I'm reading the Bridgerton books by Julia Quinn for the first time and they're brilliant. Well, wait... let me restate this. I have read the first three and the second was 100% my favorite, the first was excellent and the third was okay. Today I'm going to start Romancing Mr. Bridgerton which is rumored to be the best.
The thing about series romances is that they can't all have the same story line. The Duke and I was the first and a good read. Good enough that I wanted to read them all. Then came The Viscount Who Loved Me and I was in heaven. It had my favorite trope of all time: two brilliant characters who hate each other, snipe constantly and fall in love.
The third book, An Offer From a Gentleman was a complete and total Cinderella story which was fine but not a trope I adore. The heroine was in such dire straights because of her illegitmate birth that no matter how smart or strong she was, she was always weak because her choices sucked.
So the books are a real see-saw of enjoyment for me. The writing is excellent but the things that make me love a story are definately back and forth. The strong heroine I adore was in books one and two but not three. I have a feeling that book 4 will have another heroine I love.
The heroes are all excellent and the Bridgerton family is one I like. I think that in this case the family adds to the pleasure as does the chapters beginning with comments from a scandal sheet but a part of me wishes for single title romances so I can pick and choose my heroines more carefully.
(Yes, I read and I'm heroine-centric. A great hero means shit to me if the woman isn't one I root for.)
I'm going to start the fourth book next. And after that... well, I don't know. There's a new Loretta Chase series starting. Do I dare?
You have to dare - I insist.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't as enamored of Chase's last book, Last Night's Scandal, as everyone else, but with Silk Is For Seduction, she's back in my ballpark.
And yes, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton is my very favorite of that series. It's a Cinderella story, but a very witty Cinderella story.
The problem with series is that you gulp them down as quickly as you can and sometimes end up glutted for that genre. That's what happened with me and Lisa Kleypas. But omg, they were so good! And I was so happy.
Sometimes, with stand alone books, I find myself wanting more. If the author has created a great world and even better characters, I just want to stay there. A series allows me to do so.
I agree that it allow you to remain in a world you love with characters you love.
ReplyDeleteI was completely enamored of the Spencer series by the late Robert Parker. And if you read the first books of the series, they were detailed, beautifully written books.
As the seres went on and on and on, the books almost felt like they were written in shorthand. It was a huge let down that the detail, the deep POV that he used was replaced with almost a shrug and a "You know..."
I think thats why I can't commit to a series of many books. Three or four becomes my limit because I know if it gets to be more, the author will get lazy and I will get pissed.