Julia Quinn
Julia QuinnTalented writer Julie Cotler was born in the year of 1970, in New York, New York, United States of America. Cotler utilizes the pen name Julia Pottinger when writing her stories, though she has been known to use another pseudonym as well, one Julia Quinn.
Quinn’s novels are in the historical romance subgenre and they are always wonderful to read. The NYT bestseller list has featured Quinn’s works more than a dozen times and they have been translated in nearly thirty languages.
The Duke and I Book
Life
Pottinger was brought up mainly in New England, though her youth did see her in California, as well, upon the divorce of her mother and father. Even at a young age, Julia was known to love reading. Her father was not exactly in love with her choice in genre, but Julia told him that she was devoting her time in order to come up with her own novel. Soon, Julia had written the initial chapters of her book.
Education
As for school, Julia attended Harvard where she graduated with a major in Art History. While in her final year, Julia came upon the realization that she has not the slightest idea what she is going to do with the degree so she made a decision to enroll medical school soon.
Before she could enroll in Medical School, Julia had to go through quite a few exams, so in the meantime, she wrote, wrote, and wrote. When she was accepted by Yale, Julia had already published three novels and in a mere couple of months made the decision to give up medical school and become an author.
The Bridgertons Series
This book is one of the most well-known novels that Julia Quinn has published. It’s a superb story that is also a part of Quinn’s Bridgertons series. The Bridgertons series consists of eight novels in total and a couple of tie-ins, too. The Bridgertons series is receiving and adaptation to Netflix, too! The Duke and I book was published in the year 2000.
Our Opinion
As many of the novels that Julia Quinn has written throughout the years are, this one is a powerful read whose beginning is very strong. Upon reading it readers often note that the novel hasn’t ended just because the story has; the novel goes on for as long as one can remember and relate to it, and this one will stay in the reader’s memory for a long time. It is just a captivating story and without further ado let’s meet Daphne and the Simon.
We begin the story by jumping into the prologue. The prologue entails a tragic little back-story. We see an overbearing man who had a wish: he wanted to have a son to be his heir and for his son to be as mighty as he was.
Not Exactly Perfect
However, his young son isn’t perfect in his eyes. His progeny had been born with a stammer and for this reason, he refuses to grant him the love that a father owes his son. He sees his son as a defect and undeserving. The son is brought up always questioning what the reason for his father’s loathing might be. With time, the son sees a fury engender in him, one that burns brighter with every passing day.
Hatred Begets Hatred
Then, we jump forward and see the son, Simon Basset, as he has mastered his impediment of the speech. He is now Hastings’ Duke and fathers look to him as a fortuitous prospect for their daughters.
While his looks and power might foretell a normal, uninteresting Duke or person of power, Simon is one whose past and demons continually haunt him and his mind is so intriguing that the reader can’t wait for the next scene to feature him and his keen disposition.
The Bridgerton family’s first daughter is named Daphne. The Bridgerton family is a highly-respected family, though even they have their own quirks. For one, Daphne is always being cared for by her brother, in spite of the fact that she is her own person and we see how resilient she can be with each obstacle and trouble that comes and, by her volition, passes.
Little Plan
As it turns out, Simon and Daphne come up with a little plan to hoodwink the others. Simon is to propose to her so that Simon will not be egged on unceasingly by moms wanting their daughters to marry him and Daphne will be able to get a more compatible and desirable partner seeing as she will have been the wife of a Duke.
Their plan is as perfect as they could ever expect it to be. However, one thing it seems is a miss. As the two begin spending time with each other, they dance, talk, find out things about one another, they see that they hadn’t counted on one little thing: they are head over heels for each other. They don’t announce this acerbically, though, and we see Daphne trying to persuade Simon into changing up a minuscule detail of their plan.
A Few Final Words
Their story is one that warms up the heart and we could not live with ourselves if we revealed all that happens. Our The Duke and I book review certainly conveys that the novel is a brilliant entry into Quinn’s oeuvre and we cannot recommend this story enough.
The following two books are ones that we also suggest taking a look at: The Viscount Who Loved Me and An Offer From a Gentleman. Coincidentally, they both belong to the Bridgertons series, as well.
Alissa Wynn
Alissa is an avid reader, blogger, and wannabe writer. (She's a much better cook than a writer actually). Alissa is married, has one human, one feline, and two canine kids. She always looks a mess and never meets a deadline.
