You know Bridgerton. I know Bridgerton. Everyone knows Bridgerton. Combined, its three seasons (released in 2020, 2022, and 2024 respectively) have been viewed somewhere around 300 million times on streaming juggernaut Netflix, with a fourth season anticipated in the summer of 2026. The series follows the alphabetically-named Bridgerton siblings as they navigate the Regency social scene, enter courtships, and enjoy semi-tasteful romps with suitors in period undergarments while acoustic covers of pop songs play. While many probably know that the show is based on a novel series, written by prolific romance author Julia Quinn, many probably have not read those novels. That is wise of them because the Bridgerton books are not very good. 

That’s not to say I didn’t like them. I delight in things that are bad. I love True Blood and Riverdale and a great number of trashy CW dramas. I genuinely believe Glee is one of the best shows ever made and will defend its merit to anyone who will listen and a lot of people who won’t. I found the series compulsively easy to read, blew through them all in about a week and a half, and have ranked them for you here, based on my entirely subjective opinion that has nothing to do with literary merit and everything to do with how much fun I had reading them. 

8. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton (#4, Colin and Penelope’s Story) 

I am not a fan of Colin in the show, so this ranking did not surprise me, but I HATED him in the book. This is largely because I think unrequited love where the woman is in love with the man first is such a noxious and foul concept that anyone who uses this trope should be jailed. If he isn’t begging on his knees I don’t want it. Besides that, book Colin is somehow more unlikeable than show Colin: he puts his hands on Penelope several times, hates that he has an ambitious and successful wife who makes them inordinate amounts of money because HE wants to be a writer and doesn’t think they can both be writers, and only starts paying attention to Penelope when she loses weight. I think we should kill book Colin with hammers. 

7. To Sir Phillip With Love (#5, Eloise and Phillip’s Story) 

They took incredible creative liberties with Eloise in the show, because in this book, she is shockingly comfortable marrying a man who openly tells her he just wants a wife to A) bang and B) mother his children so he doesn’t have to. It was genuinely startling to go from show Eloise, who is so confident and outspoken and disinterested in men who are beneath her, to book Eloise, who feels worse for Phillip (a man who made his wife’s postpartum depression about himself) than she does for Marina (his aforementioned wife, who killed herself due to said postpartum depression). None of the characters in this novel, nor Quinn herself, extend any sympathy to Marina’s struggles. Instead, they choose to focus on Phillip and how hard it was for him to be expected to parent his own children without the promise of sex at the end of the day. Thankfully, Eloise is there to parent his children AND have sex with him! 

6. It’s In His Kiss (#7, Hyacinth and Gareth’s Story) 

A pattern is starting to emerge in these books in which the female lead is so wonderful to read about and the male lead is also there, Kill Bill sirens blaring every time he speaks. I suspect this is a trope of the genre, but it is exemplified in Gareth St. Clair, Lady Danbury’s nephew, who has so many daddy issues he purposefully takes Hyacinth’s virginity before their wedding in case she tries to back out upon learning he’s a bastard. Luckily for him (and not for me), Hyacinth seems shockingly unbothered by this, and they get married and have a bunch of kids anyway. Hurray. 

5. On The Way To The Wedding (#8, Gregory and Lucy’s Story) 

This would have ranked higher if it weren’t for the reveal at the end of the book that Gregory and Lucy have nine children back-to-back. The idea of having a child a year for a decade sent chills down my spine. Besides that, I liked the story of this book. Gregory interrupting a wedding was a much better declaration of love than anything Colin, Phillip, or Gareth could summon up. The kidnapping story I could have done without, but I think that was the worst thing Gregory did all book, so I’ll take it. The bar is in hell. 

4. The Duke and I (#1, Daphne and Simon’s Story) 

The show did it better in this case. Simon’s insane possessiveness and borderline sociopathic tendencies might work for some people, but it did not work for me. I will admit that the show did manage to capture the absurd chemistry that Simon and Daphne have in the book and their banter was really fun to read. Unfortunately, the sexual assault scene that’s barely touched on in the show is significantly worse in the book, and it sours the happily-ever-after ending that barely felt earned. It’s a shame that Daphne’s only moment of real agency in this entire book is to assault her husband. Why can’t they just talk to each other like adults? 

3. An Offer From A Gentleman (#3, Benedict and Sophie’s Story) 

Once again we see an intelligent, funny, and vivacious heroine, and her love interest, guy-who-hates-women. Benedict spends most of this book trying to badger Sophie into sleeping with him in between protecting her from men who are trying to badger her into having sex with them. I do think this might be the first book in which relationships between women have any complexity, which is probably why I like it so much. Giving Sophie’s evil stepmother depth, nuance, and actual motivation was the absolute best thing to do for a modified Cinderella story, and it shows. However, Benedict sort of drags the whole thing down, and he’s not even bisexual to make up for it. 

2. The Viscount Who Loved Me (#2, Anthony and Kate’s Story) 

I’ll admit this was coloured by how much I loved Kate in the show, but I think the book did this storyline better! For one, Anthony and Edwina don’t get engaged and Edwina doesn’t really seem to like him that much, meaning I don’t have to think about how much of a dick move it is to steal your little sister’s fiancé on her wedding day because you can’t cop up to liking him. They also did enemies to lovers really well. I truly believed they hated each other’s guts for most of the book. Additionally, Newton! Anthony is obnoxious throughout, but I’m choosing to believe that’s a character choice rather than Quinn thinking it’s hot and charming to act like that. It’s for my own sanity. 

1. When He Was Wicked (#6, Francesca and Michael’s Story) 

Admittedly, my excitement for this to be a lesbian storyline on the show might have given me some unconscious bias here, but this was the best book by far. The fact that the barrier between them getting together wasn’t just “I don’t want to be in love” or “You’re too poor for me” added a lot of emotional depth, and I got the unrequited-love-where-he’s-in-love-with-her that I’d been missing since book 3. It also helped that Michael, despite that period-appropriate misogyny, was an alright dude who didn’t want to do anything Francesca wasn’t comfortable with. When Francesca’s season comes out and it’s Michaela she falls in love with, I’m going to pop so many bottles you can hear it from space. 

Are these books good? No. Should you read them anyway? Probably not, unless you enjoy punishing yourself and/or feel inclined to reread the same book eight times. They are all nearly identical: in plot structure, down to the placement of the sex scenes throughout the narrative; in characters, with fun, interesting heroines and slices of misogynistic Wonder Bread as heroes; and in grammar and syntax, considering I found the same typo three times in three different books. You’re better off saving yourself the time and energy, watching the show eight times, and pretending Eloise and Cressida end up together.