i read nine bridgerton novels in seven days as an act of self loathing

This is Gatorade because I don't like tea what happened was my sister texted me on New Year's Eve asking if I'd watched Bridgerton to which I answered I hadn't asking if I should and she ignored me but don't fret dear viewers the mere suggestion was enough I drew myself a candlelit bass intending to check out this so-called Bridgerton and upon allowing the trailer to autoplay I realized I'd actually already seen it While it was making the rounds on twitter.com this was the Regency era's Gossip Girl everyone was on about and no wonder Jamie thought I

might have watched it entertainment were genetically bred for me it would look something like this I'm surprised I hadn't seen it before it was recommended to me I binged it all in one sitting I did get out of the bath eventually but I watched it all in one night and I thoroughly enjoyed doing so rain off Female Gaze on that was Intel around episodes four and five around episodes four and five it occurred to me that the show might have been adapted from a book I watched a booktuber rant about once The Dominoes were falling

into place Simon told Daphne he couldn't have kids Daphne's mom was not an effective sex educator and oh no the show was definitely based on that one book I watched that one YouTuber rant about that one time Daphne was about to Violate Simon's consent and all I could do was hope they chose to alter that particular sequence of events which they did but I'm disinclined to applaud them for watering down the assault they could have done away with let's put a pin in that the point is that I was now aware this was an adaptation

still I didn't intend to read its source material until I touched base with Jamie again and she informed me that there isn't just one book there are eight books a love story For each Bridgerton sibling and she didn't even tell me about their second epilogues compiled into the Bridger tins happily ever after nor was I made aware that lady whistledown appears in these two Rando Anthology books nor was I privy to the prequel series nor did I have reason to believe that due to the existence of the smive Smith quartet the majority of Julia Quinn's

books technically take place on a shared Universe Julia Quinn my name twin you Are a busy woman the partition series begins with the Duke and I its leads are Daphne Bridgerton and Simon Bassett it utilizes the fake daily Trope and it's the narrative mimicked by the first season of the show I'd consider it a loyal adaptation but I've learned I'm more lenient with that praise than people tend to be there's plenty in the show that wasn't in the books but I do consider most changes made to be additions the Duke and dies important Beats make

it out alive as well as some of it's more inconsequential scenes Netflix has already renewed The Show for a second season and all signs point to it being based on the second book The by count Who Loved Me starring Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sheffield I'm told they embody enemies to lovers but I consider them something more like Rivals to lovers if you care to differentiate the third book and offer from a gentleman is weirdly a Cinderella Retelling just tossed into the middle of a series featuring no other fairy tale retelling they're your books Julia it

follows Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Beckett Romancing Mr Bridgeton is the fourth entry in it Penelope featherington Harbors unrequited love for Colin Bridgerton it also features a non-murderous whodunit mystery next up is to Sir Philip with love book five portraying a marriage of convenience between Eloise Bridgerton and Sir Philip Crane my Nemesis I'm not sure what people call the Trope represented in the sixth novel but it's about a widow falling in love with her dead husband's cousin so whatever that is the Widow in question is Francesca Bridgerton and the cousin in question is Michael Sterling the

seventh book belongs to Hyacinth Bridgerton and Gareth Sinclair it's in his kiss has a McGuffin hunt going for it but I describe our lovers as being partners in crime on the way to the Wedding is the eighth and final Bridgerton novel it's conceptualized around the interrupted wedding Trope but the actual romance between Gregory Bridgeton and Lady Lucinda Abernathy sits somewhere between friends to lovers and forbidden romance this is how I'd rank them if you proceed further into this video they'll all be spoiled along with the show anyway you can imagine that for me somebody whose

favorite characters in the show were Eloise and Penelope finding out they were main characters of their own stories was game changing it was suddenly impaired if I consumed this series as quickly as possible and I did I legally downloaded all the audio books don't tell the police and listen to them at Double playback speed for seven days straight while I made this painting portrait of my dog I think I irrevocably damaged my well-being in doing so because now I'm a crazy person I do nothing but think of Bridgerton all hours of the day and night

I've temporarily abandoned the video I was working on in favor of this one I spent half of my time watching Abigail Barlow and Emily bear write a Bridgerton Musical on Instagram live because they're Geniuses and it's amazing I started watching Dairy girls for Nikola Coughlin I'd been meaning to check it out anyway but it's her fault I did you might think wow good for you you obviously love this franchise no I do not I do but I'm not happy with myself about it I wouldn't call it a guilty pleasure I don't feel embarrassed I would

have deleted 104 reasons to ship bug head by now if I had the capacity for embarrassment I just think I'm better than this is this who we are is this what we represent apparently I at least had the sense to rate all but three of the books two stars on Goodreads I'm using Goodreads and letterbox this year by the way my least Favorite I allotted one and my two favorites I awarded three I also bought physical copies of those too it's in his kiss and an offer from a gentleman I love you yeah you said

my soul on fire I'd like to offer it's in his Kiss an extra star because it is my most favorite but I'm not backlogging on Goodreads so the only books I've given four stars as of yet are six of crows and crooked kingdoms so I feel like that would be insulting like This is good and this is just good for a Bridgerton novel [Music] okay you caught me I'm just pretending we poor this one has a hole in it a giant hole in it but what's so bad about Bridgeton novels anyway I'll tell you for

one thing they're not as good as the show whoever said books are always better must not have read the Bridgerton series I prefer the characterization of every character In the show I prefer the Grandeur of the show I prefer the historically inaccurate costumes in the show I prefer the orchestrated pop songs in the show mainly what I prefer is the adaptations utilization of Lady whistle down the entire draw of this series is or at least should be the anonymous gossip columnist but in the books she does nothing but exist every chapter opens with a passage

