A review by claudcloud
On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn

mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

WE HAVE DONE IT 🎉 I finally finished this series!!! I'll be doing this review a little differently and giving my thoughts on the last installment as well as the series as a whole below.

"On The Way to the Wedding" -

Let me be the first to say that miss Lucy is MY GIRL!!!! I felt for her so, SO much and I understood her tendency to put everyone else first so well... I will always deeply love a protagonist who is selfless to a fault and who needs a good waking up in order to realize that they're allowed to actually make choices based on what they want instead of what everyone else wants for them!! Her and Gregory's dynamic was also really cute, and I enjoyed reading them together!! That being said - the last few chapters soured it a little bit for me because what do you MEAN you're going to tie her up AFTER she's already married to someone else... Granted, I can't think of how else the resolution could've gone myself, but I would've loved for JQ to keep respecting Lucy's agency (when Hermione went "how would YOU like it if your fate was being decided without you" I almost CHEERED!!! I love their friendship as well!!!!) Also - goddamn - NINE kids?!?! Poor Luce!

I feel like this is also one of the other books in the series that lends itself so well to a queer storyline!! So now that we have a Michaela Sterling in the mix, I definitely wouldn't mind to see Luke Abernathy and to get the plot twist of the century when Gregory stops the wedding for the groom, not the bride!! Shonda PLEASE!!!!

The Bridgerton books -

I never. Ever. Ever say this. But in every single aspect, the TV adaptation is SO much better. The books are incredibly patriarchal and hetero-normative, don't treat women well at all, and the male love interests are HORRIBLE. Every single one of them - with the exception of maybe Colin and Gregory, whose actions are not quite so egregious, even though they're definitely not without fault either. This obsession of men needing to be so possessive and aggressive in order to perform masculinity has to be stopped??? Immediately?!?!?!? The atmosphere of balls and courtship and high society was fun to be in, but MY GOD does the show build and elevate it so much??? I also found that the more we went into the series, the more I missed Lady Whistledown (IYKYK) so I'm very curious how the show deals with that aspect?

All in all - I'm not regretting giving these books a chance, and I am glad that I now finally know what will happen with everyone so that I can follow the adaptation better - BUT I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE SHOW TO PUT IT TO SHAME HAHAHAH!!