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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A fun yarn but very low on romance--I can get behind love at first sight but there was *zero* development of the heroine and hero's relationship. In fact, the heroine gets so little face time in this book she's almost an afterthought, which is supremely annoying as she's the reason the hero does almost everything he does in this story! Also, I'm accustomed to Heyer's use of the vernacular of the day for authenticity's sake, but this book was so murky with slang that the meaning behind the words was often lost to me and I wished for a time-machine so I could hop back and find some kind Old Tyme personage to 'splain. As such, I skimmed over a lot of the dialogue and even some descriptors--a real shame, as the snappy, screwball banter typically exchanged by a Heyer heroine and hero is one of the big draws of her works, for me. It kills me to give one of her works anything less than four stars, but there it is. The Toll-Gate entertains (if you can utterly slaughter your disbelief with regard to how the guy and gal could possibly have fallen for one another) but will furrow your brow unless you're well-versed in thieves' speak from the Regency era.
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2022/01/10/review-1782-the-toll-gate/
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2022/01/10/review-1782-the-toll-gate/
More of a mystery than a romance. Very entertaining and funny.
What is about Heyer's tall & strong (& usually Peninsula War vet) heroes - paired up with decent heroine! No simpering miss here! Add in baddies and mystery, and it's all go.
Light gothic romance fiction, among my Mom's favorites. Considerably better than the average gothic romance. Some of them are more like historical fiction, such as Simon the Coldheart. I read them from time to time when I was growing up.
Lots of fun, great plot, but oh the slang. Enough to give one the headache.
Ich habe es doch noch mal mit Georgette Heyer versucht. Hier ist der Heiratsquatsch kein Problem, es gibt von Anfang an nur zwei, die dafür in Frage kommen, und die sind sich auch sofort einig. Es ist stattdessen ein Abenteuerroman mit Verbrechern und und sogar . Mir gefällt, dass bei Heyer so viele englische Wörter und Wendungen vorkommen, die ich noch nie gesehen habe. Weniger schön die Selbstverständlichkeit, mit der man, wenn man reich ist, über dem Gesetz steht.
Spoiler
einer HöhleSpoiler
einer ausgeraubten Postkutsche
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
To be fair, I started reading this because I was ill and I wanted something very light. It was light, but I found the first chapter a confusing mix of people- and irrelevant to the rest of the story- and the amount of dialect and regency slang meant it wasn't as easy a read as I'd hoped.
Example dialogue: "that's the dandy!" said Chirk encouragingly. "In a brace o' snaps you'll be in prime twig, covey!" "Take and put my noddle under the pump!" begged Stogumber. "It's going round like a whirligig! What's more, I'm a-going to shoot the cat again."
That's from opening a random page, not seeking out something particularly obscure- it's all like that! I've read a fair amount of historic fiction and I could work out most of it but I found it got in the way rather than set the scene. The ending dragged and it seemed to take a long time to resolve after you found out what the secret was that Coates was hiding, and there really wasn't any doubt about what was going to happen. Predictably is par for the course in a book like this but it did take the momentum out of it once the couple are together and the crime is known!
Not one of Heyer's best. But then again, I've got covid and I'm grumpy so maybe others will enjoy it more!
Example dialogue: "that's the dandy!" said Chirk encouragingly. "In a brace o' snaps you'll be in prime twig, covey!" "Take and put my noddle under the pump!" begged Stogumber. "It's going round like a whirligig! What's more, I'm a-going to shoot the cat again."
That's from opening a random page, not seeking out something particularly obscure- it's all like that! I've read a fair amount of historic fiction and I could work out most of it but I found it got in the way rather than set the scene. The ending dragged and it seemed to take a long time to resolve after you found out what the secret was that Coates was hiding, and there really wasn't any doubt about what was going to happen. Predictably is par for the course in a book like this but it did take the momentum out of it once the couple are together and the crime is known!
Not one of Heyer's best. But then again, I've got covid and I'm grumpy so maybe others will enjoy it more!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death