Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Duke and I

This wasn’t good at all. I think Julia Quinn could write a contemporary romance, but historical, nope. She tries to incorporate language and words from the 1800s, but it feels super forced and unnatural. Complicated words are coming up in sentences that feel very modern and sometimes, the characters talk as if they were born in the 21st century. The writing style was weird and there were some incoherencies, which I was able to figure out and understand because I have watched the series, but with the book alone it is not enough… For example, there is Whistledown, we are told a few times that she has the power to ruin people with her column, but I was able to believe it only because I have seen the 3 seasons… In the book, she never actually ruined anyone or wrote anything detrimental to anyone. (because no, writing that the Bridgertons all look alike and it cannot be doubted that they all have the same parents, that there are no illegitimate children, is not an insult)

In my opinion, this is not a love story between a Duke and a Lady, but it is a story between two unwell people with their problems, problems which they decided to share and blame on the other person rather than sorting it out and working on themselves before starting this “relationship”. Daphne is used to being the first girl in the family, always cared for by her mother and 3 older brothers, she cannot understand “no” and things not going her way, hence her not understanding Simon’s issues and not giving him the time he needed. Simon is clearly traumatised but he doesn’t really want to admit it and therefore cannot figure things out for himself and get better.

Moral of the story, they both need therapy and we all know that only meeting up in a park and saying everything is now alright isn’t enough. We are told in the epilogue that they have 4 kids, but my question is how will the kids grow up in a dysfunctional family like this one? Their parents might have figured that they had issues to be fixed but never actually fixed them before having the kids.

I gave it 2 stars because I still quite enjoyed my time reading it, but I think it’s also just because I watched the series and saw it play in my head, it compensated for the lack of atmosphere written by the author. And I know that I will still read the other books because I want to see if the writing got better and leave another chance to the other Bridgerton siblings since I know that even in the Netflix series, I hated Daphne and season 1 was my least favourite.

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starcrossreverie's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I DNF'ed this book at 77%.

The rape scene was worse than I thought it would be. I've legit seen people defend Daphne in the book making it seem like Simon was the one who initiated the sex, so I thought Simon would be drunk and awake but NO he was asleep with morning wood. It's literally written that she felt a rush of power in the situation, of how happy she was to be in control, and how she felt nothing but pleasure when he tried to get her off of him the moment he realized she was forcing him to cum inside her.

I waited for this book on Libby for a month, probably longer, and told myself to finish the book for that reason but one chapter after the rape scene I realized that finishing the book means I'll have to read Daphne get her happily ever after and that Simon would have to push aside his feelings in order to make HER happy. That is beyond fucked up.

And it wasn't just the rape scene that made me give this book a 1 star.

It's bland and boring. With a fake dating trope, it NEEDS drama. It needs more than just one scene where one becomes jealous at the romantic attention the other is getting, and that scene in Daphne's calling room was not it due to how soon into the fake dating it happened.

Daphne tells Simon that the fake dating wouldn't work on the Mamas as they'll continue pushing their single daughters at him but we don't get a scene like that! Even if it was just Daphne's self consciousness letting her say that, we still don't get to experience Daphne getting jealous of the attention he's getting.

They fall in love too quickly, which goes against the fake dating trope. They're supposed to have that realization that makes them go into denial over their feelings, only to realize that they can't escape how they feel, and then there's supposed to be a moment where they wonder how on earth are they going to turn this from fake dating into real dating, wondering if the other person even feels the same way about them.

The fake dating trope is supposed to come with drama and angst, but everything goes perfectly without any bumps in the road. I wouldn't even call the duel a bump because it was so dumb.

I knew she was going to rape him before I started reading but I liked her siblings and Lady Whistledown from the show a lot, so I read it for them and figured I'll push past this book to get to the other ones. Wasn't worth it, plus I've since learned that her brothers are trash to women.

My curiosity to see how bad the men in these books are makes me want to try reading the other books. I don't see myself finishing them either.

Overall, Daphne is a POS. I hate this book. And to the defenders who say "this is what happened in the 1800s.", this book wasn't written in the 1800s, and y'all aren't reading it in the 1800s. I would not be surprised if fans of these book also love Haunting Adeline. I am legit mad that the book fans talked about this dark romance series as if everything was sweet and wholesome, y'all really have people thinking these books are normal romances.

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jeyjeyyy's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Objectively bad. So lacking in description and setting it felt like the characters were sitting in the same blank room all along.
Fun if you’re a big fan of the show (like me) and wanted some more content though it’s clear the show made a looootttt of effort to improve this lackluster story.
Cute romance at times but ruined by the toxicity, the assault, and the « you’re my property » talk which was just EWW
Bonus bad : sexual assault is REALLY not cute ! Nor is guilt tripping the victim ms Daphne :)
Yeah : it’s bad
Will I be reading Antony’s book just cause it’s Antony ? Yes, obviously.

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garbage_mcsmutly's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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dorin_love's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

DNF after chapter 18, rape is a hell no and then the rapist crying about why the person they raped leaves them is disgusting.

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