Romancing Mister Bridgerton

 The Bridgertons Series
#1 The Duke and I
#2 The Viscount who Loved Me
#3 An Offer from a Gentleman

Romancing Mister Bridgerton is the fourth of eight books in the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn.  I am making my way through this series at quite a clip, considering the wait times and quarantine periods for book at the library.  My main takeaway from the series is that I really like Quinn's witty banter and her female characters are delightful, but there's always *something* that keeps the books from being a perfect hit for me.

This book, though. It's seriously about as perfect as it gets.

The dialogue is sparkling and made me laugh so many times.  

Lady Danbury shushed him with a wave of her hand. "How many great mysteries are there in life, really?"
No one answered, so Colin guessed, "Forty-two?" (page 47)

“Hyacinth,” Lady Bridgerton said in a vaguely disapproving voice, “do try to speak in complete sentences.”
Hyacinth looked at her mother with a surprised expression. “Biscuits. Are. Good.” She cocked her head to the side. “Noun. Verb. Adjective.”
“Hyacinth.”
“Noun. Verb. Adjective.” Colin said, wiping a crumb from his grinning face. “Sentence. Is. Correct.” (page 67)

Lady Danbury didn't even honor Felicity with a glance. "Let me tell you something," she said.
"As if we could stop you," Penelope said, so sweetly that it came out like a compliment. And truth be told, it was a compliment.  She admired Lady Danbury a great deal. She admired anyone who knew how to speak her mind in public. 
Lady Danbury chuckled. "There's more to you than  meets the eye, Penelope Featherington." (page 11)

"I will not be insulted by that...by that nothing!" Cressida fumed. She turned to Penelope with a seething glare and hissed, "I demand an apology."

Penelope just nodded slowly and said, "That is your prerogative."

And then she said nothing more. (page 176)

I could keep going, but I think I'm going to run into some copyright issues if I typed out all the awesome quotes.

Interesting characters: Colin and Penelope are real people and they're not perfect, but they really strike a great balance in their interactions with one another. I don't think Colin is the guy for me, but he does seem like the guy for Penelope. And, let's all admit it, we'd all love to be Penelope. She's witty, quick, and gets to eat all the cookies she wants to.  

Believable conflict: I 100% believe that Colin feels at loose ends as the third son, with no real identity.  And unlike Benedict's story, which tried to make us think a personality is formed through a hobby, this story actually does develop Colin's personality through his writing.  I also believed that he would be upset with Penelope's secret and that Penelope would not understand why he was upset. The conflict in this novel was not based on a simple misunderstanding that a simple conversation would clear up, but genuine conflict. Brilliant.

Emotional tension: Look, Penelope had a crush on this man for over a decade. If that's not enough of a buildup for you, you're cold.  It's another Bridgerton book in which the man seduces the woman before the vows are said and I'm not exactly digging that in light of the fact that neither of the women knew what was really going on and what the consequences were, based on their sexual educations, and the men did, but I'm going to let that slide, I guess.

Happily ever after: Again, children are not the answer to my own personal "happy," but it was nice to see both Colin and Penelope happy in their professional and personal lives in the epilogue.  

In light of my rave of Indigo recently, I'm a bit concerned that I'll get a reputation of someone who only writes glowing recommendations of books, but that's a mantle I'll gladly wear if I keep reading books of this quality. Strong thumbs up for this one.