(seriously, I don't have a pithy summary for a review better that it's own title)

I had a total blast.

I love Heyer's harebrained MC's, and Sophy is an order of magnitude on any of hers I've read. I had so much fun with the way she's completely on top of all the chaos she sows around while working to set things as they should go, and I knew the ride I was setting myself to as soon as she appears, but even more when her friends start popping up and you realize they like her, respect her, will help her, but pray not to be the focus of her arrangements.

I also love all her side characters in all their glorious follies. I even enjoyed Eugenia, because she was such a perfect foil.

It's not that the end is in any way unexpected, but the getting there was hilarious and entertaining. I totally get why it's a favourite Heyer now. It's certainly elbowing up there in the podium.

Start to finish, this was a huge entertainment. From the vengeful start to the amusingly ridiculous encounters with Monroe, plus the whole cast of secondary characters, all colorful in their own way, all of it was made to get laughs and smiles out of me.

I'd forgotten about this author, and the way she mixes humor into the embarrassing. It feels like reading a fictional "This looser is you, and that's OK, you can laugh at yourself and proceed being awesome".

Spirit-lifting Free Friday Read.

I'd read one Crosby before, the first o this series actually, and I remembered it as one of those rare romances that have alpha males that I did not hate, very sweet, a bit sad, and with some awesome bits of humor.

This was hilarious. Short, fast, and by a third in I couldn't stop laughing. Because of Cat's self-assurance and free approach to sex mostly, like this bit of her thinking:

He had been such a grouse at first but now his mood had lightened considerably. No longer did he brood, and she concluded that he must have needed to appease his willy. It made sense to her. A man could simply not go his entire life without a little love—and he had, she was certain because he’d had that pinched look about him of a man whose bollocks were petrified from lack of use.

Or Piers insistence on complimenting the roof. Or... well, you get the drift.

I had fun, and I'm glad. I was looking for something to clean my palate from The Sun Also Rises cynicism (I'm starting to feel stuck), and this was perfect.