Georgette Heyer Fans discussion

Edit, 1st Nov 2025: The winners here.

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I suggest that we choose the books for the next year, the same as we did for 2025. Adding one rule: we don't nominate titles that we read recently. So, the list of Heyer's novels you can nominate this year is:

A Blunt Instrument
A Civil Contract
An Infamous Army
April Lady
Barren Corn
Bath Tangle
Beauvallet
Behold, Here's Poison
Charity Girl
Cousin Kate
Death in the Stocks
Duplicate Death
Envious Casca
False Colours
Faro's Daughter
Footsteps in the Dark
Friday's Child
Helen
Instead of the Thorn
Lady of Quality
My Lord John
No Wind of Blame
Pastel
Penhallow
Pistols for Two
Powder and Patch
Regency Buck
Royal Escape
Simon the Coldheart
Sprig Muslin
Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle
The Black Moth
The Conqueror
The Convenient Marriage
The Corinthian
The Foundling
The Grand Sophy
The Great Roxhythe
The Masqueraders
The Nonesuch
The Quiet Gentleman
The Spanish Bride
The Toll-Gate
They Found Him Dead
Why Shoot a Butler?

If I have omitted a title, please let me know.

The rest rules stay mostly the same, i.e.

1. Every member can nominate 6 titles (it also means voting at the same time), keep in mind that the first book you name gets 6 points from you, the second one 5 pts, etc.

2. At the end of the period (see below), I will add points. The twelve novels with the most points win, a title in the first position we will read in the first month, etc.

3. If you change your mind while nominations are still possible, change your message (do not write another one about it, I will add your points from the first message with your voting).

4. In case of the same number of votes, the order of reading will be random. If we have the situation as last year (we had an impasse with the last (twelfth) book; four titles got 12 points), we will vote.

I will wait for votes here until the end of October. The results will appear at the beginning of November, and we will start "the next round of reading" in December. I don't see the need to make a break in our reading. If you think otherwise, write it. If, let's say, 15 members say we should do a break in December, we will do it. (15 because last year around 30 members voted, so it would be half of the active members.)

Thanks for making this so clear Mela, you are doing a great job.
Are we to put our votes on this thread?

Why Shoot a Butler, Sylvester, The Nonesuch, The Grand Sophy, Friday's Child, Regency Buck

1. The Grand Sophy 2. No Wind of Blame 3. The Corinthian 4. April Lady 5. Lady of Quality. 6. The Black Moth 7. The Nonesuch 8. The Convenient Marriage 9. Barren Corn 10. An Infamous Army 11. Why Shoot the Butler ? 12. Helen

Oops. I was thinking months ….

1. The Grand Sophy
2. The Toll-Gate
3. False Colours
4. The Masqueraders
5. Faro's Daughter
6. The Convenient Marriage

1. Behold, Here's Poison
2. The Nonesuch
3. The Corinthian
4. The Foundling
5. The Grand Sophy
6. The Toll-Gate

1. A civil contract
2. An infamous army
3. Duplicate Death
4. Sylvester or the wicked uncle
5. The Quiet gentleman
6. The tollgate

Thank you so much for putting this together, Mela!

1) Sylvester, or The Wicked Uncle
2)The Grand Sophy
3)The Foundling
4) The Corinthian
5) Powder and Patch
6) Regency Buck

Whee! This is going to be fun.

1. Behold, Here's Poison
2. No Wind of Blame
3. Beauvallet ( I want to try the audio book of this one)
4. Envious Casca
5. A Civil Contract
6. Death in The Stocks

The Tollgate
The Nonesuch
The Black Moth
The Grand Sophy
Penhallow (because I've never read it)
April Lady.

Beauvallet
Powder and Patch
A Blunt Instrument
No Wind of Blame
An Infamous Army
False Colours

My list consists of books I own, but have never read. ;)

I also decided to nominate firstly those I haven't read yet. So:
Footsteps in the Dark
A Blunt Instrument
Penhallow
My Lord John
The Great Roxhythe
Instead of the Thorn

Cousin Kate
Civil Contract
Nonesuch
Quiet Gentleman
Lady of Quality
The Foundling

1. Beauvallet
2. The Grand Sophy
3. The Black Moth
4. The Toll-Gate
5. Simon the Coldheart
6. Footsteps in the Dark

Thank you, Mela!

1. The Grand Sophy
2. No Wind of Blame
3. Behold, Here's Poison
4. They Found Him Dead
5. Duplicate Death
6. Detection Unlimited

Thank you, Mela!

Susan in NC wrote: "...6. Detection Unlimited"

Susan, we are reading "Detection Unlimited" in November. So, please nominate another book.

"The Grand Sophy" is popular ;-) I am pretty sure we are going to read it soon.

1. The Nonesuch
2. False Colours
3. Footsteps in the Dark
4. The Masqueraders
5. Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle

Thanks so much for organizing this!

