When I was starting to get into the historical romance drama, I saw this book come up again and again on top 10 lists, I decided to give it a shot. What I learned is that every top 10 list should be taken with a grain of salt because, in my humble opinion, this book was absolutely terrible.

The book started out promising with having the hero, Simon, being the victim of an extremely dysfunctional family. He'd been verbally and emotionally abused by his father, as well as written off as dead for decades. This created an interesting and complex character. By contrast, Daphne came from a happy and loving family.

In general, I'm skeptical of big (8 kids in this case) and happy families where everyone gets along, but her upbringing was an interesting foil to Simon's and could lead to some unique growth in their characters. Wrong wrong wrong.

My biggest qualm is that Quinn apparently believes it's funny and cool for women to rape men?! Because that's exactly what happens. Simon doesn't want kids, which is reasonable considering his upbringing, and he WARNED Daphne before marrying her. When she finds out his true reasons for not wanting kids, they argue. Fine. Then, he comes back so completely drunk, that he's still drunk the next day. That's when Daphne discovers he's aroused and RAPES him. SIMON FIGHTS HER AND TELLS HER NO, AND SHE KEEPS GOING. This is not romantic this is traumatic. Afterwards, Daphne has the gall to cry and complain about how it's not her fault and that Simon is hurting her.

As if that weren't traumatic enough, he leaves alone for one of his other estates. Then, he brothers THREATEN TO KILL HIM if he doesn't return to their sister. Think about it: a man who has been emotionally abused by his father, raped by his wife, and threatened by her brothers, and we're supposed to find this funny and romantic? It's horrifying. When Simon returns to Daphne at the end and declares his love for her, he does it in front of her brothers. Why? So they can see. This feels like a man who's trapped and desperate to survive. It feels more like a Stephen King thriller than a historical romance.

Finally, Mrs. Bridgerton was grating. She's obsessed with marrying her daughter, and if that was her only fault, I could forgive her. Instead, the narrator TELLS me she's a force to be reckoned with and TELLS me that she enjoyed having sex with her husband, but I'm not shown any of this. A woman who's had as many kids as she had and been bedded more times than that, should be comfortable enough with her body to tell her oldest daughter what to expect on the wedding night, at least the mechanics. Mrs. Bridgerton was full of contradictions and not in a good way.

All in all, this was not a romance. Normally, I like to give an author a couple of books before I write them off, but this was so terrible and so traumatizing that I will never read another Julia Quinn novel ever again. ( )

Well, this book accomplished exactly what it set out to do. I guess from a purely objective perspective with just that goal in mind this deserves 5 stars but I am a subjective human being, so tough luck.

I am usually the one that complains about forced high stakes like save the world or save the city and all that and argue that a story can live off much smaller stakes without problem but this book went to the other extreme. There are no stakes whatsoever for a decent part of the book. Just people making doe-eyes at each other.
Well, I guess it's a romance but there really is nothing else besides. No sub-plot that provides some tension or anything. It's just pure, teeth-crackingly sweet lovey-dovey romance.
There is a bit of drama within the relationship itself but as there is literally nothing else going on it is obvious from the start that there is no way they won't overcome their troubles eventually.
But I have to admit, it did that at times cute and at times steamy part fantastically. ( )

Yeah no. You know how everyone says, "the book is always better than the movie"? This does not hold true. Leave it to Shonda to make a series better than a book.
It just reminded me of one of those flowing windswept hair, tight bodice, chiseled jawwed harlequin book covers my grandma used to keep by her bedside next to her denture box. And hey, if you're into that by all means rip out those dentures and get to reading because you're gonna love this one.
However, I made the mistake of watching the Netflix series first and enjoyed some of the characters that are nonexistent in this. I'm talking primarily of the characters that were portrayed by people of color. Simon, aside they just aren't there. Queen Charlotte - Queen of Nothing. Genevieve Delacroix - Delanope. Lady Danbury - Lady Wasn't There. Will Mondrich - Will Not Exist. Ruby Barker - Ruby Begone.
None of them. Such a letdown. Really it shows what a freakin' genius Shonda Rhimes is that she can take a used bookstore cheesy bit of mommy porn and realized it lacked characters of substance and intrigue and added them to this. This boils down to a guy with daddy issues and a girl rapeing her husband because she wants kids and he doesn't.
I can only recommend this to my grandmother. Love ya Grams! ( )

What a story!!!
I laughed, cried, got angry with the characters and for them. So, so good. ( )

I only started reading this book because everyone was talking about the new Netflix series, Bridgertons. It wasn't until after watching one episode I found out it was a book series. So I had to read it. I love comparing my vision of the characters to the movie.

I really enjoyed The Duke and I by Julia Quinn. It was well written and easy to read. The chemistry between The Duke of Hastings and Daphne Bridgerton made me fall in love with them both. Their playful banter had me laughing along with them. Just enough of their personalities were expressed to have readers invested in their happy ever after. Supporting characters weren't left out, the antics of the brothers, made me wish I had more big brothers.

One of the biggest pet peeves with romance novels is when the conflict is unrealistic or forgiveness is given without explanation. I want my romance to think and act as a real couple would. Although I've never been delivered to the town for inspection of marriage or forced to marry due to a duel. The Duke and Daphne's struggles are as real as we all might experience, especially if it was the early 1800's.

For those who watch the series, I suggest reading the book to see how your favorite characters is told by the Author. Although I haven't watched the entire series, I do plan to, just to see Violet reprimand her sons. ( )