Romancing Mr Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Sep. 9th, 2024 12:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
The fourth in Julia Quinn’s bestselling and beloved Bridgerton novels, now a series created by Shondaland for Netflix. Welcome to Colin and Penelope’s story …
Everyone knows that Colin Bridgerton is the most charming man in London …
Penelope Featherington has secretly adored her best friend’s brother for … well, it feels like for ever. After half a lifetime of watching Colin from afar, she thinks she knows everything about him, until she stumbles across his deepest secret … and fears she doesn’t know him at all.
Colin Bridgerton is tired of being thought of as nothing but an empty-headed charmer, tired of the notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, who can’t seem to publish an edition without mentioning him. But when Colin returns to London from a trip abroad, he discovers nothing in his life is quite the same - especially Penelope Featherington! The girl who was always simply there is suddenly the girl haunting his dreams. When he discovers that Penelope has secrets of her own, Colin must decide … is she his biggest threat - or his promise of a happy ending?
It’s April 1824.
28-year-old Penelope Featherington has known that her love for 33-year-old Colin Bridgerton is unrequited, ever since an unfortunate night several years earlier when she overheard him declare to his brothers that he would never marry her. Lady Featherington is content for Penelope to remain a spinster as it means she will be able to look after her in her old age. Lady Featherington has also decided that with Colin back from his latest travels to Greece, Penelope’s younger sister Felicity would be a perfect match for him even though Felicity has already set her cap at Mr Albansdale and has no interest in Colin.
Freshly returned from Cyprus, Colin Bridgerton eases back into life in the ton as if he had never been away. And yet this time, something is different. No, someone. Penelope has changed while he’s been away. She has replaced the harsh citrus yellow dresses with more flattering green gowns and now that she views herself as being on the shelf, she has more confidence. He’d always enjoyed Penelope’s company - even if he did feel a little sorry for her and his mother had to tell him to invite her to dance - but he’s discovering that there is more to her than her shyness and sly humour and for the first time, he’s surprised that no one has asked her to marry them. He’s even more surprised to discover that he’s becoming eager for her company …
When Lady Danbury offers £1,000 to whoever can unmask Lady Whistledown the whole ton is set ablaze with a determination to find the foremost gossip in London. Colin - stung by Whistledown’s comments about his charm - joins the hunt despite his worries that Whistledown is his own sister Elouise - only to discover that the truth is more surprising than he could possibly imagine.
The fourth in Julia Quinn’s bestselling BRIDGERTON SERIES is an entertaining Georgian romance where most of my interest came in seeing where the story and characters differ from the Netflix series. It utilises the trope of friends to lovers and although some of the writing isn’t technically great (everyone feels the need to use each other’s name all the time), there’s some sharp dialogue and fun lines such that I’d read the rest of the series.
I picked up this book from a work colleague who leant it to me after I mentioned that I had started to watch the Netflix adaptation. I had not read any of the other books in the series, but to be honest you don’t really need to as Quinn gives you enough information if you’re coming into the books fresh. Of course, if you have watched the TV series then you will have a sense of all the characters and their relationships to each other but I was surprised at how different the books are from the adaptation, from a change in period to changes in the individual storylines (I was particularly surprised by discovering that Penelope had a younger sister) to the fact that Queen Charlotte is completely missing and the Colin in the books is more of a knowing, arrogant rake than the Colin in the TV series. I actually enjoyed the differences because it meant that the book was pretty fresh to me from a plot point of view and there was more to the characters, although the rakish Colin of the book was not to my taste.
The friends to lovers trope works pretty well in the book from Penelope’s point of view, mainly because I enjoyed how Quinn shows her re-evaluating what Penelope and Colin think they know about each other. Theres some sparky dialogue between the two and Quinn has a gift for good one-liners. However there are equally times when technically the writing isn’t great, e.g. there’s a lot of head hopping in scenes and it did begin to irritate me how characters constantly use each other’s name in scenes because it began to feel artificial and a bit stilted. That said the plot does keep moving and there are plenty of developments and jeopardy to hold the interest.
All in all, it worked as a romance and kept me turning the pages. If you’re into the Regency romance genre, then you will definitely find something within this book for you and there was enough here for me to be interested in checking out the other books in the series.
The Verdict:
The fourth in Julia Quinn’s bestselling BRIDGERTON SERIES is an entertaining Georgian romance where most of my interest came in seeing where the story and characters differ from the Netflix series. It utilises the trope of friends to lovers and although some of the writing isn’t technically great (everyone feels the need to use each other’s name all the time), there’s some sharp dialogue and fun lines such that I’d read the rest of the series.
