Friends to Lovers, Writers, falling for your friend, realization, and loving from afar are all aspects of the incredible book “Romancing Mr. Bridgerton,” besides the moments of toxic masculinity. This novel is the fourth book in the historical romance series “Bridgerton” by Julia Quinn. It will be the main focus of the third season of the series of the same name, instead of the third book. It tells the story of the third Bridgerton son, Colin, and his and his sister Eloise’s friend Penelope. They have known each other since they were young, and they have been friends ever since. But the romance really begins in the social season of 1924, when Colin finally realizes that he has been in love with her for years.
The novel starts out with a flashback to when Penelope was a few days short of turning 16. She is on a walk with her sisters and mother when they stop to talk to Lady Bridgerton and one of her four daughters, Daphne. Penelope’s bonnet flies off when a gust of wind flies through. The bonnet lands on Colin’s face, which makes him fall off his horse, but he finds the incident funny, and she falls in love with him from that moment on.
The two become close friends over the years, but he is oblivious to her feelings while she also becomes close to his younger sister, Eloise. She spends years wearing gowns that she has labeled unflattering because they are all yellow and were picked by her mother. She overhears the gossip from the ton, who have labeled her a wallflower but also an “ugly duckling” compared to her sisters. She is sadly heartbroken when she overhears a conversation between Colin and his brothers where he states that he would never marry her. While he tries to explain to her what happened and apologize, the damage is already done.
Over a decade has passed since she heard Colin state that he would never want to marry her, and both of them have not married. At 28 years old, Penelope is labeled a spinster, which is a woman who has not married yet. Colin is now 33 and has not married due to spending his last few years traveling around the world and dodging the matchmaking mothers of the ton for the last few seasons. The two cross paths again and begin to fight again, like they left off when they last saw each other.
Penelope crosses paths with Colin’s journals that he left out when he was traveling, and she praises his writing. He then opens up to her and admits that he hates being thought of as not intelligent. Colin finally figures out that he wants to kiss her due to his feelings developing differently. She asks Colin to kiss her because she is lonely and wants to experience her first kiss.
Then, Lady Danbury challenges the public to unmask the gossip writer known as Lady Whistledown. While Colin suspects the writer to be his sister, Eloise, Cressida Twombley claims to be a gossip columnist. He is shocked to figure out that the writer is, in fact, Penelope after he follows her to a church to drop off an envelope. He confronts her and pushes her into his carriage, and the two begin to argue.
All the emotions get to them, and they end up kissing in the carriage, and then Colin proposes to her, which she then accepts after some miscommunication with her mother, thinking that he wants to marry her younger sister Felicity.
As they are planning the wedding, Colin begs Penelope to stop writing as Lady Whistledown, but will she listen? You will have to read the novel “Romancing Mr. Bridgerton” to find out. Overall, this book would make a great beach read for the summer or for anyone who loves the friends-to-lovers trope or wants to read the book before the third season of the popular Netflix show comes in May.
