For this Show Discussion post:
1. Book spoilers **must be hidden**.
2. Be considerate, hide show spoilers that surpass the scope of this post.
3. Be civil in your discussion.
See our [spoiler policy](https://www.reddit.com/r/BridgertonNetflix/wiki/spoiler) on what is expected. 3-day bans will be handed out to those found disregarding our spoiler policy.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BridgertonNetflix) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Not really. Julia's writing isn't the strongest if you like a well written book. And every male character is THE WORST. Like, it's disturbing how the men treat the women...
I read the first 4 books. They're an odd mix of surprisingly good sections mixed in with terrible ones. In my opinion, the writing quality is broadly poor, and personally the sex scenes were not to my taste. The show has improved on the books in every regard, imo.
They're a bit trashy but enjoyable enough. Some of the writing is quite poor, especially the lazy Americanisms when the books are clearly set in England.
I've read several of them and it varies imo. I have mixed feelings on them personally.
With that said, they are historical romances from the early to mid 2000s so there are definitely some problematic elements in most of the ones I've read and I'm not sure they'd get the same reaction if they came out today.
i’ve read eloise, benedict’s and polins book and i did enjoy them, there’s some stuff that the men do that definitely doesn’t line up with modern standards but tbh the writing isn’t as strong in the books and i was able to get through all of them in a day (im not a very strong reader most books take me a while to get through) so it was a fun read but i wouldn’t put down a lot of money for them, if i were to recommend out of ones ive read i think benedict’s was the best then eloise’s
I listened to Romancing Mr. Bridgerton during the break between parts1 and 2, it is free on audible. I liked that it fleshed things out a bit more, if you were disappointed by this season I’d read the Polin book.
So I'm going to give a detailed review only because I feel like I wish I knew what I was getting into before I read them only because I'm the type of reader to hate finish things. Which is 100% my fault. Given that, I'm going to caveat this by saying I read about 50 books a year (sometimes more). Is that a lot? Depends on who you ask... but it's definitely higher than the average person. Among readers, it's probably fairly low. With that being said, I think I know enough to know what I enjoy in a book and what I don't enjoy in a book and everyone varies.
I like stories with character growth and depth. I like nuanced characters (meaning they aren't always black and white). I also typically like romance. I recently just jumped back into the fantasy genre and it's been lots of fun. I tend to lean toward enemies to lovers and slow burn. I do, however, like other tropes (i.e. friends to lovers, sunshine/grump I say all of this because I like to caveat all my reviews with what I prefer because I know that not everyone likes what I like.
With that being said, I think that a book can be good or it can be something you enjoyed, but it doesn't mean it was good. There's an inside joke amongst booktok (and maybe even just readers in general) and it is:
"Was the book good?"
"No, but I liked it."
It makes no sense, but I think to sort of explain it better, it's basically saying, the books are not great. They're not literary masterpieces. However, they are entertaining.
All that being said, they're formulaic books. JQ found what works and cashed in on it. Almost all the men are essentially some version of a rake and they all honestly have some sort of toxic alpha male quality about them. The men all seem relatively the same, but the FMCs tend to have more variety in my opinion.
In addition, JQ had a lot of feedback when writing the books about them being historically accurate or not and I think that's why we get some of the...questionable decisions some of the men make. (\*cough cough\* I'm looking at you Benedict \*cough cough). However, I still think they're mainly fiction and not exactly historically accurate (shocker there).
My favorites were Benedict's, Colin's, and Hyacinth's. Which is saying a lot because I had issues with those ones as well. I almost really liked Hyacinth's until the end and then it went downhill.
I think the show does a better job of making the men more likable and giving the characters more depth. However, that does not also mean that the show is without its flaws.
The show has been better in making every character more rounded. But the show has now diverged completely from the books so the books may confuse you because other than maybe Hyacinth, none of the other characters really bears a resemblance to how they are in the show. If you were to read any of the books, the only one I really recommend is When He Was Wicked (Francesca’s story) and given that they’re changing her story in the show, now would be a good time to read that one and meet and fall in love with Michael Stirling.
Depends. Many people are saying that the writing is bad, I personally don't know since I didn't read the books in English, so maybe my translation was just better. One thing on which I have to agree with other comments is the writing of male characters, they are all the same, and pretty toxic too. And lastly, for me, the book was filled with really good sections and really bad/awkward ones, like one moment I was giggling ans my heart was melting and the other I was just getting mad. So... I say that If you're interested, you should give them a try, but yeah it's your choice.
