This is a different sort of Georgette Heyer novel. The heavy history on Napoleon and his battles makes this novel something between a historical romance and a historical fiction, but one can see how much did Heyer know about the Regency era. The main characters are Adam, the Sixth Viscount and new Lord Lynton and Jenny, the daughter of a wealthy London merchant. GH dishes up an unglamorous middle class heroine from whom marriage is not the culmination of her story but the beginning, and it is a marriage of convenience accepted by the groom so he can use her father's money to save his estate and pay his debts. There are amazingly good side characters: especially Mr Chawleigh, Jenny's father offering a dose of humor, Lydia Lynton, Charlotte, Julia Oversley, Rockhill, and so on. They are all colourful and sparkling and every one gives something special to the novel. The story delves deep into the unromantic side of romance: unrequited love, friendship, class differences and marriages of convenience all in one. The main characters Adam and Jenny marry because of money. We watch them grow into a sort of love based on their strong commitment and sense of honour. Like all GH books, it makes fo a happy escape from the stresses of everyday life.
