A review by isitcake
It's in His Kiss by Julia Quinn

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

3.0

Good plot, fairly good characters. After the prologue where Gareth's evil dad tells him he's not his real son and engages him to a wealthy but mentally disabled woman to repair the family fortune, I was worried Gareth was going to be a repeat of Simon where he refuses to ever marry. Now at 28, instead it seems he's been living as a rake for the past 10 years? Didn't seem like he did anything??
Hyacinth is ~22 and been through 3 seasons with 6 proposals she's turned down from people mainly after the Bridgerton good name or for money. Most suitors are turned off by her bold personality, she's not afraid to speak her mind. I liked that she has a close relationship with Lady Danbury, that she goes and reads to her once a week, and surprise surprise she's the grandmother to Gareth (will Gareth be black in the Netflix show then!?).

 Hyacinth and Gareth meet again at a Smyth-Smith Quartet and hit it off. Later they meet again when Gareth comes to Lady Danbury for help translating a journal his mother wrote in Italian, and Hyacinth volunteers to do it. This becomes the main plot of the book which I enjoyed.
Gareth is hoping to learn who his real father his. But Hyacinth discovers that she hid jewels in the family estate house! She and Gareth have a couple nighttime escapades to follow clues from the journal to try to find them as they would be good for Gareth to have since he'll inherit so little wealth. There's also a couple kisses, and Gareth realizes he loves her and asks Anthony for approval to marry her, which he receives and he proposes to Hyacinth and she accepts. But then on their next search of the house they are discovered by Gareth's dad who reveals to Hyacinth that Gareth isn't his true son. But then Hyacinth finds out from the journal that Isabella, Gareth's mom, had sex with Gareth's dad's BROTHER. So it's all in the family. They go ahead and get married. Then it time skips in the epilogue and the dad died, they're duke/duchess or whatever level of regency and though they never found the jewels Gareth "found he had a knack for business" and has repaired the family fortunes, and they have a daughter named Isabelle and a son George together.


The 2nd epilogue pisses me off.
Their daughter Isabella discovered the diamond necklace and jewels and has just hid them for years until she overhears Hyacinth and Gareth searching for the jewels in the bathroom one day, that they've been searching "for 15 years." UGH. What kind of child would just hide clearly priceless jewels for years!? Another year passes and Isabella STILL hasn't admitted it, instead she fucking re-hid them for Hyacinth to find. And that's it. It ends with her calling for Gareth that she found them.
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