I am naturally suspicious of any novel or author who claims to be something along the lines of the “heir to Heyer”. I’ve been burned too many times in the past by novels which, I think, are emphatically not in the same league as Georgette Heyer. And which I think would appall her. I know, presumptuous of me. However.

Social Media has been advertising a novel called Henrietta recently, by one Sophie Irwin, as being an Official Georgette Heyer Novel.

This intrigues me, largely because the world of Georgette Heyer is…um…an historical period. It’s not, for example, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, or Middle Earth, or Westeros.

It’s, generally, the Regency Period of British History, about 1810-1820 (other periods are available; she also wrote earlier Georgian, medieval, early modern, and contemporary. Frankly, quite a lot of history from about 1000 onwards, really). Sanitised and idealised, sure, but not beyond the realms of research. As so many other Regency-steeped novels have shown.

Anyway. I was intrigued, but my local library says it’s been too recently published for them to have a copy yet, but they’ll put in a suggestion and my name on the waiting list if enough other people also request it. Might be a while. In the meantime, I picked up another Sophie Irwin: A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting.

Her first novel, and a reasonably standard plot of impoverished gentlewoman off to London for a Season to try and catch a husband. It opens with said gentlewoman being jilted by someone who sounds like the sort of person she’s better off without anyway. An orphan, she has four younger sisters to support on no money, so doesn’t have the luxury of waiting for love. A Man with Money, title optional.

So far, so good. Off she goes to London, with the third sister, leaving Two in charge of Four and Five (I’ll be honest, I can’t remember any of their names), only to discover her aunt isn’t as respectable as she’d hoped and her entree to Society shaky. Fortunately, they discover Three has an erstwhile school-friend in the shape of a daughter from an aristocratic family of good standing, and they run into each other in the park, renewing friendships and introducing suitable gentlemen: her brothers James (now the Earl) and impressionable Archie (a few weeks shy of his majority and a suitably-sized inheritance). Plums for the plucking.

As far as lighthearted Regency romances go, the plot was fine, the writing not awful, if more Julia Quinn than Georgette Heyer. Too much modern parlance in the speech of characters, but such seems to be the fashion for historical novels these days. Such is life.

However, I became a little unstuck on the secondary family of the Earl of Cavendish, Lord Montagu (or was he Earl of Montagu, Lord Cavendish? I forget. Either way, an irritation). Mainly because the Cavendish name belongs to the Devonshires and Montagu to the Sandwiches. If you’re going to create members of the ton, probably best to avoid names already belonging to it. Even Heyer considered this, having to change the initially named Marquis of Rockingham to Rotherham in Bath Tangle (there was a Prime Minister Marquis of Rockingham in the latter part of the 1700s).

I can’t say I’m made impatient by the wait for the library to get a copy of Henrietta. Not enough to dash out and purchase my own copy, anyway. It appears, from a cursory glance, that it is an expansion of a Heyer short-story. I’m not sure how I feel about this.

If you’ve come to Irwin from Bridgerton, you’ll probably be satisfied, unless the lack of spice (I believe that’s what the Cool Kids are calling it these days) is a deal-breaker. If you’ve come from Heyer…well, does anything measure up? I mean, I can’t remember the main character’s name. Or, indeed, very many of the names.

This post includes Amazon affiliate links. This simply means when you click on the links I might earn a commission, but there is no additional cost to you. Other bookshops and editions are, of course, available.