Reviews

I will be completely forth coming in admitting that I have not read the first three books in this series and that I read this book after the first half of season 3 came out on Netflix. That being said, I read a few reviews prior to me reading this book and went into it with the mindset that these are not the characters I am familiar with and the storyline will be completely different and that I should treat this as a completely stand alone book unrelated, in its entirely, to the Netflix series.

For any reader planning to get into the book I recommend doing the same. The only thing these characters have in common with the characters in the show is name.

All that being said here are my thoughts:

I cannot tell you how much I hated this book. I have no words. Over the last five years I have only read a single book that I hated more than this one for entirely different reasons.

So why the two stars? Well, despite my feeling about this novel I have to admit that Quinn is very talented with the pen. The way she writes and captures the beauty of a scene is stunning in and of itself. I would gladly pick up another book in her style and cadence if it were on another subject or plot.

Which brings me to what’s wrong with the novel. Let’s start with the elephant in the room… Colin Bridgerton… The reviews I read prior to the novel were that this book changed Colin and that his temper was outrageous and childish. I tend to take these perspectives with a grain of salt. A character will always change (or rather should change) when an author shifts from an outside perspective to an inside one. I chalked it up to the readers having been stuck on his personality in previous books and did not expect to have the same problem… I was completely wrong.

Colin and Pen’s relationship is toxic through and through, from bruises to emotional manipulation and general (and societal abuse and gaslighting). It honestly makes me a bit sick. In fact, there was a point, at a specific party (which I will not name but I am sure everyone is aware of), that it was completely out of hand. I believe the worst part of it all is that portrayal of Pen suffered because of it. Not in the sense that I thought less of her but simply that she was built up as a strong independent and clever woman in the first half of the novel just to turn into the ‘he’s going to kill me but it’s okay cuz it means that he loves me,’ type of woman by the end. And I understand that this could be because of some of her own trauma but if that was the case it, if it were depicted as such then perhaps I wouldn’t hate it as much, instead she’s just as empty headed as everyone else (there is not ‘cleverness’ about her). Perhaps this is harsh, but I feel it needs to be said.

So, despite Quinn’s poetic talent, her characters are inconsistent and one dimensional. The plot leaves something to be desired and the spicy scenes (at least in this particular novel) are more toxic that alluring.

Still, I will admit I loved every scene with Lady D. Her and Pen’s friendship was a saving grace in this novel. And Daphne’s explanation (and Colin’s realization) of love was refreshingly relatable, especially as a woman’ who has been married to the love of her life for twelve years (not to show my age).

“And that was when he realized that Daphne had been right. His love hadn't been a thunderbolt from the sky. It had started with a smile, a word, a teasing glance. Every second he had spent in her presence it had grown, until he'd reached this moment, and he suddenly knew. He loved her.”

That is perhaps the most realistic portrayal of falling in love that I have ever read (though there is a particular episode of Doctor Who in which Amelia Pond talks about how people’s faces become their personality, and how beautiful they are… which is neither here nor there but is just as true and what I was reminded of when reading this section).

All of these things considered, I couldn’t give the novel more than two stars and the two that I gave it was more for talent and 2 specific characters than anything else in this novel.

QUOTES:

“And that was when he realized that Daphne had been right. His love hadn't been a thunderbolt from the sky. It had started with a smile, a word, a teasing glance. Every second he had spent in her presence it had grown, until he'd reached this moment, and he suddenly knew. He loved her.”

Content Warnings