The Duke and I by Julia Quinn, 3 stars

[Hebah]

I couldn't finish this in time for the London tag last month, but here's a belated review.

Ever since I started reading romance in earnest, I kept hearing Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series come highly recommended. With a Netflix adaptation near, I decided to take the plunge, and I'm glad I did.

Daphne and Simon are a lovely couple, but I think it's the bustling, in-each-other's-business Bridgerton family that is the real star here. Even marriage-minded mama Violet, who could so easily be a replica Mrs. Bennett has some delightful moments where you see her as her own woman, not just a woman determined for her children to marry well. I laughed out loud at a scene where she starts babbling at her sons, who quickly make excuses to get away, and then she sighs with relief at getting them out of her hair.

There's one scene that I did not like, however, that knocked a star from my rating, a scene where consent... doesn't quite happen between characters. (view spoiler)[Simon has vowed never to have children, but Daphne realizes he must not be infertile or else he wouldn't take such care to pull out. When he's drunk one night, she seduces him and takes the act to full completion. I feel like it's a case where, because it was the heroine who did it, it gets much more of a pass than if he had pulled some shenanigans in the name of having children. Just left me feeling a bit icky about it. (hide spoiler)] It's a shame that had to mar such an otherwise lovely story.

[Jgrace]

I usually like a Julia Quinn romance, but that event in your spoiler ruined this one for me. I didn't finish it. I had more fun with the books called the Smythe-Smith quartet. The adjunct family characters were entertaining.