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Black Sheep

Abigail Wendover, on the shelf at 28, is kept busy when her niece falls head over heels in love with a handsome fortune hunter and Abbie is forced into a confrontation with his scandalous uncle.

Miles Calvery is the black sheep of his family— enormously rich from a long sojourn in India, disconcertingly blunt and brash. But he turns out to be Abbie’s most important ally in keeping her niece out of trouble.

But how can he possibly be considered eligible when she has worked so hard to rebuff his own nephew’s suit for her niece? And how can she possibly detach from an ailing sister who needs her? This is a heroine who has to be, literally, swept off her feet . . .

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Excerpt

Excerpt

Reviews

Reviews

Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society Ida Vega-Landow
05/02/2008 Entry: "Novel review: Black Sheep"

Black Sheep
By Georgette Heyer
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca
An imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

Review by Ida Vega-Landow

Ah, the joy of reading an old-fashioned romance, with no explicit sex, no lewd language, and no political correctness! All that and more can be found within the covers of a Georgette Heyer romance. The late Ms. Heyer, a charming Englishwoman who died in1974 at the age of 71 (God bless her!) was a lady through and through, who wrote about real ladies during the Regency Period of England, when mad King George III’s throne was kept warm for him by his son the Prince Regent, who later became George IV. She was known as the Queen of Regency Romance, who knew how to tell a tale as elegantly as Jane Austen did. Indeed, Publishers Weekly once commented, "Reading Georgette Heyer is the next best thing to reading Jane Austen."

Everything I know about romance, elegance, honor and duty I learned from Georgette Heyer. Growing up on the Lower East Side of New York City, my family was far from wealthy; we were lucky if we could afford new clothes for Easter, our diet was limited to whatever cheap meat was on sale at the supermarket, usually chicken or chuletas (pork chops), and we drank rum instead of wine or champagne. Being a Puerto Rican female during the late 60’s to early 70’s wasn’t easy, especially if you were intelligent and wanted to go to college. A nice girl was supposed to get married and have babies by the time she was eighteen, and as for college, that was for rich white girls looking for rich white boys to marry. Not being into drugs or alcohol like so many of my peers, most of whom wound up pregnant and on welfare, I sought escape from this dreary existence by reading anything I could get my hands on.

My teachers liked me because I was a nice, quiet girl who always did her homework and came to school on time. My peers hated me for the same reason. The popular girls always wore short skirts and mucho makeup, smoked marijuana and made out with every boy they dated. No boy would touch me because my skirts weren’t too short, I wore very little makeup as well as coke bottle eyeglasses, and refused to smoke even tobacco. Not only that, I dared to think I was just as good as a man and deserved the same rights. No wonder I preferred the romantic fantasies written by Georgette Heyer, where all the heroines were not great beauties, just nice-looking, intelligent girls who longed for independence from the stuffy rules of conduct for young ladies of the Regency Period. The heroes were always handsome and kind, and looking for a woman with brains and spirit to marry. None of the boys I knew wanted a girl with brains, and the only spirits they liked came in a bottle.

I also loved reading about the beautiful, elegant clothes they wore, the men as well as the women, described in exquisite detail by the author, as well as the scrumptious meals they ate and the chivalrous deference always shown by the men to the women. That meant a lot to a painfully shy Puerto Rican girl whose only experience with males was the kind who grabbed their crotches and said something nasty whenever you walked by. Enough of my depressing adolescence; let’s get to the story!

"Black Sheep" is about an intelligent, independent lady of gentle birth named Abigail Wendover, who at the age of 28 is already considered an old maid. She lives in Bath, a fashionable resort town during the Regency Period, with her older sister Selina, who is "on the shady side of 40" and a dedicated hypochondriac, as well as an incurable romantic, and their lovely 17-year-old niece Fanny. Selina and Abigail are the oldest and the youngest members of the Wendover family, Fanny is the daughter of their late eldest brother, who left his only child well provided for. That’s where Stacy Calverleigh comes in. Abby comes home from an extended visit to her married sister to find that Fanny has fallen in love with Stacy, a charmer in debt up to his ears, looking for a rich bride to help him settle down—his creditors, that is. Since her sister Selina has been so conned by the young man’s charms that she refuses to believe the unsavory rumors about him, Abby decides to take matters into her own hands and confront the young blackguard herself.

