had two primary concerns going into When He Was Wicked:I was curious to see what Quinn would do with a heroine who GASP isn't a virgin!!andI was pretty sure she'd never given more than like five minutes thought to Francesca until it was time to write this book.
Francesca was prior to this book and following it, honestly the Invisible Bridgerton, I'm fairly certain that she's only ever present in a scene once in the previous five books, and that's a scene wherein Simon Bassett can't tell her and Eloise apart, so it's entirely possible and likely since the dialogue in the scene was very, very Eloise that she literally never had a single line of dialogue before her own book.
On top of that she's rarely, if ever, mentioned except in the most casual passing fashion, and the only specific reference to her goingson that I can recall is when Penelope Featherington reflects on the fact that Francesca was married and soon after widowed at some point in the rather large time gap between An Offer from a Gentleman and Romancing Mr.
Bridgerton.
Quinn's solution for Concernwas simple: she immediately establishes Francesca as an independent and reserved soul who, while she loves her massive, boisterous family, generally prefers being off and away from them doing her own thing.
How convenient!
While that's a perfectly fine personality archetype and Francesca is, indeed, a perfectly fine character, the disconnection from the rest of the Bridgertons necessitated by it means that a huge draw of the series the interplay between the Bridgerton family is almost wholly absent from the book.
Julia Quinn pretty obviously struggles a bit around the middle of the novel attempting to make up for this deficiency by inserting Colin into Michael's half of the narrative essentially for no other reason than to troll him and, I imagine, add some interest by including an appearance from a beloved character.
And while it did predictably, delight me, Colin doesn't really belong in this narrative, Indeed, the contrast between how forced his appearance is in this book and how perfectly it fit in To Sir Phillip, with Love is stark, Colin, Eloise, and Francesca's stories all take place concurrently, but while Colin and Eloise's complement each other narratively, structurally, and emotionally, Francesca's, much like Francesca herself, is clearly an afterthought.
Which isn't to say that Francesca is in any way unbearable, again, she's perfectly fine! Or that the book itself is, It's not. Now, Michael isn't all that exciting given how many rakes we've seen at this point almost all of them more interesting than him and while his pining for Francesca surprisingly never turns the corner to gross, let's not pretend anyone really cares all that much about his manpain.
However, his interactions with Francesca are passably charming though, honestly, actually moreso before they become involved, But the book as a whole is just, . . flat. Francesca's closed off nature and, again, Quinn's obvious lack of interest in her makes her almost inscrutable as a character at times, and even though she's the lead, you never quite feel like you've gotten into her head.
The emotion in the early portion of the book, when she's with John and immediately following his death, is strong and affecting, but after that it just sort of flounders and never really picks up again.
Likely because it skips ahead to when she's pretty much over it or as over it as anyone can be,
Then the book just dives into her and Michael and their attraction, which is when we finally get to Concern, As a widow, Francesca is the only female romantic lead in the Bridgerton series who is not virginal upon her first encounter with the male lead, and I was extremely excited to see how Julia Quinn handled a woman who isn't just learning and stands hopelessly ignorant about the needs and desires of her own body not that there's anything wrong with that, nor to say that Quinn doesn't actually do pretty well with regard to portraying the various ladies' sexual awakenings, as I think that she does.
It turns out, Quinn pretty much just dives in, But much like I actually liked Francesca and Michael's banter more before they became involved, I mostly found them much sexier before, . . they actually had sex. Whereas the other heroines in the series are, as mentioned, blushing virgins finding out what this and this and that does, Quinn pretty much takes Francesca straight to dominatrix porn star, which cool.
And yet! Not doing much for me, personally, alas,
But points for trying, I guess that's my feeling on this book as a whole actually, Points for trying, but ehhh,
I'd probably have to count this the weakest in the series,
”It was the one dream hed never permitted himself to consider”,
La verdad no sabía qué esperar de este libro de Francesca porque, en el fondo, es quizá a la hermana que menos se menciona en las otras historias.
Pero lo bueno es que me llevé una gratísima sorpresa con ella y, por supuesto, con Michael,
En El Corazón de una Bridgerton todo empieza cuando Francesca pierde repentinamente a su esposo John, El conde de Kilmartin muere y la deja únicamente con Michael, quien ha sido el mejor amigo de los dos desde hace muchísimos años, En medio del duelo, Francesca va a tener que hacerse cargo de las propiedades y, eventualmente, de encontrar un nuevo marido que la ayude a cumplir uno de sus más grandes sueños.
