Bridgerton Stater Guide – Why You Need to Read the Julia Quinn Series Before the Show Airs by Romance at a Glance Podcast

[Note from Frolic: Today, we welcome Romance at a Glance to the site! They’re talking all things Bridgerton. Take it away!]

The Bridgertons is a historical romance novel series of 8 books by New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn. Each book follows one of the eight well-off Bridgerton children, named in alphabetical order to the great amusement of the ton, as they merrily bicker with each other and find their happily ever afters.

Optioned by Shondaland, the first book The Duke and I has been adapted into a Netflix series called Bridgerton. The highly anticipated series will premiere on December 25th, 2020.

Make sure you get started on book one asap where the heroine Daphne Bridgerton gets the series started with her love story.

Daphne runs into Anthony’s old school mate, the Duke of Hastings at a ball and is not immediately taken by his roguish charm. Not used to being rebuffed let alone gently mocked, the Duke is intrigued until he finds out Daphne is his friend’s little sister. Unperturbed, Daphne asks Simon, the Duke, to enter into a fake relationship with her. The benefit for him? Keeping the ambitious mothers of the town from throwing their daughters at him during the season. The benefit for her? Turning an overlooked young woman into a desirable lady of marriageable material.

But Daphne and Simon’s clever scheme starts to feel a little too real and lines get blurred as Daphne has to convince Simon that they should alter their deal one more time.

Each book in the series follows a different sibling as they get into romantic entanglements and eventually find the person who loves them for exactly who they are. It’s worth getting started on the rest of the books before season 1 of the show premieres as the showrunners expanded the world of The Duke and I in scope and laid the groundwork for the future romantic pairings of each sibling.

5 Fun facts about the upcoming Netflix series:

1. Daphne’s character has 104 costumes alone! The sheer size and scope of the show is incredible.
2. The actresses who play Eloise and Penny had such great chemistry they were dubbed Peneloise! Their friendship plays a central role in the series.
3. Julie Andrews narrates the show as the voice of Lady Whistledown, the all-knowing anonymous lady who publishes a no holds barred gossip sheet that everyone in the ton obsesses over.
4. Shondaland was very deliberate in the way they cast Bridgertons. This show is not meant to be a history lesson, but rather portray a version of history where Queen Charlotte is acknowledged as biracial and it is NBD. Julia Quinn was incredibly excited that there is more representation on the show for everyone.
5. All the characters stay true to who they are in the books and the show really got the large family dynamics right!

“I can’t say a whole lot about Bridgertons the show, except that its coming and it’s not rated G.” – Julia Quinn

On that note, get to reading!

If you wanna hear more about Bridgertons directly from Julia Quinn, check out the Romance at a Glance interview where we go in-depth on the series, Julia’s lifelong love of reading, and her advice for long-term relationships based on her own HEA with her husband Paul.