"On the Way to the Wedding," by Julia Quinn

The Chick: Lady Lucinda Abernathy. The plainer friend of the beautiful, accomplished Hermione Watson, Lucy's used to being overlooked, so she has no problem helping Gregory Bridgerton win Hermione's hand away from an unsuitable paramour.
The Rub: Lucy has no problem, that is, until she starts to fall in love with Gregory in the process.
Dream Casting: Laura Carmichael.

The Dude: Gregory Bridgerton. He's always known that he'll be able to identify his One True Love on sight - and he does! It's Hermione Watson!
The Rub: But what's a man to do when his One True Love doesn't return his feelings? Get help from her BFF - her surprisingly witty, kind, graceful, lovely BFF...
Dream Casting: Charlie Cox.

The Plot:

Gregory: Some day my prince - er, princess will come, someday I'll find my love...

Shaft of Light: *falls on Hermione Watson*

Hermione: Why, hello -

Gregory: A DREAM IS A WISH YOUR HEART MAKES.

Hermione: Cool. I'mma go talk to anyone else as far away from you as I can get.

Gregory: *heart crushed*

Lucy: Easy, tiger. Let me give you a few tips.

Gregory: Okay!

Lucy and Gregory: *love training montage*

Hermione: Hey, guess what! I just got compromised by Lucy's brother so now I'm heading offstage since I've rendered myself irrelevant to the storyline! Byyyyyeeeee!

Gregory: ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? I suddenly want to make out with a random person in a jealous rage!

Lucy: I like the sound of that!

Gregory and Lucy: *le kiss*

Lucy: BTW I'm secretly in love with you. But I'm ten minutes late for my evil-uncle-arranged marriage to my future gay husband! Ta, darling!

Gregory: Wow, now I'm secretly in love with you. Back off, evil uncle and future gay husband!

Evil Uncle and Future Gay Husband, respectively: Cool.

Lucy: HOORAY!

Romance Convention Checklist

1 Missed Love At First Sight

1 Evil Uncle

1 Daaaaark Secret

1 Use of Bondage (non-sexy variety)

1 Secret Gay Fiance

1 Raging Annoyance of a Little Sister (GO AWAY, HYACINTH)

1 Love of Bacon
The Word: Before we move on to the body of the review, let's have a little Bridgerton Recap:

Book 1: Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah-Ah, Eh-Eh-Eh-Eh-Eh, Oh-Oh-Oh-Oh-ee-Oh, Duke Is Stutterin'.
Bridgerton: Daphne
Grade: B+
Pros: Angst, nice heroine. Cons: Hero's motivations are sketchy at best.

Book 2: "I Like My Women the Way I Like My Father - COVERED IN BEES!"
Bridgerton: Anthony
Grade: A-
Pros: Excellent use of themes, better use of story structure. Cons: Beautiful heroine who refuses to believe she is beautiful - a turn-off for me.

Book 3: An Offer from a Gentleman (my favourite in the series)
Bridgerton: Benedict
Grade: A
Pros: Subtle beta hero, lovely fairy tale premise. Cons: Benedict's mum is okay letting her son's mistress serve her daughters? Really?

Book 4: Rakish McCryingOnTheInside and Penelope NosyGossip-BodyIssues.
Bridgerton: Colin
Grade: B
Pros: Good humour, interesting conflict. Cons: Lame pay-off for over-hyped Bridgerton character. Heroine is too cutesy.

Book 5: How To Terrify Your Family, Seduce a Man and Tame His Demon-Spawn Children, All In Three Easy Steps.
Bridgerton: Eloise
Grade: B-
Pros: Interesting hero and hero issues, relateable (somewhat) heroine. Cons: While relateable, heroine is still ANNOYING beyond all reason. Also: demon-spawn children.

Book 6: My Best Friend's Girl
Bridgerton: Francesca
Grade: B+
Pros: Friends-to-lovers conflict, believable love-at-first sight story. Cons: Wishy-washy heroine.

Book 7: Don't Read this One, or, How a Crazy Manic Pixie Dream Girl Gets Everything She Wants While Everyone Works Around her Crazy.
Bridgerton: Hyacinth
Grade: C-
Pros: It's written in grammatically-correct English. Cons: You'll want to set the heroine on fire.

So On The Way To the Wedding already begins on a high note for the simple fact that it's not Hyacinth's book (although *sigh* she does make a number of ill-advised appearances). As well, Hyacinth's book and the comments of my friendly Tweeples lowered my expectations to such an ebb that I was actually pleasantly surprised by this novel. While it's still not Julia Quinn's best (that remains An Offer from a Gentleman) it is a far lovelier tale than Hyacinth's hot mess of a tale.

Gregory, the youngest Bridgerton son, has always believed in true love - how could he not? Lightning already struck 7 times in his family, so it's reasonable to assume it could happen an 8th time. He's convinced that he'll immediately know The One on sight, and until that time he's content to live a privileged, irresponsible, rootless existence eating sandwiches at his siblings' fancy parties.

It is at one such house party that he meets The One: Hermione Watson, the darling of the ton. However, despite Gregory's determined advances, Hermione - gasp! - doesn't appear to share his feelings. However, he gains an ally in Hermione's (slightly plainer) BFF Lucy Abernathy. Lucy is a veteran observer of the various types of "true love" crushed by Hermione's innocent indifference. Having recently discovered Hermione's inappropriate fondness for her father's secretary, Lucy is now quite invested in herding Hermione's heart towards a more socially-equal subject, and she agrees to help Gregory win Hermione's hand in marriage.

Of course, nothing does go according to plan in a Julia Quinn novel. Thankfully, Quinn saves the histrionic drama for the third act and builds the first and second on the layered, believable protagonists and their (thankfully!) angstless blossoming romance. Lucy is a wonderful heroine. Rational, ordered and pragmatic (perhaps a little too much for her own good), her romantic and sexual awakening is sweet and realistic. Despite her growing love for Gregory, she needs to build and develop her own needs and desires and priorities before she's able to reach out and take a risk.

