The Duke & I (The Duke and I - Julia Quinn)

Member Name: dizzysummer03

Product:	The Duke and I - Julia Quinn
Date:	27/10/09 (23 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great story, very funny

Disadvantages: Little inconsistency with rest of series

The Duke and I is the first book in Julia Quinm's Bridgerton series. There are eight books in the series, each book has one of the Bridgerton siblings as its central character. The books are set in the early 19th Century and although they are a series, the author has designed the books to work as stand alone novels as well as part of a series.

Daphne Bridgerton is the fourth of the Bridgerton siblings, however with three older brothers and two season in London under her belt, she is receiving the full vent of her mother's detirmination that she must marry and marry soon.

Daphne's main problem is that with three older brothers (and one younger brother) she relates well to men, they see her as their friend, not their wife, and the only people who do want to marry her are people she knows she could not spend the rest of her life with. It's not that she's holding out for love, just somebody that she actually likes.

Simon, Duke of Hastings is an old school friend of Daphne's oldest brother Anthony, on his return from the continent following his fathers death he finds that every matchmaking mama has decided their daughter would be perfect as his Duchess, and afterall reformed rakes 'make the best husbands'. There's just one problem, Simon has sworn never to marry, but he knows the attention won't go away.

Daphne and Simon agree to pretend that they are beginning to fall in love, so that the matchmakers will leave Simon alone and other men will take an interest in Daphne now that the Duke has started to show an interest, in the hope she will find someone to marry. What neither of them expected was that spending so much time together could turn their charade into reality.

This was another excellent book from Julia, containing her usual blend of humour and a great plotline. The characters were well written and you felt drawn into the chaos of the Bridgerton family, wishing that youcould be part of it.

The let down for me was Lady Violet, Daphne's mother - she seemed such a different character from the way she is portrayed in the rest of the series, it really jumped out at me from her first appearance becuase she normally comes across as sensible quite different from the other scoiety mothers, but in this book that wasn't the case.

Overall this was a humourous and engaging story which I really enhoyed and would definitely recommend.

Summary: A really enjoyable read