Right off the bat, I want to mention that I’m reviewing the first book in Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, The Duke and I, after having read it for the second time. That being said, here are my thoughts on The Duke and I.
One of the things I enjoyed most about The Duke and I was the overall tone of Julia Quinn’s writing, especially in the Lady Whistledown segments that opened each chapter. At the same time, however, this book was also full of drama and emotional angst, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Quinn definitely did a great job handling the fake courtship between Daphne and Simon in this book. It was also really fun to see Simon interact with the Bridgerton family as Daphne and Simon went through the fake courtship stage of their relationship. That being said, I felt like we didn’t get to see enough of Daphne and Simon’s fake courtship before they were forced to get married.
Daphne and Simon were both interesting and well-written characters for the most part. For example, I really liked how Julia Quinn handled the overall writing for Simon’s stutter and how it was addressed throughout the book. That being said, I do think that the writing for the whole thing regarding Simon insisting that he can’t have children got very old, really, really, really quickly, to the point where Simon’s actions regarding the matter became really annoying to read about.
Daphne is the oldest daughter in the Bridgerton family, so as far as I’m concerned, the first book in the Bridgerton series should focus on her, out of all the Bridgerton siblings, and her love life. In my opinion, Quinn did a pretty good job of giving the readers a brief introduction to each of the Bridgerton family members in this book, considering the Bridgerton family is a very big family, this is only the first book the series, and each sibling in the Bridgerton family has a book that will focus on them, and their love life, so there’s definitely plenty of time to flesh out the other characters in the series.
One thing that really surprised me about this book was the fact that Daphne forced Simon to ”finish having sex with her while he’s still inside of her” instead of pulling out like he usually does during sex to avoid getting a woman pregnant. That was definitely a pretty morally questionable thing for Daphne to do, because Simon was drunk at the time, so she was definitely taking advantage of his drunken state. Daphne’s initial overall naïve nature when it came to sex truly baffled me, especially when it came to her being so quick to believe that Simon was impotent, simply because of his insistence that he can’t have children; but perhaps that was just kind of normal when it came to how the subject of sex was treated during that time period (Shrugs).
Another thing that really surprised me about this book was how Quinn handled the passage of time in this book, and how quickly Simon had a change of heart about never wanting to have kids after he had briefly believed that Daphne was pregnant with his child, because Daphne had believed that she was pregnant at the time. Simon’s change of heart did seem to come about a bit too quickly once he found out Daphne was actually pregnant. Honestly, it would have been nice to see more of Daphne and Simon being truly happy and in love in their early years of marriage, because I kind of felt like Quinn glossed over that part of Daphne and Simon’s love story a tiny bit.
I really enjoyed the book's overall tone and how it could be lighthearted and fun at times, particularly in the excerpts from Lady Whistledown’s column featured at the beginning of every chapter. At the same time, if I haven’t already made it clear in this review, Daphne and Simon’s relationship had plenty of drama, angst, and conflict throughout the book. That being said, I was really glad Quinn ended the book on a happy, optimistic note for Daphne and Simon, with them discovering that Daphne’s going to have a fifth child at the age of forty-one.
Another thing that I really appreciated about the ending of the book was the fact Simon used his own life experience to try and help Colin and his wife, Penelope, deal with the fact that their young son, George, still wasn’t talking yet, which might mean he could potentially eventually have a problem with stuttering when he talks, but Simon basically told them to love George and be patient with George, because his own father didn’t treat him that way when he was a child, and still struggled with his own stuttering problem. I also thought it was good to see Simon get some closure regarding his relationship with his father by reading his father’s letters, and Simon discovered that all the things that his father had written about in his letters were rather mundane, so he decided to burn the letters.
All things considered, The Duke and I serves as an excellent start to Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series for the most part. This book was a great, but not perfect, love story between Daphne and Simon, with its biggest flaw probably being Quinn going a little overboard with how much she emphasized the fact that Simon said he never wanted to have children. Some members of the Bridgerton family were definitely left feeling underdeveloped in this book, but as I mentioned earlier, each sibling in the Bridgerton family has a book that will focus on them and their love life, so there’s definitely plenty of time to flesh out the other characters in the series.
That being said, my final score for The Duke and I is 8 out of 10.
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