Book Review 2021 #8 - Julia Quinn's The Viscount Who Loved Me
The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: December 5th, 2000
Format: Kindle, 1053 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
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That rake Anthony Bridgerton has decided to marry. He even has the girl all picked out, this season's incomparable, Edwina Sheffield. He's certain in his pick. She will provide him with heirs, he won't grow too attached, and then, when his time comes, as he believes it will come when he is still young, just like it did to his father, well, that's his life all sorted. After all, no one would say no to a marriage proposal from a Viscount! Especially as the Sheffield's aren't very well heeled. There's only one problem, Kate Sheffield, Edwina's older half-sister. Everyone knows that Kate's season was delayed for Edwina because they only had enough money for a single season. Everyone also knows that Kate has final say on who will marry Edwina. This isn't high handed, it is a fact that Edwina is proud to proclaim. She trusts Kate's judgement in everything. The problem is, Kate doesn't trust Anthony. Yes, reading Whistledown hasn't done Anthony any favors in Kate's eyes, but every interaction they have they just rub each other the wrong way. She is sure he is the confirmed rake that the paper and her own eyes have seen. Therefore he is completely unsuitable for Edwina. In an effort to show Kate his best side, in other words, his family, the Sheffields are invited to the family seat in Kent. Well, things do not go well in Kent. Firstly, his siblings allow Kate to join the rather competitive family game of Pall Mall. The goal isn't really to win, the goal is more about messing with your opponents, forcing Anthony's ball into the lake, and being the one who wields the "Mallet of Death." Kate roundly wins. Anthony is not pleased by this situation. He is not pleased by anything to do with Kate. Especially these feelings that are developing. He has swore he will never marry for love. To love someone and then to leave them too soon would be the worst fate imaginable. But then he and Kate get compromised. Of course he will marry her. But in his mind it's a fate worse than death to marry your true love. Could Kate and her love prove him wrong?
When you're reading a book you really like and are enjoying it's annoying to be pulled out of the world you have immersed yourself in. This was a problem I had with The Viscount Who Loved Me. I really enjoyed the book, in fact after reading the complete Bridgerton Collection Volume One I can say without a shadow of a doubt that Anthony and Kate are my favorite couple. Mainly because Kate is awesome and being a part of the Bridgertons brings this fun, competitive side to her that she probably had been keeping hidden even from herself. And as for Anthony, he's very relatable once you get past the persona he has adopted to run his family. So my problem is that every so often it's painfully obvious that Julia Quinn isn't British. Yes, I know I'm not British, but given my reading and viewing habits I'm as good as when it comes to judging errors, and Julia Quinn gets some things really wrong and some things are just awkward... For example in The Duke and I she refers to a man's posterior as his fanny. Um... that isn't what that word means in England... It means a woman's vulva. So, that scene has a whole different meaning, especially because it is supposedly about a man's ass. Then there are a few errors that I am sure were just not caught in the editing, such as the fact that Oxford is to the west of London not the other way around. Also the blooming season is different. But the unforgivable error is when Kate's sister is reading Jane Austen's latest novel in April of 1814. There are SO MANY THINGS wrong with this. Firstly, Jane Austen was still alive in 1814, she died in 1817, and her books were NOT published under her name during her lifetime. She published as "By A Lady." When her second, third, and forth books came out after Sense and Sensibility they were credited as "By the Author of Sense and Sensibility." So to say that you are reading a book credited to Jane Austen in 1814 is WRONG. Also Mansfield Park was published in 1814, but it came out in July. Three months later than the time it supposedly happened in this book. Now I really don't want to be the pedant here, because I do so hate Jane Austen pedants, and yes, I'm looking at you JASNA, but these aren't little errors, they are HUGE errors and they wouldn't take much to fix and would stop readers from being thrown out of the story. Sure some people are probably all, oh, Jane Austen reference, cool. Not cool. Not cool at all. I will note by the next book Sophie just reads "a recently published novel" making me think I'm not the only one who called out Julia Quinn and she's found a vague way to cover her posterior.
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