At the age of five-and-thirty, Sir Waldo Hawkridge, wealthy, handsome, eligible, illustrious, and known as the nonesuch for his athletic prowess, and when he comes north to inspect his unusual inheritance at Broom hall in the West Riding, his arrival leads to the most entertaining of ramifications. When they learned that Sir Waldo was coming, the village gentry were thrown into a flurry. The famed sportsman himself! Heir to an uncounted fortune, and a leader of London society! The local youths idolized "the Nonesuch"; the fathers disapproved; and the mothers and daughters saw him as the most eligible--and elusive--man in the kingdom.

While there, he meets Tiffany Wield, a positively dazzling young heiress who is entirely selfish and possessed of a frightful temper, as well as her far more elegant companion-governess. Twenty-eight year old Ancilla Trent had put away any and all thoughts of romance when she became a governess, and at first she could only be amused at the fuss over Sir Waldo. Can Sir Waldo convince the practical Miss Trent that it is not above her station as a governess to fall in love with him? ( )

Not one of Heyer's best. Larger cast of characters than normal and it took me ages to work out who they all were.
I liked the lead characters, thought I felt the character of the Nonesuch himself was rather thinly painted.
For example, his interest in helping orphans appeared to exist solely for the purpose of providing the romance staple of needing a bad misunderstanding between the lovers at some key point in the story.
It allows a third party to refer to the Nonsuch's 'brats', which are of course, taken to be his illegitimate children. ( )

It's one of Heyer's better books... although I did find myself wondering about halfway through where she was going to find enough plot to fill up the next 100 pages. It's a twist on most of the Austen plots incorporating bits of Emma, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, and possibly the other two.

I will say that she seemed to stretch the rules of deportment regarding chaperones.

1st review: More Austen-esque than anything else I've read. ( )

Heyer writes petulant teenagers so well! Miss Trent has an unbelievable amount of patience with her charge. ( )

A delicious ride. A delightful end-place. A read to be savored as much in memory as in experience. Ancilla and Tiffany getting their just deserts makes the fate of the Nonesuch so much more appealing! ( )