I was on threads, lauding Georgette Heyer (as one does) when someone suggested reading Alice Chetwynd Ley and said she was ‘as good as Heyer’.
Well, friends, Romans, countrymen, you’d best believe that I took that as a personal challenge. I chose ‘The Georgian Rake’ and ‘The Beau and the Bluestocking’ and finished it up with a third of her books, the title of which has escaped me but as it was based in pre-revolutionary France and I decided to DNF. (The self-control!)
my credentials
As you know, I love Heyer – I’ve harped on and on about her for … damn it, ten years? I even compared her books to white chocolate brands. Because that is quite normal. I own nearly all of her murder mysteries and a great many of her regency romances.
What’s more – I have searched the world of Regency Romances for years to find her equal and have come up lacking. I’ve read Mary Balogh (uses her plot points but not with the same skill), Stella Riley (writes in a different time period but doesn’t match her wit), Loretta Chase, Tessa Dare, Lisa Kleypas, Elizabeth Hoyt and many, many more.
And I have come up lacking. It is perfectly disgusting.
So I feel quite capable of making the comparison between Heyer and Ley and delivering a verdict.
my verdict
Close-ish, but no cigar.
The sun would briefly shine through and I would think ‘oh that is Heyer-esque’ but then the clouds would roll back in and I was left with shadows and regrets.
The Georgian Rake is about a young woman who is determined to prove her sister’s suitor is up to no good (and falls in love with him in the process) and The Beau and the Bluestocking is about the wondrous power of money and clothes to change someone to become extra attractive (but don’t worry, the Beau fell in love with her soul FIRST).
I found The Georgian Rake to be perhaps a little superior to The Beau and the Bluestocking because the male lead was on the page far more, and if I’m reading a romance I’d quite like the two leads to be interacting. I am a simple woman.
did i have a good time?
Yes, I did.
The main leads had Heyer-esque moments, the protagonists had verve, but though it suffered with a lack of her wit and perhaps social knowledge of the time period, I had a good time reading them. (A better time was had with The Georgian Rake, however).
I know, I know – authors should stand on their own feet and shouldn’t be perfect imitations of another author, and yet Heyer is just so damn good is it any wonder I want to find her equal?
Will I read more Ley? I don’t think so – I have such a collection of Heyer to reread you know …
happy reading!
of words & books 