Michael, por otra parte, siempre ha amado a Francesca y se ha odiado cada día de su vida por ello, Después de todo, qué hombre decente
se enamoraría de la esposa de su mejor amigo Sin embargo, tras la muerte de John, Michael se va a enfrentar de nuevo a sus sentimientos y, quizá, a los de Francesca.
No saben cuánto amé la fórmula de esta historia, Hay algo en la idea de un hombre enamorado de una mujer que no puede tener que, sin duda, me mantuvo enganchadísima de principio a fin, Además, Julia Quinn es una maestra en el arte de la tensión y en hacer que sus personajes, a pesar de la época, no se precipiten y piensen muchísimo en las consecuencias que tendrán sus actos.
Y es que, por supuesto, tanto Francesca como Michael tienen un montón en lo que pensar, Ambos saben, muy en el fondo, que quieren estar juntos, pero se mantienen alejados por respeto a la memoria de John,
Me encantaron todas las pequeñas discusiones, los gestos y las frases reveladoras que, poco a poco, se les iban saliendo e iban demostrando sus verdaderos sentimientos por el otro.
Además, cuando llega el momento en el que por fin dejan todas las pretensiones y miedos de lado todo es maravilloso entre ellos, Y amé que, de todas las Bridgerton, Francesca fuera la más osada y empoderada durante aquellos momentos, if you know what I mean, Aunque, claro, tiene sentido porque ella ya estuvo casada, En fin. Fan de ella.
Y Michael ay, Michael, Creo que es uno de los personajes masculinos de Julia Quinn más leales, entregados y absolutamente adorables que he leído hasta ahora, Sin duda se convirtió en uno de mis favoritos, Además, es escocés, así que nada puede ser más perfecto, Ah! Y hay algo con respecto a él que es un spoiler y que me iba matando de la angustia sobre el final, pero menos mal la autora aclaró cierto aspecto de eso en su nota final.
En fin, que sigo con este camino de los Bridgerton y, honestamente, estoy empezando a preocuparme por cuando no me queden más libros de estos hermanos por leer.
Fanning myself
Goodness,
This book should get two from me, but here's an interesting fact Michael Stirling rates an entire star on his own, I found myself frustrated with Francesca's behavior, It's not that I couldn't understand it, just that it dragged on for far too long, I've noticed that a propensity to draw out a story is one of the weaknesses in Quinn's writing, This isn't the only book of hers I've read that had me heaving a sigh, rolling my eyes, and uttering
sitelink
But if you can get past the drawn out melodrama, Michael Stirling is quite a hunk o' man meat, and reading about him is certainly no chore.
This book recounts the ageold tale of falling in love with your best friend's girl, . . but what happens when you get your chance at her hand, albeit at the loss of your best friend through his untimely death
This is a beautiful Regency romance on grief, loss, and moving on.
I've read and mostly loved all the books featuring the Bridgerton family, and this is the book I return to time after time because I think it is the best in the series.
It is written in your typical inestimable Julia Quinn style, so expect to burst out in giggles every so often, but it is one of her more serious and wellwritten novels.
The topic is not touched on lightly, the pain, the guilt, the resignation and denial are all there you want stages of grief, you got it, It's ahanky book. Possibly more, depending on the quality of your handkerchiefs lace won't hold up here,
The characters are intricate and well described, complex in their thoughts and believable in how they mature, It's not a perfect book I had some problems with the characters and plot, but overall, it is very wellwritten and remains one of my favorites in the Regency genre.
The writing. THE WRITING. Did I mention the writing It flows so naturally, so eloquently without being flowery and prosaic, Julia Quinn's earlier works have the ability to make me laugh, cry, swoon, and this ranks among her best,
Michael has been in love with Francesca since he saw her, which ordinarily wouldn't be a bad thing since he's a very eligible bachelor, . . but they met at Francesca's engagement party, To Michael's cousin and best friend, What makes it worse for him is that they are so compatible unlike his other conquests, he truly enjoys her company Francesca and Michael end up liking each other immensely.
