"After enduring two seasons in London, Daphne Bridgerton is no longer naive enough to believe she will be able to marry for love. But is it really too much to hope for a husband for whom she at least has some affection?Her brother's old school friend Simon Basset - the new Duke of Hastings - has no intention of ever marrying. However, newly returned to England, he finds himself the target of the many marriage-minded society mothers who remain convinced that reformed rakes make the best husbands.To deflect their attention, the handsome hell-raiser proposes to Daphne that they pretend an attachment. In return, his interest in Daphne will ensure she becomes the belle of London society with suitors beating a path to her door. There's just one problem, Daphne is in very real danger of falling for a man who has no intention of making their charade a reality..."
Ah, the Bridgertons...I, of course, bingewatched the series when it showed up on Netflix, and when I found out the show was based on a book series I half-heartedly debated reading them. My reading habits generally skew more toward YA or Middle Grade, so romance isn't typically in my rotation, but then I found out a friend had started reading them, and that sealed the deal. I never can pass up an opportunity to talk about books with my buds, and as a bonus, I was able to borrow their copies to read, so...ease of access to the books and someone to discuss them with? I didn't stand a chance. And here we are.
All that to say...I wasn't super drawn to the books initially. My initial reticence aside though, while I have some issues, I did think the character development was solid, the dialogue was witty, and honestly even the worst book can be improved by having someone to react to it with, so...all in all, The Duke and I was an okay read. I wasn't intending to review them, so aside from the reaction texts I sent my friend (which primarily consisted of things like "I cannot with 'the cradle of her femininity'" and "yeah, I'm not mature enough for this"), I have no notes on the book, so I'm sorry that this review is a bit lacking. The best I can do is give you my top three takeaways, which will include spoilers, so...sorry.
Not lying about spoilers. Don't keep reading if you don't want to be spoiled.
Takeaway 1: Did we need to include a rape scene? Daphne decides that even though Simon doesn't want to have kids, she does, and that's more important! So when homie is drunk, she initiates sex, and even though he very clearly is like hey, please let's stop, she keeps going until he finishes. This was included in the show, too, and I just. We're not even going to call out that this was not an okay thing for her to do? Really?
Takeaway 2: If I never hear the word "maidenhead" again, it will be too soon.
Takeaway 3: I lack the patience for storylines set in this era in which the societal expectations of the time are strictly adhered to. Are you really going to tell me that girls weren't finding ways to get intel about sex and doing the dirty on the downlow? Daphne didn't know a single fucking thing about how sex worked? Her mom couldn't do even a slightly better job of explaining it to her? I know there are some things that I need some suspension of disbelief, because I'm holding regency-era characters to 2021 feminist standards, but for shit's sake. It really drove me crazy that the whole premise of the book is basically "men fuck as much as they want, and of course everyone is okay with this, but women don't even know what a dick is." I cannot.
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