pdbkwm's Reviews > The Duke and I
The Duke and I (Bridgertons, #1)
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I first learned about The Duke and I by Julia Quinn after I watched the trailer for Shonda Rhimes’ new Netflix series, Bridgertons. I have friends who were excited about the show because they love the books. To semi-quote one of them, “This is the best regency romance series, ever!”
As someone who has a hard time getting into romance novels, I thought I’d check it out since the trailer for the show looked good. (If you saw the actor who plays Simon then you’d know what I mean)
So I grabbed the book and started reading.
Right away, I thought the writing was inviting and grabbed my attention. I’ve read Regency or Historical-ish fiction before, but this was probably one of the easier ones to get into. It felt like a fun beach read, which I greatly appreciated.
Actually, it reminded me of a YA novels, only it dealt with adults. As someone who enjoys YA, I was all for this. It was a quick and easy read, but still had a lot of character to it.
And it also had insta-love, which is a YA and I suppose romance book staple......yay...
The Duke and I tells the story of Daphne Bridgerton who has been in the marriage hunt game for a long time. This causes Daphne’s mother to stress out and work overtime in order to find a respectable husband for her. But the more Daphne is put out in display, the more she feels like nothing will happen. People find Daphne to be too kind, so they’re unwilling to do anything to her.
Enter Simon Basset, a new Duke who has just entered the scene and is apparently a huge rake. A rake, a word you’ll see in this book quite a bit, is essentially a man who fools around....a man who rakes up a lot of hoes, if you will.
Simon is a good friend of Daphne’s eldest brother, who is also a rake, but you wouldn’t believe that they are close if you read the novel. You see, Daphne and Simon enter a plan to pretend to be engaged. This will allow male suitors to come to Daphne because now she’s hot goods, and Simon can turn matchmakers away since he doesn’t want to get married. Daphne’s brother hates the idea and starts attacking Simon for it.
I have older brothers as well, but the level of vitriol that Daphne’s brothers show Simon was crazy. It made me annoyed instead of feeling like this was cute. They were awful. I hated them all and just felt bad for Simon.
The two eventually get married due to Daphne’s manipulation and her brothers’ anger issues and this is where the book fell apart for me. I could get behind Simon and Daphne at first. I even though their banter in the beginning was quite cute. But the more I saw Daphne’s brothers, the less I liked the book. The more I saw Daphne always win, while Simon had to concede, the less I liked the book. The more I saw Daphne get comforted by her support the system, while Simon’s traumas were downplayed, the less I liked the book.
Then that famous scene happened (view spoiler) and I was completely done with the book. I finished it, but I started skimming it. It made it worse when Simon ends up apologizing first for everything and goes with Daphne, because he loves her too much. I’m not saying Simon was a good person or that he didn’t have issues of his own, he did, but the way the book frames him and frames this event does such a disservice to this romance.
It ruins it. It made me hate the Brigerton family and feel bad for Simon, who truly had no one to rely on so he went back to Daphne. I hated it.
I understand why this series is as popular as it is, since the writing is on point and everything flows really well. It’s a great beach read type novel, but the romance is insta-love and the relationship between Daphne and Simon was horrible. I might check out the series, because the actor playing Simon is fine, but this book was a hot mess.
In all honesty, had that scene not happened I think I might have rated the book a bit higher, but that scene and the way they treated Simon after was just heartbreaking. I felt bad for him. I really just felt awful and I don't think this is the feeling you're meant to have for the male lead who gets the girl.
As someone who has a hard time getting into romance novels, I thought I’d check it out since the trailer for the show looked good. (If you saw the actor who plays Simon then you’d know what I mean)
So I grabbed the book and started reading.
Right away, I thought the writing was inviting and grabbed my attention. I’ve read Regency or Historical-ish fiction before, but this was probably one of the easier ones to get into. It felt like a fun beach read, which I greatly appreciated.
Actually, it reminded me of a YA novels, only it dealt with adults. As someone who enjoys YA, I was all for this. It was a quick and easy read, but still had a lot of character to it.
And it also had insta-love, which is a YA and I suppose romance book staple......yay...
The Duke and I tells the story of Daphne Bridgerton who has been in the marriage hunt game for a long time. This causes Daphne’s mother to stress out and work overtime in order to find a respectable husband for her. But the more Daphne is put out in display, the more she feels like nothing will happen. People find Daphne to be too kind, so they’re unwilling to do anything to her.
Enter Simon Basset, a new Duke who has just entered the scene and is apparently a huge rake. A rake, a word you’ll see in this book quite a bit, is essentially a man who fools around....a man who rakes up a lot of hoes, if you will.
Simon is a good friend of Daphne’s eldest brother, who is also a rake, but you wouldn’t believe that they are close if you read the novel. You see, Daphne and Simon enter a plan to pretend to be engaged. This will allow male suitors to come to Daphne because now she’s hot goods, and Simon can turn matchmakers away since he doesn’t want to get married. Daphne’s brother hates the idea and starts attacking Simon for it.
I have older brothers as well, but the level of vitriol that Daphne’s brothers show Simon was crazy. It made me annoyed instead of feeling like this was cute. They were awful. I hated them all and just felt bad for Simon.
The two eventually get married due to Daphne’s manipulation and her brothers’ anger issues and this is where the book fell apart for me. I could get behind Simon and Daphne at first. I even though their banter in the beginning was quite cute. But the more I saw Daphne’s brothers, the less I liked the book. The more I saw Daphne always win, while Simon had to concede, the less I liked the book. The more I saw Daphne get comforted by her support the system, while Simon’s traumas were downplayed, the less I liked the book.
Then that famous scene happened (view spoiler) and I was completely done with the book. I finished it, but I started skimming it. It made it worse when Simon ends up apologizing first for everything and goes with Daphne, because he loves her too much. I’m not saying Simon was a good person or that he didn’t have issues of his own, he did, but the way the book frames him and frames this event does such a disservice to this romance.
It ruins it. It made me hate the Brigerton family and feel bad for Simon, who truly had no one to rely on so he went back to Daphne. I hated it.
I understand why this series is as popular as it is, since the writing is on point and everything flows really well. It’s a great beach read type novel, but the romance is insta-love and the relationship between Daphne and Simon was horrible. I might check out the series, because the actor playing Simon is fine, but this book was a hot mess.
In all honesty, had that scene not happened I think I might have rated the book a bit higher, but that scene and the way they treated Simon after was just heartbreaking. I felt bad for him. I really just felt awful and I don't think this is the feeling you're meant to have for the male lead who gets the girl.
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Reading Progress
December 12, 2020
–
Started Reading
December 13, 2020
–
Finished Reading
December 16, 2020
– Shelved