Arabella by Georgette Heyer

Arabella is a girl from a dirt poor family with lots of kids, and she is sent to London with friends to find herself a husband. Already not my favorite of plots? Along the way, she meets the uber-rich Beaumaris, and in a fit of pique over his arrogance she informs him that she's an heiress. Whoops. Thankfully (and saving us from "It's ok for me to be awful to you because you are a lying liar who lies!" down the road) Beaumaris sees right through it and is amused. Except that then he tells a friend what she said, not realizing that said friend would tell everyone he could and that soon all of London society would think Arabella was an heiress and the fortune hunters come knocking.


In the first half, I sometimes had the same problem I had with parts of The Grand Sophy in that it sometimes felt too consciously structured for me. But it was still fun and I liked Arabella a lot. But I like the second half, when Arabella and Beaumaris started interacting more, a lot, especially when she was on crusades to save anything abandoned or abused or that resembling and underdog, and he kept taking in her strays before he could think better of it. And while I'm not really fond of "fake heiress" or "poor girl with big family in search of rich husband" (Note: given the world they live in, I don't judge these women at all. I'm just not always convinced the writers feel the same way.) the twist of Beaumaris knowing the truth and being amused but not judgey helped a lot with that.