or a quote of hers characters bring her up on occasion but Until the fourth book when she's revealed to be Penelope that's really it and Penelope quits during the fourth book so for half of the series she doesn't even exist Books five six seven and eight open instead with letters or like brief omniscient narration it's flabbergasting conversely they made a little mystery out of her identity in the show better than even the fourth book does but we'll get into that when we get into the individual books our Character's actions are highly influenced by what she

writes of them and they're able to spread rumors in hopes that she'll publish them to their benefit she matters lady whistledown predates Gossip Girl so I wonder if this Improvement can be traced back to there being a benchmark for this thing now this series is also bad because I find it extremely repetitive Julia said copy and paste publish the same book eight times nobody will notice I noticed in Fact I made a spreadsheet and I'm realizing that that was stupid but I did I made a spreadsheet to actually here you'll see that each Bridgerton novel

slots effortlessly into the 3x structure which isn't a problem in and of itself most stories adhere to the 3x structure what's noteworthy is that these books hit the same Beats at the same time with mathematical accuracy and not just in theory it's not that an inciting incident occurs approximately 10 into each novel it's that all but twice their inciting incidents are meat cutes of course that might just be how romance novels begin but it doesn't end there about 25 to 30 percent in we transition from Act One into act two this is sometimes called plot

point one or climax of act one I've labeled it as break into two half of the time this is a first kiss come on now midpoint halfway through most of these books our leads get engaged usually because they Were caught alone together and must when they don't get engaged this is when the remaining few have their first kiss the break into three is always sex whether before or after marriage without fail read yourself seventy percent of a Julia a novel and it will very suddenly become erotica then I accounted for a crisis and climax separately

because the leads always get in a fight 80 percent in which is resolved 90 in usually by a traumatic event that propels them into Forgiving each other so my listed crises might appear unique and nonsensical because I had a little fun naming them but believe you me they played the same part in their stories still there's an argument to be made that this is just how romance novels are paced formulaic sure but what am I after insta love not usually there are specific conflicts must still differ right sure they do like Simon's problem is that

he's vowed not to have kids because Of his daddy issues Anthony's is that he's vowed not to fall in love because of his daddy issues Gareth pursues Hyacinth because he has daddy issues and Sir Philip neglects his children because he has daddy issues to be fair while exactly half of the male leads are driven by daddy issues at least three of the female leads are driven by mommy issues Kate's mom died during a storm so she's afraid of storms Sophie's mom was a ladies maid birthing her a bastard Leaving her at the mercy of her

evil stepmother so that's like a double word score for mommy issues or something and Penelope's mom makes her Wear Yellow which is like practically abusive dubious paternal and maternal figures aside plenty of readers must just be in it for the sex those scenes must go all sorts of Buck Wild sometimes our main characters are unwed but that's about as different as they get unlike in the show they usually take Place in beds all but one of our heroines are virgins and all but one of our heroes are rakes so there's this recurring motif of him

having to hold back his animalistic Tendencies to make her first time perfect and despite all of his experience she's the best he's ever had the superior love scenes come from when he was wicked because being a widow Francesca isn't a virgin Julia has a lot more fun with her but I won't get into details because honestly I'd rather You people not know that I have laid my eyes upon the book porn consider me Daphne Bridgerton I don't know about sex can somebody let me in on how babies are made I don't even have a period

my virtue fought it off okay but what about the weddings those must be distinguishable I wouldn't know Julia doesn't write weddings she just summarizes them in a paragraph because it's time for book porn damn it there are also noteworthy similarities between Just two books at a time like in both the vi count who loved me and on the way to the wedding our male leads start off pursuing our female leads closest female confidante into sir Philip with love a widower marries his dead wife's cousin and in when he was wicked a widow marries her dead

husband's cousin I'm not lying or being all that deliberately obtuse I read the same book eight times though I wonder if what I'm really experiencing is what it's like to read Modern historical romance you see what I know of historical romance is Jane Austen for Christmas this year I received not one but two pemberly sweatshirts I can't find the other one I'm sorry to whichever sister gave me the one that isn't this one my dad got me the entirety of Pride and Prejudice Illustrated in tiny little words I'm so big on Pride and Prejudice that

it's been annoying me to see so many people describe Bridgerton as being Pride and Prejudice meets Gossip Girl I feel like that's the same as equating Casablanca and Greece they're both romances that take place within a couple decades of each other Classics written by legendary authors within the time periods they're set are different than period Piece book porn which is why I say I don't know anything of modern historical romance before now I'd never read any weirdly shaped novels with shirtless men on their covers I just bought them for my Mom sometimes I'm critiquing the

Bridgeton Series in a vacuum which is important to note because I might just be complaining about conventions of the genre do all male leads have Daddy Issues let me know I'm not sure if my points are moot if that's the case though the difference lies in whether this series is repetitive or derivative I'm guessing both and I'm also guessing that's what fans want out of it to be fair I can also complain about Julia's Writing style a bit I actually quite like it but I felt like if you replaced every mention of a chamber pot

with toilet it would sound contemporary I'm not a stickler for historical accuracy I couldn't be I don't know anything about the region Sierra except for what Jane Austen taught me I wore this shirt because I thought it looked old-timey is it Regency inspired I couldn't tell you looks like a pirate shirt to me however I still expect the bare minimum I expect My suspension of disbelief to be maintained sometimes Julia's characters speak like I'm overhearing them at Starbucks I am exaggerating but there was one time Simon said something and I was like what are you

