El corazón de una Bridgerton

I am torn about When He Was Wicked. While it was interesting to have Francesca, a childless widow approaching middle age, as a lead character, both the characters were such ninnies at times that I wanted to knock their heads together. And sex and pregnancy (or lack thereof) being used to control and attempt to manipulate the person's partner didn't make me happy. Still, I will finish out the series.

The book is only recommended only for fans of the series. ( )

Kept me anxious for an HEA. ( )

Hmmm. Weeny bit agonizing to wait for the characters to decide that they are allowed to be happy in the face of tragedy, but still with the exasperated, adoring sort of affection that I so appreciate in these books. ( )

Another splendid Bridgerton novel.

This time it's Francesca's turn, actually her second chance at love. She was happily married to John, the Earl of Kilmartin, who dies unexpectedly after two years of marriage.

But Francesca doesn't know that Michael Stirling, cousin and heir to John, has been in love with her the whole time.

These two have scrambled their wits and convinced themselves that they are doomed to forever live apart. But the Bridgertons intervene and encourage. The mothers, John's mother and Michael's mother, conspire as well.

All's well that ends well.

Julia Quinn writes such wonderful romances, character development, plot, innuendo, bedsport, she can do it all. ( )

Out of all the Bridgerton books I have read, this is the one that left me most indifferent.

When He was Wicked follows the story of Francessca as she finds love after her husband's death, sounds promising right?
That's what I thought too, especially with the opening scenes that show her and her husband John and his cousin/best friend Michael, and their dynamic as well as how close they are. We also get a glimpse into Michael's inner turmoil because he's in love with Francessca but at the same time feels extremely guilty for it.
Then John dies, and while I appreciate the author's attempt at writing the whole grief period, it just didn't do it for me.
Michael flees to India yada yada then he's back, and from there we get a poor attempt at portraying a friendship that is 'strong' and hadn't been weakened by time. And although that didn't convince me one second I was like yeah sure whatever.
And then the lust happened.

I'm not really a huge fan of lust and sex in general being the driving point of a romance especially since it takes away from the story, in this case it just takes all that friendship and throws it out the window.
But in this book in particular I couldn't stand it because the sexual tension between the characters and eventually, sex, was used as a manipulation technique. More than once Michael says something along the lines of "Now that I compromised her she has no other choice but to marry me" and I just hate it.
Not to mention, that instead of giving us the emotional journey the first chapters promised, we instead get half a book of "OMG WHAT WOULD JOHN THINK!" and the next half is full of them banging and being like "Yeah John would totally be okay with this"
WHERE'S MY EMOTIONAL PROGRESSSSSS?????????
That was the only part that pissed me off though, other than that, I just don't care, which is a shame because I expected this would be my favorite book.

Overall this was a miss for me and I'm only giving it 2 stars for the writing and the few good scenes it had (Also Colin, I love him).
For now I think I will take a break from the Bridgerton books before picking up the last two. ( )