#1 New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn loves to dispel the myth that smart women don't read (or write) romance, and and if you watch reruns of the game show The Weakest Link you might just catch her winning the $79,000 jackpot. She displayed a decided lack of knowledge about baseball, country music, and plush toys, but she is proud to say that she aced all things British and literary, answered all of her history and geography questions correctly, and knew that there was a Da Vinci long before there was a code.
A graduate of Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges, Ms. Quinn is one of only sixteen members of Romance Writers of America’s Hall of Fame. Her books have been translated into 32 languages, and she lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest.
The Bridgertons, her popular series of historical romance, is currently in production by Shondaland as a Netflix original series starring Julie Andrews, Phoebe Dynevor, and Rége-Jean Page.
I really enjoyed the premise of both stories. All of the characters were engaging, and the authors did a good job of giving them different personalities and making some of them even a little annoying,on purpose. like seeing the Duke from the first story in the second story. I was hesitant when reading reviews about the second narrator but I listen to her in a different book and I feel like she does a good job. maybe some of the accents might have been off but her voice is pleasant and you can tell the difference between the different characters. I'm glad I picked up both books in this set as opposed to individually.
The Lady Most Likely was cute. I liked the voice actor for this one. The Lady Most Willing was kinda icky. Morillas voice very sleazy, but that made sense with her character. It was also very jarring whenever Taren spoke, the accent the voice actor did was dramatically different from everyone else.
The first story is about a party set up by a woman scheming to help her brother find a wife (at his request). Couples start forming, but not the one the hostess had in mind. Nothing too outrageous in this one.
The second story was about an old man, Taren, who wants to force his potential heirs into marrying an eligible lass. He decides to kidnap several women from a party just before a snowstorm and lures the heirs to his castle. Then everyone is trapped for several days because of a snowstorm. Couples pair off. Everyone acceptsTarens manipulation. Gross.
The Lady Most Likely - this was so so good Story 1. This story was perfect. I kept thinking while I was reading “this is SO GOOD. The writing is so good” Story 2. This was good, but his “reasons” did not make sense to me. He couldn’t tell her why he left, that he loved her or intended to court her because of honor? There is no honor in lying by omission. Story 3. Was good. Sometimes the “I’ll never love again” trope is just silly to me.
The Lady Most Willing All three stories were excellent! I loved it.
I really miss Julia Quinn’s writing and books. I read the Bridgerton books long before the show. It’s not even my favorite series by her. Anyway, this was fantastic. I’m going to read some of the other authors too. I wish I knew which ones wrote which stories. I’m guessing it’s in the order they are credited.
Two novels in 3 parts each follow Regency lovers through the twists and turns of Romance. The pacing is a little off, but characters and events are lively. A minor character in the first novel is one of the heroes in the second.
Very sweet but more fluff than usual for a romance. Rather than following one hero and heroine each book is a situation where multiple couples find each other.
This concept is fun but the stories are not particularly interwoven. It’s as if 4 very short novels with the same setting are stacked on top of each other. First we meet one couple, they fall for each other and become betrothed and then we move to the next couple, and the next, and the next.
Though entertaining, this becomes a bit dull because we never get an in-depth understanding of the characters and by the end I had forgotten all about the beginning.
I still enjoyed the read but overall it was a bit simplistic and I was never that engrossed in the story.
New to actually posting about what I read, so bare with me. This is a light little read for people who like a love story. You kind of get sit stories in one with this one. Technically seven, but I'm not going to be picky. Because there is so much going on within these pages, there aren't many genuine surprises in terms of plot, but it's light and easy and funny in places. I really appreciate that the authors managed to make all their characters and the couples different enough that it didn't feed repetitive at all.
These stories were okay. I listened to them while working and got bored, switching back and forth between them and a few other books. As a truly devoted Austen fan I was quite upset that when speaking about Persausion, the book was describing Elizabeth Elliot but calling her Anne Elliot. It wouldn’t be too hard to go back and double check the first two chapters to make sure they got that right. These were easy reads, rather silly, very predictable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The first book was fine, but man the second one was awful. And it didn't help that the different audiobook narrator for The Lady Most Willing was hard to listen to.
The characters in the second work were inconsistent (without showing cause for change) and didn't appear to be fully fleshed out. This is in addition to the nutty plot.
I had to listen to most of The Lady Most Willing on 2x speed because I wasn't going to quit, but didn't have enjoyment in listening.
DNF 18% Confused why this is following so many couples? So far we have an insta love and no depth. They all seem to lack interesting personalities and/or backstories. Doesn’t quite feel inline with what I would expect for Julia Quinn
I love all the characters, even though from the first pages of the book I already kind of know who will fall for who I still love it. I felt like I was watching the Bridgerton series when I was reading this book.
I really liked the formatting of these books that felt like novellas paired in the same timeline. I did feel that the short length of time and all of the couples in each story falling in love at first sight ended up feeling repetitive by the eight story.
The typical love stories we know from Julia Quinn, but I REALLY struggled listening to the second narrator’s voice and almost ditched the book entirely in the first two minutes. Definitely recommend just reading the second book.
I liked the format just wish we could have dug into each person's story a little deeper and that time allowed a greater development of feeling rather than a mere instantaneous connection.
Two fun, fast-moving, quite implausible sexy regencies that made very relaxing reading while stuck at home with a COVID rebound. The authors work together quite seamlessly.
Two Regency Romance books in one; what's not to love? Multiple couples are united in love after a few misconceptions and mishaps. These were fun, light and delightful reading romps.
First was kind of slow and the last one I’ve read before in a different anthology. Very much enjoyed the last story…a 5 star read but the rest I didn’t care for.
A collected work of three likeable authors that I found the stories to be enjoyable and entertaining. Narration was performed by Rosalyn Landor and Susan Duerden was good.
I had no idea what to expect. The book summaries didn't make sense. But then I loved it. It seemed so contrived and unbelievable yet kind of believable for the time. But then it was so romantic I read the first story several times. The second one was boring at first then interesting again in a fantasy way. But it was a nice fluffy read. Not as good as the first story. Well, it was good but I liked the first one better.