Gregory's character is more subtle. He was never really much of a presence in the earlier books - he was usually a child or away at Eton. In fact, both he and Francesca feel like the Odd Bridgertons Out, simply because so many of their siblings (including *sigh* Hyacinth) make a point of popping in and out of each other's books, whereas they do not - Francesca, in fact, is never referenced again after her own book. But Gregory actually feels like the Odd Bridgerton - born ten years after the youngest of his brothers, he never had the close brofest Anthony, Benedict, and Colin had. And his upbringing (realistic for 19th century England) kept him from wholly connecting with his sisters as well.

While his character, as a whole, left less of an impact on me than Lucy, the motivations for his personality and lifestyle are sound, believable, and surprisingly undramatic - and I always appreciate well-adjusted characters whose foibles are simply theirs, and not a result of a traumatic accident or shady past.

That being said, the third act does veer a little into Crazytown, but on the whole, it's a pleasant drive to Crazytown. The pressure (however silly and far-fetched the dramatic "twist" is) puts the character development both Gregory and Lucy have undergone to excellent use and their reactions to their predicament are entertaining and romantic (for the most part - Gregory loses points for a stunt involving hand restraints and a toilet).

On the whole, however, On the Way to the Wedding is a surprisingly quiet note to end an eight-book series on. Unlike most other romance series, Julia Quinn did not save the last book for the angstiest, darkest, or most mysterious character. She doesn't reveal any shocking revelations about the Bridgerton family. In fact, most of the Bridgertons keep their happily-wedded noses out of this story (barring the occasional throwaway reference) a fact for which I am very grateful. I'm not sure exactly why, except for his age, Gregory was left for last. Either way, it was a perfectly pleasant novel, and a nice addition to an overall entertaining series.
B+

"It's In His Kiss," by Julia Quinn

The Chick: Hyacinth Bridgerton. The youngest Bridgerton would like to get married, but she's so overpoweringly awesome no other man can possibly keep up with her.
The Rub: How dare that Gareth St. Clair keep up with her! That jerk!
Dream Casting: Felicity Jones.

The Dude: Gareth St. Clair. After inheriting his grandmother's diary, he needs someone to translate - and if the lovely (if crazy) Hyacinth volunteers to translate, what's harm?
The Rub: Thanks to a secret only he and his cruel father know, Gareth's unworthy of Hyacinth's hand.
Dream Casting: Ryan Phillipe.

The Plot:

Hyacinth: Hi! I'm overpoweringly annoying!

Gareth: I see your Overpoweringly Annoying and raise you one Case of Daddy Issues.

Hyacinth: I see your Daddy Issues and raise you one Overestimated Sense of Self-Importance.

Gareth: I see your Overestimated Sense of Self-Importance and add an Offer of Marriage.

Hyacinth: I fold!

Gareth: HOO--

Gareth's Asshole Dad: I see your Offer of Marriage and raise you Overt Manipulation.

Hyacinth: You were bluffing?
Gareth: Crap.

Hyacinth: Know when to run, tough guy!

Gareth: Raise you one set of Endearing Personal Insecurities??

Hyacinth: Oh, all right.

Gareth: Royal flush! Hooray!

Romance Convention Checklist

1 Secret Bastard

1 Italian Diary

1 Set of Hidden Jewels

1 Crotchety Old Grandma

1 Inconveniently Dead Dad

1 Inconveniently Alive Non-Dad

The Word: People warned me about this book, but I haven't always agreed with the general reviews of Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series. Many fans say that Romancing Mr. Bridgerton is the best of the lot and everything is downhill from there. I disagreed on two counts - first, I thought Romancing was unoriginal and cutesy and a huge let down (An Offer from a Gentleman remains my fave), and second, When He Was Wicked (a later novel) wasn't that bad. Not bad at all, actually. So while I had some reservations about It's In His Kiss, I still took the warnings from commentators and fans with a grain of salt.

So now I have a salty crappy book instead of a regular crappy book, I guess. Julia Quinn tends to dance a fine line with her "spirited" female characters. Spunkyville is only just up the road from ShutTheFuckUp Town, after all, and while some of her heroines (Daphne, Kate, Sophia, Francesca) can stay on the beaten path, others (Eloise and Penelope) traipse down that hill with wild abandon and drive me absolutely bonkers.

Hyacinth Bridgerton, the youngest of the Bridgertons, is the Mayor of STFU Town. The entire book is actually based around the fact that she's a crazy annoying, egotistical control-freak narcissist (or, as it's more commonly known in Julia Quinn land, "intelligent"), and only "special" people can tolerate - er, I mean, understand the real her. She's been through several seasons already and is still inexplicably popular but she hasn't found a husband yet and she's starting to wish for one.

Meanwhile, we have Gareth St. Clair, a young man cursed with an irrational cartoon villain of a father. In the prologue, Gareth learns that Lord St. Clair isn't his real father at all, but because he was born within the bounds of wedlock, the baron was forced to acknowledge him. Because of that, his father has treated him like dirt. By the time the rest of the novel opens, their relationship has worsened - with Gareth's older (and legitimate) brother dead, Gareth stands to inherit the St. Clair estates, and to prevent this from happening, Lord St. Clair is determined to mire his faux-son in debt.

The possible answer to Gareth's money problems may be his paternal grandmother's diary, but it's written in Italian and he needs a discreet translator he can trust. Why not choose the overwhelmingly smug and spoiled brat you barely know who isn't even fluent in Italian? Brilliant! Okay, okay, so Gareth and Hyacinth share one degree of separation - Bridgerton family friend Lady Danbury is Gareth's maternal granny so they're not total strangers, but still.

Seen in hindsight, the romantic development of It's In His Kiss is superficially similar to Mary Balogh's Slightly Scandalous. Both plots involve heroines who are so awesome (or at least believe they're so awesome) that the only man who can satisfy them is the one man who can take them down a peg. The only problem is that Balogh does a much better job of convincing the reader that Freyja Bedwyn is The Shit, whereas Quinn's Hyacinth just comes off as, well, shit.

If I want to dig into the subtle differences, I would have to say the main reason I preferred Freyja's particular brand of Crazy is because Slightly Scandalous explores both the upside of Freyja's confidence as well as the downside - such as her haughty, unforgiving and sometimes even cruel behaviour (particularly her views on her ex's new wife). She's confident and content with who she is but she's also flawed (and she can acknowledge that she's flawed), and she develops towards the end of the novel without compromising her character.

