The Reluctant Widow [Paperback]

Georgette Heyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2008

"Lively, amusing ... done to a turn!"
- Kirkus Reviews

A fateful mistake...

When Elinor Rochdale boards the wrong coach, she ends up not at her prospective employer's home but at the estate of Eustace Cheviot, a dissipated and ruined young man on the verge of death.

A momentous decision...

His cousin, Mr Ned Carlyon, persuades Elinor to marry Eustace as a simple business arrangement. By morning, Elinor is a rich widow, but finds herself embroiled with an international spy ring, housebreakers, uninvited guests, and murder. And Mr Carlyon won't let her leave ...

WHAT READERS SAY ABOUT THE RELUCTANT WIDOW:

"Delightful and purely entertaining. The plot involves comedy, intrigue, espionage, cloaks and daggers, and things going bump in the night - served with a sauce of witty repartee that is the Heyer hallmark. Unforgettable."

"One of my favorites!"

"A delightfully funny and mysterious romp."

"Reading Georgette Heyer is the next best thing to reading Jane Austen."
- Publisher's Weekly

(20081006)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Georgette Heyer is best known for her witty and charming Regency romances, but she is also responsible for a handful of mystery novels. On occasion, mystery would find its way into her romances, embroiling her well-born heroes and heroines in adventures that were alternately chilling and hilarious. In The Reluctant Widow, Eleanor Rochdale, a young woman of good birth but straitened circumstances, sets out to accept a position as a governess and ends up plunged into a tangle of foreign intrigue instead.

Eleanor's adventure begins when she inadvertently mistakes the carriage waiting at the coach stop for one sent by her prospective employer, Mrs. Macclesfield. She finds herself carried to the estate of one Ned Carlyon, whom Eleanor mistakes for Mr. Macclesfield. Carlyon, meanwhile, believes Eleanor to be the young woman he hired to marry his dying cousin, Eustace Cheviot, in order to avoid inheriting Cheviot's estate himself. Somehow, Eleanor is talked into marrying Eustace on his deathbed and thus becomes a wealthy widow almost as soon as the ring is on her finger. What starts out as a simple business arrangement soon becomes much more complicated as housebreakers, uninvited guests, a shocking murder, missing government papers, and a dog named Bouncer all contribute to this lively, frequently hilarious tale of mistaken identities, foreign espionage, and unexpected love set during the Napoleonic Wars. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

I enjoyed reading as the story unfolded and we discovered something new with each page. With The Reluctant Widow, Ms. Heyer once again demonstrates her wit and attention to detail with this delightful book. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca (October 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402213514
• ISBN-13: 978-1402213519
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author of over fifty books, Georgette Heyer is the best-known and best-loved of all historical novelists, making the Regency period her own. Her first novel, "The Black Moth," published in 1921, was written at the age of fifteen to amuse her convalescent brother; her last was My Lord John. Although most famous for her historical novels, she also wrote eleven detective stories. Georgette Heyer died in 1974 at the age of seventy-one.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorites by Georgette Heyer, March 14, 2007

By 

Carol Mello "marzeedoats" (San Jose,CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Reluctant Widow, The (Paperback)

I have been reading and collecting Georgette Heyer novels since I was 18. I actually discovered them by accident in a used bookstore where my older brother had a job. (One must patronize establishments where family members are employed.)

I have loved her novels right from the start. I have read all of them more than once. Some I have read many times. The Reluctant Widow is one of the special ones that I have read so often I have lost count of how many times I have read it.

I have noticed with the passing years that the novels that I first liked the most, the really romantic ones, have palled some over the years and that it is the funnier ones that I read over more and more. Maybe it is because I was lacking romance in my life when I started reading Georgette Heyer but now I have had more than enough romance and I appreciate humor more.

It's true that there is not much romance in this novel, or not much outward signs of romance. It really is more of a comic mystery than a romance. Yet having read it so many times, I can now detect the subtle signs of developing love between Elinor and Ned, especially Ned. It seems that time after time Ned comes up with reasons why Elinor cannot leave and get on with her life. After reading it so many times, I think that Ned may very well have fallen in love with Elinor at first sight but is reticient to do anything about it for quite a while.

To be truthful, the romance in all of Georgette Heyers novels is always secondary to the plot. In many of her novels, the hero does not make clear his intentions until the last chapter, sometimes even as late as the last 2 pages of the novel. If you are a romance addict, this can be very tiresome, having to wait so long for the romantic part.

This Georgette Heyer novel is definitely one of her 5 star novels when considered as a novel and not necessarily as a romance. The comic elements in it never fail to amuse, no matter how many times it is read. It is a funny historical novel set in the regency period of England with just a tad of romance in the end.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sampler of all Heyer's best skills, April 30, 1998

By 

truefeather77 "truefeather77" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Reluctant Widow (Hardcover)

The Reluctant Widow is exactly what a book of this type should be: delightful and purely entertaining. The secondary characters in Heyer's best books leap off the page, vivid and hilarious. The plot involves comedy, intrigue, espionage, cloaks & daggers, and things going bump in the night - - served with a sauce of witty repartee that is the Heyer Hallmark. Unforgettable.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Married to a fast-dying rake, a widow overnight...", August 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Reluctant Widow. (Hardcover)

This was the quote on the back of the book. The story itself begins in a decidedly Gothic fashion, with a seemingly dark, irascible hero, a heroine swept along by fate and a malevolent drunkard who plays her short-lived husband. The stage is set; some papers are missing that must not be allowed to fall into Bonaparte's hands and of course, they're probably secreted in the heroine's new home.

Some familiar personalities make their appearance in this novel; the hero's younger brother is modelled along most younger brothers/cousins, such as Ludovic of The Talisman Ring and Richmond of The Unknown Ajax. Basil, the sneaking and probably up-to-no-good fop is practically the twin of the evil Beau from The Talisman Ring. In fact, this story is a lot like the Talisman Ring, only without the guffaw-inducing nature of that worthy book and with a tamer ending. All in all, a good mystery infused with a lot of humour.