1. The Toll-Gate
2. Behold, Here's Poison
3. A Civil Contract
4, False Colours
5. The Quiet Gentleman
6. No Wind of Blame

1. Instead of the Thorn
2. False Colours
3. The Toll - Gate
4.The Masqueraders
5. The great Roxhythe
6. Sprig Muslin

Thanks for the list: most of these are not my favourites - a good reason to read them

1. The Masqueraders
2. The Nonesuch
3. Sylvester
4. Bath Tangle
5. Faro's Daughter
6. The Quiet Gentleman

My nominations
1) The toll gate
2) Faro’s daughter
3) The masqueraders
4) The nonesuch
5) Simon the coldheart
6) Sylvester

1 The Masqueraders
2 Beauvallet
3 Regency Buck
4 The Conqueror
5 Simon the Coldheart
6 Royal Escape

Mela wrote: "Susan in NC wrote: "...6. Detection Unlimited"

Susan, we are reading "Detection Unlimited" in November. So, please nominate another book."

Sorry, I didn’t realize-so 6. The Foundling

Wendy wrote: "1. The Nonesuch
2. False Colours
3. Footsteps in the Dark
4. The Masqueraders
5. Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle"

Wendy, you can name one book yet. Everyone can nominate 6 books.

1. Regency Buck
2. Sylvester
3. The Nonesuch
4. The Quiet Gentleman
5. Powder & Patch
6. Pistols for Two

1. False Colours
2. No Wind of Blame
3. Civil Contract
4. Sylvester
5. The Toll-Gate
6. The Grand Sophy

Hello, I haven’t really participated here much but hoping to change that for next year. 🤗 So here are my votes:

1. The Grand Sophy
2. The Nonesuch
3. Regency Buck
4. The Foundling
5. A Civil Contract
6. April Lady

~CindyF

Thank you for organizing this, Mela. My 6 are in no particular order:

1. The Toll Gate
2. The Grand Sophy
3. The Foundling
4. The Conqueror
5. Why Shoot a Butler?
6. Sylvester, or, The Wicked Uncle

Bath Tangle
False Colours
Faro's Daughter
Sprig Muslin
The Quiet Gentleman
Why Shoot a Butler?

The Masqueraders
A Civil Contract
Envious Casca
The Convenient Marriage
Sylvester

Why Shoot a Butler?
The Quiet Gentleman
The Convenient Marriage
Regency Buck
No End off Blame
Simon the Coldheart

Linda and Theresa - you can give one title yet, if you want to give 1 point (everyone can nominate 6 books).

Mela wrote: "Linda and Theresa - you can give one title yet, if you want to give 1 point (everyone can nominate 6 books)."

DONE

Thank you so much, Mela! I won't make any nominations because my attendance in this group is rather sporadic and I'm happy to go along with whatever you decide.

Might it be an idea for another year (or two) to read the books in the order in which they were written? To shed light on Heyer's development as a writer? Just an idea, and oh dear, probably an awful tangent to introduce to the discussion at this point! Apologies!

Elizabeth wrote: "...Might it be an idea for another year (or two) to read the books in the order in which they were written? To shed light on Heyer's development as a writer? ..."

An interesting idea. Remind me of it in a year or two ;-)

Friday's Child
Nonesuch
Duplicate Death
Grand Sophy
Quiet Gentleman
Behold, Here's Poison

So, in the next year, we are going to read as follows:

The Grand Sophy (51 pts) - December 2025
The Nonesuch (41 pts) - January 2026
The Toll-Gate (34 pts) - February 2026
Sylvester or The Wicked Uncle (32 pts) - March 2026
The Masqueraders (31 pts) - April 2026
A Civil Contract (27 pts) - May 2026
False Colours (26 pts) - June 2026
No Wind of Blame (25 pts) - July 2026
Behold, Here's Poison (20 pts) - August 2026
Regency Buck (19 pts) - September 2026
The Quiet Gentleman (19 pts) - October 2026
Beauvallet (17 pts) - November 2026

I became a fan of Georgette Heyer in recent years thanks to groups on Goodreads. I have read 7 or 8 of the titles listed for this year’s reading. I may reread all the ones I have already read because they are all so good. I look forward to following comments because I learn so much from other readers.

Mela
Thank you for all your work on this!
That is an excellent list, full of goodies. I hope my reading mojo returns and let's me re-read along.

Nice to see some votes for Beauvallet. I have often feared I was the only group member who was fond of it!

Thank you Mela!

Thank you, Mela, for all of your work - you’re a wonderful moderator!

A brilliant list!! Lots of my favourites there!! Look forward to it.

Thank you, Mela, I appreciate all the time and effort you put in.

Thank you all for your support. I adore Heyer's novels, and I like to help with our reading schedule.

Nice list — I really hope I can get to all of them. 2026 will be a challenge because I’m in more bookclubs and Readalongs than I’ve ever done before. This will be an experiment in testing my limits. 🫣🤣

Thanks, @Mela, eversomuch for all your work on this too! ❤

This looks great! Fantastic work, Mela!

I realized it has ben a very long time since I read The Grand Sophy, so I'm really looking forward to it.

The list looks good. Thank you Mela!

Great! I haven't joined in a group read for a while but I'd love to start again in January.