Crave Jane Austen?

I love Jane Austen. And if you love Jane Austen, you'll love Georgette Heyer. Heyer is Jane Austen with a delightful edge. Anchored by perfect historical detail in the Regency era, Heyer's books are populated with a cast of wonderful characters bent on pursuing their own desires. The humor of her stories lies in the conventional nature of these desires (matrimony, money, managing one's relations) and the unconventional ways in which they are achieved. Interfering matrons, scheming rakes, bumbling fops, and giggling schoolgirls endanger their reputations while their respectable guardians seek to preserve them against a backdrop of Polite, Slightly Ridiculous Society.

Start with Black Sheep. Abagail Wendover goes head to head with the uncle of a handsome fortune-hunting rake... who is bent on seducing her young (and very rich) niece. Abagail pleads for him to restrain his nephew, but is astonished when Uncle Miles refuses to take any part in discouraging the romance. Abagail's astonishment deepens when Miles, the scandalously entertaining black sheep of his family, seems to take an interest in her. Read this book and follow the tour de force of a rake's attempt to beguile an innocent, and laugh along as Abagail and Miles attempt to frustrate his plot. The chemistry between them is delightful, and their encounters are nothing short of hilarious.

Another must-read is The Grand Sophy. Raised by her diplomat father in a succession of foreign countries, unconventional Sophy astonishes and delights a houseful of her relatives when she pays them a visit. Sophy--a young woman with too much independence and not enough propriety--uses her matchmaking skills and money to reorganize the lives of everyone around her. Charles, the formidably proper head of the family, is by turns amused, perplexed, and disapproving of Sophy. In spite of the numerous obstacles in her path, can Sophy free Charles from his engagement to a cold hearted fiance even as she attempts to disentangle his frivolous siblings from trouble? If anyone can do it, the Grand Sophy can!