'Romancing Mr Bridgerton' by Julia Quinn
- Polly
- Jun 12, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 16, 2021
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 forever. After half a lifetime of watching Colin Bridgerton 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 nothing but an empty-headed charmer, tired of everyone's preoccupation with the notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, who can't seem to publish an edition without mentioning him in the first paragraph. 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 haunting his dreams. But when he discovers that Penelope has secrets of her own, this elusive bachelor must decide...is she his biggest threat - or his promise of a happy ending?
Overall Rating: 4 out of 10
Author Website: https://juliaquinn.com
FTC disclaimer: I was not sent this product. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned. All opinions are my own.
Review written on 12/06/2021
“She’d met Colin on a Monday. She’d kissed him on a Friday. Twelve years later. She sighed. It seemed fairly pathetic.”
This book left me feeling slightly “meh”. It felt like more of a novella than a standalone; as the plot doesn’t go anywhere, and characterisation is severely lacking in this seemingly short story.
The writing is easy enough, so I finished it within two nights, but the book lacked momentum, and did not invest me. By using the third person liberally (we often know what two characters are thinking), Quinn often misses moments to build suspense. Hence, the events are predictable.
I couldn’t even support the romantic developments, as Colin Bridgerton physically abuses Penelope throughout. He is always “yanking her” or “grabbing her”; at one point it is said that he will give her a “serious bruise”. Where his violent tendencies could have given the novel a darker, deeper turn, it is simply brushed over in Quinn’s race to a happy ending. Ignoring that, there isn’t really any tangible chemistry between the pair, either.
Only two of the characters are given any depth (likely because each of the other Bridgerton siblings have their own novel), reducing a reader’s ability to invest in the story. What is dived into for Penelope and Colin’s characters only reaches surface level; they each have one trait. Penelope is a wallflower who is resigned to being a “spinster”, and Colin is tired of being seen as a charmer, and lacks his own direction. The reader just watches them come to the right realisations and make the right apologies. Neither Penelope nor Colin has the emotional maturity to believably be 28 or 33 years old.
Of course, the premise of exploring a family in the way that Quinn does is unique, but I must admit that the televised version of the novels (of which there has only been one season, representing one different novel in the series), just did things better. So I shall sit on my hands in anticipation for season two!
Having said all of that, Quinn’s use of regency language transported me totally to the time-period, and no one can ignore the success of her “‘Gossip Girl’ meets ‘Pride and Prejudice’” idea.
My favourite passage has to be the one in which Colin tries to tell Portia Featherington that he has asked for Penelope’s hand. It was utterly hilarious. And finally, the fact that Colin is actually jealous of Penelope at points is extremely refreshing. It made him easier to sympathise with, as he was not above being envious of a woman.
Comments