Review: Romancing Mister Bridgerton (Bridgertons #4)

Romancing Mister Bridgerton (Bridgertons #4)
By Julia Quinn

Published By: Piatkus
Publication Date: December 3, 2009
Date Read: May 14, 2024
Genre: Adult – Historical Romance
Source: Bought
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 374

From Goodreads:
On the sixth of April, in the year 1812 – precisely two days before her sixteenth birthday – Penelope Featherington fell in love. But Colin Bridgerton certainly didn’t fall in love with her in 1812 (and not in 1813, 1814, 1815, or – oh blast, not in all the years 1816-1822, either, and certainly not in 1823, when he was out of the country the whole time, anyway). Penelope Featherington has secretly adored her best friend’s brother for well, it feels like forever. After half a lifetime of watching Colin Bridgerton from afar, she thinks she knows everything about him, until she stumbles across his deepest secret and fears she doesn’t know him at all.
Colin Bridgerton is tired of being thought of as nothing but an empty-headed charmer, tired of everyone’s preoccupation with the notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, who can’t seem to publish an edition without mentioning him in the first paragraph. But when Colin returns to London from a trip abroad he discovers nothing in his life is quite the same – especially Penelope Featherington! The girl haunting his dreams. But when he discovers that Penelope has secrets of her own, this elusive bachelor must decide is she his biggest threat – or his promise of a happy ending?

“Deep inside, she knew who she was, and that person was smart and kind and often even funny, but somehow her personality always got lost somewhere between her heart and her mouth, and she found herself saying the wrong thing or, more often, nothing at all.”

I was so excited to finally dive into Romancing Mister Bridgerton. I’d been dying since reading Book 1 to see Penelope get her story and I couldn’t wait to see how everything came out to play. I will say that as I have also watched the Bridgerton TV show, the big reveal in this book was definitely spoilt for me, but that did not affect my enjoyment at all. I really enjoyed every moment of this book.

Romancing Mister Bridgerton tells the story of Penelope and Colin’s romance and it definitely does it justice. I absolutely loved reading their friends to lovers arc. It was done so well and it just made me so happy experiencing it all along with the characters. Friends to lovers is one of my favourite tropes in romance so I’ve been really looking forward to getting up to this book in the series and it did not disappoint at all!

One thing I loved about this book is that it didn’t just focus on the romance between Penelope and Colin. That actually happens pretty quickly compared to the other books, mainly because we’ve had 3 books of them in the background ‘falling’ for each other. A lot of this book focuses on revealing Lady Whistledown and the impact of that and I loved that. As we know, I’m a plot girlie all the way so I loved that it focused on that and the impact it had on different characters etc. It was truly fantastic.

The Bridgerton series is never going to be one of my favourite series of all time, but I do thoroughly enjoy it and I can’t wait to dive into the next book. If you’re reading this as a fan of the TV show and wondering whether you should read them… the answer is yes. They truly are wonderful, enjoyable reads and the audio editions are fantastic too. Pick them up, you won’t be disappointed.

“I love you with everything I am, everything I’ve been, and everything I hope to be.”