Normal service is nearly resumed here after last week’s nights, although I’m still having to resist the urge for an afternoon doze. Anyway this week’s BotW is Julia Quinn’s Because of Miss Bridgerton, which is the first in her new Rokesby series.
Billie Bridgerton is the tomboyish daughter of Viscount Bridgerton, who spends her days riding the estate and doing the work of her father’s estate manager. The Rokesbys are the neighbouring family and she’s always expected that she’ll end up marrying one of their sons, but definitely not George. Definitely not. She can’t stand him and he can’t stand her. Except suddenly, when they’re thrown together, they don’t hate each other any more. But what do you do when you start getting feelings for some one you’ve always hated – especially if you’re fairly sure they don’t feel the same way about you.
I do love an enemies to lovers romance, and although Billie and George are not quite enemies, it definitely has elements of that, along with best friend’s brother and a bit of a ugly duckling into a swan situation with Billie who definitely doesn’t want to be involved in the Season or the London world at all. It’s fun and flirty and is such a joy to read.
Julia Quinn was my gateway drug into the world of historical romances – she was the first modern author I can across who was doing the same sort of thing (if with a bit more sex in it!) that Georgette Heyer was and I worked my way through her back catalogue at speed. Her best know series are the Bridgerton books – and that makes this especially good – because it’s going back to the previous generation of that family. And there are tit-bits here for people who have read those previous books about Anthony and his siblings – it fills in some gaps in Bridgerton family history and there are some definite nods to the characters that we’ll meet later on in Billie.
This has been out over a year – but I didn’t manage to find a copy in the shops when it first came out (and I’m not meant to be buying books) so it took until I found a copy at the library last week for me to get around to it. The next book in the series – The Girl with the Make Believe Husband – is out today. This one features one of George’s brothers and is nicely set up in Because of Miss Bridgerton. I doubt if I’ll be able to wait a year before I read it having enjoyed this one so much.
You should be able to get hold of a cop of Because of Miss Bridgerton from all the usual sources – I’m going to leave you my traditional links to the Big Green Bookshop and to the Kindle and Kobo editions.
Happy Reading!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 