Frederica Merriville and her three siblings have come to London for the glittering social season, in order to give young and beautiful Charis a chance to make a good marriage. Frederica herself, a witty charmer, believes herself happily beyond marriageable age — she is twenty-four, after all. But when they are introduced to London society by their distant "cousin" Lord Alverstoke, Frederica is amazed to find herself, unknowingly, falling in love. Likewise, Alverstoke, a cold aristocrat, finds himself thoroughly beguiled by Frederica and her young rascal brothers.
This is one of my all time favourite Heyer's, here we have a young woman (although she thinks she is well and truly on the shelf!) who has brought up her younger siblings after their parents death (luckily the oldest of the males was old enough to be the legal guardian), she manages to prevail upon a distant relative in order to "Fire off" the only other female. Having promised him that allowing Charis to come out at a ball he throws he would need have nothing more to do with them each of them manages to get into a scrape that needs his help!
The side characters on Alverstoke's side add to the fun with his heir not having two brain cells to rub together, his secretary wondering what has got into Alverstoke and Alverstoke's two sisters (one is a penny pincher and hence jumps at the chance of Alverstoke setting up the ball for her daughter – so she thinks, the other siding with Felix and Jessamy to make life interesting!) just wonder what has got into him!
5 stars +
Crafts and Life 
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