewd, incredibly wealthy, doesn’t care much for society and cares even less for society’s opinion of him. He’s used to getting his own way, and is sure that he can avert disaster by offering the wench money to leave Adrian alone. He attends Lady Bellingham’s that evening to see “this cyprian of Adrian’s” – and is surprised to discover that she is not at all what he had expected. Far from looking, sounding or behaving like a trollop, Miss Grantham is rather lovely “built on queenly lines, [she] carried her head well, and possessed a pretty wrist, and a neatly turned ankle. She looked to have a good deal of humour, and her voice, when she spoke, was low-pitched and pleasing.” and he finds himself able to completely understand the reasons for his young cousin’s infatuation.What Max has no way of knowing is that Deborah has not the slightest intention of marrying Adrian. She is well aware that the young man is merely suffering from a severe case of calf-love and has never given him the slightest encouragement or occasion to believe that she will accept his suit. She is sure he will soon grow out of his attachment to her and is quite happy to let things run their course, in spite of the fact that her aunt keeps dropping massive hints to the effect that Adrian’s fortune would obliterate their financial worries.You can read the rest of this review at AudioGals
—Caz