With Hyacinth, I got the impression that the novel was trying make her Batshit Insane while still Romance Heroine Perfect, and the two don't mesh. Hyacinth's behaviour is just seen as "quirky" without dealing with the negative implications (such as her complete self-absorption) and she doesn't change or develop or alter her behaviour beyond the Captain Obvious "If I Want a Smart Husband I Better Stop Pissing Off the Smart Dudes Who Hit On Me" decision. I know it's a balance - the heroine has to be proud of who she is, but still, everyone has problems and everyone has room to improve and in this case Hyacinth has about 100 fully-furnished rooms to fill with improvement. But nooooo, she's just Perfect Bonkers Hyacinth and it's everyone else's job to adapt themselves to fit her crazy rather than the other way around.

As well, when it comes to the romantic interaction, Freyja's interactions with the cunning Joshua are hilarious setpieces of forceful emotional and verbal combat, and Freyja enjoys herself even when she ends up on the losing end. In this way, Freyja and Joshua come across as equals. With Hyacinth and Gareth, she's petty and whines about how Gareth makes her feel small and stupid, which inspires her to do childish, petty things. This makes Hyacinth the child and Gareth the adult, and the power imbalance makes their interactions dull.

Gareth has some interesting moments as he does battle with his faux-father, and they're obviously supposed to be deep "why can't I act like an adult?" moments, but I can't help but feel his struggles would have been more poignant if his dad had been more than a ridiculously one-note villain. None of the characters ring particularly true in this novel. It's In His Kiss is like reading a very elaborate comic strip. Julia Quinn cut her teeth on stories that chose humour and personal drama over giant epic setpieces and elaborate plot devices, but in this instance, there's simply not enough story to go around and so we get repetitive and cutesy and whining banter between characters who have been exaggerated in order to seem more interesting.

Avoid this one, folks.
C-

"To Sir Phillip, With Love," by Julia Quinn

Alternate Title: Adventures in Babysitting

The Chick: Eloise Bridgerton. An extremely talkative, nosy woman, she kept herself free from marriage, and was rather proud to be a spinster - until her less attractive, less popular, schlubby friend Penelope got married without her. Feeling suddenly adrift, she impulsively flees for the country estate of her secret correspondent Sir Phillip Crane, to see if he might be right for marriage.
The Rub: She "forgets" to inform her mother, siblings, or Sir Phillip himself that she is coming.
Dream Casting: Persuasion's Sally Hawkins.

The Dude: Sir Phillip Crane. After being trapped in a dreadful eight-year marriage to a clinically depressed woman who eventually killed herself, all he wants now is another wife - preferably someone cheerful and spirited.
The Rub: He doesn't want a wife for himself, but rather a mistress of his household and a mother to his devil's-spawn children so that he can get back to his gardening and not have to think about anything.
Dream Casting: Elliot Cowan.

The Plot:

Eloise: Spinsterhood sounded so much fun when I could be with the ugly, unpopular friend I was certain would never marry! But now that she inexplicably has, I feel so alone and unloved! Woe is me!

Sir Phillip: Dear Eloise, please come and take my horrid children off my hands Please come and see if we will suit as man and wife. Since you're not married already by the age of 28 I'm going to expect super gratefulness I hope you will like me and mine. Love, Sir Phillip.

Eloise: Brilliant idea! So brilliant I WON'T TELL ANYONE. HI, Phil!

Sir Phillip: What the hell are you doing here? I mean, hello.

Sir Phillip's Horrid Children: GO AWAY YOU EVIL WOMAN WE DO NOT LIKE YOU AND WILL MAKE THAT ABUNDANTLY CLEAR THROUGH DEVILISH PRANKS THAT ARE TOTALLY NOT MEANT TO BE PATHETIC CRIES FOR THE LOVE AND ATTENTION WE DESPERATELY NEED.

Eloise: Um, hello.

Sir Phillip's Less Horrid Children: OUR OPEN INNOCENT HEARTS ARE CONQUERED PLEASE BE OUR MUMMY.

Sir Phillip: That was fast! Well, I'm off to continue my life now that you'll take care of everything.

Eloise and Sir Phillip's Less Horrid Children: Don't be a moron.

Sir Phillip: Oh, alright.

Eloise: Hooray!

Romance Convention Checklist:

2 Very Bad Parents (deceased)

2 Precocious Children

1 Very Ill Wife (deceased)

4 Outraged Brothers

1 Raging Fever (unsexy variety)

1 Black Eye

Several Mischievous Pranks

1 Secret Child Abuser

The Word: As I may have mentioned before, I wasn't planning on liking this book very much. I'd been warned by other readers that Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series begins its downhill slide right around Colin's book (which, upon reading Romancing Mister Bridgerton, I found to be more or less correct). Also, I thought Eloise's character in the previous books was incredibly irritating. So it's safe to say that I went into this book with a certain amount of wariness. Thankfully, the book was not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

This novel does make Eloise more sympathetic - but she still is a little irritating. Particularly her reason for inciting the incident of this book. It all began in Romancing Mister Bridgerton when Penelope (Eloise's friend) married Colin (Eloise's brother), which forced Eloise to confront some unflattering things about herself. Namely - she took pleasure in her own spinsterhood because she always figured she'd be in it with Penelope. Sure, Penelope's her friend, but let's be honest - she's never going to be married. I mean really. Look at her hair and her clothes. Not gonna happen.

But then, of course, Penelope did. Romancing Mister Bridgerton, while it had many flaws, did develop the interesting theme of taking people for granted, and it wasn't only Colin who had to realize the strength behind Penelope's shyness, but her BFF Eloise as well. Eloise honestly never expected Penelope to find marital bliss, and once Penelope did, Eloise found herself battling ugly guilt, envy, and loneliness. Guilt that she'd always subconsciously considered Penelope to be inferior to herself, envy that this assumption turned out to be untrue, and loneliness that now she is the solitary spinster in a sea of Smug Marrieds.

