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I LOVED this book. It's definitely my favorite Heyer and probably my favorite regency romance. The entire book made me laugh, from descriptions of Oswald Denny attempting to become the Corsair to the many delightful exchanges between Damerel and Venetia, who are a couple that are truly fun to read about. Every character is fully realized, from the odious Edward Yardley (someone I wish I could have shaken!) to the self-absorbed Lady Steeple. This world feels real, and firmly grounded in the right era.

Heyer is the gold standard of regency romance because she doesn't take modern characters and put them onto a flimsy background: she actually writes characters and plots that take place in 1816 England. Venetia is an unusual girl (practically on the shelf, at the advanced age of five-and-twenty), but she's firmly planted in the era and isn't an anachronistic heroine with modern ideas. Heyer's ability to write characters who are slightly outside of the norm, but who aren't marching around demanding the vote, makes her books fun to read. And her knowledge of regency fashion is unparalleled:

The silly pigeon rigged himself out as fine as fivepence, and trotted round to Grosvenor Square looking precise to a pin: Inexpressibles of the most delicate shade of primrose, coat by Stultz, Hessians by Hoby, hat � the Bang-up � by Baxter, neckcloth � the Oriental, which is remarkable for its height � by himself. Add to all this a Barcelona handkerchief, a buttonhole as large as a cabbage, a strong aroma of Circassian hair-oil, the deportment of a dancing-master, and a lisp it took him years to bring to perfection, and you will perceive that Alfred is not just in the ordinary style!

I love Venetia, I love Damerel, I love Aubrey, I love every impulse that wars inside Oswald Denny's breast, and I really, really enjoyed this book.