April Lady is a Regency romance

Regency romance

Regency romances are a subgenre of romance novels set during the period of the British Regency or early 19th century. Rather than simply being versions of contemporary romance stories transported to a historical setting, Regency romances are a distinct genre with their own plot and stylistic...

 novel by Georgette Heyer

Georgette Heyer

Georgette Heyer was a British historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. In 1925 Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer...

. It is in many respects a classic example of her work; light, with some drama and delicately-handled romance. Heyer writes from the perspective of two main characters throughout the book. The story is set in 1813.

Plot summary

April Lady is the story of Nell Cardross the young beautiful wife of the Earl of Cardross. She is of a "good family", one that is accepted by high society, but nonetheless her father and brother spend freely and the family is known to be impoverished. Cardross, on the other hand, is significantly older and has been out in society for some time. Rich and handsome he could have his pick of the season's débutantes. He falls for Nell on sight and, in spite of the warnings of his friends who are concerned about the gambling habits of her family, he proposes to her at once.

Nell's mother, who has "more hair than wit", tells Nell that Cardross wants an heir and wishes to marry into a good family. She also tells her that she must be a conformable wife and not trouble Cardross. Consequently Nell, who fell for her husband in the same instant he fell for her, keeps him at arm's length until he starts to doubt her appeal.

The couple dance at this misunderstanding for many months ably assisted by Cardross' half-sister, her fiancé Jeremy, Nell's brother Dysart and Cardross' cousin Felix. Naturally the resolution is happy.