So, in To Sir Phillip, With Love, when Eloise receives a letter from a man with whom she's been secretly corresponding with for some time, and this letter proposes she visit his estate to see if they would suit for marriage, she impulsively jumps at the chance. However, she has to do so in a disappointingly TSTL fashion by intentionally not telling her mother or siblings where she's going, or telling Sir Phillip that she's about to arrive - and then has the nerve to act offended when Sir Phillip doesn't welcome her surprise appearance with rainbows and butterflies.

The first part of this book was difficult and implausible because her actions are completely, unarguably selfish. She literally vanishes without a trace (a perfunctory "don't worry I'm just being feisty" note gets lost in the mail), leaving the people who care about her very much with absolutely no idea where she's gone and then she shows up on Phillip's doorstep, interrupting his day and giving him no time to prepare - and why? So she can have an exit strategy. I'm not kidding - she makes everyone worry about her so that she won't lose face if she decides to back out of her plan. Thankfully, the negativity from this part of the novel is brightened by the fact that all this does come back to bite Eloise on the ass later on.

Anyway, Phillip is incredibly surprised when Eloise does show up - after all, she'd never replied to his letter when he'd sent it a month ago - but he decides to make the most of things. It's been a year since his previous wife died of a fever after trying to drown herself. His children, twins Oliver and Amanda, are raging out of control, but he's avoided most of his parenting duties out of a conviction that he's a naturally sucky parent (thanks to his own sucky parents) and would only cause more damage. However, the children do need an authority figure, so who better than a staid, cheerful spinster to be their mother and do all the things he would rather not?

While Eloise wasn't expecting to be hired on as a "babysitter with benefits," she decides to stick around and see how things go. While Phillip's children are indeed horrific little monsters, it's obvious to everyone except Phillip that they are doing intentionally ridiculous things in order to get his attention. However, their antics only convince Phillip that he's a terrible parent which causes him to spend less time with his children, meaning the children have to find worse ways to act out and the cycle continues.

Up until this point, the novel doesn't quite impress me. Eloise is selfish and spoiled, the children unrealistically portrayed with obviously telegraphed motivations, and Phillip is a dithering coward who hides from his children because he'll only screw them up more and would much rather hang out in his greenhouse and let other people do all the work.

However, once Eloise's brothers find out where she is and swoop in with enough Alpha Male Hero Aggression to power a large Canadian city, then the story starts getting good. Why? Because even with all of Eloise's stupid decisions, I started relating to her, dammit! While Eloise's decision-making abilities don't suddenly improve when her brothers arrive and clean up her mess, I started to understand why she was doing the things she's doing and believing how her mind worked.

I'll admit, if I'm anything like any of the Bridgertons, I'm like Eloise. I talk nonstop. I like gossiping (ahem, storytelling). Thanks to years of being a relatively isolated nerd in elementary and high school, I got used to thinking of myself first and often find it difficult to consider the feelings of others before my own. And when I'm forced into doing something thanks to my own mistakes, I'll do it because I feel guilty but it doesn't mean I'm not going to be pissy about it.

This is essentially how Eloise behaves once the Bridgerton boys show up. Understandably outraged with her, eldest brother Anthony puts an end to Eloise's will-she-or-won't-she marry Phillip by declaring that she unequivocally will, thanks to her unchaperoned time with the baronet. Eloise's actions were undeniably stupid, but by this point in the novel she's completely aware of how ridiculous she's been and how many people's she hurt and how this whole mess is entirely her fault. Still, she can't help but lash out towards Phillip now that she no longer has a choice in marrying him - even though she knows she only has herself to blame. By this point I found myself totally relating to her because I would have been just as petty and childish in that sort of situation.

As for Phillip - he was an interesting, if broadly drawn character. Most of his insecurities stem from his relationship with his late wife. While a contemporary reader can easily deduct that Phillip's wife suffered from debilitating clinical depression, to a nineteenth-century man like Phillip, he could only see that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make her happy. Every day of their relationship only convinced him more that he was a failure as a husband and he quickly converted this into a belief that he's a failure as a father as well. While described as physically imposing, Phillip is by no means a conventional Alpha Male - he's inarticulate, shy, cowardly in many respects, and exceedingly insecure. Most romance heroes have insecurities about themselves - more commonly, they believe they are unworthy of lasting commitment thanks to something in their past.

Phillip believes himself unworthy of pretty much any relationship - he doesn't even have many, if any, friends. There's a running theme throughout the book that Phillip is just too big to deal with other people. Not only big as in physically big, but big as in too heavy, brutish, and unrefined to deal with delicate matters such as formal affairs, women, and children. This is demonstrated physically by how he has to squeeze himself into tiny chairs for formal occasions or to talk to his children in the nursury, and emotionally in how he clutches and fumbles and loses his temper when trying to speak to Eloise or the twins. He's spent years convincing himself he's a lonely bull and regular society is just one big china shop, so he sequesters himself in his greenhouse for everyone's own good.

However, it's obvious that Phillip is an excellent match for Eloise. While Eloise is at first disconcerted that Phillip is not as talkative or articulate as he is in his letters (unaware that he spent days poring over every word), Phillip's terse and to-the-point nature renders him perfectly capable of calling Eloise on her bullshit and curbing her nonstop chatter. And from the other direction, Eloise's cheerful patter helps ease Phillip out of his self-imposed shell. Even while other aspects of the book didn't work for me, Julia Quinn did convince me that Phillip was just the man that Eloise needed and vice versa.
While this definitely isn't the best of the Bridgerton novels, it's not a terrible novel in itself, and it does do the character of Eloise justice. I was pleased to discover that despite being an officious little chatterbox, she's actually rather nice, surprisingly self-aware of her own faults (especially concerning her unkind surprise at Penelope's marriage), and capable of intermittent periods of good sense.
B-.

"Romancing Mister Bridgerton," by Julia Quinn

Alternate Title: Pump Up the Volume, Regency-Style!

Spoiler Warning: Okay, I always warn about spoilers on my blog, but this one has a doozy that effects the previous three books of the Bridgerton series. If you're just getting into the series now - THIS HAS SPOILERS THAT AFFECT YOUR BOOKS. You have been warned. That is all.

