The Girl With the Make-Believe Husband - Julia Quinn (Rokesbys #2)

Ah, Julia Quinn.  You and your protagonists that don't talk to each other...  What an ongoing trope you have there.  This book is no exception.

So, this book is the story of Edward Rokesby, who we never saw in the first book in this series (Because of Miss Bridgerton) because he was off fighting in the American Revolution for the British...until we learned that he was missing.  Our heroine is Cecilia Harcourt, who goes to America looking for her injured brother, who was friends with Edward.  When she finds out Edward is back, and injured, and Thomas is missing, Cecilia claims to be Edward's wife so she can help care for him.  And when he wakes up with amnesia, she lets him believe that they're married, too...

I want to like this but it kind of rubs me the wrong way at the same time.  I can see why, the further she got into the lie, the more reluctant Cecilia was to own up to the truth.  It can be really hard to pivot and tell someone you care for that you've been lying the entire time, and the longer it goes on, the harder it is to tell them.  But at the same time...isn't she kind of gaslighting Edward by letting him believe they're married?  She's not making him believe he's crazy, but at the same time she's telling him things that drastically alter how he behaves and goes about his business, as he wouldn't act that way if he didn't believe they were married.  She doesn't do it maliciously--she really wants to help him, and then later on realizes that being his "wife" is the fastest way to get information about her brother because people are far more willing to help her as the daughter-in-law of a viscount than as her untitled self--but she still does it.  And so I was glad at how angry Edward was when he found out, but how he still acted honorably in pretty much every aspect.

But here's the thing.  Despite my reservations about how the relationship is played out here, with all of the misleading, this book was charming.  Taking place earlier than Quinn's Bridgerton series, it's not a time period used in a lot of historical romance, and especially because one of the main characters is on the British side.  I'm not sure I've ever actually seen that before.  Most novels in this period that I've encountered feature the scrappy American rebels going up against the Big Bad British, and so seeing things from the British side (even to a relatively low degree; there's no actual fighting taking place in this book, it's all set in occupied New York City) was different.  Cecilia and Edward are also so sweet, both together and apart, having started to know each other through the correspondence that Cecilia kept up with Thomas.

Like most of Quinn's books, this was a quick read.  I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, which will be about Edward's other brother (the elder one having been the focus of the first book) though I think I'll probably forget most of the connections by the time it comes around, just as I forgot most of who was who in the first book by the time I got to this one...

Overall, 3.5 stars out of 5.

Because of Miss Bridgerton - Julia Quinn (Rokesbys #1)

How did I miss this coming out?  I have no idea.  It was one of those books that was on my radar, and the release date seemed so far away, and then suddenly it's up for a Goodreads Choice Award because it's been out for literally months and I never noticed.  I love Julia Quinn (mostly) so I rushed to get it when I realized that it was, indeed, available.

Because of Miss Bridgerton is the first book in Quinn's new series, featuring the Rokesby family.  This family is the neighbors of the Bridgerton family, who are of course the stars of Quinn's main romance series.  In this series, the time period is significantly earlier than in the Bridgerton series, taking place during the American Revolution rather than in the Regency period when most of Quinn's books are set.  The main characters are Sybilla "Billie" Bridgerton, a tomboy and the oldest child of the Bridgerton family who essentially runs the estate associated with Aubrey Hall, and George Rokesby, the heir to the neighboring earldom.  Billie has run wild with George's younger brothers Edward and Alex for years, until Edward went off to fight in the war (for the British, of course) and Alex joined the navy.  But now Alex is back, and his very presence is grating on George, who can't go off and do the same things because he's the heir, just as Alex and Billie's friendship seems to grate on him.  After all, Billie has always thought she'd marry Edward of Alex (either would do) while she and George have been nuisances to each other at best.  But when the book starts, George finds himself rescuing Billie from where she's stuck on a roof, where she ended up after trying to save a cat.  And of course, things progress from there...

There's not a ton of plot to this other than the romance, which is fine by me.  Several of the romance I've read recently (*coughMarryingWinterbornecough*) have relied on plot rather than romance, and they haven't really worked out well.  It was refreshing to go back to a simple romance, which concentrates on the building of attraction and romance between the two main characters rather than on tying in convoluted subplots that make the whole story seem rather less believable.  If there is a subplot to be had here, it's a simple one, of George coming to terms with his own place in maintaining the family and country rather than defending Britain through serving in the army or navy, and of Billie growing up, gaining maturity, and starting to loosen the deathgrip she's kept on her family's lands.  It's a character plot rather than an intrigue plot, and that was just fine with me--and so was watching every other person realize what was between George and Billie before they did!  It has the feel of being a slow burn, even though the timeline actually isn't one, and that was great; it's one of my favorite feels for romances these days.

Quinn has had some serious missteps in the past, but I think that over the years she's really grown as a writer and come to terms with what is actually acceptable in a modern romance.  She can write a truly delightful romance that doesn't rely on too many frills, and they're very refreshing after stories in which everyone is rushing around being spies or hiding Dark Family Secrets.  A delightful story is exactly what this is, and that's all that I wanted from it.  My only complaint it didn't last long enough!

5 stars out of 5.