By a strange coincidence peculiar to romance novels, this young man has an uncle who is also visiting Bath at the same time. Miles Calverleigh, an older gentleman in his 30’s and still unmarried (which was considered perfectly normal for men in those days) is considered the black sheep of his family because of a romantic scandal he was involved in back in his teens, for which he was exiled to India by his stern father. When Abby goes to Stacy’s hotel to confront him, she arrives at the same time that Miles is checking in. When she hears him referred to as "Mr. Calverleigh", she assumes that he is Stacy and starts telling him what she thinks of unscrupulous fellows who dangle after naïve young heiresses. The ensuing conversation is one of the funniest bits of mistaken identify ever written. The mistake is finally cleared up, after Miles learns that Abby is the sister of the man whose fiancée he ran off with all those years ago, namely Fanny’s mother. Since he hasn’t seen his nephew since he was a toddler, he is indifferent to Abigail’s pleas that he use his influence with his nephew to stop him from romancing Fanny. However, he does begin to develop a fondness for Abby.

Stacy continues to woo Fanny despite the discouragement he receives from her Aunt Abby, as well as her Uncle John, the stern older brother of Abby and Selina who is trustee of his late brother’s estate and of Fanny’s fortune. He comes posthaste to Bath on the first mail coach from London (he’s also a bit of a cheapskate) to warn off the young blackguard. Even after both Abby and John inform him that Fanny will not inherit the bulk of her fortune until she is twenty-four years old, even after she is married, Stacy continues to pursue her. Made overly confident by his scandalous uncle’s seeming indifference to his plans to bag an heiress, Stacy succeeds in convincing Fanny to elope with him to Gretna Green, the Scottish border village where all eloping couples fled to in those days.

Fortunately for Fanny, before she can ruin her life with this romantic error she comes down with the influenza, or the flu as we call it nowadays, and is forced to take to her bed. While she is convalescing, a beautiful and wealthy widow comes to Bath; she and her impressive entourage check in at the same exclusive hotel where Stacy is staying. She immediately attracts Stacy’s attention and he abandons his plans to elope with Fanny so he can woo the rich widow. Little does he know that it’s a setup, arranged by the last person he would suspect, to make him reveal his true colors to poor little Fanny.

Sure enough, when Fanny recovers from the flu and finds out that her darling Stacy has been wooing a rich widow while she was sick, he’s history, much to her Aunt Abby’s relief and softhearted Aunt Selina’s disappointment. The fun part begins when the young fool actually proposes to the widow and gets a good set down; she not only refuses him, she tells him she knows all about him and that poor little rich girl he’s been seeing, and thinks he should be ashamed to be dangling after a schoolgirl one minute and a rich widow the next. With his creditors demanding payment and no other way of settling his debts, Stacy is forced to swallow his pride and turn to his uncle the black sheep for help. Uncle Dearest proceeds to relieve him of the heavily mortgaged family estate in return for settling his debts, after which Stacy is glad to leave town on the first post to London, right after the rich widow’s own departure, causing all the gossips in Bath to speculate that he’s run off after her in an attempt to persuade her into matrimony.

Now all that’s left is for the black sheep to convince his own lady, the redoubtable Miss Abigail, to accept his hand in marriage so that he can carry her off to the now redeemed family mansion and its neglected lands, both of which he is already putting in order. There is a happy ending for Abby, but I’m still not sure what happens to Fanny; does she end up marrying that nice boy who’s secretly in love with her, or going to stay with her married aunt in London for her coming out, which was traditional for young English ladies of good birth back then.

At least it ends happily, like most of Miss Heyer’s romantic novels, unlike most modern romances that usually have a tragic ending in which the heroine is rescued and redeemed by the hero, or he is rescued and redeemed by her. However, our Abby is in no need of rescue or redemption; she was a perfectly contented single woman until the right man came along, and now she will be an equally contented wife, despite being considered an old maid by the standards of the day. A lesson to all single women not to be so quick to give up on love, despite your age; it may be waiting around the corner for you. Hope never dies in a Georgette Heyer novel, and love is always triumphant.

Curled Up with a Good Book Helen Hancox

Friday’s Child
Georgette Heyer
Sourcebooks Casablance
Paperback
432 pages
April 2008

Georgette Heyer is, of course, the queen of the historical romance. In her career she wrote over fifty novels, many of them set in the Regency period. Friday’s Child is another of her Regencies, although it’s not one of my favorites. However, it still bears the hallmarks of her excellent writing skill with particularly amusing dialogue among some of the young bucks in the story.

