Bath Tangle by Georgette Heyer
A book review
When Georgette Heyer published Bath Tangle, she was well into her successful career, having written twenty previous romances set in Georgian or Regency England. These are romantic comedies much more than they are romances that evoke the feeling of falling in love. Bath Tangle pokes gentle fun at characters who think they can outwit Cupid's arrow by marrying for something other than love. Today, social customs may have changed, but wealth and status still dazzle, and pressure is still exerted on prospective brides and grooms stricken with qualms after the invitations go out.
In Bath Tangle, Serena, the only child of the Earl of Spenborough, is not among those dazzled by wealth. A passionate horsewoman with a keen interest in politics, she's had money and position all her life, until her father dies and she must give way to a cousin who never expected to inherit. At twenty-five, she appears headed for spinsterhood but insists she feels no regret over breaking a past engagement with the Marquis of Rotherham. "We quarrelled more royally than ever before, and I positively enjoyed crying-off." Fanny, her father's shy and conventional young widow, is her opposite in all ways but one: both are kind-hearted souls determined to support each other in their bereavement, despite their reduced circumstances and a shockingly unconventional clause in the Earl's will.
As consolation and diversion, the two women visit the fashionable watering town of Bath, where further surprises await. The resulting entanglements could lead to more than one misguided marriage. Readers may see a few of the important plot twists coming before they arrive, but the fun is in trying to imagine how the characters can extricate themselves from engagements far more mismatched than Serena's to the Marquis without ruining their reputations in the process. (1955, new Sourcebooks edition 2011; 362 pages)