What do you think?
Rate this book
The Heart Bandit
“In love as in life, you get caught sometimes.”
The 1928 romance novel The Heart Bandit tells the story of Dorothy Leigh; a sweet, unsophisticated country girl newly arrived in the big city. With the help of her co-workers at the Reliability Insurance Company, she transforms into a bobbed haired, powdered, and lipsticked up-to-the-minute girl.
The freshly minted flapper soon finds herself catching the attention of the rich Richard Long and the woman-hating Bill Brown, as she navigates this new world of supper-clubs, hip-flasks, and flivvers.
The 1928 romance novel The Heart Bandit tells the story of Dorothy Leigh; a sweet, unsophisticated country girl newly arrived in the big city. With the help of her co-workers at the Reliability Insurance Company, she transforms into a bobbed haired, powdered, and lipsticked up-to-the-minute girl.
The freshly minted flapper soon finds herself catching the attention of the rich Richard Long and the woman-hating Bill Brown, as she navigates this new world of supper-clubs, hip-flasks, and flivvers.
236 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 16, 2024
2 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 27, 2025
This is a perfectly normal, harmless romance novel. I knew I what I was getting into and read it mainly for research--the pulpier, the better. Almost everyone was fleshed out, yet they all still strangely distant. Some of the emotions are quite maudlin, but I still respected them.
I did have a laugh when Dorothy was thrown from an automobile in a car accident, was rendering unconscious, but had absolutely no repercussions. Bill Brown just oh-so-happened to be driving along that way to pick her up.
It's silly, but again... I'm reading this for research.
Let me tell you when I say I wish other acclaimed authors of this time would've aped this author's prose. During this time period, it seemed, to achieve any acclaim or declare any prowess with the English language, that a sentence had to--not only have several splices or semicolons--but contain as many words as possible (over fifty words is preferred) despite the work being a publication, not being a work by Dickens, and to show that, "Yes, I can diagram sentences, thank you." <--- and that was a kind example. I read some eugenic papers of this same time period that were word garbage... and that's even if I ignore their subject matter. I counted once.... eighty-five words in one sentence. All of the sentences were that long. I wish they valued the same brevity and readability as this author. This was at least pleasant to read!
I'm glad this work survived to show what women read and cared about during this time. With it being pulpy, it makes no attempt to hide its era or slang. At the same time, it's not a diamond in the rough. It's not a classic lost to time or gender. It's just pleasant pulp.... like freshly squeezed OJ
I did have a laugh when Dorothy was thrown from an automobile in a car accident, was rendering unconscious, but had absolutely no repercussions. Bill Brown just oh-so-happened to be driving along that way to pick her up.
It's silly, but again... I'm reading this for research.
Let me tell you when I say I wish other acclaimed authors of this time would've aped this author's prose. During this time period, it seemed, to achieve any acclaim or declare any prowess with the English language, that a sentence had to--not only have several splices or semicolons--but contain as many words as possible (over fifty words is preferred) despite the work being a publication, not being a work by Dickens, and to show that, "Yes, I can diagram sentences, thank you." <--- and that was a kind example. I read some eugenic papers of this same time period that were word garbage... and that's even if I ignore their subject matter. I counted once.... eighty-five words in one sentence. All of the sentences were that long. I wish they valued the same brevity and readability as this author. This was at least pleasant to read!
I'm glad this work survived to show what women read and cared about during this time. With it being pulpy, it makes no attempt to hide its era or slang. At the same time, it's not a diamond in the rough. It's not a classic lost to time or gender. It's just pleasant pulp.... like freshly squeezed OJ
Displaying 1 of 1 review