a frat guy then again I really don't know how people spoke back then I imagine it was less poetic than what's in Jane Austen's writing so this could all be exactly right who's to say historians probably I've been skimming PDF versions of the Books I don't own and flipping through the two I do and I've found that I prefer reading her writing to listening to it in the audiobooks throughout the series there were only two voice actors and I don't think that helped my perception that all the books were the same the voice actors also

interpreted a lot of emotionally charged dialogue more aggressively than I do especially when it came to the male characters Julia's not blameless in that regard though my Average rating of this series probably would have been three stars if I weren't so soured on it by every male lead reverting to this default setting of aggressive misogynist at some point in their book it adds up for a character like Anthony to be possessive and protective and if it were just him I'd forgive Julia implementing those cliches but some of these guys are supposed to be passive and

gentle some of them are described as being kind and docile so it Was just weird to see all of them at some point Express out of character outrage towards their love interests for like walking without a chaperone or something stupid you can claim historical accuracy but I don't feel like these books are that worried about historical accuracy so why worry about it in terms of making your male leads sexist I don't get it Julia also overuses the phrase companionable silence but I know what you want me to Complain about the big thing wrong with Bridgerton

both the book series and the Netflix series is that there problematic you already know why but it is important I acknowledge this property is socio-political imperfections if I'm going to be supporting it with my reluctant adoration and Devotion to begin you have probably stumbled upon some conversations about the adaptations colorblind casting except it isn't colorblind in the way we usually Understand it because they do justify this desegregated Society within the text I guess historians believe that Queen Charlotte was mixed so Chris Van dusson bridgeton's showrunner wanted the series to operate under this what-if scenario that

being what if Queen Charlotte titled people of color back in her day it's basically Canon Divergent historical fan fiction now I've seen a lot of black folks saying they would have preferred the show commit to Unrationalized Colorblind casting but I've also seen some saying they're fine with them acknowledging race so long as racial themes are exploring either way it doesn't seem the happy medium paid off I think where people fall into terms of wishing Bridgerton focused more or less on race is an extension of where they fall in the colorblind casting debate in general not

Everyone likes colorblind casting many people do because it serves to include people of Color in fictionalized versions of non-fiction history that they were excluded from others consider it to be an extension of the colorblind ideology displayed by white people saying things like we don't see color I don't care if you're black white or purple this of course is a flawed ideology because not to see color is to be willfully ignorant of not just non-white cultures but the plights of non-white people the show's also been accused of colorism and Race-baiting as a sister term to queerbaiting

it's been accused of queerbating to put a pin in that one the thing is Bridgerton was advertised as a diverse show and it's been applauded for its inclusivity but the majority of the cast is still white in large part due to the titular family being made white this also means that given each season is going to follow one of their love stories even if they always casted love interests of color which they can to do Because two Future Love interests have already appeared as white people the central romance will always include a white person is

it wrong to portray interracial relationships including white people no but they have made it their only option to represent the most commonly represented type of interracial relationship obviously as a white person I'm not the authority on any of this so I'm going to direct you to khajija embos a video about all of the above I'll link It in the description great video can't express anything they do better but I will elaborate because they haven't read the book that having read the book I think it very much backs up the claim that the show was race-baited

I think so because most of the black characters in the show are nowhere near as prominent in the books which is one reason why their story lines can seem so sporadic and sidelined I'd say Simon and Lady Danbury are the only main characters of Color who are as prominent in the books as they are in the show everybody else you don't even want to know but I'm going to tell you the boxer is straight up made up I guess all of the characters are made up but he's totally additional I think the only reason he

was included was so that Simon could have a second at the duel and the book he just shows up to the duel without a second and it's really awkward the queen technically exists in the book because she was the Real life Queen of the time period but she's not what we in the biz call character I think the most egregious example is Marina Thompson where season one left her I thought she was going to find happiness in her life with sir Philip crane do you recognize that name and not from the show it's because he's

the title of book five and I called him my Nemesis you see as far as the books are concerned Marina is the dead husband of Sir Philip crane Eloise's love Interest she only exists in the prologue of their love story as the depressed mother of his children who tried to drown herself in freezing temperatures and died of a fever it's incredibly disappointing to hear I know and it totally recontextualizes where she ended up in the show especially her conversation with Miss featherington about how to find happiness how did you endure two in 20 years of

marriage Without Love You find things to love my dear small things big things too like your babies and eventually they add up to be enough like apparently your children and your hobbies won't add up to be enough because you are riding off to your dad you might wonder if this is why I hate Philip was it his fault she was depressed honestly I wouldn't be surprised but no Eloise describes her as someone who's always been sad back when They met as kids by the way she is the bridgerton's cousin as opposed to the Feathering Tins

in the books I hate Philip for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with Marina one of the reasons I hate him has everything to do with her when Eloise meets Philip he's a sexually frustrated guy his wife has been dead for a while but even before then he hadn't touched her since they conceived their twins because that time she lay their lifeless and that wasn't Very fun for him you know what I think Phil I think he raped your wife is what I think this brings me to item two on the problematic

itinerary Julia Quinn and her adapters flawed understanding of consent if you haven't seen the show I don't know why you're still here to be honest I haven't contextualized much but I'll let you in on its most controversial as they call it scene Daphne dreams of being a mother Simon's abusive father is adamant he carry on The bloodline which he refuses to do oh no they're in love they must get married because they were seen canoodling in the Hedge Bay Simon's condition is that Daphne understands they won't have kids but he expresses this by saying he

can't leading her to believe he's infertile he's able to take advantage of her ignorance regarding the production of babies and when she realizes this she intentionally violates his known boundaries in an attempt to conceive now I'm not going to tolerate any comments saying that doesn't count as assault because it does that's not the conversation we're having whether they tried to Mercury the waters or not I suppose improvements were attempted in the book Simon is quite literally asleep when she mounts him using to herself about how in control she is he does Express enjoyment when he

