Clare Darcy: Georgina

A dead bore! Miss Georgina Powers concluded after shutting the door in the face of her latest suitor, announcing to one and all that spinsterhood was preferable to a life with a dimwit twice her age. She longed for a love match, not the humdrum offers that came her way. But as the granddaughter of Lady Mercer, Georgina was expected to make a shrewd alliance of the first order. And now after refusing this most eligible suitor she was being shipped off to distant relations in the wilds of Ireland, where sheer boredom would force her to reflect on her folly.

To the surprise of both Georgina and her disapproving grandmama, the Emerald Isle yielded the roguish Mr. Shannon, a handsome Irishman with a most scandalous past. Georgina was sure to set the ton on its ear with her choice of a groom, but for all the wrong reasons!

Clare Darcy books are hard to track down. They are not yet digital, which has been my go to with backlists, and they are impossible to find in used books stores…but thanks to the suggestion below, you can find many of her titles in ebook format on OpenLibrary. The cover links to one of the rare listings on Amazon, so be forewarned it may be gone pretty quickly.

I luckily was able to run one aground at the library, and was happy to discover my local branch is a treasure trove of Darcy books.  So you might try at your local branch, too, as the last stronghold of old Regencies, or OpenLibrary if like me you love the ebook format.

I had been reading good things about Darcy for years, and have to say that my first foray did not disappoint.  Georgina is reminiscent of Heyer in all the best ways, lots of funny dialogue, madcap romps by the heroine, a bit of mystery surrounding the hero, and nice, satisfying romance without being unbelievable.

Georgina is treated like an older debutante (which is funny because everyone keeps saying her cousin Brandon, at nineteen, is too young) at the ripe age of eighteen.  She hasn’t made an official come out, being recently in mourning, and has had an unusual upbringing being largely under the advisement of her grandpapa Sir John, who really wanted a grandson.

Sent to Ireland as punishment for refusing a suitor, Georgina is excited to renew her acquaintance with cousins. I don’t think (I may have forgotten) I have ever read a Regency set in Ireland, so that was interesting…but not that much different from other provincial settings.  This isn’t a book that belabours the scenery.

Landing in Ireland, Georgina finds her cousins are in the middle of a move from the family estate to their smaller home.  The heir by marriage is due any day, and no one wants to rub elbows with him as he is reported to be a gazetted fortune hunter who is a natural son.

That is a lot of backstory that makes more sense when laid out in narrative form.

Right away, Georgina clashes with Mr. Shannon, as he is rude and cold. Their spars are wonderfully amusing, sometimes cringe-worthy, but definitely entertaining.  As a result of their battles, Georgina gets into a couple of scrapes that Shannon must rescue her from.  This begins to paint a very different picture of his character.

Once I got into this novel, which is on par word count wise with a Heyer, it went quickly because it was so very enjoyable.  The scrapes were funny, the characters diverse enough to be interesting, the tenor and sense of the era appropriate, and the romance as understated as you might want.  That being said, while I love a romance based on glances, if you prefer the pants off dance off variety you will not find it here.

The hero is  very brooding and practical, and often comes off as a jerk.  Darcy skates that fine line between understandably jerky and just-a-jerk well, and I actually really liked the hero despite him being abrupt, cold, and non-sociable.  I prefer the Henry Tilneys of the world more and more with time, but there is that part of me that can’t help love on a wounded animal type hero, even when he is so alpha it hurts.  I actually think Shannon might be more gamma than true alpha, because there does seem to be a method to his madness and it seems that lots of folks love him.

My biggest disappointment is that I felt all-was-not-revealed with the backstory, but I was so caught up with the romance in the end it didn’t really matter.

This was a super enjoyable traditional, and as long as I can still find it in the library next time I am looking for an old stand-by, I probably will read again.

I recommend for those looking for something similar to Heyer who like the familiar knowing and sassy heroine and the older, stern hero.

5 out of 6 Witty, entertaining with solid writing and a unique setting

Content Rating/Heat Index
Mature Content
Limited adult themes and language
Intimacy
A kiss or two
Violence
One confrontation with a shove

Overall
Clean, vanilla and traditional, appropriate for most Reg Readers.