This book definitely fell into the overly fluffy side of Heyer’s oeuvre. In it, we find the handsome Viscount Desford, who seems to like to run around the countryside visiting people, attending a ball while visiting his aunt. The ball was thrown to showcase the eldest daughter of the house, but Desford happens to meet the poor cousin, who’s been taken in because her father is dead. Being a charity case, her aunt and cousins have been shamelessly abusing her – making her run errands, etc, etc. Have I mentioned her name is Charity? And so, Cherry (as she prefers to be called) runs away the morning after the ball, and since Desford recognizes her as he drives by in his chaise, on the way to London, takes pity on her, and gives her a ride to London, to her grandfather’s house. And her grandfather isn’t there.
And thus, Desford gets to run around the country side looking for Cherry’s grandfather. Yep – that’s the story. Now, this totally sounds like it should be a love story where Desford falls for Cherry, and on first blush, it sure seems like it should be. Except Cherry and Desford are so clearly not suited for each other, you spend the whole book hoping that doesn’t happen.
So this book is going straight to the Bookmooch pile. It’s not terrible, but it’s certainly not good.
Oh, and my edition is from 1970, and the cover is heinous. Like worse than typical examples from the period heinous (and let’s face it, the 70s were not the finest hour of book cover art). Sadly, it’s not on Bookmooch, and my scanner is currently down, so I can’t share the pain.