wakes up but he's decidedly too drunk too consent near the end of the end of her he also Actively tries pushing her off and she actively holds him down then while he's stuttering in the throes of trauma she wonders if she should feel bad because she doesn't they want us to be glad that they didn't go all out out in adapting that but they didn't need to adapt it at all Mr Chris defends it as being integral to the education of Daphne Bridgeton I disagree I find her confronting her mom about failing to prepare her

to be empowering enough that Scene doesn't happen in the books by the way because Julia doesn't really do conflict between characters who aren't romantically involved I'd also have found her confronting Simon about it and powering enough that's the thing is Daphne's education aside the scene isn't even needed for Dramatics her working out the truth and them fighting about it would have been a perfectly acceptable last-ditch conflict I think the crisis as I have defined it within the Three-act structure is really a make or break point for a lot of romances authors and screenwriters have to

walk the line between writing flawed characters who mess up badly enough to drive up the stakes and ruining a perfectly good ship with toxicity Simon's mistake I think walks that line perfectly he's indirectly lying to her and it sucks of him but we can sympathize with his justification in his mind he's not misrepresenting situation Because his convictions are so steadfast that he might as well be in for his is an action she has every right to be upset about but also unforgivable her action is unforgivable something that's doubly frustrating about the way this plays out

in both versions is that despite her making the worst mistake their reconciliation relies on her forgiving him and him addressing his flaws it's frustrating to witness her behave so badly and then yell at him About it throughout the rest of the story so that's my take on that Marina and Simon's assaults are definitely the worst it gets but there are also other questionable moments dealing with consent throughout the books usually they come in the form of one-off lines lines that I've seen similar versions of in other books in the Viscount who left me Kate wants

to postpone consummating their marriage and Anthony says something about how he doesn't like his Rights being denied strike one in an offer from a gentleman Benedict says something like if you want me to stop you have to tell me no it's like he's asking permission but she cannot revoke it strike two sir Philip as a husband is just generally under or the impression that Eloise is his personal blow up doll and him being a known rapist I don't take kindly to that strike three you're up but you kept swinging so let's see what else you

came up with there's this Recurring misuse of consent in when he was wicked because Michael will specifically ask Francesca to say yes so that later she can't pretend she wasn't willing strike four then there's Gareth from it's in his kiss who seduces Hyacinth to ensure she's stuck marrying him even if his bastard status is made public there's also a moment when she says they shouldn't do something and he's like you don't mean that and she's like guess not strikes five and six I'm Not sure anymore Gregory ties Lucy to a water closet in book 8

against her will and it's not sexual but I still feel like it belongs here basically if you're going to get into this series be prepared for Julia to manufacture unique ways to corrupt the sanctity of even perfectly consensual encounters anyway what's next on the problematic agenda queerbaiting well there is one gay character in the eighth novel our heroine is meant to marry him but she Wants to back out and marry our hero instead unfortunately she's being blackmailed by his father once that's sorted out though the gay in question does let her go without argument so

I suppose he's not portrayed in a negative light our main character does agree to help him find a replacement wife though which I feel like is sad for him Julia should have written him a little lesbian wife to do the open marriage thing with like they do in the show in the show There's this gay artist who's in a sneaky open marriage for a minute it appears that he's going to help Benedict explore his by curiosity but then Benedict just sleeps with a bunch of women and you're left wondering if they only introduce the gay

artist so that they could confirm gay people do exist they infused them with a lot of sexual attention though so I wonder if they wanted to float the idea and gauge audience reaction my audience reaction Is go for it Benedict's book is the Cinderella retelling so I'm already not convinced that that's going to work in the show this isn't Once Upon a Time you can't just be doing Cinderella if they're going to drastically change any of the books I wouldn't mind it being an offer from a gentleman even though it is my second favorite they've

also already desegregated the past so I feel like they could offer the past gay marriage if they really wanted to then again they Wouldn't have to alter history or an offer from a gentleman in order to make him buy her pen he could still end up with Sophie that's loud anyway have I addressed everything controversial I kind of want to just tell you what I think of every book now like we're in a book club except I'm the only one who gets to say anything did astora you might wonder given the Duke and dies Infamous

scene why I don't hate it as Much as to Sir Philip with love my thing is that if you only read it halfway through it's fine the scene might ruin it but there was something to ruin it's the most popular in the series people don't love it for nothing I was introduced to this one through the show so my experience reading it was more like a game of Spot the Difference the difference is mainly lie in any aspect of the first season that had to deal with other characters like lady Danbury And violet Bridgerton never

attempt setting them up lady Danbury also never chastises Simon for leading Daphne on meaning he never discontinues their Arrangement meaning she never pursues the non-existent prince meaning the queen never has to approve their shotgun marriage because she never disapproved of it in the first place they also let Anthony in on their ruse so there's less tension there even Nigel burbrook plays a smaller role because he never Threatens to ruin Daphne if she doesn't marry him he just gets punched that one time the book is essentially the first season's stripped of any Intrigue whatsoever all of

the books but maybe two are very narrow-minded in that nothing but romance matters this being a series might seem to justify its large cast but you can read the books as standalones and I think if I did that I would be confused as to why we have to be introduced to so many randos it makes Some sense for the bridgertons to show up because they're always related to a lead but Julia sprinkles in bits about Penelope and Lady Danbury who are more important in later books yeah lady Danbury is surprisingly not very present in this

one her and Simon are just nowhere near as close in the books he feels obliged to attend her party because she was nice to him as a kid but she never helped him overcome his stutter they don't really have Interactions post that she plays a much bigger role in books four and seven as far as Daphne and Simon go I do prefer their on-screen counterparts that's true for every character Simon is less sexist and Daphne is the diamond of the first water whose suitors are driven Way by her overprotective brother her portrayal is much more

