Where Charity Needs a Hero

[Charity Girl] (By: Georgette Heyer) [published: November, 2004] by Georgette Heyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Like all the Heyer novels I've read, this is a breezy read with a lot to recommend it. Plenty of fun. It isn't my favorite, but it's still entertaining enough that I happily give it a 4.

Viscount Desford picks up Charity, a young woman he barely knows, because she has run away from her aunt's house where she was made pretty unhappy. The main conflict was that he wanted to find a better situation for her--with family, if possible--without ruining her reputation by making it look like he had run away with her. This is trickier than one might expect.

Desford himself is not, IMO, a particularly memorable character. He's a pretty good guy willing to go far out of his way to protect a young woman not connected to him. His heart's in the right place, but he's not terribly interesting, though I can't exactly put my finger on why. I like his love interest more--not Charity, but Henrietta, who helps him find a place for the runaway. She has a little more personality. But the most interesting character, who I'd like to have seen more, especially getting punched, is Charity's long-missing father, who turns out to be a schemer, a feckless, unrepentant failure of a parent, and apparently a cardsharp. He shows up to try to claim Desford stole away his beloved child with a promise of marriage and therefore must marry her. He's that true rogue one usually envisions playing poker in a saloon in the Wild West, and his shameless audacity livens up the final quarter of the book. He is a delight to hate.

There are HEA's spread around in the final chapter that could have had a bit more development earlier in the book to be more satisfying, but that's quibbling. It's plenty fun as is.

Recommended for Heyer fans--second tier, let's say, but still good. :)

View all my reviews