The Chick: Penelope Featherington. Thanks to various personal problems over the years (weight issues, ugly dresses, skin problems, and shyness), she remained a perpetual wallflower and has accustomed herself with surprising contentment to the life of a spinster. Now twenty-eight and firmly on the shelf, she still has a crush on Colin Bridgerton, but believes nothing could ever come of it.
The Rub: One day, she stumbles upon Colin's private travel journals - and discovers they're actually good. Her passionate approval of them surprises Colin and makes him pay closer attention to her ... which puts secrets of her own at risk.
Dream Casting: Ginnifer Goodwin.

The Dude: Colin Bridgerton. Renowned for his rascally, charming ways and frequent travels out of England, he could charm the petticoats off of half the ton with his famous crooked grin. However, he feels strangely unfulfilled, until the woman he's known for years discovers and praises the writing talent he's suppressed.
The Rub: He's more used to taking Penelope for granted than for falling in love with her, and has to reevaluate his entire estimation of her when she reveals hidden reserves of wit, fire, and talent.
Dream Casting: Zachary Levi.

The Plot:
Penelope: Woe is me! I'm a spinster with an unrequited love!

Colin: Woe is me! I'm handsome, rich and popular, and yet strangely unfulfilled!

Penelope: Oh come on. Suck it up and grow a pair, why don't you?

Colin: *blink blink* You have pretty lips and boobies. And a spine! WHY HAVEN'T I NOTICED THAT BEFORE?

Penelope: Beats me! Oh, and I'm Lady Whistledown, too.

Colin: OMGWTFBBQ??! (copyright Smart Bitches) Ahem, well, that doesn't matter, because I love you!

Penelope: Oh good! I love you too!

Colin: Thanks to your support, I'm publishing my travel journals!

Penelope: And thanks to your love, I'm writing my first novel called - The Wallflower.

Colin: W-what...no - NO, it can't be!

Penelope: Oh yes it can - on top of being Lady Whistledown, I am also secretly *rips off disguise* LISA KLEYPAS!

Colin: AAAAAAAAAUGH!

Romance Convention Checklist

1 Rascally Rake

1 On-The-Shelf Spinster

1 Secret Talent

1 Secret Identity

1 Bitchy Blackmailer

1 Nosy BFF

1 Not-Very-Supportive Mother

1 Obvious Sequel Set Up (Eloise and her mysterious letters)

The Word: Back when I set out to read Lord of Scoundrels, one Anonymous Commenter warned me off it, and suggested I read Romancing Mr Bridgerton instead. Both novels, written by excellent historical romance authors at the peak of their abilities, have been hyped to high heaven. I already have high regard for what I've read of the Bridgerton series, so when many commenters and reviewers said they thought RMB was the best of the bunch, that notched my expectations for this novel significantly higher. Did it measure up? Read on.

Each Bridgerton novel I've read has had a cohesive theme that drives the romance, and RMB is no exception. Essentially, this novel is about taking things and people for granted. This theme is particularly suited to this story because the characters are ones that readers of the first three books should be familiar with: Colin (the rascally younger brother who pops up in all three books to cause mischief) and Penelope (the tragicomic best friend who hasn't a hope in hell of attracting a man because she's either fat, pimply, shy, or wearing a dress in a horrid colour). These two characters are not only known to Julia Quinn readers, but they're known to each other - or at least, they think they know each other.

When RMB begins, however, Penelope's Season days are far behind her: she's now content to be a twenty-eight-year-old spinster happily on the shelf right next to her BFF Eloise Bridgerton (also a spinster, albeit by choice rather than circumstance). Despite her utter lack of prospects, she's far happier now that no one expects anything of her than she ever was during her Seasons. The only fly in her ointment is her everlasting love for Colin. Oh, Colin, Colin, Colin. He's so dreamy and perfect and popular and handsome. But someone so pretty and flawless could never fall for an ugly duckling like me!

Penelope's thoughts tread a lot along this path until she accidentally comes across Colin's private travel journals, and discovers they're actually quite good. She also discovers, when Colin comes in and catches her, that he never had any intention of showing his journals to anyone and, despite his charming behaviour during social engagements, is as perfectly capable of throwing a temper tantrum as anyone else. While Colin takes great pleasure in his journal, he never planned to show it to anyone else, suspecting they might just emptily praise him because he's a popular Bridgerton rather than for his actual merit, and what he's always wanted ever since he can remember is to have an actual purpose in life other than to be popular and well-liked...

Wait, wait, wait - did I just accidentally pick up An Offer from a Gentleman? Isn't Benedict Bridgerton supposed to be the sibling with the artistic talent he's kept private, who, as a younger son, feels dissatisfied with his lack of definable purpose and identity? Am I having literary deja vu?

As it turns out, dear readers, I am not - Colin, more or less, has the same personal problems as Benedict. Only he's distressingly whinier and less subtle about it.

Of course, his hissy fit breaks Penelope's shiny perfect picture of him. He's a Bridgerton, and for years Penelope just assumed he lived a charmed life of oblivious happiness. She'd never thought he could be pissy, or petty, or jealous, or whiny. SURPRISE! And of course, when Penelope finally speaks her mind and praises his writing skills while at the same time giving him a scathing "I wish I had your problems, so quit your bitching" speech, Colin finds himself forced to reevaluate his image of Penelope that he's taken for granted all these years.

Their relationship takes another turn when a popular society matron offers a thousand pounds to whomever can unmask Lady Whistledown, a popular anonymous gossip columnist who's offended/entertained the ton for a decade without ever revealing her true identity. When a mean-spirited attention whore claims that she's Lady Whistledown, Colin catches Penelope in the act of delivering Lady W's final column that refutes the bitchface's claim.

Cue a chorus of "Whaaaaaaaaaat? Penelope is Lady Whistledown? No WAY!" Way. I had to admit I had a really hard time believing it at first. Julia Quinn set herself the incredibly difficult task of conveying events from Penelope's point of view without revealing that she's Lady Whistledown, even during scenes where Lady Whistledown's identity is the primary focus of the conversation. I actually found myself flipping back to all these scenes to see if she slipped up. While the writing's not necessarily on the wall, there are clues, albeit subtle ones, and most of these spring from Penelope's behaviour and how she reacts to certain comments.

