#i am hoping for a bedwyn series someday

[maddie-grove]

The Bridgerton Novels, Ranked from Best to Worst

Because the adaptation is coming this Christmas! I am very excited, even though my feelings about the book series is mixed, to say the least. I assume that, because it’s 2020, certain things will be different. 

On the Way to the Wedding (#8): I’m probably doing this wrong; this is the last book, and it’s a somewhat anticlimactic conclusion (I doubt anyone was on their edge of their seat about Gregory, the blithe second-youngest). Yet Gregory is the most likable Bridgerton, and he has a nice dynamic with Lady Lucy Abernathy. The espionage plot is also fun.

Romancing Mister Bridgerton (#4): This is the most Bridgerton book of all, starring the most-foreshadowed couple of the series, Colin and Penelope. I’m not a big fan of Colin; he does that infuriating thing romance novel hero thing where he goes off on the heroine for doing something “dangerous” (in this case, going to a church in the business district of London with her maid in broad daylight). He’s also super-self-absorbed. But I love Penelope with all my heart, and the social comedy of the Lady Whistledown scandal is delightfully chaotic.

When He Was Wicked (#6): This is the least classically Bridgerton book of the series; the more mature, quiet Francesca is the odd one out and has her own life, and the story has far more angst (grief, miscarriage, malaria) than hijinks. This does make for a rather sedate book, but the romance between Francesca and her late husband’s best friend is really sweet.

It’s in His Kiss (#7): Hyacinth is an irritant in her siblings’ books, especially Gregory’s, but I like her pretty well in her own story. Gareth, her love interest, is cute, and he has some fucked-up family drama that I enjoy. The treasure-hunt/translation plot isn’t too memorable, but it’s pleasant.

An Offer from a Gentleman (#3): Benedict is the opposite of Hyacinth, in that he has BDE in his siblings’ books but is pushy and humorless in his own. The story is charming when it’s following the Cinderella template (with the illegitimate Sophie in the title role), but it devolves into some rather miserable will-she-agree-to-be-his-mistress drama.

The Viscount Who Loved Me (#2): Lord, Anthony is a piece of work. He’s not the Bridgerton who does the absolute worst thing (see: Daphne), but he is the most consistently unpleasant of the bunch, always berating heroine Kate for nonsensical reasons (her dog makes him look foolish???) and nursing a Gaston-like obsession with marrying her hot younger half-sister (he doesn’t love Edwina, but doesn’t he deserve the best?). Kate is equally ready to throw down, though, and their dynamic is often funny even if he needs to chill the fuck out. Kate is cool in general! And I do sympathize with Anthony’s debilitating fear of bees.

The Duke and I (#1): Daphne is a perfectly serviceable heroine, until she does the One Thing. Y’all know what I’m talking about. Simon makes me really sad. Overall, a sordid bummer. 

To Sir Philip, With Love (#5): Say what you like about The Duke and I, but at least I don’t hate either of the protagonists; they just depress me. But Sir Philip is a straight-up turd. He’s a self-absorbed, unreflective, and tedious man whose emotional neglect of the heroine, his late wife, and his children crosses the line into cruelty. Eloise isn’t my favorite, but she deserved better, and it’s sad to see her rapid devolution into a pick-me girl. There’s also some gratuitous mean-spiritedness towards a homely older governess, Sir Philip’s obviously post-partum-depression-suffering late wife, and a random large-breasted woman. 

Also: Violet Bridgerton is a very nice lady. I don’t understand the scheme Julia Quinn used for choosing these titles (four movie puns, one song pun, one quote from a nursery rhyme, one straight-up song title, one...phrase?). I read The Girl with the Make-Believe Husband, and it was fine, but I never know how to feel about the fake-amnesia-husband plot.