I enjoyed the series at the time, but recently began wondering whether my inexperience (both sexual and otherwise) had clouded my proverbial reading glasses at the time. I began a journey that started with reading everything Meg Cabot had ever written, resulting in a hormone-fueled trip that led me to Lisa Kleypas, Beverly Jenkins, and of course, Quinn. I first read the entire series-as a long scroll down my Goodreads will prove- exactly a decade ago, at the innocent age of 11, when I stumbled onto historical romance. Each book also receives a second epilogue in the anthology The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After. The books have repeatedly sold out to the point where one hardcover edition was briefly listed for more than US$700 on Amazon.įor those who hibernated through the hype around Bridgerton, each book in the series follows one of the eight aristocratic Bridgerton siblings, alphabetically named from A through H, as they waltz (sometimes literally) into love, lust, and scandal in Regency England. This, in turn has re-fueled the demand for its source material: The series’ first book, The Duke & I, became a number one New York Times’ bestseller list 21 years after its initial release in 2000 (books two, three, four and seven in the eight-book series appeared on the list as well). Months after its release this past Christmas, Bridgerton has surpassed The Witcher to become Netflix’s most-viewed original TV series, with over 80 million viewers.

I think it is safe to say that the Netflix-Shondaland production Bridgerton, based on an eight-book historical romance series by Julia Quinn, has done exactly that.

There are bad book adaptations, there are good book adaptations, and there are book adaptations that become instant pop-culture phenomenons, birthing a fandom so fervent that it catapults everyone from the adaptation’s cast to the original book’s author to a new level of stardom.

Bridgerton the book series