Hero Wantage has always loved Sherry, Lord Sheringham, her neighbor. When Sherry’s marriage offer is rejected by the beautiful Isabella, he vows to marry the next woman he sees - which happens to be Hero. At first it’s just a marriage of convenience: Sherry and his friends imagine their life won’t change at all, Hero will just tag along as when they were young. Despite this rather dramatic naïveté, as events unfold and Hero falls into scrape after scrape, Sherry has to look at things a little differently.

Hero has always loved Sherry, but as she falls into more and more trouble, Sherry’s exasperation turns into anger - until he begins to understand the worth of his wife. There’s a kind of growing up into responsibility theme in this book, and the growing up happens particularly to Hero, who wasn’t brought up to be a Viscountess. The real stars of the book, for me, aren’t the hero and heroine but Sherry’s friends Ferdy, George and Gil. These three are fantastically amusing, good-hearted toward Hero, and some of their dialogue is just brilliant.

The youth of the hero and heroine in this book doesn’t always appeal to everyone, but those who enjoyed A Convenient Marriage and Cotillion will probably like this story. It’s not one of Heyer’s best, but it’s still well worth a read.

Curled Up with a Good Book Helen Hancox
Black Sheep
Georgette Heyer
Sourcebooks Casablanca
Paperback
288 pages
June 2008

Black Sheep is one of Georgette Heyer’s later Regency novels and shows all her skills as a writer, including her much-praised historical accuracy for this period. The ’black sheep’ of the title is Mr. Miles Calverleigh, a gentleman who was sent to India twenty years before after shaming his family. Unfortunately for Miss Abigail Wendover, the absent Mr. Calverleigh’s nephew, Stacy, is apparently trying to beguile her spirited niece, Fanny, in order to get his hands on her fortune. Abigail and her sister Serena have stood as parents toward Fanny for many years, but Abigail begins to discover that Fanny has grown up enough to want to rely less on her aunt and more on her own heart.

Into this situation steps Miles Calverleigh, having finally returned from India. The first scene between him and Abby, a case of mistaken identity, is a wonderful example of Heyer’s skill in writing two spirited and interesting characters. Abigail tries to get Miles to help separate his nephew from her niece, but she finds herself thwarted by his apparent lack of interest in the cares of others and his apparent wish to thwart her own strict views on being a support to her own sister, which may prevent her from following her heart.

There are some similarities between this book and Lady of Quality, also written late in Heyer’s career, not least in the age of the heroes and heroines - they aren’t the youngsters of Friday’s Child or Cotillion, but mature people who may perhaps feel that opportunities in life have passed them by. As usual, the side characters are excellent in this story, including the very amusing Mrs. Clapham and even the straitlaced James Wendover. This book seems to contain less of the cant phrases that can render some characters in other books almost incomprehensible, but the overall standard of dialogue is excellent. Black Sheep makes an excellent introduction to Heyer’s Regency novels and can be enjoyed again and again.

Queue My Review Shellie
Review: Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer
Filed under: Review — Tags: Georgette Heyer, historical romance, regency romance, Sourcebooks Casablanca — 1shellie @ 12:59 pm

When I was asked to read and review Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Honestly, I don’t read a lot of regency romances, so I was intrigued and somewhat worried about reading it. Now I am glad that I have had the opportunity to read this delightful novel as I may not have ever given her novels a chance otherwise. Although this book has some very romantic moments, it is really a book about family, propriety and everything else in between. The dynamics between the characters are not only heartfelt, but humorous as well.


Abigail Wendover is considered well past her prime. At twenty-eight and unmarried, she has been brought up with strict values and a strong sense of propriety. Although she at times would like to rebel against her station, she must influence and instill proper behaviors to her infatuated and somewhat impulsive niece Fanny. Believing Fanny’s object of affection, Stacy Calverleigh, is not a good man but a rake and a fortune hunter, she decides to set out to discredit and to try to change Fanny’s infatuation with him.

Miles Calverleigh is considered the black sheep of his family. He was sent to the Indies in his youth because of his abandoned elopement from Fanny’s mother and his many indiscretions with many women. Gaining his enormous fortune by hard work and determination, he returns to Bath with little regard to the strict propriety of the social scene. He is funny, smart and totally irresistible despite Abigail’s best intentions to resist him. Abigail fears that Fanny will elope with Stacey. Although Miles is somewhat of a stranger, she seeks his help in breaking the two apart. When Miles does not readily agree to help her but rather starts flirting and teasing her it drives Abigail crazy.

