Yesterday at lunchtime I was just too tired to deal with the sexual assault that was going to take place next in the book I was re-reading, so I picked up The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer. I didn't know anything about it, but it's a Heyer Regency, so I figured it would be fairly amusing and light.
It wasn't terrible, but it's one of the least enjoyable Heyer books I've read. First, the opening chapters were a minor annoyance; here I am, trying to get a fix on who all these people are, since it's obviously the hero's family and these books usually are fairly family-focused, and then he goes away and spends the rest of the book not even thinking of them. Grr.
So, fine, we're on an adventure about a missing gatekeeper instead. No problem. What is a problem is that the heroine falls in love with the hero at first sight (as he does with her) and then practically disappears while he fixes her whole life; I haven't counted up pages, but she really doesn't appear all that much. And when she is there, she doesn't get a lot to do. The bits of the romance that are there are okay, I guess, but I really think Heyer dropped the ball on this one in terms of developing a balanced relationship. And I didn't enjoy the resolution of the adventure.
Goodness, apparently I just didn't like this at all . . .
- categories: books » romance
- all posts about Georgette Heyer (7 total)
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