Review: It’s In His Kiss, Julia Quinn

Hyacinth Bridgerton is the last unwed Bridgerton daughter.  A good friend of Lady Danbury, Hyacinth is clever, snarky, and isn’t afraid to put men and women in their places.  As a result, her family frets over her ever finding someone who can put up with her independent, knowing nature.  Enter Gareth St. Clair, a man with serious family problems who doesn’t realize there is a gap in his life.  When he is given his dead grandmother’s diary, he realizes that it may reveal the secrets of his past, but the diary is in Italian.  Lucky for him, Hyacinth can read Italian.  Working together with the diary, these two realize that they may work well together in other ways, too.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that this is the weakest of the Bridgerton novels.  Hyacinth and Gareth didn’t sparkle together quite as much as the other couples, which is peculiar considering Hyacinth always has the best comebacks and snappy put-downs.  Part of the premise is that she’s tongue-tied around Gareth, more so than usual, because she has a crush on him.  It’s cute and endearing, but it’s not really like her, so it was a little hard to adjust to the new Hyacinth.  That said, this book is better than any of the other romance novels I’ve read lately.  Gareth and Hyacinth deal with real and sweet emotional issues.  I also like that they fall in love what I’d consider typically.  Gradual close contact -> slow realization of feelings -> engagement.  In this sense, it’s probably the most conventional of all her works so far, but still very enjoyable.

Also, it cracked me up when Hyacinth and Lady Danbury were reading aloud the horrible trashy novels of the day.  Felt a little bit like Quinn was making fun of herself, knowing full well that she’s writing what are considered the trashy novels of our day (even if I like them and don’t think so, you can get far worse than this).  I like that.  I was also really amused by the Bridgerton family as always.  Their interactions are among the funniest that I have ever read.

This is the last Bridgerton book for me (I already read the last one, On the Way to the Wedding) and I’m sad to end the series, but I still have a lot more of Quinn’s backlog to find and read.  And she’s still writing, so I can’t complain!

Buy It’s In His Kiss on Amazon.