Black Sheep

Black Sheep is widely considered one of Georgette Heyer's wittiest late-career Regency romances, and its unusual heroine is the reason. Abigail Wendover is twenty-eight, self-possessed, and thoroughly clear-eyed — a welcome contrast to the ingénues who populate much of the genre. She sets out to protect her impulsive niece from a fortune hunter and finds herself instead thoroughly entertained by the fortune hunter's uncle, Miles Calverleigh, who is enormously wealthy, recently returned from years in India, and completely indifferent to Bath society's opinion of him. The sparring between them is where the book earns its reputation. The caveat is that the plot itself is slight and the resolution fairly predictable by Regency standards — this is a novel you read for the dialogue and the characters, not the suspense. Clean Regency romance in the Heyer tradition, no explicit content, and completely family-safe for adult readers.