Anyway, as believable or unbelievable as this may be, it does open up some interesting territory in RMB's romantic development. Colin and Penelope have known each other for so long that each has become the other's constant, in a way. To Penelope, no matter how dreary or humiliating her life became, she could count on Colin to always be confident and cheerful with a roguish grin on his face. Colin, meanwhile, seemed content to consider Penelope a particularly well-spoken and tasteful piece of window dressing.

Penelope's rude awakening that Colin has insecurities and asshat tendencies is not much of a jump, but Colin's reevaluation of Penelope is something to see. Coming to grips with the idea that Penelope might have feelings and opinions that actually matter is trying enough on the poor chap, but to discover that Penelope is not only capable of higher brain function, but is better at something than he is, is a new experience entirely.

Julia Quinn mines fertile (and rarely tilled) ground as the true impact of Colin's newfound love for Penelope sinks in. Unlike his married siblings, he doesn't have the chance to make a first impression, or a second, third, or thirty-third impression. He doesn't possess the luxury of showing only his best side, or editing his background. He doesn't get the meet-cute, or the misunderstanding, or (obviously) love at first sight. Realization dawns on him that he's let ten years' worth of chances with her go by, and that she already knows the best and worst of him, so the only chance he has now is to be taken as he is. He also has to come to terms with his misplaced pity for her. Frankly, there were times when thought of her as Poor Little Penelope (mainly because she often intentionally acts like Poor Little Penelope) - but now that he's head over heels in love with Poor Little Penelope, what does that make him?

That being said, I found RMB to be nowhere near as entertaining as An Offer from a Gentleman. The main (or, I should say, first) reason for this is that Colin - who was such a uniquely mischievous presence in the previous novels - comes off as terribly uninteresting in his own book. He was so much fun in the previous novels, and when the backcover blurb promised that he had a "secret," I was psyched. Yeah! Mischievous man-boy Colin has a secret! And it's...

A secret diary? Really? Who are you, Anne Frank? And a hidden artistic talent? What, again? Colin's predicament and sense of poor-little-rich-boy ennui is so obviously similar to Benedict's, and so much more poorly written, that it completely deflates the image built up for him by the previous books. At the very least, he deserved his own hang-up! I mean, in his extensive travels, he could have come across any number of problems - a rare disease, witnessing a crime, bankruptcy, a secret baby, anything but the same thing that plagued the hero in the book right before this one! It deeply disappointed me that a character who was such a memorable fixture in the previous books couldn't have an inner conflict uniquely suited to his character.

And on top of that, I never found Penelope's personality to be in sync with that of Lady Whistledown. Whistledown's columns opened every chapter of the Bridgerton novels leading up to this one, and they're all sarcastic, witty, and mature. Penelope, on the other hand, comes off as a marshmellow with sparkly eyes and chipmunk cheeks who uses the words "magical" and "soul" far too often. The idea, of course, behind Lady Whistledown is the Pump Up the Volume-esque idea that Lady W says all the things that Penelope is too shy and tongue-tied to say herself, but I didn't always buy it. Even when she's being "lively," she's a little too gooey for my taste, and a shade too cutesy to convince me she's responsible for Lady W's no-nonsense prose. I often found her actions, thoughts, and behaviour corresponded with someone much younger than she's supposed to be.

Also, the secondary characters (read: the other Bridgertons and their significant others) threaten to overcrowd important scenes with banter that becomes inane rather quickly (imagine two pages of a discussion on the metaphorical significance of glue). I kinda wanted to smack Hyacinth Bridgerton, but she wasn't nearly as irritating as Eloise, who comes off a shrill gossipy hypocrite who latches on with the unwanted tenacity of a bulldog to reveal other people's secrets but gets all huffy and offended when people ask after hers.

However, there were many good points to this novel. Again, Julia Quinn focuses more on dialogue and relationship dynamics than wacky twists of fate - when Colin stops navel-gazing and Penelope forgets to be sugary, their interactions are fairly entertaining. I enjoyed how ten years worth of taking each other for granted hampered their relationship, and how they have to overcome it. Penelope, without being a total dishrag, is so used to being socially rescued by the Bridgertons that she automatically assumes most of Colin's initial romantic overtures are performed out of pity. Colin, himself, is used to pitying Penelope.

Julia Quinn, thankfully, doesn't perform the mistake that many lesser authors have done by retconning this with convenient "Oh, I never really pitied you, I could always sense the spirited fire of your fiery spirit that you kept hidden" bullshit. Colin actually did pity Penelope and take her for granted for years and Quinn doesn't sugarcoat it or try to write it off, but instead uses it to spice his growing conflict as he realizes how incredibly wrong he was. His realization leaves him with real guilt and horror at how many times over the last decade he could have lost her forever without ever knowing what he could have had, and this inspires him to rather delightful feats of romantic forcefulness - particularly during my favourite scene in the novel, where Colin tries to announce his engagement to Penelope in front of her family, and finds this a more difficult task than he expected.

However, I'm sorry to say that my dear Anonymous Commenter is going to be very disappointed in me - I loved Lord of Scoundrels (and she did not), and, unfortunately, I wasn't overly impressed with Romancing Mister Bridgerton. While Julia Quinn's writing style is still lovely and some memorable scenes had me giggling, I had certain expectations for this novel that (whether they were fair or no) weren't met. Much of Colin's conflict felt like a re-tread of An Offer from a Gentleman (a book whose status as the Best of the Bridgertons remains unchallenged), and what original conflict remained wasn't enough to sustain my interest in the entire novel. B.

"The Viscount Who Loved Me," by Julia Quinn

The Chick: Kate Sheffield. Thanks to her family's strained finances, she has to share her first season at the advanced age of twenty-one with her seventeen-year-old half-sister Edwina. Knowing Edwina, the more conventionally pretty one, is the more likely of the two to make an advantageous match, Kate makes it her duty to make sure Edwina doesn't fall for a cad.
The Rub: Years of living in Edwina's sparkling, gorgeous shadow have left Kate with an overdeveloped sense of her own unattractiveness. Is also irrationally terrified of thunderstorms.
The Dreamcast: Nora Zehetner, a.k.a. "Eden" from Heroes. She looks to be just the right match of pretty and pert to play the saucy Kate.

