It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
A Civil Contract

A Civil Contract

Gossip, scandal and an unforgettable Regency romance

Summary

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
_____________

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 . . .
_____________

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.'
_____________

'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

About the author

Georgette Heyer

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 seventeen 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.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more