Review: Romancing Mister Bridgerton (Bridgertons, #4) by Julia Quinn

                                                         

Print Length: 480 pages

Publisher: Avon (July 1, 2002)

From Goodreads.com: Everyone knows that Colin Bridgerton is the most charming man in London. Penelope Featherington has secretly adored her best friend's brother for...well, it feels like forever. After half a lifetime of watching Colin Bridgerton from afar, she thinks she knows everything about him, until she stumbles across his deepest secret...and fears she doesn't know him at all.

Colin Bridgerton is tired of being thought nothing but an empty-headed charmer, tired of everyone's preoccupation with the notorious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, who can't seem to publish an edition without mentioning him in the first paragraph. But when Colin returns to London from a trip abroad he discovers nothing in his life is quite the same - especially Penelope Featherington! The girl haunting his dreams. But when he discovers that Penelope has secrets of her own, this elusive bachelor must decide...is she his biggest threat - or his promise of a happy ending?

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My Rating: 1 star out of 5

I know I said I wasn't going to read any more of this series, but it's been over a year now since I last read one, and what can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment I guess. In my defense, I recently was able to catch season three of the Netflix show which is based on this book and it reminded me of all the ways I had enjoyed Colin's character from the previous novels. He was charming, and witty, and I thought finally, a Bridgerton male that wasn't an absolutely vile person. 

Only I was wrong. Oh so very wrong. 

You see, dear Colin has a dark side that only apparently comes out where Penelope is involved. At first it was little things, his attitude going from hot to cold and back again while they were speaking. Or him becoming angered by little things that she said, or did (for example when he left his journal laying out in the drawing room and she read a page of his travel writing. Should she have done it? No. But he didn't need to react as badly as he did over it either). Penelope even thinks to herself at one point that she didn't know that he could be petulant and spoiled, which really should have been warning signs, especially when he went from disturbed about thinking his sister (Penelope's best friend for ten years) could be Lady Whistledown, to disdain when she tried to reassure him by saying that Eloise couldn't possibly be the infamous writer. In fact he even snapped at her over it. 

By this point I was wondering what Penelope saw in him. Surely seeing his true colors and having them directed at her would be enough to sway her from the way she idolized him for years (and let's be real here, it was idolization as she did not know him to be in love with him). And then it happened. 

Colin followed Penelope to a shadier part of town, to a church specifically, spied on her while she was inside, and then not only confronted her about what she was doing there, but then proceeded to march to where she had hidden a piece of personal correspondence, tear it open and read it. After she begged and pleaded with him not to. Now at this point I started to have hope that Penelope wasn't as stupid as I was starting to think she was as she acknowledges to herself that she had "spent half her life worshipping someone who wasn't even real". He forces her into his carriage (although really she didn't have any other option as her hired hack had left her despite her telling the driver to stay), where they proceed to argue with one another about the secret that she has been keeping. And when Penelope tries to explain, "his hand closed over her upper arm with painful force." Girl.... slap him across the face. But of course she doesn't do that. Not at all. In fact, she allows him to take liberties with her person right there in his carriage, to the point where by the time they realize they have been parked outside of her home, there is no way to make themselves presentable. So of course, he offers for her. Because he is a gentleman after all (I type as I roll my eyes). 

Fast forward to their engagement ball, when Penelope does something that once again sees Colin manhandling her to the point he even thinks to himself that his soon-to-be-wife might wake up the next day with a serious bruise on her arm. He knows he is hurting her, but he can't let go. And do you know why he can't let go? Because if he does, he might lose his temper (that the ton doesn't know he possesses in front of everyone gathered at the ball). 

By now I'm thinking Penelope girl, you know you are worth so much more than this right? But no. Instead she thinks to herself that if having to endure his anger and disdain was to be a part of their marriage, it would still be worth it. So we're going to take a narcissistic (and come on how could he not be, abusive arsehole, paint him as charming in the eyes of everyone else, and we as readers are supposed to be okay with this? Oh Colin finally realizes what his problem is! He's jealous! Jealous that Penelope has done something with her life while he hasn't done anything with his and that just makes it all better! *sighs* At this point I'm starting to think this author has something against men in general, or maybe she was terribly hurt by one in the past. Whatever the case may be, I have yet to see her write one that isn't a vile, abusive and pathetic one. 

I do have the other books in my possession, so perhaps I'll read another. I am as I said, a glutton for punishment.