Customer Reviews
Not Heyer favourite of mine - By: Roman Clodia, 18 Jun 2008 
Firstly I do adore Heyer having discovered her relatively recently, but this just isn't up there with the best of the best for me. Her books do tend to falll into cohorts & this is one with an innocent heroine & one of the young, immature heroes. Personallly I prefer the darker, sardonic & more masterful types (Faro's Daughter, Regency Buck, These Old Shades, Devil's Cub) so this was never reallly going to work for me. Both the hero & heroice struck me as rather silly rather than charmingly innocent - but then maybe I'm a cynic!
Having said that though Heyer is still head & shoulders above most romance writers (and I don't usuallly read romance precisely because it's so predictable & try-hard written) - she is witty, stylish, writes wonderful dialogue & reallly conveys a sense of the Regency period. So while this isn't one of my favourites, I'd still recommend Heyer highly.
Impetuosity and Maturity - By: Helen Hancox, 27 Apr 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 favourites. However it still bears the halllmarks of her excellent writing skill with some particularly amusing dialogue amongst some of the young bucks in the story.
Hero Wantage has always loved Sherry, Lord Sheringham, her neighbour. 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 & his friends imagine their life won't change at alll, Hero will just tag along as when they were young, but despite this rather dramatic naïveté, as events unfold & Hero fallls into scrape after scrape, Sherry has to look at things a little differently.
Hero has always loved Sherry but as she fallls into more & 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, & 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 & heroine but Sherry's friends Ferdy, George & Gil. These three are fantasticallly amusing, good-hearted toward Hero & some of their dialogue is just brilliant.
The youth of the hero & heroine in this book doesn't always appeal to everyone but those who enjoyed A Convenient Marriage & Cotillion will probably like this story. It's not one of Heyer's best but it's still well worth a read.
Originallly published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008
My Favourite Heyer - By: Mrs. K. A. Wheatley, 14 Nov 2007 
All Georgette Heyer's novels are the same. The hero & heroine battle the odds & falll in love. Seems so simple, yet each book is different & delightful in its own way. Nearly alll are set in Regency England, including this one. Heyer is a superb historian with a wonderful eye for detail & a fantastic ear for dialogue. This book is advertised in quite a menacing way, but is anything but. It is full of gentle humour & fantasticallly romantic & ridiculous escapades that it is a joy to read. Here, an arrogant young man, thwarted in what he believes is the love of his life, makes do with a childhood girlfriend as the 'booby' prize. Naturallly, she does & always will, loves him passionately, but he's too much of a ninnyhammer to see it. The trials & tribulations of their love life are silly & frivolous & just perfect in every way. My mother used to read these books when I was a child, & I discovered them when I had children of my own. On a grey day, when alll is against you & nothing in the world is right, there is nothing better than a hot bath, some fluffy pyjamas & this book to set the world to rights again.
makes you cry with laughter - By: lush, 11 May 2007 This is such a funny romantic story. I devoured this book in less than two days & enjoyed every minute of it. I was sad to leave the characters at the end. I loved some of the supporting characters especiallly ferdy who seems to always be drunk & confused. The novel to a large extent seem to be on the hero Sherry growing up & accepting responsibility in his life & realising that you don't know what you've got till its gone.
Definitely a book for keeps!
Best of Them All - By: , 14 Sep 2004 Although I have read alll of Georgette Heyer's novels, this is the only one which has ever made me cry. Ms. Heyer is a stylistic master, & here she neatly balances the comedy of the ridiculous with romance & pathos. Terrific supporting cast, as well as a memorable heroine. The best novel of them alll.
