The Viscount Who Loved Me (Bridgerton #2)

Author: Julia Quinn
Pages: 354
Overall: 5/5
Setting: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Plot and Themes: 5/5
Cheers Factor: 4/5
Pairing: Say You love Me

I think this drink is sweet and innocent and just the way that young love should be. I think it feels representative of the love that our protagonists eventually share in the novel and how it’s naive, precious and innocent before it becomes all consuming and a whirlwind affair that is true love and romance.


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Ingredients
-2oz Gin
-1 1/2oz lemon juice
-1/2oz raspberry syrup
    -½ cup equal parts water and sugar with half a cult of raspberries bring to boil until fully combined strain out solids and voila raspberry simple
-egg white
-ice

Instructions
-Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice
-Shake well
-Strain into Coupe glass or glass of choice
-Enjoy responsibly

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Take a Shot: Anthony Bridgerton is the eldest of the Bridgerton siblings making him Viscount Bridgerton as his father died many years ago. Anthony took his fathers death quite hard and was barely able to watch his mother and her grief over the loss of the love of her life. Henceforth, Anthony has sworn off finding love in marriage and he’s now wanting to choose a suitable woman that checks his boxes so that he may fulfill his duty as Viscount by marrying and starting a family and dying young just like his father. However, love may just be right around the corner in the most unlikely of places.


“But love was the enemy of a dying man.”


Setting
I love the way that Quinn romanticizes Regency era London. Do not get me wrong I don’t think my ideal concept is using a chamber pot and having to use candlelight in order to do anything after dark. Truly Edison inventing the lightbulb is one invention I cherish in the modern day. That aside though I do love the way that we get to see the lives of these lovely and wealthy aristocratic characters at these lovely extravagant parties and balls. It makes the era seem like one you want to live in when in reality I would likely have been sleeping in a maid’s quarters instead of sleeping in a feather bed dreaming of the next masquerade.

Characters
I really do love the chance to get to see more of Anthony and being introduced to Kate. I like their enemies to lovers aspect we have going on. It’s a fun little vibe for them. I think the television adaptation took it and really ran with it, but I do appreciate that the book was a little more romantic in that it was quite clear they really did have feelings that were forming and we got to see them aside from just like huffing and puffing.


“And there was Kate Sheffield. The bane of his existence. And the object of all his desires. All at once.”


Plots and Themes
I love a scandal and having to get married because of that. I think that was the best part of this book. Not to say that it hasn’t happened similarly in this series, but being caught by ones own mother is quite comedic and funny. It’s also nice that they aren’t particularly thrilled about being hitched to one another. I also loved the nuances that were there like Anthony comforting Kate during the thunderstorm. That was left out of the television adaptation for god knows what reason and it’s one of my favorite scenes of the entire book. I also really enjoyed that Edwina was quite literally not interested in the Viscount. In the show it seemed preposterous that sisters who are so close would have one not tell the other she’s in love with the man courting her sister and the other so blithely unaware of their feelings that they waited until they were at the altar to notice? But what do I know? 

“And it was stunning how he wanted to be the one to make her feel better.”

Overall
I really liked this book. I’ve said this about Bridgerton books before emphatically out loud and in reviews, but I love a good HEA (Happily Ever After) that you know is an HEA. There’s something really satisfying about reading a 300-400 page book and knowing what you are getting into. As someone who reads a lot of long series with twists and turns it was pleasantly surprising to find myself enjoying the predictability of the story lines.

“And Anthony, who’d only just learned what it was to love, learned what it was to die inside. 


Reasons to Raise a Glass: Smut is good, Anthony is a good protagonist so is Kate, plays well with the series and is a great second novel proving Quinn can produce similar content without feeling repetitive
Too Strong: Why are the main characters so silly and won’t admit they love one another? Personal preference it just bothers me

Warning spoilers ahead if you click read more. Proceed at your own risk.

I have a lot to say on this and it’s been a while since I read the book. Been a crazy year and I read this quite literally in the like cold winter/spring months of this year and now Summer is in full swing…it happens but still so bear with me as I try to piece together my spoilery thoughts.
    First and foremost I love the show. I watched it the weekend it came out with my best friend and it was magical if I do say so myself. I love period pieces and string music and I loved the first season. I even loved it before it came out. Like I am a Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenina, Tudors, The King, Medici, Reign, The Great girly (and yes I did just name them all as I did actually enjoy them all). For context on the last sentence I had a whole Henry VIII summer. Yes you read that correctly. I spent an entire summer of my college years watching The Tudors with my mother and borrowing upwards of 30 books from the library about Henry and his many wives. I’m clinically obsessed with the era in a way that should not be healthy, but it’s a neat party trick to pull out here and there so I’ve nurture the itch sometimes by rewatching the Anne Boleyn documentary on youtube. I know it’s weird so sue me. 
    I may love the show and especially Jonathan Bailey who I have loved since his Broadchurch days (shoutout David Tenant and Olivia Coleman as well as Olafur Arnalds for the soundtrack I still fall asleep to it). But I and I know this will be hard to hear for some it was a little too shonda-esque. It was a little over the top given the book was not this way. I said it before that I really did not like the Edwina plot line and I love Charithra, but like she was a little too present with the whole at the altar finding out her soon to be is in love with her sister and vice versa. I liked the way the book did it better, but I respect not wanting to feel similar to previous seasons. I also preferred the way Kate is injured in the books and wish it had been done similarly in the show. I like the idea of her being in a carriage accident it seems more festive in my opinion. 
    Now for my absolute favorite part of this book. 100000% hands down the best part is when Cressida and that evil man are making fun of Penelope and Kate is like practically in the conversation just stunned by the depravity of it all and Anthony literally strolls up and does this.

    “‘Miss Sheffield,’ he said smoothly, ‘I hope you will excuse me as I escort Miss Featherington in to dinner.’
    ‘But you can’t escort her in!’ Cressida blurted out.
    Bridgerton gave her an icy stare. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said in a voice that was anything but, ‘Had I included you in the conversation?’”

    Like WOW. We love a man who is self aware and aware of other enough to like actually be a hero. And that wasn’t him doing it for attention I think he genuinely does care for Penelope in the same way that Lady Bridgerton does and we all know at some point Collin does fall in love with Penelope and she herself even becomes a Bridgerton. However, still confused why this moment was left out of the show. It was so wonderful in the books and I adored it so much and it humanizes Anthony in Kate’s eyes so much and reading her thoughts about how she is kind of blown away and awestruck and slightly in love with him just for doing that was UGH SOOO GOOD. 
    Anyway thank you for staying for my rant. It was a lot longer than I had intended it to be, but I guess I had more that I wished to say than I had anticipated. Cheers to another Bridgerton book and many more seasons of it on Netflix.