Splendid (Avon Historical Romance) (edició 2003)

Picked this one up as I was looking forward to some non-Bridgerton work. Unfortunately . . . I found the hero unlikeable and cliché; the heroine was refreshingly non-English, but one can only read about her hair color so many times, you see. And quite frankly, the writing is rough.

Redeeming factors are the snippets of humor and the reappearance of a plot within the last part of the book. Not unreadable, but would prefer not to read again. 2 / 5. ( )

Can def tell this is the author's first book. Just read "Ten Things I Love About You" and can (gladly) tell the maturation of Julia Quinn. In bits and parts I could feel the beginnings of the usual Julia Quinn humor emerging, i.e. Bridgerton series.
Surface writing, not connected, and because of this I was never able to get into the story. It has all the cliché characters described in the first three chapters, plucky American girl, shy cousin, and the Duke. Now I can usually read about these characters all day long but it needs to feel fresh and the characters have to suck me in. This story read very general.
Book felt like it was written by an inspired romance fan. You know, when after you read an incredible romance book that stole you from your life for a couple hours and then after the magic of that story dies down you start to create a story in your mind and think 'I should write this!'. Level 1 writing.
The main characters Emma and Alex never endeared themselves to me and frequently were annoying. Emma was so 'gosh darn stubborn' and always leaping before she looked and Alex was incredibly autocratic and so angry at times with Emma that he could just "throttle her"! All the supporting characters were well written just very vanilla. The baddie Viscount Woodside was the only one who was interesting and he wasn't even in the story very much.
The Big Misunderstanding was lame-o; infact the whole story was filled with predictability. I don't even know if I will remember this story a week from now. Like I said before, obvious this was Julia Quinn's first book and I am so happy she has refined her skills since then.
So anyway, eek I found this story boring at times! This book did come out in 1995 so maybe it was a first of it's kind, humorous and amorous in the regency period, and that is why people rank it high on romance book lists. I however, have read much better. In fact I would recommend Olivia Parker's book, which I absolutely loved, "At the Bride Hunt Ball" #1 in Bride Hunt series (also loved the 2nd in the series) instead of Splendid. It has a Duke and a spunky gal (alas not American) and was way more humorous and amorous to me (it was a keeper!).

D ( )

This book was not my favourite from Julia Quinn. I believe I read that this was her first novel, which you can tell by the writing in the beginning. I felt she jumped from person to person and then a sort of narrative type writing. It got better throughout the novel, or perhaps I just got used to it. The story itself was good. However I think she should have wrapped it up around 83% of the way in. I don't think she needed the last "event" that took place. Or if it was needed, I would have preferred it to happen before she gave the characters their "happily ever after." But this is just my opinion. ( )

Julia Quinn's first novel shines brightly. Much better than many first novels out there, IMO. Thank goodness for us, she didn't finish the M.D., although I'm sure she would have been successful in whatever she decided to do.

Loved the heroine, her extended family, and the plot. Quinn's humor, style, and sense of adventure are all there.

Hero was just ok...Dude, seriously? Who goes around kissing random ladies with concussions in carriages?? Took me a while to like him. Read the Bridgerton or Smythe-Smith heros first! ( )

Underwhelming. But added to collection as JQ's debut novel. ( )