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Julia Quinn - The Other Miss Bridgerton: This might be in my top 5 romances. Pro tip - make your protagonists be friends first. #cursorybookreviews #cursoryreviews ( )

Poppy is delightfully curious, to distraction. I was amazed at how Ms. Quinn was able to write a story about a woman essentially in prison, nowhere to go, nothing to do, and make it interesting. Excellent read the I would highly recommend. ( )

I've started the first one in this series and haven't managed to finish it yet. I read the second one and found it pretty average. This though - was perfect. Great romance, great characters, loved the plot. Poppy and Andrew are fantastic - I loved the banter between them and the random trains of thought into all manner of curiosities. I loved the passion they each had for puzzles and mysteries. I really loved the custom map puzzle (especially since I've heard of Spilsbury and the anecdote of how puzzles began) - I'm a puzzle fiend. I really liked the depth that was put into these characters. I felt the first two books lacked that - but this one went the extra mile to show us the backstories of the main characters - even if their romance did happen ridiculously fast - as frankly all historical romance and romance books in general do. I think in some ways it was the lack of romance that made this book a good romance. The characters genuinely get to know each other. Sure they flirt, but it's pretty superficial and restrained. We're through most of the book before they kiss and by that point their whole life stories have been conveyed.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. 3.5 stars. ( )

I loved the seafaring setting of this one, and the characters were a lot of fun. I appreciated the fairly straightforward nature of the romance—just a bit of secret keeping but otherwise not a lot of monkey business or angst. I especially loved the ending with the declarations about soup—what a great scene. I wouldn’t have minded more scenes with the Rokesby clan. What was there was delightful. ( )

Poppy isn't an outsider, which is usually what being on one of my trope shelves signifies, but she is not your run-of-the-mill heroine either. This is a deeply sweet and intensely romantic story; no angst, just two clever, lovely people finding their match in quirky circumstances. (3.5 stars) ( )