The Duke and I

Score: 3/5 Bookmarks

Steam Rating: 🍆🍆/5

Thank you to Avon Books for sending me a review copy of The Duke and I by Julia Quinn.

I had heard nothing but amazing things about this series, so I was thrilled to start reading this first one (there are 10 in the series).

SPOILER ALERT

I don’t feel I can really review this book without talking about a couple of scenes that take place, so if you haven’t read it yet and you don’t want any spoilers I suggest you stop reading now! You’ve been warned.

With the Bridgerton series being released on Netflix I was determined to read the book first, and I set aside time so I could really savor it. But by the end of chapter three I was left feeling cold and struggling to find my way back into the book with any sort of respect for the main characters.

Daphne and her family are at Lady Danbury’s ball, and Nigel Berbrooke (who wants to marry Daphne) has sought her out. Daphne describes Nigel as not very bright, and others go on to say he is ‘more monkey than man’ and call him a ‘nitwit’. I got the impression that maybe Nigel has a learning disability or something, and expected them to treat him with more kindness—instead, both Daphne and the Duke of Hastings basically beat him up and leave him lying in a hallway. While I’m glad Daphne stood up for herself and didn’t really need the Duke to rescue her I found their cruelty and violence towards someone who deserved their kindness to be extremely off-putting.

Things improved somewhat from there, although not totally without other, questionable, scenes popping up—until we get to chapter 17. Now I get that the Duke didn’t have a lot of role models growing up and that he has some serious baggage to work through, but when he starts to yell at Daphne that he legally owns her—nope, no thank you. Sure it may have been somewhat historically accurate, but here’s the thing…the author lives in today’s world, and this is fiction. She can choose to have her characters say and do anything she likes, and she chose for them to behave that way. Which brings me to chapter 18, where the Duke comes home blind drunk and Daphne rapes him. There’s no other word for it. He doesn’t want children, and she does, so while he’s so drunk he can’t possibly consent, she rapes him. And she doesn’t even feel bad about it: “He shifted restlessly, and Daphne felt the strangest, most intoxicating surge of power. He was in her control, she realized. He was asleep, and probably still more than a little bit drunk, and she could do whatever she wanted with him. She could have whatever she wanted.” No matter what her motives were, or that they worked it out in the end, I just can’t get on board with that.

The only redeeming aspects of the book were the fun Gossip Girl vibes, watching the Duke grow and figure out some of his issues, and I enjoyed some of the supporting characters quite a lot, Lady Danbury, and the rest of the Bridgerton clan in particular.

So, this is one instance where I believe the TV adaptation is infinitely better than the book. I knew Shonda Rhimes would handle those particular scenes with a lot more class, and she did. My advice, skip this first book at least (I can’t speak for the others yet) and just watch the show on Netflix. But if you do still want to read it for yourself, you can get it from an indie bookseller via the button below.

Synopsis:

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 honest for 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...