The Dude: Viscount Anthony Bridgerton. The eldest of the eight Bridgerton siblings, he lives a rakish existence but still takes his duties as head of the family very seriously, ever since his father died unexpectedly of anaphylactic shock from a bee sting when Anthony was eighteen.
The Rub: He worshipped his father to such an extent that his father's sudden death at the age of 38 convinced Anthony that, just as he supposedly can't measure up to all of his father's other accomplishments, he won't be able to surpass his dad's lifespan either, so he lives life as if his days were already numbered. Is also terrified (albeit a little more understandably) of bees.
The Dreamcast: Firefly's Sean Maher.

The Plot:

Anthony: I need a wife.

Colin, Anthony's Brother: Well, Edwina Sheffield's pretty.

Anthony: She'll do. **ACTUAL QUOTE FROM NOVEL**

Kate: Nu-uh! You won't go near her!

Anthony: Will too!

Kate: Will not!

Anthony: Will too!

Kate: Ow! Bee sting!

Anthony: NOO! MUST SUCK OUT VENOM!

Kate and Anthony: *compromised*

Anthony: Uh, I like my women the way I like my coffee, COVERED IN BEES?

Kate and Anthony: *married*

Bishop: ....till death do you part....

Anthony: Yeah, well, that's what? Eight years? Not too bad.

Kate: *carriage overturns*

Anthony: SHIT. We could have had EIGHT years!

Kate: Hey, I'm still alive!

Anthony: YEAH!

*ten years later*

Anthony: *still alive*

Bees: *not amused*

Romance Convention Checklist:
1 Heroine With Poor Self-Image

2 Inconvenient Phobias

2 Inconveniently Dead Parents

1 Relationship-Marring Pet (dog)

1 Relationship-Advancing Insect (bee)

2 Cameos from Characters from Previous Quinn Novels (Simon and Daphne!)

1 Game of Pall Mall (croquet) Involving the Mallet of Death

The Word: The second in the Bridgerton family series of romance novels by Julia Quinn, this one involves Anthony, Daphne's oldest brother who appeared in The Duke & I for almost the sole purpose of punching Simon in the face. This review is rather spoiler-heavy, so you've been warned.

Now, of course, he gets his own story. Anthony, the eldest Bridgerton, was the one who was the hardest hit when the children's father died from a sudden allergic reaction to a bee sting. At eighteen, Anthony was on the cusp of manhood already, while his brothers were sixteen, twelve, and two - and the youngest Bridgerton (Hyacinth) not even born yet. He shared a special relationship with his father and was devasted when he collapsed from a simple bee sting in the prime of his life.

The interesting thing here is that while modern readers will know it was an allergic reaction, realistically Julia Quinn uses the Regency-era ignorance of fatal allergies to create an interesting plot element. Anthony emerges from the tragedy of his father's death with the unshakeable conviction that his days, too, are numbered. In Anthony's eyes, if a man as exalted, accomplished, and unshakeable as his magnificent father could be felled by a mere bee at the age of thirty-eight, than his struggling son certainly can't last much longer.

At the novel's start, he's spent the last ten years living scandalously, all the while still maintaining his duties and responsibilities to his large family. However, as his biological clock keeps ticking towards his imagined endpoint, he decides to settle down to meet yet another duty as Viscount: marry and beget an heir. He really has only three qualities the future Viscountess must meet: 1) She must be reasonably pretty. 2) She must be reasonably intelligent. And 3), she must not be a love match. Really, Anthony reasons, it's better for both of them if neither of them loves the other, because it will only make it more painful when he meets his inevitable early fate.

He settles his eye on Edwina Sheffield, the impoverished but ravishingly lovely star of this year's Season. She's more than pretty, she likes to read, and there's no emotional spark between them. To Anthony, this is perfect, except for one small detail: Edwina refuses to consider any suitor who doesn't meet her older sister's approval. There, Anthony meets a brick wall.

Kate Sheffield's heard plenty about Anthony's rakish ways in the local gossip papers, and is not so easily charmed by Anthony. Far from being a sharp-tongued harridan, Kate is a rather enjoyable and sympathetic character. She's used to being the "other sister," and always unfavourably compared to Edwina. While jealousy's never been an issue since Edwina is thankfully a bubbly and caring person, Kate has convinced herself that no one could possibly notice her if Edwina were in the room as well, and resigns herself to the fate of seeing Edwina married off well so that Kate and her stepmother may live above the genteel poverty line.

She's already suspicious when Anthony approaches her to gain the required approval, and when Anthony tosses off a thoughtless compliment ("you're as lovely as your sister"), Kate immediately pegs him for a dishonest, caddish flatterer - the last kind of man she wants her sister to associate with. Of course, Anthony refuses to be disuaded and rises to the challenge.
I enjoyed this novel very much. At first, I was a little unsettled, because the narrative and obstacle structure of The Viscount Who Loved Me seemed almost identical to that of The Duke & I. Man whose relationship decisions are essentially decided for him by his now-deceased father fights his wrong attraction to a wrong woman, until he and she are compromised into a marriage, where his dark secret problems are confronted and eventually solved in the fourth quarter of the novel.

However, I thought the obstacles and personal problems of Anthony and Kate to be more believable than those of Simon and Daphne, so I felt the structure suited their story more. Simon's refusal to have children in order to spite his dead father came across as rather childish and disturbing and a little exaggerated. Daphne, herself, didn't have any real problems other than the fact that she was a bit too nice.

In The Viscount Who Loved Me, however, both character have realistic foibles that are complemented and eased by their partners. Anthony is terrified of falling in love because ignoring permanent attachments to people has been the only thing keeping him from fearing his early demise. Kate, meanwhile, has to struggle with the nature of their marriage - Kate, stung by a bee, is compromised when a horrified Anthony tries to manually suck out the venom to save her life. The bee stung her on the chest. You can work out the rest of the details yourself. However, while Kate is secretly thrilled to be married to Anthony, she despairs over "trapping" Anthony, hates considering herself to be the second choice, and fears that Anthony's really thinking of someone else when he makes love to her.

