prone father and a beautiful but poor mother. Her father's death leaves her alone and impoverished in the world, and she comes to stay with her old nurse, Sarah, while looking for a new job. An aunt comes along and kindly and affectionately invites her to stay in her husband's family estate. Kate agrees, reluctantly-- because none of her relatives have never acknowledged her existence before. Staplewood, the estate, is beautiful and cold, and there she meets her cousin Torquil (a young man with the face of an angel), her sickly uncle Sir Timothy, and Sir Timothy's nephew Phillip. At first, everything seems too good to be true, and slowly, Kate unravels the deep secret that haunts the family.

Kate is a very charming and appealing heroine. She is mature yet innocent, is very witty and charming without being obnoxious, and is spirited without being willful or heedless. The hero, kind-hearted Phillip, is neither a dandy nor a cynical Corinthian, which is quite refreshing. Although still a Cinderella story of sorts, the romance between them is much more satisfying and believable than those in most other Heyer works.

Overall, a very interesting and different book from Georgette Heyer, and one of her best.

No one can compare to Georgette Heyer. Many try to emulate her style,
but practically no one has mastered it. And in spite of her
troublesome tendency to marry off naive young girls barely out of the
schoolroom to older sophisticated men of the world; and her frequent
portrayal of the middle and merchant classes as uncultured, uncouth
and grasping, perpetually trying to curry favour with the upper
classes; she is still one of my favourite authours.

With this novel,
Heyer abandons somewhat the comedy of manners that she is so well
known for and enters the darker realm of the gothic novel. The heroine
of the piece is Kate Malvern, a penniless orphan, who has just lost
her latest job as a governess and her home. An aunt that she knows
little of offers her a home at Staplewood Manor. Her aunt, Minerva
Broome, wants Kate to act as a companion and friend to her young
cousin, Torquil, who happens to be a charming and clever young man but
who is troubled by frequent mood swings and bouts of depression. All
too soon Kate discovers that all is not well at Staplewood
Manor. There is an atmosphere of secrecy and deception. And Kate soon
finds that she doesn't know whom to trust or what to do.

In Kate
Malvern, Heyer has created a witty, courageous and gallant heroine
that engages the reader. The avid Georgette Heyer fan may miss the
lively light hearted romps she is most famous for, but I can recommend
this book as a wonderful read, especially for its gallant heroine.

.................................... Her writing style is always exquisite, and her ear for dialogue is parallelled developed, veering dangerously towards the two-dimensional, which is very unusual for Heyer, and the story is not as elegantly plotted as we expect from Heyer. Having said this, it remains to be said that "Cousin Kate" shows Heyer at the last height of her talent. Her last historical romances after "Cousin Kate" were "Charity Girl" and "Lady of Quality", both proving a sad disappointment on the whole. So "Cousin Kate" is Heyer's last wholly successful and well-written novel. This gives the book a pathos to the Heyer fan, as does the fact that it was written during a serious illness on Heyer's part. If you read the book, you can sense the author's illness-induced depression underneath the surface comedy, and more obviously, in the dark twists and turns of the Gothic plot. However, Cousin Kate remains a classic Heyer study of character and Regency attitudes, and boasts a wonderfully warm and generous heroine who it is impossible not to dislike, and one of Heyer's most pleasant and agreeable heroes. (If you're expecting the bared teeth and masterful machoism of a Regency Buck, you will be disappointed, but if you like a man who you can talk to, who is warm and considerate and dependant, here is a book that will satisfy you as regards romance) It was written in response to the popularity of the Gothic romance as exemplified in Victoria Holt, so inevitably, such a departure from the "Heyer mould" of gentle and pleasant romance with a strongly realistic and sensible basis could disappoint some fans. But having said all this, I highly recommend the book "Cousin Kate." to anyone who wants to see how competently Heyer handled what is an essentially different type of historical novel.