Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

27 reviews

viselik's review against another edition

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funny relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

 I read this book because of the Historical Romance Society's Discord Server's mascot, the oh-so-lovely Governess, who is absolutely obsessed with this book and will not stop recommending it. I was also just curious about the book, but the Governess was my main reason.

I found it a rather sweet story with a more tolerable third-act breakup which is a thing I hate about romance books. It makes sense, and is fucking deserved because of what Daphne did. I didn't realise this as the sex scene I had skimmed over, but someone had told me what I had missed. I do not feel like Daphne deserves what she got in the end, and I fully believe she deserves to be alone.

The characters were a good change of pace except one, Daphne, and I found Simon a rather interesting male romance character! He does suffer at first glance from the usual 'stoic, emotionless man' trope, but he quickly sheds that, and by the end of the book, he is a character I want to read more about. I love that he has a stutter and goes mute in certain moments, as I haven't seen that often in HR books from what I've noticed.

I found Daphne was also quite alright UNTIL the sex scenes. Please DO NOT read this book if you are sensitive to the subject of sexual a*sult as Daphne r*pes Simon. I finished the book not realising that, but fuck Daphne. She deserves to be with Nigel from the beginning. She ignored when Simon made it very clear he didn't want this, and she forced it upon him FOR HER WANTS. I do not CARE that it is how she can get pregnant considering that Simon is infertile, HE SAID NO AND WANTED HER OFF OF HIM. 

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juliaaaaaa's review against another edition

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3.5

“No,” he groaned, pulling her closer. “I want to be in your heart. I want—” His entire body shuddered when their skin touched. “I want to be in your soul.”

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colloreda's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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kayleejanes's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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jencolumb0's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

As an enthusiastic fan of Shondaland’s Season One of Bridgerton, I am happy that I did not read this first, because I’m not sure that Regé-Jean Page could have convinced me to give a TV adaptation of that nonsense a go. Blessedly, Shondaland was only exceptionally loosely inspired by the source material and redid it in such a tremendously better way. The original work just barely squeaks into the arena of something *vaguely* tolerable, in a second-wave white-lady feminist, “look at the plucky white lady getting away with doing not thoroughly feminine things while perpetuating an exclusionary world order” kind of way, not in the (preferable) third-wave, “imagine we all learned and did better” kind of way (where the Shondaland version seems to exist).

And I will never get over Daphne
attempting to garner sympathy from herself and others after raping Simon.
That was thoroughly not okay. I get why it is a plot line that even made it into the Shondaland version but it’s gross and at least Phoebe Dynevor’s Daphne seemed to grasp more firmly that she was wrong.

Given that the Shondaland team had trouble breathing life into Anthony’s story and they improved so thoroughly on the source material, here, I’m not sure I’ll bother with reading the rest of the series. I have better things to do than spite-read until Season Three drops, like catch up on all of Alexis Hall’s releases . . . or watching Regé-Jean Page breathe life into Dungeons & Dragons. 

Suffice it to say that I am even more impressed with the Shondaland team’s ability to succeed as they have with the adaptation after reading this.

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sudatot's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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jessicaoreads67's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The writing was great, it was so fast paced it was easy to be sucked into the book. I just didn’t think *that* scene wasn’t needed. I mean I get the reason it’s there but I just think it slightly ruined the book for me. 

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littlewishling's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I loved the sibling relationships in this and the romance was fun but I didn’t love the male aggression and the 1800’s version of almost stealthing.

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kb33's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted fast-paced
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I don’t usually read historical romance, but I enjoyed the tv series and decided to give this a try. I enjoyed the book, but it did have some problematic parts, including the rape scene and both characters’ handling of it. If you haven’t seen the tv series, it wasn’t forced intercourse, it was
consensual sex, with Simon’s expectation that he can pull out, and Daphne doesn’t allow him to.

Minus that, it was an enjoyable book. 

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cdoubet's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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