I have loved Georgette Heyer's romantic novels for years, but this is among the handful of my very favorites. Is it because of the unlikely heroine? Lady Hester Theale is shy, retiring, not particularly fashionable, quite myopic...and has loved Sir Gareth Ludlow (very quietly) for years. Oh, yes, and she is a very good listener.

The very popular, handsome, fashionable, congenial, and wealthy Sir Gareth fell head over ears in love with a headstrong beauty in his youth, and never got over her death which occurred during their betrothal. It seems Sir Gareth refused her nothing, except a team of very high-spirited horses that even he could barely manage. He turned his back, his betrothed took out the forbidden team and died in the resulting accident.

Now Sir Gareth has reached that time in life when he can no longer avoid the need to marry. He is a kind-hearted man, and does not wish to marry a young woman who might reasonably hope for a husband who would love her. He decides that Lady Hester would make him an admirable wife. On the one hand, he has always liked and respected her, and she was the one person who would listen to him while his grief over the death of his betrothed was fresh. As to what she has to gain, well, she has no money, or prospects, and her relatives use her as though she is a very poor relation. He has no heart to offer her, but he feels that the material advantages he can provide her and the quiet amiability she has to offer him would make an admirable match. ...Except, to the bafflement of Sir Gareth and her family, she refuses him.

Of course the fact that when he went to the home of Lady Hester to propose to her, Sir Gareth brought along Amanda, a headstrong young beauty he had picked up along the way and whom he had under his protection, could have had something to do with this. It was all innocent and above-board--but it certainly didn't look good, and Lady Hester couldn't help wondering if Amanda might not be just the girl who could mend Sir Gareth's broken heart.

This witty tale unfolds among many light-hearted twists and turns until true, faithful, mature love wins out over the odds. I love it when the underdog wins!

I discovered this late in my Heyer career, having read almost every Regency she had written. What a delightful discovery! I loved Amanda's incredible, outrageous inventiveness, which keeps the story moving and never lets you guess what's coming next.

Evidently some readers find her hard to take, but I love her ability to get herself out of almost any scrape. Very much the opposite of your demure young lady. I like Lady Hester as well, but I agree that chemistry between her and Gareth is somewhat lacking. I've always wished Heyer would have given her just a bit more "star quality." I feel like I've stabbed poor Hester in the back by saying that...but it's not her fault. She's written that way.

My major disappointment with the new edition of Sprig Muslin is the introduction. The new paperback issues (by Harlequin, I think) all have intros written by current bestselling romance writers. Some are fun to read, others a waste of time, especially if you don't know the author. To my dismay, this one was full of spoilers. The writer reveals almost every plot twist, all the way to the end. Luckily I've read the book before, but after reading the intro I felt like I didn't need to. No fun.

So if by some chance you've never read Sprig Muslin, do NOT read the intro unless you want to know the entire story beforehand. And in Sprig Muslin, it's the story that makes the fun.

The second Georgette Heyer romance novel I read when I first started devouring her novels a few decades ago, (the first was "Black Sheep"), "Sprig Muslin" is, to this day, my favourite Regency-era romance novel of all time. It's novel that can proudly boast of possessing everything from a nice gently paced romance subplot, to an adventure (of a small sort), with some hysterically funny scenes, and written with just the right touch of gentle humour, so that you're left with a satisfied smile (and feeling) on your face long after you've finished the book.

Sir Gareth Ludlow has decided to do his duty and marry. And because he's a much sought after bachelor, and a good-looking and amiable man to boot, finding a wife shouldn't be too difficult a task. But because he is still very much affected - an overwhelming sense of relief and satisfaction that it had ended in exactly the way I had wanted it to. The basic plot-line is very spare, but where Heyer's genius lies is in the manner in which she quickly engages the reader's interest in the characters portrayed, making you care for them and devoutly hoping that each and every one of them gets the resolution they deserve. For myself, I've always had a soft spot for quiet, overlooked heroines, especially when most of my friends preferred heroines with more hair than wit and who exhibited a lot of resolution but practically no common sense. So that reading "Sprig Muslin" was like a tonic for me -- "watching" the gentle romance between the hero and heroine unfold quietly, esp as this contrasted superbly with each outrageous new story that Amanda would concoct and unleash -- it was just so excellently done and such fun! To this day, I've yet to come across another novel that satisfies and entertains me as much as "Sprig Muslin," and I'm beginning to doubt that I ever will. If you haven't read it yet, don't hesitate: PICK THIS BOOK UP TODAY, you won't regret it.