My ranking 2.5 / 5 stars
I had a very odd relationship with this series and the feelings these books generated were in great opposition. I liked Daphne, loved Anthony and Benedict, and denied ever reading about Colin, all in one series. It seems weird, but it’s the truth and I feel conflicted, considering Julia Quinn wrote all the books. You have the impression that different authors wrote the books, but no, it’s just one. 😀
So, this book is about the love story between Colin and Penelope and it woke up my internal feminism, although I was not aware I had it. I was extremely annoyed about the way Colin kept on repeating he is confused about his attraction towards Penelope because she is not capable of igniting anything in any man. And the situation was on repeat, several times, which made me mad. I am not an extreme feminist, but I don’t consider it to be fair, even if we are talking 100 years into the past, when men were superior to women in ranking and rights. Mentally speaking, they had a long way to go until reaching their level.
The story was not bonded and there were gaps in the timeline which left me confused. I didn’t understand much of their love story and the way it was ignited. Besides, I could not pinpoint exactly when they crossed the border from friendship to love. It all seemed hushed and rushed and I did not like it and kept on glancing at Colin to see if he may grown up in the process.
The whole Whistledown plot was superficially made and rushed, in no way as developed as in the Netflix series and that left me disappointed as well because I was like – That’s all???? In the series, we have so much drama and here, well, nothing particularly important happens.
To conclude, I am in no rush to start Eloise and I really hope the series will be better, in order to sugarcoat a little my disappointment for this reading.
Ramonisme 