When He Was Wicked

I had two primary concerns going into When He Was Wicked: 1) I was curious to see what Quinn would do with a heroine who GASP isn't a virgin!!1 and 2) I was pretty sure she'd never given more than like five minutes thought to Francesca until it was time to write this book.

Francesca was (prior to this book and following it, honestly) the Invisible Bridgerton. I'm fairly certain that she's only ever present in a scene once in the previous five books, and that's a scene wherein Simon Bassett can't tell her and Eloise apart, so it's entirely possible (and likely since the dialogue in the scene was very, very Eloise) that she literally never had a single line of dialogue before her own book. On top of that she's rarely, if ever, mentioned except in the most casual passing fashion, and the only specific reference to her goings-on that I can recall is when Penelope Featherington reflects on the fact that Francesca was married and soon after widowed at some point in the rather large time gap between An Offer from a Gentleman and Romancing Mr. Bridgerton.

Quinn's solution for Concern #2 was simple: she immediately establishes Francesca as an independent and reserved soul who, while she loves her massive, boisterous family, generally prefers being off and away from them doing her own thing. How convenient!

While that's a perfectly fine personality archetype and Francesca is, indeed, a perfectly fine character, the disconnection from the rest of the Bridgertons necessitated by it means that a huge draw of the series -- the interplay between the Bridgerton family -- is almost wholly absent from the book. Julia Quinn pretty obviously struggles a bit around the middle of the novel attempting to make up for this deficiency by inserting Colin into Michael's half of the narrative essentially for no other reason than to troll him and, I imagine, add some interest by including an appearance from a beloved character. And while it did predictably, delight me, Colin doesn't really belong in this narrative. Indeed, the contrast between how forced his appearance is in this book and how perfectly it fit in To Sir Phillip, with Love is stark. Colin, Eloise, and Francesca's stories all take place concurrently, but while Colin and Eloise's complement each other narratively, structurally, and emotionally, Francesca's, much like Francesca herself, is clearly an afterthought.

Which isn't to say that Francesca is in any way unbearable, again, she's perfectly fine! Or that the book itself is. It's not. Now, Michael isn't all that exciting given how many ~rakes~ we've seen at this point -- almost all of them more interesting than him -- and while his pining for Francesca surprisingly never turns the corner to gross, let's not pretend anyone really cares all that much about his manpain. However, his interactions with Francesca are passably charming -- though, honestly, actually moreso before they become involved. But the book as a whole is just... flat. Francesca's closed off nature (and, again, Quinn's obvious lack of interest in her) makes her almost inscrutable as a character at times, and even though she's the lead, you never quite feel like you've gotten into her head. The emotion in the early portion of the book, when she's with John and immediately following his death, is strong and affecting, but after that it just sort of flounders and never really picks up again. Likely because it skips ahead to when she's pretty much over it (or as over it as anyone can be).

Then the book just dives into her and Michael and their attraction, which is when we finally get to Concern #1. As a widow, Francesca is the only female romantic lead in the Bridgerton series who is not virginal upon her first encounter with the male lead, and I was extremely excited to see how Julia Quinn handled a woman who isn't just learning and stands hopelessly ignorant about the needs and desires of her own body (not that there's anything wrong with that, nor to say that Quinn doesn't actually do pretty well with regard to portraying the various ladies' sexual awakenings, as I think that she does). It turns out, Quinn pretty much just dives in. But much like I actually liked Francesca and Michael's banter more before they became involved, I mostly found them much sexier before... they actually had sex. Whereas the other heroines in the series are, as mentioned, blushing virgins finding out what this and this and that does, Quinn pretty much takes Francesca straight to dominatrix porn star, which cool. And yet! Not doing much for me, personally, alas.

But points for trying. I guess that's my feeling on this book as a whole actually. Points for trying, but ehhh.

I'd probably have to count this the weakest in the series.