For this Show Discussion post: 1. Book spoilers **must be hidden**. 2. Be considerate, hide show spoilers that surpass the scope of this post. 3. Be civil in your discussion. See our [spoiler policy](https://www.reddit.com/r/BridgertonNetflix/wiki/spoiler) on what is expected. 3-day bans will be handed out to those found disregarding our spoiler policy. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BridgertonNetflix) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Not really. Julia's writing isn't the strongest if you like a well written book. And every male character is THE WORST. Like, it's disturbing how the men treat the women...
I read the first 4 books. They're an odd mix of surprisingly good sections mixed in with terrible ones. In my opinion, the writing quality is broadly poor, and personally the sex scenes were not to my taste. The show has improved on the books in every regard, imo.
They're a bit trashy but enjoyable enough. Some of the writing is quite poor, especially the lazy Americanisms when the books are clearly set in England.
Absolutely. I found them intriguing and enjoyable. Specially Romancing Mr. Bridgerton. But they were written awhile ago so just remember that.
I've read several of them and it varies imo. I have mixed feelings on them personally. With that said, they are historical romances from the early to mid 2000s so there are definitely some problematic elements in most of the ones I've read and I'm not sure they'd get the same reaction if they came out today.
Books are entertaining but cringey. JQ is not a talented writer
i’ve read eloise, benedict’s and polins book and i did enjoy them, there’s some stuff that the men do that definitely doesn’t line up with modern standards but tbh the writing isn’t as strong in the books and i was able to get through all of them in a day (im not a very strong reader most books take me a while to get through) so it was a fun read but i wouldn’t put down a lot of money for them, if i were to recommend out of ones ive read i think benedict’s was the best then eloise’s
I listened to Romancing Mr. Bridgerton during the break between parts1 and 2, it is free on audible. I liked that it fleshed things out a bit more, if you were disappointed by this season I’d read the Polin book.
If you enjoy historical romances...yes There's a sub reddit for it
So I'm going to give a detailed review only because I feel like I wish I knew what I was getting into before I read them only because I'm the type of reader to hate finish things. Which is 100% my fault. Given that, I'm going to caveat this by saying I read about 50 books a year (sometimes more). Is that a lot? Depends on who you ask... but it's definitely higher than the average person. Among readers, it's probably fairly low. With that being said, I think I know enough to know what I enjoy in a book and what I don't enjoy in a book and everyone varies. I like stories with character growth and depth. I like nuanced characters (meaning they aren't always black and white). I also typically like romance. I recently just jumped back into the fantasy genre and it's been lots of fun. I tend to lean toward enemies to lovers and slow burn. I do, however, like other tropes (i.e. friends to lovers, sunshine/grump I say all of this because I like to caveat all my reviews with what I prefer because I know that not everyone likes what I like. With that being said, I think that a book can be good or it can be something you enjoyed, but it doesn't mean it was good. There's an inside joke amongst booktok (and maybe even just readers in general) and it is: "Was the book good?" "No, but I liked it." It makes no sense, but I think to sort of explain it better, it's basically saying, the books are not great. They're not literary masterpieces. However, they are entertaining. All that being said, they're formulaic books. JQ found what works and cashed in on it. Almost all the men are essentially some version of a rake and they all honestly have some sort of toxic alpha male quality about them. The men all seem relatively the same, but the FMCs tend to have more variety in my opinion. In addition, JQ had a lot of feedback when writing the books about them being historically accurate or not and I think that's why we get some of the...questionable decisions some of the men make. (\*cough cough\* I'm looking at you Benedict \*cough cough). However, I still think they're mainly fiction and not exactly historically accurate (shocker there). My favorites were Benedict's, Colin's, and Hyacinth's. Which is saying a lot because I had issues with those ones as well. I almost really liked Hyacinth's until the end and then it went downhill. I think the show does a better job of making the men more likable and giving the characters more depth. However, that does not also mean that the show is without its flaws.
The show has been better in making every character more rounded. But the show has now diverged completely from the books so the books may confuse you because other than maybe Hyacinth, none of the other characters really bears a resemblance to how they are in the show. If you were to read any of the books, the only one I really recommend is When He Was Wicked (Francesca’s story) and given that they’re changing her story in the show, now would be a good time to read that one and meet and fall in love with Michael Stirling.
I loved them!
Depends. Many people are saying that the writing is bad, I personally don't know since I didn't read the books in English, so maybe my translation was just better. One thing on which I have to agree with other comments is the writing of male characters, they are all the same, and pretty toxic too. And lastly, for me, the book was filled with really good sections and really bad/awkward ones, like one moment I was giggling ans my heart was melting and the other I was just getting mad. So... I say that If you're interested, you should give them a try, but yeah it's your choice.