The relationship between Abigail and Miles was fun to read. The banter between them was witty and interesting. Watching the relationship grow and develop between then was hilarious at times. Despite her best intentions, Abigail is drawn to Mile’s constant impropriety and humor. Watching Miles tease and flirt with Abigail and get her flustered was endearingly sweet. Georgette Heyer’s perception of Bath’s society was interesting and easily draws the reader into the lives of the Wendover and the Calverleigh families. Taking a glimpse in the lives of the secondary characters in the strict Bath society was also interesting and fun to read about. The ending left me surprised because it doesn’t necessarily wrap things up nice and easy but it is still satisfying, to say the least. There is still the Happily Ever After; it’s just not wrapped up like how many present-day romance novels are written. Honestly, I don’t know how else Miles could have gotten his Abigail any better. So even that part of the novel was well thought out, funny, and perfect for them.

This will not be my last Georgette Heyer novel. I look forward to reading some of her other books, but Black Sheep has definitely found its way onto my keeper-shelf.

Romance Reader at Heart Heather Hiestand
BLACK SHEEP

Author: Georgette Heyer ISBN: 9781402210785 6/2008 HISTORICAL Publisher: SOURCEBOOKS
Time Period: Regency


Abigail Wendover, on the shelf at 28, is kept busy when her niece falls head over heels in love with a handsome fortune hunter and Abbie is forced into a confrontation with his scandalous uncle.

Miles Calvery is the black sheep of his family—enormously rich from a long sojourn in India, disconcertingly blunt and brash. But he turns out to be Abbie’s most important ally in keeping her niece out of trouble.

But how can he possibly be considered eligible when she has worked so hard to rebuff his own nephew’s suit for her niece? And how can she possibly detach from an ailing sister who needs her? This is a heroine who has to be, literally, swept off her feet . . .


RRAH’s THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:


It feels presumptuous to be reviewing the immortal author Georgette Heyer, but Sourcebooks has reissued a number of her books in attractive trade paperback and I was fortunate enough to snag two of them, BLACK SHEEP being the shortest. This novel was originally released in 1966, but is timeless.

BLACK SHEEP is a lively tale, and so well written that I only skimmed one page of the 279! That’s impressive, because I often find myself skimming the second half of novels when it is obvious there will be no surprises. This novel does have one surprise toward the end, and could have had another, but the truth is revealed in the back cover copy. It is a thoroughly delightful tale, with charming banter and the kind of hero I wish I could write. All the main characters feel real, like if we’d lived in the Regency period we’d have known exactly these people.

For those of you who are coming fresh to Heyer, this is a great place to start. It’s not chock-full with slang the way some of her books are, and the main characters range from 17 to 40 so there is interest across a wide-ish age group. This isn’t really a ton book, more of a landed country gentry book bordering on the wealthy tradefolk, so it might be a bit more accessible that way too. We don’t have that pressure to marry to carry on the family name issue here.

The main character is Abby, an unmarried but vivacious woman of twenty-eight from a most stodgy family. She’s a sandwich generation woman of a sort, raising an orphaned niece and providing companionship to an older hypochondriac sister. Never at a loss for beaus, she’s said no since her father scared off an early love, and now she’s faced with a most unsuitable man, yet he feels like her soul mate.

Heather Hiestand

Good Clean Reads Kim Izzat
Rating: 1.1.1 (PG)
Recommended audience: Teen and up
Category: Historical, romance
Review: 3.75/5


I would probably have given this a 4/5 star rating but it was a little too much like the last Georgette Heyer book that I read. Both books are set in Bath and both have "almost spinster" type heroines. Black Sheep is about a 28 year old who has charge of her 17 year old orphaned niece who is heiress to a great fortune. Georgette Heyer’s novels are very much dialogue driven with a lot of dry humor within the conversations. Her characters are interesting, witty, laughable, and reprehensible, depending on which one you are describing. In this particular novel, the hero’s disregard for social etiquette is amusing and very likable as is the heroine’s intelligence and wit. I’ve said before that I have a special place in my heart for Regency Romance that stems back to my first encounter with Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice. While I have read some of this genre that is complete fluff, I’ve been impressed with Heyer’s books so far. There were several times that I wished I’d had a dictionary with me while reading this book. It also is not just a romance but is a book about family relationships and duty. I would recommend this book but I would suggest that you don’t read it together with Lady of Quality.

