The Duke And I by Julia Quinn ISBN: 9780061741388
Series: Bridgertons #1
Published by Harper Collins on October 13, 2009
Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance
Pages: 432
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Simon Basset, the irresistible Duke of Hastings, has hatched a plan to keep himself free from the town′s marriage-minded society mothers. He pretends to be engaged to the lovely Daphne Bridgerton. After all, it isn′t as if the brooding rogue has any real plans to marry - though there is something about the alluring Miss Bridgerton that sets Simon′s heart beating a bit faster. And as for Daphne, surely the clever debutante will attract some very worthy suitors now that it seems a duke has declared her desirable. But as Daphne waltzes across ballroom after ballroom with Simon, she soon forgets that their courtship is a complete sham. And now she has to do the impossible and keep herself from losing her heart and soul completely to the handsome hell-raiser who has sworn off marriage forever!
We all know I have a high bar when it comes to romance, as it’s not my favorite genre. Historical romance, especially, I meet with a lot of skepticism. So I kept my expectations low on this one. And it was…..OK. I can definitely see why they made the plot and character changes for the show that they did- the show is head and shoulders above the book.
I didn’t connect with any of the characters, Daphne is basically infallible (I really cannot stand flawless characters), and her siblings are caricatures. I give it full credit for tackling estranged marriage (though it shied away from addressing the violation central to that estrangement, instead clothing it in Daphne-is-a-saint/Simon-is-flawed tropiness) . I have no desire to continue the series, but I did buy the second book (for the Book2Movie readathon) so I need to figure out if that one is worth reading. Hrm.
Read for the ClearUrSht readathon and Book-to-Movie reading challenge.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
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