Full Description

Charity Girl

Georgette Heyer, in her inimitable style, explores the lengths to which a gentleman must go to avoid scandal when confronted by a very young runaway lady.

When Viscount Desford encounters Charity Steane walking to London alone, he feels honor bound to assist her. Dashing about the countryside to find Charity’s elusive grandfather, the Viscount must somehow prevent his exasperating charge from bringing ruin upon herself—and him.

“This is the most delightful new Georgette Heyer Regency romance in several years. It is witty, full of dashing period slang, and it trifles with the affairs of several maids and men with such style and gentle irony that readers of good ‘ton,’ as Miss Heyer herself might put it, will find reading it a very ‘comfortable cose’ indeed.” —Publishers Weekly

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Excerpt

Excerpt

Reviews

Reviews

Library Queue Patricia Seguine
Viscount Desford is an unmarried gentleman who finds Charity Steane running away from her aunt’s household on the way to London. Rescuing her puts Desford in a social pickle and he turns to his best friend, Lady Hetta Silverdale, for help. Bound by honor, Desford goes on a search to find Charity’s missing grandfather.

I liked Charity Girl, but it was missing something I found more readily in Regency Buck. Perhaps it was that little element of intrigue that kept me turning pages in Regency Buck. Interestingly, Charity Girl was written about 35 years after Regency Buck, and I definitely noticed a difference in her writing style. I found Charity Girl a tad heavy on the Regency period slang and wished I had a dictionary nearby on a few occasions!

Overall, Charity Girl was a nice easy romance. I will continue searching out Georgette Heyer books for my future romance literature fix. She is one of my favorite authors that I discovered in 2008!

Thanks again to Danielle at Sourcebooks for the chance to review this book.

Love Romance Passion Keira Gillet
Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer is one scrumptious romp of trouble after the next. It all begins when Miss Charity Steane was found wandering the hillside, luggage in one hand and very sore feet. She is picked up by Viscount Ashley Desford and whisked away in his curricle as blasé as anything you please. He knows he can’t convince her to return to her miserably wretched aunt and so must take it upon himself to see that she is taken care of.

Cherry (Charity) is of course pleased beyond measure that he is not putting her through a lecture and more than willing enough to carry her the rest of the way to London. She has high hopes of running down her grandfather and begging him to take her up. Even if she has to resort to another menial position like the one she held at her aunt’s inside his home.

But the pickle of it becomes when Cherry and Desford find out that her grandfather is not in town. The neighbors do not know his direction, and the sole man inside the home refuses to speak about his master. Desford immediately sets about getting Cherry off his hands and into some more respectable ones. He doesn’t want to damage her reputation and as a single bachelor he can’t feasible continue to keep her in his care. So he settles her at Lady and Miss Silverdale’s home.

Miss Henrietta Silverdale and Desford were once a long time ago thought by their fathers to be an excellent match. They of course both knew better. Now Henrietta is entertaining new suitors and Desford seems to have his eye on Cherry. He is certainly gong well above and beyond the call of duty to locate her grandfather and find her a respectable situation.

What will happen when Desford confronts her grandfather with the charge of his granddaughter? Will Cherry remain in the good graces of Lady Silverdale? Will Henrietta’s brother, Charles, whisk Cherry off to call his own? What will Henrietta’s suitor think of the whole affair? Full of messes as well as larks, Charity Girl will have you alternately tutting like an old hen and giggling like a schoolgirl over all the crazy shenanigans.

Once Upon a Romance Marlene
Miss Charity Steane, who has been poorly treated by her aunt, decides to run away from her aunt’s care and go to her grandfather in London. Ashley Carrington, Viscount Desford, comes upon this young woman, whom he has met previously at her aunt’s house, walking toward London. When Charity refuses to return to her aunt’s house, Desford takes her to London, because he fears for her safety if left to travel alone. Upon arriving at her grandfather’s house, Charity and Desford discover that he is not at home. Fearing for Charity’s reputation, Desford takes her to his best friend, Henrietta Silverdale, and tries to find a solution to Charity’s dilemma.

Charity Girl is a remarkable regency romance penned by one of the most famous authors of this genre. The humor and the characters contained within this book make for a truly great read. Desmond is one of my favorite heroes— a true gentleman with a sense of humor, who helps others in need. The relationships between Desmond and his family left me with a warm feeling, because even when they butted heads, I could feel their love. Finally and most importantly, the loving relationship between sensible Henrietta and Desmond worked so well, that I can picture them having a long, happy life together.

Charity Girl will leave the reader with a warm, happy feeling. It is a must read for the regency lover.

Good Books Bright Side Jemima P
Alas, blood is not thicker than water, after all. At least this seems to be the case for Charity Steane, the unfortunate young woman whose father is dead and who has been thrust into the care of her mean relatives. Unable to bear her life with the Bugles, she runs away and is rescued en route to London by Viscount Desford who takes it upon himself to find a better life for Cherry, as she likes to be called.

Georgette Heyer’s novel, the second that I’ve read, is light and frothy. At times it gets a bit longwinded but you can always count on a character to clarify a situation for you and that can be greatly appreciated, as anyone knows who reads books that simply don’t make their plots clear. Now who’s that? Why’s he there, not in London? How’d she get out of that scrape? Characters explain themselves which can be either tedious or helpful, depending on the reader’s temperament. Consequently, you could shave off a great deal of this novel and retain the whole plot and even most of the characterization (which, by the way, is done very well.)

There’s no real way to emphasize how light this novel is; it’s lighter than air or even helium. And it’s without that shoe and shopping mania, that man-crazy female theme that so many of today’s ’chick-lit’ novels aspire to. Say you’re drinking champagne. This is the bubble that tickles your nose. Non-alcoholic.

And the characters are loveable, particularly Cherry and Desford and, later, Hetta and Simon. Reading Georgette Heyer’s work astutely, the reader realizes that it wouldn’t be all fun and games living in Regency England, despite the frothiness of the tales. This becomes obvious when you consider lives from the minor characters’ viewpoints, or at least when you consider how vulnerable they are to those on whom they rely. If it’s Desford and Hetta being relied on, no problem. The major characters that populate this novel are loveable for a reason, not least of which is their decency.

So why is it that water is thicker than blood? I won’t tell you. Why would I want to spoil it?

Thanks to Danielle at Sourcebooks for this complimentary review copy.

Customer Reviews:

Specs / Support

Adobe eBook Specifications

Format: Adobe eBook (.ebx)

Supported Software: Adobe Digital Editions.

Adobe Digital Editions Requirements

Help

• Download Adobe Digital Editions
• Adobe Digital Editions FAQ
• Installing, activating using and troubleshooting Adobe Digital Editions

Windows

• Microsoft® Windows® 2000 with Service Pack 4, Windows XP with Service Pack 2, or Windows Vista® (Home Basic 32-bit and Business 64-bit editions supported)
• Intel® Pentium® 500MHz processor
• 128MB of RAM
• 800x600 monitor resolution

Mac

PowerPC

• Mac OS X v10.4.10 or v10.5
• PowerPC® G4 or G5 500MHz processor
• 128MB of RAM

• Mac OS X v10.4.10 or v10.5
• 500MHz processor
• 128MB of RAM

Supported browsers and Adobe Flash versions:

Windows

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or 7, 8 Mozilla Firefox 2
• Adobe Flash® Player 7, 8, or 9 (Windows Vista requires Flash 9.0.28 to address a known bug)

• Apple Safari 2.0.4, Mozilla Firefox 2
• Adobe Flash Player 8 or 9

• Adobe Digital Editions does not currently support transfer to Palm devices.