Bridgertons 1 to 5 by Julia Quinn - Book Review (No spoilers)

The books in order

1: The Duke And I

2: The Viscount Who Loved Me

3: An Offer From A Gentleman

4: Romancing Mister Bridgerton

5: To Sir Philip, With Love

My review

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I had picked up this series because I enjoyed the show, and though a lot of aspects were different, I liked it just as much. The fast pace of the books engrossed me right from the beginning. The characters' insults and banter were funny, and they did not hesitate to tease each other about the smallest of shortcomings. The author did not spend any time on world-building, but I didn't mind that. There were no sub-plots, and the side characters weren't given much importance either. All the books focused solely on developing the relationship between the two main characters. They were all short, quick reads with storylines similar to each other.

These books are set in the Regency Era in London, and though we are not told much about the world, it's easy to imagine most aspects. Though I would have liked to read more scenes set in their society as a whole, the Bridgerton family scenes were funny, so I didn't mind those either. The author does not introduce many new characters along the way, and only the Bridgerton family and their spouses are given importance. 

All the characters were well-developed and seemed to have unique, constant personalities. Since there was hardly any plot, the author had plenty of time- even in such short books- to provide the characters separate dispositions. The Bridgerton siblings each had one exaggerated characteristic that the author brought out through their dialogue and actions. All of them indignantly argued their point of view and had a competitive streak that made their disagreements entertaining to read. Their same-but-different behaviours clashed chaotically against each other, and accurately portrayed them as the unruly brood their mother accused them of being. The brothers were overly protective of the girls, and often tried and failed to keep them in line. 

While their protectiveness was written off as something added to make the books funnier, the overbearing attitude of all the male characters got on my nerves. Perhaps the author was only trying to recreate society in Regency England, but I couldn't consider any of them as kind-hearted gentlemen when they sometimes treated their wives harshly. They were all short-tempered and considered themselves superior to women. I don't judge the author for writing them this way, but perhaps if they had been more likeable, so would have been the entire book series.

The fourth book had some plot, regarding the identity of Lady Whistledown. I'd spoiled that for myself by watching the television series before, but apart from that, there isn't much to any of the stories. These are good romance books, centred around the characters, though I wouldn't recommend them to somebody looking for books with a nice plot. Something about them made me want to get into the next book as soon I'd finished the last, but I decided to stop after reading the first five as the story had started to get too similar. I am not very invested in the lives of the younger siblings either, but will perhaps return to their stories after a while.