The Duke of Sale is a nice kid who happened to be orphaned and sickly and is raised by his overbearing, bossy uncle who means well, but basically never lets him do anything by himself, ever. So the Duke sets off to be Mr. Dash from Nowhere In Particular to help his cousin out of a scrape and accidentally rescues a couple of people and gets kidnapped and sets fire to an inn and has a really, really good time. I was pretty worried at one point, because when he meets the titular foundling she's 16 and ditzy and not too bright and wanders off with any man who offers her a purple dress, and I was making faces to myself over how Heyer was possibly going to sell a romance that seemed to involve a character who didn't have the mental facilities to fall in love. But the Duke doesn't, he falls in love with someone much more suitable and manages to find a romance for everyone else involved in the book, too, except Tom, who is 15 and thinks girls are gross. I wish it had been a page longer, because I would have liked a little more happy ending, but I was so, so pleased with the end and the wrap up. It's more a comedy of errors and manners than a romance, but I stayed up until 2:30 reading it a few nights in a row. Lovely.
Grade: A
Originally posted 2010
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