Romancing Mister Bridgerton - Julia Quinn

Initial draw: ✰✰✰✰
Character development: ✰✰✰✰
Plot/Writing style: ✰✰✰✰
My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Everyone knows that Colin Bridgerton is the most charming man in London. Penelope Featherington has secretly adored her best friend's brother for...well, it feels like forever. After half a lifetime of watching Colin Bridgerton from afar, she thinks she knows everything about him, until she stumbles across his deepest secret...and fears she doesn't know him at all.

Colin Bridgerton is tired of being thought nothing but an empty-headed charmer, tired of everyone's preoccupation with the notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, who can't seem to publish an edition without mentioning him in the first paragraph. But when Colin returns to London from a trip abroad he discovers nothing in his life is quite the same - especially Penelope Featherington! The girl haunting his dreams. But when he discovers that Penelope has secrets of her own, this elusive bachelor must decide...is she his biggest threat - or his promise of a happy ending?"

This is one of my favorite book of the series, and it's not just because I see myself in Colin Bridgerton and his insecurity with letting other people read his writing. Or maybe it is, who's to say? Honestly, the more that I've sat with it, I feel like part of why I liked it so much was because it was pretty benign, which was a pretty big breath of fresh air after Benedict went full Dennis in the last book. I like Penelope and how quietly snarky she is, I love that we get more Lady Danbury in this book, and I enjoyed the way Colin gradually becomes more aware of Penelope until he's like oh, shit...am I in love with her? The boy is dense, but it was cute.