As the eldest of eight siblings, Arabella knows that the fortunes of her brothers and sisters are riding on her ability to make a good match during her London season. While traveling from her home in Yorkshire, her carriage breaks down and she takes shelter in the hunting lodge of Mr. Beaumarais, the Nonpareil of the ton. When she overhears Beaumarais talking about how she's obviously just another young fortune hunter throwing herself at him Arabella pretends that she's an heiress to try and get her own back. Beaumarais is instead amused and decides to make Arabella the toast of the season. What he doesn't expect is to fall for Arabella's unpretentious charms. As a notorious flirt Beaumarais finds himself going to all lengths to prove the veracity of his intentions to Arabella and ends up protecting an urchin, a stray dog, and, eventually, Arabella's reckless younger brother all in his quest to win her heart.

Georgette Heyer delivers a pitch perfect novel here. I adored Arabella and Beaumarais and their charming romance had me delighted from start to finish. I could have done with a little less of Arabella's younger brother's hijinks, mostly because I found him digging himself further and further into gambling debt quite stressful. But other than that quibble, I'd highly recommend this novel as a great starting point if you've never tried Heyer before. ( )

although I usually love this era of book, I'm not a big fan of girlie girl romance. I found myself skimming quite a bit.... ( )

3.5 ( )

Although Arabella's Carriage break-down premise went on way too long and her brother got truly boring,

there were entertaining parts once Beaumaris opened up while staying remotely cool. ( )

Arabella is the oldest daughter of an impoverished country parson. She is headed to London to stay with her godmother and meets Robert Beaumaris. She lets herself be provoked by him and what she says begins a charade that is very entertaining.
I really enjoyed this book. I loved Arabella's character and I really liked Roberts as well. I liked that the romance evolved over time. One complaint I have with Georgette Heyer regency books is the romance often feels a little icky with the man being quite a bit older and treating the woman like a child. That was not the case in this book which I was very happy about.

I loved the relationship between Robert and his dog Ulysses. I found it very humorous. I also really enjoyed the scene with the chimney boy.
There was quite a bit of humor in this book. Most of the book is from Arabella's POV and some is from Roberts but there is also a bit from Arabella's brother Bertram. I didn't enjoy those parts as much.
There is some blasphemy and some thoughts of suicide by one character, other than that it is a clean read.
I would recommend this book as a very enjoyable read. ( )