An Informal Review of The Bridgerton Series by Julia Quinn

#1 The Duke and I

• Problematic for literally no reason and definitely worse than the show’s first season.
• I really really love the writing for this series and I loved getting to know the charcaters but overall, no matter how much I enjoyed this book I will never re-read it because it’s tainted by the rape scene, and by default I can never view Daphne (or Simon because he was not blameless in her lack of knowledge of understanding) in the same way again.

TW: rape, death of a parent, abuse/neglectful parent, death during childbirth, rape

#2 The Viscount Who Loved Me

• enemies to lovers??? beautiful???
• their stupid game of pall-mal gives me L I F E
• I loved getting to know the characters more through this book and I really appreciated that Anthony was actually a good guy and not a complete tool.
• Prepare yourselves for a whole lot of marriages of convenience in this series! 😂
• Not my favourite book in the series but, I love Kate!

TW: discussion of death of a parent, grief, injury

#3 An Offer From A Gentleman

• defintiely the best cinderella retelling i’ve ever read
• i really hope we get a third season of the show because this might be my favourite story visually
• I think this is the book I’m most likely to re-read in the future, I truly am a sucker for the cinderella trope.
• Not the most amazing character development on Benedict’s part, compared to Anthony, but I still loved him and I 100% LOVE Sophie!

TW: abuse, death of a parent

#4 Romancing Mr Bridgerton

• absolutely my favourite book in the series
• such a good pay off
• friends to lovers stop my beating heart i can’t take it
• the final reveal of lady whistledown
• we love and support penelope featherington in all things
• we also love how funny Colin is tbh, I prefer him in the book to the show
• It’s soo easy to tell why this is a fan favourite.

#5 To Sir Phillip, With Love

• we hate it
• I never had a problem with Eloise until I read this book and decided not only do I not like her but if I ever have to hear about any of these characters in any of the fiture books I can and will scream.

TW: depression, suicide, loss of a loved one, death, child abuse

#6 When He Was Wickked

• so different to all of the other books
• best friends to lovers with so much angst and banter oh my god
• This, along with Benedict & Colin’s books is the most likely for me to re-read in the future! I absolutely loved it!

TW: loss of a loved one, death, miscarriage, grief

#7 It’s In His Kiss

• I had no idea what to expect going into this because I feel like we never really got to know Hyacinth very well in the series but joke’s on me because this was one of my favourites in the series!
• I loved the two main characters as well as the bigger focus on Lady Danbury, I would have absolutely no problem with re-reading this book!
• Probably the only book in the series with an actual plot and I loved it.

TW: relationship cheating

#8 On The Way to Wedding

• Unfortunately, I didn’t like this as much as I wanted to. I adored book 7 so I had higher hoped going into this one, but I just feel like we never really got to know Gregory until this book, and that did him a disservices because we were playing catch up in a way we didn’t have to do with most of the main characters in the series.
• I also thought that a lot of the characters, inlcuding Gregory (but discluding Lucy) were too naive and young-feeling (compared to the other MCs from the series) and by default, it felt like I was reading about children playing house, rather than adults looking for a happy ending, or in other character’s cases, just trying to live.

TW: bribery, blackmail, loss of a loved one

#9 The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After

09/01/2021
2.5 ⭐
Exactly what the Goodreads star prompts say: It was ok. I am the most underwhelmed I have ever been by these epilogues…

#1 The Duke and I Epilogue II – Pretty boring. I’m sure this would be great for fans of the series but I’ve only read the first book so I’m not very attached to the family at this point. ⭐⭐⭐
#2 The Viscount Who Loved Me Epilogue II – God damnit, okay that was fun ⭐⭐⭐
#3 An Offer From A Gentleman Epilogue II – A bit boring but just because I feel literally no attachment to Posy ⭐⭐.5
#4 Romancing Mr Bridgerton Epilogue II – Like the other stories this was pretty boring, but I did really enjoy seeing Colin again. ⭐⭐.5
#5 To Sir Phillip, With Love Epilogue II – b o r i n g ⭐⭐
#6 When He Was Wicked Epilogue II – Definitely my favourite story so far, but I think that’s due to these two being some of my favourite characters and the story actually properly focusing on them, which the others don’t always do. ⭐⭐⭐.5
#7 It’s In His Kiss Epilogue II – Thanks, I hate it. ⭐⭐
#8 On The Way To The Wedding Epilogue II – This was very sad but I appreciated it. Definitely an improvement on the original story. ⭐⭐⭐
#9 Violet In Bloom Novella – Such a sad way to end an anthology, I did like getting to know the characters more though. ⭐⭐⭐ 

• Not worth your time unless you’re a DIE HARD fan

Ranking:

1 ↣ best // 6 ↣ worst

1. Romancing Mr Bridgerton
2. When He Was Wicked (I gave this the highest rating, but I would be more likely to re-read my #1 book, over this one)
3. It’s In His Kiss
4. An Offer From a Gentleman
5. The Viscount Who Loved Me
6. The Duke and I
7. On The Way To Wedding
8. The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After
9. To Sir Phillip With Love

Would I re-read this series?

Yes! Absolutely! I would 100% re-read books 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7! I didn’t enjoy the other 3 and if I’m honest, while *some* of the second epilogues from book 9 where fun to read, they weren’t particularly fulfilling and sometimes didn’t even focus on the main characters from the story they were meant to be from so, I probably wouldn’t pick them up again.

[spoilers for The Duke and I!]

I think it says a lot about how much I didn’t enjoy books 8 and 5, that I prefererred the book with the rape scene tbh. God damn, those three books were so off-putting and the writingstyle and tone were th eonly thing that saved them.

Have you read the Bridgerton series?
Who’s your favourite Bridgerton sibling?

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