Once Upon a Bookshelf Courtney Wilson

Originally Published: 1966
I know a lot of people who really enjoy Georgette Heyer’s books. In fact, I have never heard a bad thing about her books. So, when Sourcebooks e-mailed me asking me if I wanted to read and review one of her books on my blog, I was definitely interested. As it turns out, Sourcebooks is re-releasing a selection of Heyer’s titles this year. (In all honesty, I will admit that I am surprised that they’ve waited this long what with the number of different publications of Austen’s works one can find in the bookstores currently.) Black Sheep will be released in June.

Black Sheep centers on Abigail Wendover, a 28-year-old single woman living with her sister and niece in Bath. Fanny, Abby’s niece, is not yet of-age, and yet finds herself “in love” with Stacy Caverleigh, a fortune hunter trying to regain his own lost fortune. In an attempt to prevent an elopement between Fanny and Stacy, Abby enlists the help of Stacy’s estranged uncle, Miles Caverleigh who has recently returned to England from being exiled to India by his family in his youth. Unknown to everyone in England, India agreed with Miles quite well, and he has gained his own fortune, but he is still considered to be the “black sheep” of the Caverleigh family, and not a suitable husband for anyone from a good family. Long story short, as to be expected from this sort of book, Abigail and Miles fall in love, though Abby is torn between her love for Miles and her relationship with her family (who claim they will disown her if she marries Miles).

The characters were wonderful, and the dialogue was witty and amusing. It was predictable, but that is what you would expect from this type of book. Of course the girl’s going to get the guy, everyone’s problems are going to work out wonderfully and all will live happily ever after.

As my first foray into Heyer’s Regency romances, it was certainly successful. I finished the book feeling the complete satisfaction that only a good read can leave you with. I can see why Jane Austen fans really enjoy her books, and I will definitely be reading more of Heyer’s works.

Blog Critics Kate McNeill
I’m slowly but surely working my way through Georgette Heyer’s extensive catalogue of Regency and Historic romances. My latest read, and quite possibly my favorite, is Black Sheep which was first published 1966 but has recently been re-released by Sourcebooks Casablanca.

Our heroine, Abigail Wendover, believes that at 28 she is well past her prime. Living in Bath with her older unmarried sister Selina and in charge of her niece Fanny, the last thought on Abigail’s mind is romance. But when her young charge gets swept her off feet by Stacy Calverleigh, a known fortune hunter, Abigail turns to the rouge’s uncle for assistance.

But Miles Calverleigh, the acknowledged black sheep of the family, doesn’t really care what his good-for-nothing nephew Stacy is up to. He’s just returned from India, where he spent several years paying for a youthful mistake, and isn’t concerned with his relatives. And though he is immediately drawn to Abigail he still firmly refuses to help her in her rescue mission.

Stacy meanwhile has charmed the whole of Bath including Aunt Selina and Fanny feels herself very lucky to be the choice of a fashionable man. But Abigail has seen him for what he really is and as the young lovers prepare to elope Abigail does everything she can to stop it, with or without the help of Miles.

Of course one of the things I love so much about a Heyer Regency Romance are the wonderful secondary characters. The fussy relatives, the friends, and the place all play a huge role and add depth to the book. With stand out main characters and sharp, funny dialogue Georgette Heyer is an entertaining read from start to finish.

Over all Black Sheep was a lighter quicker read than Heyer’s An Infamous Army or Friday’s Child. While it’s defiantly shorter in length the feeling of the novel was also very different. The romance between Abigail and Miles Calverleigh, between these two older characters, is less formal than the romances in some of the other books. Abigail, sure that she couldn’t be in love, is just enjoying what she thinks of as a mild flirtation with the hopes of helping Fanny. But it hits her that her feelings are much, much more. Miles on the other hand realizes that Abigail is it from the start and won’t take no for an answer.

And the end? It’s perfect. I don’t think that I’ve enjoyed a Heyer ending more, and that’s saying a lot since they’re all good. Black Sheep is now one of my all time favorites and even though I’ve just finished it I think I might have to read it again. It’s that good.

Once Upon a Romance

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Trade Paper Specfications

• Length: 8.00 in
• Width: 5.25 in
• Height: 5.25 in
• Weight: 5.25 oz
• Page Count: 288 pages