Hot Regency Find: These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer

I have recently become acquainted with the author Georgette Heyer, who wrote over fifty novels in her life time. Impressive. She is often placed into the same vein as Jane Austen, but I find that Austen and Heyer both offer distinctly differently elements in their books. Perhaps the only comparison that holds true is that they both wrote works set in the Regency. But that is a blog post for another day.


I just finished Heyer’s These Old Shades. I must admit to first being ill disposed toward the heroine, Léonie, but she soon grew on me. I really did not warm to this book until chapter 10 and then I found that I could not put it down. Perhaps, I had to slowly taste what was being offered before I realized I like it.

These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer




 



Paperback: 384 pages (Also avaliable on Kindle)

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca; Reprint edition (October 1, 2009)



Language: English

ISBN-10: 9781402219474

ISBN-13: 978-1402219474

The gentleman in question is Justin Alastair, the Duke of Avon, known by friends and enemies alike as Satanas--the devil. On this particular evening, the dangerous rake crosses paths with Léon, a red-headed youth of low birth who is fleeing a certain beating at his brutal brother's hands. On a whim, Avon buys the boy and makes him his page. It soon becomes clear, however, that Léon is not what he seems, and that Avon has an ulterior motive for bringing him into his household. Set in pre-Revolutionary France, These Old Shades follows a twisting course as young Léon (or is it Léonie?) is swept up in a dangerous mystery: how to account for the page's amazing resemblance to the sinister Compte de Saint Vire, for example; and why will this man go to any lengths to get the youth in his power?