A Civil Contract: Gossip, scandal and an unforgettable Regency romance

Georgette Heyer

Feb 2011 · Random House

About this ebook

If you love Bridgerton, you'll love Georgette Heyer!

'The greatest writer who ever lived' ANTONIA FRASER
'[My] generation's Julia Quinn' ADJOA ANDOH, star of Bridgerton
'One of my perennial comfort authors. Heyer's books are as incisively witty and quietly subversive as any of Jane Austen's' JOANNE HARRIS
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Adam Deveril returns from the Peninsula War a hero, only to find his family on the brink of ruin and his much-loved ancestral home mortgaged to the hilt.

It is Lord Oversley, father of Adam's first love, who introduces him to Mr. Chaleigh, a City man of apparently unlimited wealth, with his eyes firmly fixed on a suitable match for his one and only beloved daughter.

Though this civil contract may work on paper, saving one from ruin and bringing the other desired social status, there is only one way to find out if it can really work . . .
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'Elegant, witty and rapturously romantic' KATIE FFORDE
'Utterly delightful' GUARDIAN
'Absolutely delicious tales of Regency heroes. . . Utter, immersive escapism' SOPHIE KINSELLA
'Georgette Heyer's Regency romances brim with elegance, wit and historical accuracy, and this is one of her finest and most entertaining ... Escapism of the highest order' DAILY MAIL
'If you haven't read Georgette Heyer yet, what a treat you have in store!' HARRIET EVANS
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Readers love A Civil Contract ...

***** 'A wonderful tale - recommended for those who want some variation in the romances they read.'
***** 'A Civil Contract is a departure from her usual formula, and it knocked my socks off.'
***** 'Very touching, with a dose of humour.'
***** 'One of my all-time favourites among her many brilliant and enduring books.'
***** 'Amazingly good characters, lots of interior dialogue and character development, lots of humour.'

Ratings and reviews

Georgette Heyer seems a little reluctant to write about sex in any way in this book. I still wasn't sure they had actually consummated their marriage at all until she was suddenly pregnant. He married someone who he didn't love and it would have been interesting to see how they got over that hurdle without having to lower it to smut.. Not that i'm averse to that particularly. A good solid writer and can always be relied on for strong characters and story.

A departure from the purely frivolous and fun of many of her wonderful novels this is an excellent exploration of the realities of life and of how familiarity can create affection.

A clean well written romance

About the author

Author of over fifty books, Georgette Heyer is the best-known and best-loved of all historical novelists, who made the Regency period her own. Her first novel, The Black Moth, published in 1921, was written at the age of fifteen to amuse her convalescent brother; her last was My Lord John. Although most famous for her historical novels, she also wrote eleven detective stories. Georgette Heyer died in 1974 at the age of seventy-one.