boring in the book she's a decent catch in her second season who doesn't really have suitors because she's too nice yeah I guess she's just One of the guys and everyone sees her as a friend that's what we're told anyway does she have any friends male or otherwise to be seen no I think Julia struggles with telling over showing sometimes none of the female leads actually get to be the prettiest girl at the party Sophie comes the closest but she's Cinderella so she's there in secret whereas every male character except for maybe one is described

as the most eligible rake of the season this is Definitely a larger romance Trope I know this but it got tiring Kate and Lucy are both literally second-hand women to their highly sought after friend and sister the bridgertons are supposed to be a good looking family but the women are always described as being unconventionally attractive or like attractive upon Second Glance Julia makes a huge deal about how objectively hideous Penelope is I'm no stranger trading about average women pulling the Hottest men alive but the further I got into this series The More I felt like

it was exploiting feminine insecurity all you have to do is check out their back cover illustrations to realize that we're very much meant to be imagining these women as conventionally attractively as possible I mean you're telling me this is Penelope this is the ugliest woman to ever be ugly this isn't just a Julia Quinn problem this is a heteroomance problem but insisting that Every female protagonist is insecure and solving that insecurity with male validation is the reason why women have to pick up which facility books like this to begin with it's a vicious cycle that's

how they get you and that's why despite the storyline still revolving around appearances I'm pleased to see Daphne be the flawless diamond of the first water get it girl I mean you're a b yeah yeah I am a b if I need to revisit any of these books it's the by Count who loved me because what I held against it most was how similar it was to the Duke and I this was of course before I knew that every book would be very similar to The Duke and die I mean it opened revealing that Anthony

had sworn not to find happiness because of his relationship with his dead dad and I was like again the difference is that Anthony had a good relationship with his father the previous VI count died of a bee sting Which is why there are like bees in the show it's also why Anthony is afraid of bees and tries to suck the venom out of Kate when she's stung by one and they must get married when they're seen because like he was sucking up on her throat I find it to be such an annoyingly contrived sequence of

events because at this point in the book Anthony and Kate had already kissed so they could have just been caught actually kissing of course that would Have been the exact same thing that happened in the Duke and I so really what should have happened in my opinion to justify this be contrivance would have been Julia holding off on having them kiss until they were married that way their marriage in and of itself would have been a source of conflict because it wouldn't have already been obvious how into each other they were the thing is I

was told these two were meant to embody enemies to lovers their Animosity would have been so juicy if it had still existed within their marriage they would have made such a good slow burner instead they're totally best friends by their midpoint engagement that's why I prefer calling them Rivals to lovers because they hate each other for such a short duration of the book and they're only ever at odds because he's pursuing her sister and she doesn't trust his intentions which she shouldn't by the way Anthony's whole conviction is That he needs to get married and

have kids to pass on his title but he's afraid he's going to die young like his dad so he doesn't want to love his wife he ends season one of the show with a similar mindset but I prefer how they get him there on screen finding and promptly declaring my intentions to my new by Countess of course I finally determined the difficulty love itself removing it for more romantic relations so maybe all the better for it I know a Lot of fans of the book weren't into his and Sienna's storyline in the show because she's

based on a really minor character I don't mind it because I buy him having been hurt before as a reason not to trust in love more than I buy that he literally believes he's going to die in his 30s to the point that he's willing not to fall in love because like that would be too hard on his like wife like it's just it just doesn't add up in my brain in other news I am so excited To see who they cast as Kate she's a fun spunky character I like her for Anthony I do

I think they're well matched because they're both very protective of their families I like the bones of their story I just want their hatred to simmer I want it to marinate I also dislike the vi count who loved me as a title I think it's kind of boring and misleading us to the tone of the book it sounds like there's like a dead ghost of I count like I don't know it should have been Called something like my sister's Suitor or a Loveless match they really should have consulted me except I was two give it

up for the pretend princess Diner girl I have a complicated relationship with Cinderella retellings because I've gone on record saying they're oversaturated but rarely do I not enjoy them the Hilary Duff version is like my favorite movie ever I like the Selena Gomez one I like the Brandy one I like the Anna Kendrick one I like the Lily James one I like the Drew Barrymore one the only one I don't like is the Lucy Hale one and that one with the girl from descendants I'll also bite my own pinky off before I enjoy the Camila

Cabello one with a feminist twist you might take note of all of those being movies this is my first reading of Cinderella I unwisely assumed I wouldn't like it I saw this as the book I had to get through on my way to Penelope's but then I thought it was super cute I don't know What to tell you I like Cinderella I think it's a good template for storytelling the tried and true template of Cinderella also felt refreshing after reading two very similarly flawed books this one might still slot into the formula but it felt

very different if you're wondering how closely it follows Cinderella it's mostly just kept to the premise like Sophie is a bass stirred taken in as a ward by her father who dies leaving her tortured by her evil Stepmother and her two daughters one of which isn't evil notably then one night the other servants in the household arranged for her to secretly attend a masquerade ball there she falls in love with Benedict at first sight I know a lot of people can't get behind love at first sight and I too prefer a slow burn but he

doesn't recognize her upon their second meeting so they still do get a slow burn and anything that changes up the pace of romance in these books I Think is a good thing Sophie has to run away at midnight leaving her glove behind and the glove does lead him to her home but she's a servant so he doesn't see her her stepmother realizes that she attended the ball and kicks her out it's not until years later that Sophie and Benedict meet again when he essentially saves her from being gang raped cliche yes do I care not

