Book #21 |
Book: Bridgerton: The Duke & I | Author: Julia Quinn | |
| Source: Library loan Format: Audiobook |
Pages: 339 | Duration: 03/21/26 – 03/25/26 (5 days) | |
| Rating: ★★★★☆ | Genres: historical fiction, romance, regency | ||
| 📕10-word summary: Regency-era family dramatic enough to have their own TV series. 🖌6-word review: Not bad for a romance novel. |
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| 💭A favorite quote: Colin: “I hate when you’re right.” Penelope: “I know; pity for you, I so often am.” | |||
| 🎓New-to-me words: ton, rake, woolgathering | |||
| Description:* In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince—while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable…but not too amiable. Daphne Bridgerton has always failed at the latter. The fourth of eight siblings in her close-knit family, she has formed friendships with the most eligible young men in London. Everyone likes Daphne for her kindness and wit. But no one truly desires her. She is simply too deuced honest for that, too unwilling to play the romantic games that captivate gentlemen. Amiability is not a characteristic shared by Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings. Recently returned to England from abroad, he intends to shun both marriage and society—just as his callous father shunned Simon throughout his painful childhood. Yet an encounter with his best friend’s sister offers another option. If Daphne agrees to a fake courtship, Simon can deter the mamas who parade their daughters before him. Daphne, meanwhile, will see her prospects and her reputation soar. The plan works like a charm—at first. But amid the glittering, gossipy, cut-throat world of London’s elite, there is only one certainty: Love ignores every rule…*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||
| Thoughts: This is the first (of 8) in the Bridgerton book series. I read a “TV tie-in” edition, which is identical to the original novel but contains an extra epilogue. Since I don’t watch TV and Bob rarely reads books, we usually aren’t able to discuss storylines, but since he has seen the first 3 seasons of the Netflix series, we were able to compare and contrast our thoughts about this story on which the first season was based. I typically only read the first book of a series that become movies, as I did with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and The Hunger Games — and that’ll be the same with this series. I’m not interested in reading the other 7 Bridgerton books. Romance is not a genre I enjoy — and it’ll suit me just fine if I never again hear about his corpulent manhood arriving at her cradle of femininity, after which he spilled his seed on the bed instead of deep inside her. With that said, I’m glad I read this, if for no other reason than it adds some tiny tidbits into my vast void of pop culture knowledge. Tangential ejaculation: You don’t ever want me on your trivia team! | |||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2026 and previous years: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
