Title: The Duke and I
Author: Julia Quinn
Publisher/Year: Harper Collins 4/28/15
Length: 464 Pages
Series: Bridgerton #1
Overview
From New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn comes the first novel in the beloved Regency-set world of her charming, powerful Bridgerton family, now a series created by Shonda Rhimes for Netflix.
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 honestfor 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…
My Thoughts
I have to admit that the reason that I dove into this series is because I watched the season on Netflix and the show has me HOOKED. Not only are the characters amazing, the actors beyond attractive, but the hints of what’s happened and what’s to come is intense. We have a cross between Pretty Little Liars meets Gossip Girls all thrown into England in 1812. It’s a must read!
This first book of the series introduces us to the world of the Bridgertons, a family that’s well to do in society in England, and one that has a lot of children that need to be minded once they come of age. This first book focuses on Daphne, the eldest sister of the brood now that she’s of age to be married and her quest to find a husband. Daphne has been in society now for a year and has not secured a husband, partially because she’s got older brothers who want only the best for her and partially because most men for some reason only see her as a friend and not as a lover. She’s beautiful and she’s quick witted and intelligent – all things a man should want, but that’s not the norm back in those days.
Enter Duke of Hastings – Simon. A close friend of Anthony, Daphne’s oldest brother and a man who’s got a reputation that preceeds him. He’s only returned to London now that his father has passed away and he needs to settle loose ends. The challenge though is that Simon has made a vow to his father that he will never marry, that he will never have kids so that the family line dies with him because his father treated him so horribly when he was young.
Daphne’s quest for the perfect love match and Simon’s quest to stay out of the clutches of all society mammas and their daughters who need to be married off gives us the perfect scheme that has been developed. Simon and Daphne will pretend that they are in love, which in turn will make Daphne seem more attractive now that she’s got the attention of the most eligible man alive, and Simon will be free to live his life how he wants.
We all know that this will explode and not in a good or expected way. The way that this always plays out is that they will develop a great friendship and they will start to care for one another. They will become attracted to each other in a way that’s going to cause problems in their polite society. Someone’s heart will get broken, someone’s reputation will get destroyed and their future will be a roller coaster of misery and despair.
What’s nice about this story is that our author Julia Quinn has managed to lead us down all the right paths to see how this will play out from scene to scene, and at the same time be surprised by the new bit of information that we learn at every turn. There are so many dark secrets from Simon’s past that cloud how he sees every situation today that it’s no surprised that he’s damaged. AT the same time, we have come to know that Daphne is a woman who can handle her own, yet there are soooo sooo many things that are so naive and innocent about her that we also watch how that really hampers any chance of her finding a happiness that’s possible in this day and age.
We get a nice bit of closure to this story – not one that was expected but one that works for this series. There are stories that follow for the other siblings in the Bridgerton family, so it was nice to see how it was set up a bit in this first book although it does spoil things a bit for when the next season comes around on Netlix.