particularly as far as Prince Charming's history of reasons not to recognize Cinderella goes I think that a masquerade mask on top of your years spent apart track's okay she's also cut her hair short and lost weight I mean Chad Michael Murray only had his blonde classmates to work with so anything goes some people aren't into this book because they don't like that Benedict spends half of it trying to convince Sophie to be his mistress because it's like sexist and stuff he can't marry her because she's of the servant class but He wants to be with

her and she doesn't want to be a mistress and it's this whole thing if you're going to read this series you're just going to have to accept that every male character displays a certain level of misogyny I think fans preferences between these books arise from which types of sexism bother them lessened more I mean the writing style of all of the books is the same the pacing of all of the books is the same all of the central Relationships are unhealthy at some point your least favorite is just going to be which unhealthy Behavior exhibited

speaks to your worst fears that's my problem with book five at least and I guess when it comes to Benedict I'm less bothered by the whole I can live with you hating me but I can't live without you mindset he possesses my least favorite thing about this book is actually that it's classists we expect classism out of our Regency marriage March stories but it's really notable when your protagonist is of the servant class everyone's always like wow Sophie you speak really well for a poor little rat girl if the show is renewed for a third

season which it's massive viewership would lead me to believe even though Netflix is really not trustworthy with stuff like that I'm curious to see what they do they can't just do Cinderella that doesn't make sense pay up Barista ciders Gossip Girl here and I have the biggest news ever this novel was essentially my motivation for reading this series because I ship Penelope and Colin in the show so hard it hurts I love them and their cute little faces and I just want them to be together and this book really disappointed me it is my fourth

favorite but it could have so easily been my favorite it's almost more insulting this one being fourth than when I wasn't even excited about being sick I suppose I'll Begin by saying that fat characters are important to me and I was disappointed to realize that Penelope loses weight within the time Jump between an offer from a gentleman and Romancing Mr Bridget except not in an insatiable-esque glow-up way her change in appearance actually doesn't impact her reputation at all which you would think I'd prefer to the cliched glow up story but reading this made me realize

I don't at least a show like insatiable Validates the fact that fat phobia exists and fat people are treated poorly because if it's not Penelope's change in appearance that helps Colin along in liking her then there's no narrative need for her to have lost weight that means that Julia writing her to have lost weight serves no purpose other than to steal this story from a fat woman I also think the title of this book made me anticipate a different tone than I received I read this incomplete Wattpad Book in middle school which at the time

was the most glorious piece of literature I'd ever laid my eyes upon but I forgot the title so I can't fact check that let me know if this sounds familiar it was about a girl who had a crush on her brother's best friend and she went to the library stumbled upon this pamphlet that was like how to get a guy to fall in love with you and she's like let's seduce this kid that's exactly what I wanted from Penelope There's a sad moment prior to this book when Colin is talking about how he'd never marry

her and she overhears so I feel like even before this book we got insecure Penelope we got sad Penelope we got unrequited Penelope p and I wanted her confidence to exist in the beginning of this book it didn't start existing until halfway through this book her journey is to become confident and I just felt like that wasn't what I wanted you see I actually do think that Penelope should have grown up over the time Jump but not by losing weight by gaining confidence I mean half of the reason she's unpopular is apparently because her mom

made her Wear Yellow her whole life which I found personally offensive by the way [Music] so the fact that she's wearing blue when Colin sees her for the first time after traveling for a while should have been enough for him to have a sort of come to Jesus moment like wait is this girl hot then his reaction to her could have propelled her into intentionally pursuing him and it would have been so cute and Superior instead Penelope's resigned herself to a life of spinsterhood and when Colin starts expressing interest I was like why now she

is not acting differently he's not acting differently she looks different but that's not framed as mattering to him at all he remarks a couple times About how Unpretty she is early on and then he just does a 180 on that for like no reason I do have problems with this book that go beyond it not meeting my expectations though I have problems with what it is mainly I think that all of the sources of conflict in Penelope and Collins relationship are super super Petty I was coming off of three books in which the main characters

were overcoming their childhood trauma Penelope is just kind of a loser and That's sad for her and Colin wishes that he had a thing and not kidding he's like and Tunisia VI count Benedict's an artist and all I have is this travel Vlog by travel Vlog I mean Journal he has this journal that he writes in when he travels there's a point early on when he's venting about this to Penelope and she rightfully points out that it's a stupid non-problem except I'm not sure it's her place maybe if she were like Kim there's people that

are dying but She makes it all about her she's like but you're popular you don't know pain my mom's made me wear yellow my whole life I wear size 13 Nikes men's you don't know the triumphs and defeats the Epic highs and lows of high school football they're both just so rich and so petty and that's not the end of it given that Colin dreams of becoming an author he's also super annoying when he finds out Penelope's lady whistle down their whole third act struggle is that He's so jealous of her that his attitude around

her convinces her that he's ashamed of her of course they learn from this and the book ends with him proclaiming loudly and proudly that she's lady whistle down and he loves her but it's not about the destination it's about the journey and the journey was miserable I'm surprised how little I've said about lady whistle down actually but again that's because she doesn't matter as much in the books even in this One the idea is that Penelope is a Wallflower with a much richer inner world than she presents and slowly throughout the book she adopts more

of her Alter Ego into her General regular life confidence that is probably my favorite thing about the book but it's still tarnished by the fact that Julia Quinn doesn't reveal to the audience until halfway through the book that she's lady whistle down of course coming off of the show I knew the whole time so It wasn't going to work for me the whole unreliable narrator thing but I imagine if I read the book first I wouldn't be happy about it it feels kind of lame and cheap and I think the themes of the book would

have been better conveyed had the audience known the whole time that she was Lady whistle down I'm excited to see what they do with Penelope as lady whistle down in the show because regardless I imagine it will be way more interesting anyway I kind of made it Sound like I hate this book so to reiterate it just disappointed me it couldn't have disappointed me if I didn't care so much about it I just wanted it to be so much more than it was because this one is the most important book in the series it's the

only one led up to by its predecessors it's the lady whistle down book there is only one thing worse than a rapist boom a child no somebody tweeted me that this was their favorite in the series so I hope I'm not offending anybody when I say that to Sir Philip with love real into my life and crushed my spirit I'm not a violent person but given the chance I would brawl with a sir fill up I've never wanted to punch a fictional character more in my life than I've read after I found this Goodreads review

