A Civil Contract
by Georgette Heyer
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Book Summary Information
Author: Georgette HeyerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Import
Published: 2005-07-26
ISBN: 0099474441
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Arrow
Book Reviews of A Civil Contract
Book Review: A departure from the boring HEA...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the fifth Heyer I've read, and it's my favorite to date. Given that Georgette Heyer wrote dozens of books, I still have a way to go before I can claim it as my favorite of all, but I think I've sampled enough to get a feel for the type of books she wrote and the character styles she favorited.
A Civil Contract is a departure from the Heyer romantic plotlines. Although marriages of convenience are standard regency romance fare, Heyer takes this and stands it on its head by keeping the hero and heroine from ever (yes, EVER) discovering wild, heart-stopping *lurve*. There is no conventional Happily Ever After (HEA). No passionate liplock or smoldering declaration of deathly love from our hero and heroine. The hero of the story, Adam, is young, vaguely stupid at times, and unintentionally cruel to his lower-class wife throughout the book. Our heroine, Jenny, is not your typical romantic powerhouse at all: She's lower class, dowdy, short-necked, red-faced. She's also possessed of a meek nature that rarely takes her lordly husband to task for all his slights to her and she seeks only to make him comfortable. She's even willing to help him through his unrealistic obsession with the beautiful and vapid Jula (who would typically be the poster girl for romantic heroines the Regency world over).
Gentle reader, I found it refreshing....
I'm so sick of perfect Mary Sue/Gary Stu characters that look like models, smell like freesia, and fart rainbows and unicorns out their perfectly proportioned buttocks. Oh, sure, it's fun for the first 1,000 or so books, but after 1,001, this wish-fulfillment perfection becomes as stale and repulsive as your breath after a weekend bender.
At least it does to me.
ACC isn't for the HEA obsessed, but for those readers who like a little more realism added to their regency reading romps. Perhaps a bit of age or general cynicism is also helpful in enjoying this book (both qualities I've got in spades).
If you're thinking of reading Heyer for this first time, don't pick up A Civil Contract, as it really doesn't fit her general mold. But if you're tired of the same 'ole/same 'ole complete with the HEA, give this one a try.
Summary of A Civil Contract
Adam Deveril, a hero of Salamanca, returns from the Peninsula War to find his family on the brink of ruin and the broad acres of his ancestral home mortgaged to the hilt.Historical Books
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