They wind up becoming good friends after her marriage to his cousin he hides his pain and feelings for her through his usual lighthearted debauchery, They laugh together, tease each other, have fun together, all the while with Francesca blissfully happy in her marriage with her Lord John and blithely oblivious at the pain Michael is suffering despite his outwardly vivacious facade.
His love for her is confounding, love at first sight, as clichéd as it may sound, . . but unlike the usual story when the hero/heroine falls inexplicably in love, Julia Quinn has a lovely way of putting his abstract and inexplicable attraction to Francesca in words:
"It wasnt her hair, that rich, lush wave of chestnut that he was rarely so privileged as to see down.
And it wasnt even her eyes, so radiantly blue that men had been moved to write poetrymuch, Michael recalled, to Johns everlasting amusement, It wasnt even in the shape of her face or the structure of her bones if that were the case, hed have been obsessed with the loveliness of all the Bridgerton girls such peas in a pod they were, at least on the outside.
It was something in the way she moved,
Something in the way she breathed,
Something in the way she merely was, "
Tell me you don't get a lump in your throat after reading that,
And Michael would never dream of betraying his cousin, his best friend, He loves John as much as he loves Francesca, and betraying either of them would be an unimaginably atrocious act, Michael is willing to and is determined to spend his life devoted to maintaining the happiness of the two people he loves most in life, So imagine how torn he feels when his chance inevitably come in a way he never would have dreamed of or wished for: John dies NOT A SPOILER.
He now has the chance to make Francesca his Dare he take it No, He flees all the way to India because he couldn't find a way to deal with his grief, much less with Francesca's, on top of his conflicting emotions for her, and doesn't return until he felt "he could be with Francesca in friendship, without feeling as if he were a thief, plotting to steal what hed coveted for so long," which only took him several years.
Michael is not a perfect character, lest I make him sound like too much of a martyr, He's a coward at times, running away from his feelings and his responsibilities when he inherits the earldom upon his cousin's death, and to be honest, I wanted to smack him repeatedly, particularly towards the end of the book, when he starts acting like a patronizing asshole towards Francesca.
However, his love for Franesca remains constant, and I can't find it in my heart to dislike him much,
Francesca is a wonderful character, Spirited and bright, having grown up in the loud and lively Bridgerton bosom, She likes Michael, she loves John, Lest the reader believes her relationship with John was terrible, in a book setting her up to inevitably be with Michael in the end, it's not, She loves her marriage and her husband,
"He was her kindred spirit, so like her in so many ways, But it had, in a strange sort of fashion, been a relief to exit her mothers home, to escape to a more serene existence with John, whose sense of humor was precisely like hers.
He understood her, he anticipated her,
He completed her. "
Obviously, she suffers upon her husband's death, but it comes as a double loss when she miscarries his child, Within a short time, she lost her husband, her unborn child, then her friend Michael through his flight to India, but she survives and comes to terms with the loss.
What is harder for her to come to terms with is her growing feelings for Michael, whom she has always seen as akin to a brother, Until one day when she, in turn looks at him,
"But suddenly But now
Shed looked at him, and shed seen something entirely new,
Shed seen a man,
And it scared the very devil out of her, "
then she, too, runs away,
Here are two people trying to move on with their life, trying to get past their grief, trying to ignore their growing attraction for each other.
Trying not to fall in love, trying not to forget the man they both loved so much, the one who will always be a part of them, Both of them have so much to deal with in reconciling that their love is not a betrayal of memory or trust or friendship, and the book does a tremendous job of portraying that.
I also loved the presence of Violet Bridgerton in this novel, She is the matriarch of the Bridgerton clan, mother to eight young children, and it is she in whom Francesca turns to for advice and comfort at her own loss.
Violet knows only too well what Francesca went through, having been widowed herself at a young age, Even if she does not get much screen time, I so enjoyed seeing her reveal a little bit of herself and her own grief, We have only ever seen Violet as the steelcored matriarch who has raised eight young children on her own, and given not much thought to what she must have been suffering all these years.
I loved seeing her through the veneer of perfection, giving her own advice to Francesca here,
Some latter parts of the book were weak Michael and Francesca spent as much time fighting with each other as with themselves, and I grew frustrated with both.
However, this book remains one of the best Regency romances on my shelf, and I highly recommend it, .
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Julia Quinn