I wanted to share because I second it if I'm honest I can't comfortably Proclaim that he behaves that much more poorly than the other male leads but it's like I said his brand of misbehavior speaks to my worst fears I hate him I hate him my hatred of him might actually stem from my love of Eloise as usual I do prefer her in the show but in the book she's still a lovable outspoken character she's definitely less opposed to marriage the premise of this one is actually that she's run off to meet sir Philip her

pen pal to see if they're Well Suited still I think that the ideal husband for her would be one of the Sitcom variety she needs a Ben Wyatt or Jake Peralta somebody who is going to back her 100 and heed her words instead she gets saddled with a stoic botanist who's not looking for a wife so much as a babysitter he can sleep with at night I mean it his motivation is finding a mother for his children which might be admirable if you were looking for a partner in Parenthood but he's a neglectful father who

wants to pawn his kids off on somebody else this isn't my Interpretation of his motivation this is his motivation in the end it's meant to appear that he grows out of all of this but I don't think he ever adequately confronts his flaws once he and Eloise are married all of his inner dialogue is about how blissfully happy he is ignoring her and his children all day while she's like miserable about it then when she brings up to him that sometimes she'd like to be listened to and not sexually assaulted he gets mad at her

Because his last wife didn't like to sleep with him either and that was not a fun time for him the worst part is that when they reconcile it's not because he apologizes for not heeding her words it's because he yells at her about how she's not allowed out to be unhappy in their marriage because he's had a worse one theirs isn't the only obligatory marriage in the series but it's the only one that felt obligatory the whole novel slowly suffocates and Smothers Eloise's Independence in a way that just cut me to my core it's not

just his treatment of her that's bothersome though it's his treatment of his kids he fears abusing his kids because he was abused and I'm not a psychologist I'm sure there's precedent for that either way I don't like the way it's portrayed here and regardless I don't think that's something I want portrayed in a love interest the last thing I want out of my hunk husband is for him to go on and on About his visceral urge to beat his children within an inch of their lives near the end of the book he saves his kids

from being beaten by one of their servants and I guess I'm supposed to forgive that a couple chapters ago Eloise told him something was up with the servant and he was mad that she wanted to express concerns to him and expected him to care he thought he wanted a nurturing mother for his children but he just wanted a housewife Robot part part of me hopes the show ends with season four so that I don't have to witness them attempt to salvage this in conclusion Phil watch out so you have your cousins and then you have

your first cousins and then you have your second cousin no honey I have the least to say about when he was wicked which is partly why it ranks solo for me I think I was predisposed not to love it because it's just not a premise I was going to connect with the only similar love Triangle I've experienced before was in Pearl Harbor and Pearl Harbor sucks so hard basically Francesca has been the least present out of all of the Bridgerton siblings because she married this Scottish Earl and lives far away from everybody else that fact

alone makes this book feel separate from the rest of them even though they do spend some time in London she's also the least present in the show to the point where I didn't realize she existed until I was Reading up on the books anyway her Earl was named John and the most frequent word used to describe their relationship is comfortable I think a huge drawback of this story is how obviously intentionally boring John was written so that we wouldn't be sad when he died immediately his title passes to to his best friend and cousin Michael

Michael has long been in love with Francesca so when he's essentially expected to take John's Place in all things he feels real Guilty about that and runs away to India the story really begins when the two see each other again after a time Jump and Francesca is looking for a husband I do like them together and technically root for them but it's hard to ship a couple that's so shrouded in misery and guilt it's no fun and I'm not sure I can get behind the book's conclusion that Jon would have wanted them together either I

think it's kind of a cop-out I mean they're described as being as close as Brothers if I died suddenly and upon my death one of my sisters got with my non-existent husband my ghost would be really mad about that I don't know if anybody else will like the sound of this but I would have preferred the moral takeaway being something like maybe it doesn't matter what John would have thought because maybe John is dead and maybe you guys are alive so maybe if you want to do it in a shed during a rainstorm you can

do it in a shed during A rainstorm like I said before this book does have the best love scenes I will not elaborate I also think it has the best title when he was wicked what does that mean but Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend let me just Begin by saying that the last thing I expected was for it's in his kiss to be my favorite it is the lamest Title by far it doesn't convey the tone of the book at all it should have been called Midnight escapades they should really consult me about this

Stuff I know how to sell you on this book though it's simple Hyacinth love interest is Lady danbury's nephew isn't that cute she's super present in this book and she has the cutest relationship with Hyacinth Hyacinth reads to Lady Danbury every Wednesday and she's framed as being her sort of protege because she's similarly obstinate and Shameless I love these two I hope they start building a relationship in the show they could also introduce Gareth in the show Because being lady danbury's nephew it would be feasible and at the start of this book he and Hyacinth

are already acquainted so I think some scenes with them interacting as kids would be cute I don't know I know that Gareth is an extremely unappealing name but you'll just have to trust me when I say that he's the greatest of all time actually he's as problematic as most of the male leads but I choose not to see because the good stuff is so good what's so Great about their romance is that it's not held back by its contrived premise I was coming off of two books about people marrying their dead spouse's cousins before that

it was all fake dating and unrequited love I enjoy these tropes as much as the next loser but Hyacinth and Gareth just like each other he's amused by her she's unnerved by him and they spend time together of their own volition because they enjoy each other's company I also relate a lot to the way Hyacinth likes Gareth anytime I've had a crush in my life it's in the way that Hyacinth has a crush on Gareth she almost resents liking him because he's the only person who makes her feel discomposed I adore them I should mention

