April Lady [Import] [Paperback]

Georgette Heyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 26, 2005

What with the concern over Lady Cardross’s heart and pocket, the much-tried Earl almost misses the opportunity to smooth the path of true love in his marriage.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wonderful characters, elegant, witty writing, perfect period detail, and rapturously romantic. Georgette Heyer achieves what the rest of us only aspire to." - Katie Fforde"

About the Author

Georgette Heyer, who wrote over fifty novels died in 1974.

Product Details

• Paperback: 329 pages
• Publisher: Arrow (July 26, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099476347
• ISBN-13: 978-0099476344
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #993,860 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and witty, October 20, 2008

By 

skisno "skisno" (Hollis, NH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: April Lady (Paperback)

I classify G Heyer's romance novels into three categories: first, fun and witty; second, melodramatic and witty; and third, historic and witty. This falls into the first category. The comical adventures of the young heroine and her brother as they try to outwit her husband and save her marriage are extremely delightful to read especially if your reading time is limited. As with so many of her novels, the secondary characters provide the most amusement. It's good to find a light romance that's not cloying, and the heroine perfect and overly sweet like so many of the novels from Ms. Heyer's imitators.

If you loved Arabella and Sylvester (my favorite) from Ms Heyer, then you'll enjoy this novel.

If you're looking for something a bit heavier from Ms Heyer, try Black Moth and for something a historic, try An Infamous Army.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars young wife and heroine, December 24, 2007

By 

duchess "duchy" (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: April Lady (Paperback)

April Lady features a beautiful very young wife and heroine. She is only 18 years old, about half the age of her husband, and they have been married for a year.

Most of the problems in the relationship come because of her young age and inexperience.

She came from an impoverished noble family, and has no concept of how to manage her money. So she gets into debt, and ends up being less than truthful about it. This leads to all sorts of complications.

What neither of the two spouses knows is that the other is madly in love with him/her, so both have some insecurities about their relationship. This, of course, adds to the difficulties.

This being Heyer, some madcap adventures are included before a sweet resolution of everyone's problems.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Marriage a la mode, April 11, 2011

By 

Millamant (Australia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: April Lady (Kindle Edition)

Georgette Heyer's books fall into several broad types. While most of her novels end with the engagement of the hero or heroine, a subset deals with the resolution of problems after marriage. Like "A Civil Contract", "April Lady" falls into this subset. It is the story of what is on the surface a mismatch, albeit one made for love, between a very immature and rather foolish young woman and an indulgent man almost twice her age; and how the couple finally learn to communicate with each other and reach an understanding.

Nell Irvine is only seventeen when she marries Earl Cardross, and embarks on a career as a fashionable aristocratic lady. If you have ever wondered how those very young heroines of some of Heyer's other novels cope with the realities of married life, April Lady provides the answer. Nell is beautiful, kind and gentle, but totally inexperienced and not enormously bright; as a result her splendid marriage, made within a couple of months of emerging into adult life, turns out to be a challenge she is ill-equipped to cope with. Though Nell loves her husband, she is both emotionally and sexually reticent (her mother having unhelpfully told her that this is how she should behave), with the result that Cardross has become frustrated and distant. In addition, she is burdened with the chaperonage of an irresponsible sister-in-law roughly the same age as herself, and a brother with a gambling problem who is constantly hitting her for loans. Unfortunately Nell is also unable to manage money, something which has created tension between her and her husband, and her inability to pay a dressmaker's bill for three hundred pounds, and her desperate efforts to keep the debt hidden from her husband become a symbol of the lack of communication in the Cardross marriage. As Nell sinks lower and lower under the burden of deceit, the question becomes one of just how far she will go, and how much she will suffer before she will admit that she needs her husband's help, and understand that Cardross's love for her is real and not conditional.

"April Lady" is probably not one of Georgette Heyer's most famous novels, but it is different to most of the rest, and while the final outcome is inevitably a reconciliation between the partly estranged Earl and Countess, the journey to the resolution is not always so predictable. While Nell is not a particularly lively girl, being a passive blonde similar to Fanny in "Bath Tangle", the author has provided her with a more lively foil in the person of her sister-in-law Letty, and Nell's racketty brother Dysart also injects humour into the storyline. This has always been a favourite of mine among Georgette Heyer's novels, and while there are better places to start reading her work, "April Lady" is still a book that bears repeated re-reading.