Everyone knows that Colin Bridgerton is the most charming man in London …
Penelope Featherington has secretly adored her best friend’s brother for … well, it feels like for ever. After half a lifetime of watching Colin from afar, she thinks she knows everything about him, until she stumbles across his deepest secret … and fears she doesn’t know him at all.
Colin Bridgerton is tired of being thought of as nothing but an empty-headed charmer, tired of the notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, who can’t seem to publish an edition without mentioning him. But when Colin returns to London from a trip abroad, he discovers nothing in his life is quite the same - especially Penelope Featherington! The girl who was always simply there is suddenly the girl haunting his dreams. When he discovers that Penelope has secrets of her own, Colin must decide … is she his biggest threat - or his promise of a happy ending?
It’s April 1824.
28-year-old Penelope Featherington has known that her love for 33-year-old Colin Bridgerton is unrequited, ever since an unfortunate night several years earlier when she overheard him declare to his brothers that he would never marry her. Lady Featherington is content for Penelope to remain a spinster as it means she will be able to look after her in her old age. Lady Featherington has also decided that with Colin back from his latest travels to Greece, Penelope’s younger sister Felicity would be a perfect match for him even though Felicity has already set her cap at Mr Albansdale and has no interest in Colin.
Freshly returned from Cyprus, Colin Bridgerton eases back into life in the ton as if he had never been away. And yet this time, something is different. No, someone. Penelope has changed while he’s been away. She has replaced the harsh citrus yellow dresses with more flattering green gowns and now that she views herself as being on the shelf, she has more confidence. He’d always enjoyed Penelope’s company - even if he did feel a little sorry for her and his mother had to tell him to invite her to dance - but he’s discovering that there is more to her than her shyness and sly humour and for the first time, he’s surprised that no one has asked her to marry them. He’s even more surprised to discover that he’s becoming eager for her company …
When Lady Danbury offers £1,000 to whoever can unmask Lady Whistledown the whole ton is set ablaze with a determination to find the foremost gossip in London. Colin - stung by Whistledown’s comments about his charm - joins the hunt despite his worries that Whistledown is his own sister Elouise - only to discover that the truth is more surprising than he could possibly imagine.
The fourth in Julia Quinn’s bestselling BRIDGERTON SERIES is an entertaining Georgian romance where most of my interest came in seeing where the story and characters differ from the Netflix series. It utilises the trope of friends to lovers and although some of the writing isn’t technically great (everyone feels the need to use each other’s name all the time), there’s some sharp dialogue and fun lines such that I’d read the rest of the series.
I picked up this book from a work colleague who leant it to me after I mentioned that I had started to watch the Netflix adaptation. I had not read any of the other books in the series, but to be honest you don’t really need to as Quinn gives you enough information if you’re coming into the books fresh. Of course, if you have watched the TV series then you will have a sense of all the characters and their relationships to each other but I was surprised at how different the books are from the adaptation, from a change in period to changes in the individual storylines (I was particularly surprised by discovering that Penelope had a younger sister) to the fact that Queen Charlotte is completely missing and the Colin in the books is more of a knowing, arrogant rake than the Colin in the TV series. I actually enjoyed the differences because it meant that the book was pretty fresh to me from a plot point of view and there was more to the characters, although the rakish Colin of the book was not to my taste.
The friends to lovers trope works pretty well in the book from Penelope’s point of view, mainly because I enjoyed how Quinn shows her re-evaluating what Penelope and Colin think they know about each other. Theres some sparky dialogue between the two and Quinn has a gift for good one-liners. However there are equally times when technically the writing isn’t great, e.g. there’s a lot of head hopping in scenes and it did begin to irritate me how characters constantly use each other’s name in scenes because it began to feel artificial and a bit stilted. That said the plot does keep moving and there are plenty of developments and jeopardy to hold the interest.
All in all, it worked as a romance and kept me turning the pages. If you’re into the Regency romance genre, then you will definitely find something within this book for you and there was enough here for me to be interested in checking out the other books in the series.
The Verdict:
The fourth in Julia Quinn’s bestselling BRIDGERTON SERIES is an entertaining Georgian romance where most of my interest came in seeing where the story and characters differ from the Netflix series. It utilises the trope of friends to lovers and although some of the writing isn’t technically great (everyone feels the need to use each other’s name all the time), there’s some sharp dialogue and fun lines such that I’d read the rest of the series.