In fairness that gareth's intentions are questionable part of why he pursues Hyacinth is because his estranged father essentially dares him to it's more so framed as being the reason he acts upon feelings he are Already possesses though I'd say gareth's mistakes fall into the perfect morally gray middle ground we were talking about with Simon he makes forgivable mistakes and he doesn't actually do anything wrong so much as he does the right things for partially wrong reasons anyway the plot here is that Gareth receives his dead grandmother's diary I just realized that I was calling him

lady danbury's nephew he's her grandson That's great it's 1am I already filmed this video and I lost all the footage just let me make that mistake he receives his other grandmother's diary but it's written in Italian so Hyacinth helps him translate it we're off to a good start investigative Duos are my thing through the diary Hyacinth realizes that there is jewelry hidden in gareth's Dad's house so they sneak out and break in a couple times it's definitely not the most compelling Mystery of all time but I do appreciate them having different activities to do besides

like dancing at parties and sitting in drawing rooms this aspect of the story also allows it to have the best ending of any of the books in the epilogue they're living in gareth's Dad's house because he died so after all of these years Hyacinth still hasn't stopped looking for the jewels and right at the end their daughter finds them in the bathroom tiles and puts them back Where she found them without telling anyone it's so perfect but I don't care what my family says I want to marry you in a Presbyterian Church you might expect

this one which ranks low slowly with the books I have moral objections to to be particularly problematic but I just dislike how weird it is I think Julia ran out of normal stories to tell because this one is just crazy stupid from top to bottom to begin Gregory falls in love at first sight with this Girl Hermione and even though this Series has already established that love at first sight is a viable feeling it's a very anti-levitt for Sight book the first third here deals with him realizing that maybe he shouldn't marry the girl he

just thinks is pretty who he doesn't emotionally connect with except his attraction is never really framed as being that stupid either I kind of wish there would have been a moment when he was forced to confront that it was a Shallow attraction instead he just kind of grows out of it then he falls in real love with Hermione's Best Friend Lucy who'd been trying to help him pursue her because she liked him better than her usual suitors she loves him too but she's engaged to marry a gay man still when the two Proclaim their love

she is willing to risk her reputation and to break off her engagement to be be with Gregory instead she can't though because her uncle did a treason and now she's Being blackmailed she doesn't tell Gregory any of this though so he's just surprised to find that his secret fiance is still getting married to her other fiance of course then he interrupts their wedding and I experienced a lot of second-hand embarrassment when he's not successful she just goes through with her marriage but Gregory knows something's up because she loves him and all so he rolls up

to her reception and essentially kidnaps her yeah he ties her To a water closet so that she can't consummate her marriage very cool of him the rest is genuinely a blur a gun gets involved but they're able to end up together by that point I just kept thinking about the hugely public rejection she was backtracking on I hate when there's a lack of a Vindication for a character whose public actions weren't understood like the Bridgerton specifically Hyacinth were pretty mad at her for turning down Gregory but we Don't get to see anyone apologize or anyone

realize that she was being blackmailed there's no Vindication I'm so worried about her reputation I simply can't with this book I don't get it what happens at the end of this goddamn book I can't tell you [ __ ] I can't make them the second epilogues pretty much read like one shots on AO3 they're pointless except for that they tie up a lot of loose ends you see Julia consistently forgot to conclude plot Lines in her books I know most of the loose threads left untied were not intentionally left untied she basically says as much

in her author's notes throughout this thing she's like it didn't occur to me to answer that question take whether or not Francesca and Michael had kids for example the whole reason Francesco wanted to remarry was so that she could be a mother she has a miscarriage in the book The Prospect of children was a huge deal Throughout when he was wicked but the epilogue just failed to clarify whether Francesca and Michael ever did conceive happily ever after confirms that they do have kids just after Francesca comes to the hard-earned realization that she could be happy

without ever mothering children it's quite annoying actually then there's this really annoying gap between Romancing Mr Bridgerton and two sir Philip with love because Eloise and Penelope are meant to be best friends And Eloise runs off to meet Philip during the party at which Colin reveals Penelope is lady whistledown so in the original timeline we just never get to see Eloise find out in theory this book tells us what happened Hyacinth broke the news before Penelope and Colin could at Eloise's wedding but because of that little Switcheroo we still never get to actually see it

happen plus Eloise doesn't even care which is just disappointing all around Julia is super Lazy with conflict between non-love interests nobody is ever mad about anything and if they are it will not be resolved we also find out through Simon and Daphne's entry that Simon eventually read his father's letters that Daphne kept for him what I find most annoying is the follow-up to it's in his kiss because remember that it has the perfect ending I guess other fans were frustrated not knowing whether a hyacinth would ever find the jewels so Here her daughter overhears that

Hyacinth been looking for them and she puts them back for her to find what's wrong with it is that she puts them back even though at the end of this epilogue she already put them back so I guess between the epilogues she went and took them again and they were in a drawer her room I was perfectly happy imagining that Hyacinth eventually found them where her daughter left them I don't know what all of this is about once You've read all the books you kind of have to read happily ever after out of loyalty but

it's nothing special to me I think that would be all thank you for your time [Music]