Julia Quinn is the perfect author for Cat’s first review post! This is a series she’s followed for years, and it was the book I used to entice her to write for me. So, thanks to Pure Textuality for helping me hook in another reviewer to free up some time.
Oh, and thank you for sending us an amazing ARC and letting us join your tour! Your hard work is appreciated!
The Other Miss Bridgerton
by Julia Quinn
A Bridgerton Prequel
Historical Romance
Avon Books | November 20, 2018
About the Book:
She was in the wrong place…
Fiercely independent and adventurous, Poppy Bridgerton will only wed a suitor whose keen intellect and interests match her own. Sadly, none of the fools from her London season qualify. While visiting a friend on the Dorset coast, Poppy is pleasantly surprised to discover a smugglers’ hideaway tucked inside a cave. But her delight turns to dismay when two pirates kidnap her and take her aboard a ship, leaving her bound and gagged on the captain’s bed…
He found her at the wrong time…
Known to society as a rascal and reckless privateer, Captain Andrew James Rokesby actually transports essential goods and documents for the British government. Setting sail on a time-sensitive voyage to Portugal, he’s stunned to find a woman waiting for him in his cabin. Surely, his imagination is getting the better of him. But no, she is very real—and his duty to the Crown means he’s stuck with her.
Can two wrongs make the most perfect right?
When Andrew learns that she is a Bridgerton, he knows he will likely have to wed her to avert a scandal—though Poppy has no idea that he is the son of an earl and neighbor to her aristocratic cousins in Kent. On the high seas, their war of words soon gives way to an intoxicating passion. But when Andrew’s secret is revealed, will his declaration of love be enough to capture her heart…?
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I am an unashamed BridgerFan. BridgertObsessed. I’m firmly of the opinion that Julia Quinn is a national f*cking treasure. I will read her books forever. The Other Miss Bridgerton is no exception. I got my eyeballs on it and could not put it down. I took a day of reading rest, and then read it again. I adore this story, and will likely read it at least once more before Christmas. This book showcased all of the reasons I adore Julia Quinn stories of any length. (Side note to JQ, if you’re reading this, I’d absolutely buy a book of Haiku. Think about it.)
Poppy and Andrew are each a bit unusual for their time, each seeking some forbidden adventure beyond their socially accepted boundaries. They are helped along by a cast of rich characters – JQ cheats no one – even the smallest of players come alive. Shipmates Green and Brown, who feature in only a handful of scenes, nevertheless ended up as two of my favorites.
With that attention to character development, you can rightly assume Poppy and Andrew leap right off the damned page. Their never-ending bickery-banter whipped from hilarious to holy shit is it hot in here with lightning speed. On a scale of polar plunge to scalding hot springs, the sexual tension between them rates *at least* a hot tub that you know is too damned hot but it feels so good! Can we say angst and love and longing and denial? Oh yes, we can.
My only criticism would be how I wanted more at the ending – but I always want more at the ending of these. With any luck, she’ll create some add on epilogues in the future.
The Other Miss Bridgerton travels easily within the HEA model we know and love, yet sets itself apart through JQ’s clever use of novel scenarios and storylines. I laughed, I sighed, sometimes simultaneously.
I’ll close with my favorite line, of course from Poppy, which alone earned my love:
“I really really love the soup,” she cried out. “But I also hate it so much.”
A truly worthy addition to The Bridgerton family. Poppy forever.
Thank you to Avon Books for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
He motioned with his arm, urging her a few more steps forward. “Careful,” he murmured.
Poppy looked to her toes. The deck came to an abrupt halt in front of her, its elevation dropping by several feet.
The captain hopped down. “The beak head, my lady,” he said with a gallant wave to the triangular deck that formed the pointy front of the Infinity. He reached up and placed his hands on her hips to help her down.
But when she was steady, he didn’t let go.
“This is as far forward as one can stand on deck,” he told her.
She pointed to a spot a few feet ahead. “What about—”
“As one can stand safely on deck,” he amended. He adjusted their position so that he was standing behind her. “Now close your eyes.”
“But then I can’t see the stars.”
“You can open them later.”
She tilted her head to the left, right, and back again, as if to say, Oh, very well, but she closed her eyes.
“Now tilt your head up. Not all the way, just a bit.”
She did, and maybe it was that motion, or maybe it was just because she’d closed her eyes, but she felt instantly off-balance, as if something far greater than the ocean had stolen her equilibrium.
The captain’s hands tightened on her hips.“What do you feel?” he asked, his lips coming close to her ear.
“The wind.”
“What else?” She swallowed. Licked her lips.
“The salt in the air.”
“What else?”
“The motion, the speed.”
He moved his mouth closer. “What else?”
And then she said the one thing that had been true from the beginning.
“You.”
JULIA QUINN started writing her first book one month after finishing college and has been tapping away at her keyboard ever since. The New York Times bestselling author of more than two dozen novels for Avon Books, she is a graduate of Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges and is one of only sixteen authors ever to be inducted in the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.
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