Kate is afraid that Anthony doesn't love her. Anthony is afraid that he does. The theme of fears and phobias (Kate is also afraid of storms, as Anthony is of bees) adds an excellent layer to a novel about two people who, to escape their deepest fears, have constructed facades and personalities in order to protect themselves. Anthony arranges his life around his belief that he won't reach his 38th birthday and lives as an emotionally unattached rake, Kate prepares herself for a life of spinsterhood and devotes her life to her sister as she believes she'll never have one of her own. I don't know, but living a life controlled by fear always came across to me as more relatable than living a life controlled by spite.

Despite the similarities in story structure, I quite enjoyed the interactions between the hero and heroine much more in The Viscount Who Loved Me, and how each became a better, less afraid person around the other.  
A-

"The Duke & I," by Julia Quinn

The Chick: Daphne Bridgerton, one of eight (!) liberal, wealthy siblings, all currently unmarried, although their formidable mother Violet is trying desperately to rectify that situation.
The Rub (yes, I'm changing "shady past" to "The Rub." It makes more sense - not all characters have hidden secrets but ALL have some major problem or other that needs to be resolved.): All the boys of the ton think she's funny and kind and caring, but see her as too much of a friend to consider a romantic attachment.

The Dude: Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings, a "rake" (the term is bandied about very loosely in this book) who is determined never to marry or have children, and avoid society as much as he can. However, as he's handsome and a Duke, every mother within a 50 mile radius is determined to marry him off to their daughters.
The Rub: Spent his childhood overcoming a vicious stutter, and lives in the shadow of his deceased, abusively neglectful father.

The Plot:

Daphne: I want to marry and have children, but men won't notice me!

Simon: I've vowed never to marry or have children, but women won't leave me alone!

Daphne: Let's pretend we're attached, then! Peer pressure solves all problems!

Simon: Alright, as long as I don't have to get married.

Daphne: *flashes boobs*

Simon: Hot damn! I mean, DAMMIT.

Simon and Daphne: *hasty wedding*

Simon: Alright, as long as I don't have to have children.

Daphne: *date-rapes!*

Simon: Yee-haw! I mean, DOUBLE DAMMIT! I hate my daddy! I hate my st-st-stutter! I hate myself!

Daphne: Well, I love you.

Simon: Problem solved!

Romantic Convention Checklist1 Very Bad Parent

1 Inconvenient Speech Impediment

1 Drunken Love Interest (rejected)

3 Uses of Hero as Human Punching Bag

1 Drunken Love Interest (accepted!)

1 Inefficient Regency-Era "Sex Talk"

1 Very Nasty Surprise Due to Inefficiency of Aforementioned "Sex Talk"

3 Manly Protectors

2 Kindly Matron Servants

The Word: This is the first entry in Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series, beginning with the fourth child, Daphne. Daphne is exasperated with the boys of the ton who have nothing but the greatest respect for her but no romantic inclinations. She rightly perceives that if Simon, a manly, respected Duke, pretends an interest in her, than other men will follow suit.

Simon, new Duke of Hastings, agrees to the ruse because ambitious mothers are chucking their daughters at him like so many rotten tomatoes and he's promised himself (thanks to some seriously dark daddy issues) that he'll never marry or have children. Of course, since Simon and Daphne have to be in close proximity with each other for the ruse to convince people (and Daphne's mother who, while ridiculously eager for her daughter to wed, is no fool) an actual romance quickly develops.

What happens beyond is the interesting part. The Duke & I is an intriguing character study, and not only of Daphne and Simon. Daphne thinks she's unintentionally deflected suitors by being too nice, but Simon sees how her three older brothers have also scared away prospective matches with their overprotectiveness. He also asks about halfway through the story that if the men of the ton had to be peer-pressured into noticing her, why she thinks they're so worthy of marriage in the first place. As well, it's an unflattering portrait of the Season of the ton, where mothers who are perfectly friendly people in real life are forced to become shrill-voiced saleswomen in order to give their daughters a future. In this period of history, if a woman didn't marry well, she had nothing.

In Simon's corner, he has to deal with some depressing issues about himself, and the utter loathing he has for the very idea of peerage thanks to his abominable father, who reveled in his authority as Duke. Simon hates everything to do with his father, including his position, and his hackles are raised at nearly every social function as some old Earl or friend of his father's always manages to corner him and offer condolences or congratulations for his dead father and position (respectively), which Simon has no intention of mourning or enjoying. Quinn very ably shows that, however justified his hatred of his father is, it has poisoned and corrupted his ability to act in his own interests. If his father liked something, Simon must hate it, and if his father hated it, Simon must like it. As the book progresses, Daphne has to help Simon realize how this mindset has actually prevented him from making his own choices.

In many ways (particularly in the narrative structure), I found The Duke & I to be similar to Lisa Kleypas' Secrets of a Summer Night. I always have spoilers in my reviews but this can get rather specific so read at your own discretion. In both books, the hero (both named Simon!) and the heroine get married about three-quarters through the novel, and, coincidentally enough, because the heroine is compromised in public. The placement of the marriage in the narrative is odd - in most novels the marriage (if a marriage is not part of the plot, like a marriage of convenience story) comes at the end because it serves as the resolution to the ultimate problem of whether the Hero and the Heroine can Make It.

But in both novels, the marriage actually exacerbates a problem. In Summer Night's case, Annabelle has to come to terms with how her marriage to a tradesman has alienated her from both the noble and the middle classes, and has to (at least partially) resolve the problem by proving that her marriage to Simon was the decision of a woman in love with a man, not the choice of an impoverished, pampered aristocrat who married an industrialist to keep herself in silk stockings.

With Duke, Simon's personal life decisions based on his abusive father's treatment of him are brought painfully to the surface by his marriage. Being man and wife puts Simon and Daphne in a more intimate position where Simon can no longer just say, "No children, and that's that," tip his hat, and gallop away. He can no longer withhold himself from Daphne, and the sudden exposure of his personal problems creates a breach that must be mended by the end of the novel. How this happens I won't be so crass as to give away. You'll have to read it yourself. But rest assured, it'll be a pleasant experience. B+.