Book Review: The Duke and I - by Julia Quinn

The Duke and I is the first book by Julia Quinn I've read so far and I really liked it. It is the first in a series about the Bridgerton family.

Synopsis: Daphne Bridgerton is having a difficult time finding any acceptable suitors and Simon, the Duke of Hastings doesn't want to get married (ever). So they form a sham courtship in order to pique the interest of the eligible gentlemen for her and to keep the matchmaking mothers away from him. They fall in love, of course, and have to overcome some of Simon's, er... issues.

I like Quinn's style for the most part - the overall tone of the novel is light and humorous. The little passages from Lady Whistledown's Society Papers at the beginning of each chapter are really fun and add a lot of humor.

The conversations between the characters were funny and engaging. I think my only complaint would be that you get virtually no descriptive passages of any kind. While too much description/exposition can be tedious to read (particularly in a romance), it is nice to be given some detail about what the people are wearing, what their houses look like, etc. Like in this one scene, they are on a yacht going down the Thames on a summer afternoon. Now you'd think this would be a good opportunity to really give the reader a sense of what things look like and how the characters feel about their surroundings. Instead, you just get a brief line about how they're on a boat.

Other than that, though, the story was good and the characters were top-knotch. I really fell in love with all of the Bridgertons - and I especially liked the mother, Violet Bridgerton. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

I rated this one in my LibraryThing catalog at 5 stars!