The following post includes affiliate links. More details here. As you’re doing your Amazon shopping, we’d be ever so grateful if you’d use our affiliate link to do so as it helps pay the bills around here!
EXTRA EXTRA, read all about Virtual Book Club! That’s right readers, gather round with your calendars and favorite book sources because we have some announcements for you! Next up, on Friday, August 26 at 7:30pm CST is From Blood to Ash #1 by Jennifer Armentrout – Go ahead and sign up here! You can also pre-register for the dates of Friday, October 21, and Friday, December 9. In December, we’re delighted to bring you Veronica and Stoker #3, I mean, A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn (please don’t jump in at #3, you’ll regret it, and Veronica would be a delightful read in any season). And, as always, October is for Witches, Owens witches to be exact, via The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman. Drop us a comment today to let us know which title you’re most excited about, or which witchy books should be on our reading list in October! [Note for Registrants: We have changed the notification format for Virtual Book Club. Once you register through the Google Forms links above, you will automatically receive a Google Meets calendar invitation to the email you provide. Please read the new information at the beginning of the form. Happy Reading!]
Let’s have some story time darling readers. A while back (I don’t know, within the last three years), a friend of the blog mentioned she was reading through a great number of historical romance novels. I’d also been working through a couple of historical romance series over the last several years (I’m caught up, until the next one comes out in each), so when we were considering Virtual Book Club titles for the year, we thought it’d be fun to read one together. After the Netflix series brought Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton family into the mainstream, we thought The Duke and I would be a fun choice, and so it was!
The Duke and I is the story of Daphne Bridgerton, the eldest daughter in a family of 8 siblings, who has “nearly two seasons” of experience on the London marriage mart, and Simon, Duke of Hastings, her eldest brother’s good friend and a man dead-set on remaining a bachelor because of a traumatic past. While the story is interesting in its own right, I won’t spoil any part of it (hello romance novel and HEA), I will talk about the relationships though. The Bridgerton family is loud and boisterous, definitely reminding me of the March family as well as the Bennetts (although I adore them all so far). As this title was published in 2000, we do see familial relationships in the Bridgerton family that could be seen as modern, or they could be seen as jovial, respectful, and progressive. I don’t pretend to know enough to say, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the relationships as written. The siblings clearly adore one another and their mother, especially the oldest four who feature most in this book. There is clearly some disconnect between the legal head of the family and the logistical head, not that I’m sad about that. As one does, I actually prefer that the 28-year-old Anthony only sometimes pretends to be in charge of all things (as his father is deceased) and his mother is in fact usually the one in charge. The times Anthony mistakenly tries to assert himself and his mother puts him in his place bring me great joy.
The dialogue of The Duke and I is actually my favorite part. It is so witty, vulnerable, and endearing. The relationships feel natural and real, including the steam and the drama that happens throughout. Quinn works magic with the timeline, gradually showing readers glimpses into Simon’s past until we understand him, and then using Lady Whistledown to provide glimpses into how the ton views the progression of the story through their lens. It is a genius choice when it seems as though a less inventive author may have broken the fourth wall and I’m so glad Quinn came up with this idea. Not only is Lady Whistledown and her gossip sheet a fantastic way to show a broader view, but it also helps push the plot along.
I’m delighted to give The Duke and I four emphatic stars. While my expectations were exceeded, I don’t think I’m likely to reread it, but I am quite likely to continue on in the series. I’ve also started to watch the show. I’m only a couple of episodes in and (as expected) have some issues with the plot changes made, but I adore the casting and am very much looking forward to continuing.
What’s a book you’ve read recently that lives up to the hype?
~Nikki
Julia Quinn is an international bestselling author of nine series totalling over thirty published works, both novels and novella collections. All of them with a happily ever after, of course. Quinn started writing romance novels in her ‘spare time’ while taking the prerequisite science courses to attend medical school. While Quinn was trying to decide between Yale School of Medicine and Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, her agent called and said that her first two novels were in a bidding war between two publishers. She held off on medical school for another year and wrote her third romance novel. She wrote her fourth romance novel in the fourth year after deciding to become a doctor and then finally began medical school. After a few months of med school, in what she calls a bout of temporary insanity, she quit med school and has never looked back. Besides working to dispel the myth that smart women don’t read (or write) romance novels – you can see her win a $79,000 jackpot on a 2001 episode of The Weakest Link, she was in an MTV music video in 2013, has worked with the same editor and publishing house for her entire career, and donates “100 copies of her novels to service members, veterans, military spouses, and Gold Star family members each Veterans Day.” All that, AND the Bridgerton series of books is a blockbuster series on Netflix.
Nikki pretty much said all the things I feel about The Duke and I. The relationships feel modern, but I love that, especially between the Bridgerton siblings. The snark and wit is on point, both in dialogue and narration. And, to that point, instead of saying the exact same things that Nikki did above – like how I’m also giving The Duke and I four stars because I am not likely to re-read but I will read the rest of the series – I’m going to give you a collection of amusing quotations. Enjoy!
“Men, she thought with disgust, were interested only in those women who terrified them.”
“[Anthony] grinned – the slow, devastatingly wicked smile that all Bridgerton males seemed to possess.”
“There were rules among friends, commandments, really, and the most important one was Thou Shalt Not Lust After Thy Friend’s Sister.”
“Simon glanced from brother to brother and it became perfectly clear why Daphne must still be unmarried. This belligerent trio would scare off all but the most determined -or stupid- of suitors.”
“To say that men can be bullheaded would be insulting to the bull. Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers, 2 June 1813.”
If these morsels aren’t enough to tempt you into reading The Duke and I, then I leave you to your boring books, you plebs.
~Ashley
PLEASE SUPPORT US WHEN YOU SHOP BY FIRST CLICKING ON THE IMAGES BELOW:
