Julia Quinn's 'Splendid'

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN SPLENDID...

Since Julia Quinn's highly acclaimed Bridgerton series has received ample amounts of recognition I decided to read some of her earlier works which included her first novel -'Splendid'. I went into the book expecting witty characters and interesting plot ideas but I was rather disappointed by all the missed opportunities.

Like most of Quinn's work, splendid is set in early 19th century England following our female protagonist - Emma Dunster who is an ambitious heiress who visits London to meet her family and crosses paths with the Duke of Ashbourne aka Alexander Ridgely.

Alexander comes off as pretentious and snarky but over time the character grows on you and you can see his behavioural change after he meets Emma. Miss Dunster is a clever, progressive, fiery-haired girl who kept the book interesting even when the scenes became predictable and repetitive. I had hoped for her to be another ' Elizabeth Bennett', the type of feminist icon that girls can look up to which is why I was most upset to see the way her story panned out. Emma's main storyline was her love story with Alex even though she had so much more potential than that.

It was extremely upsetting to see a progressive coming of age woman end up with the same climax as every other woman of that era.

Miss Quinn's writing evolves a lot further in her later books so it wouldn't be fair to think this is all she was capable of. The writing follows an inconsistent pace. The accuracy of speaking, objects, language etc. of that era is incorrect. There were a lot of moments throughout the book where I felt like the writing was stretched out and could have been phrased in a better way.

There are a lot of amorous scenes as well which is why I would not recommend this book to anyone under the age of 13. Julia Quinn's writing is very descriptive and she didn't fail to impress me in that regard. Towards the end of the book, our main character goes on a thrilling adventure and I must say that I enjoyed those 3 chapters 10× more than I did the rest of the book. If only the author had made that the novel's main premise, it would have been far more interesting and worthwhile. It would have given the book a 'Jane Austen meets Nancy Drew' type of writing which would have been very unique.

To all my fellow readers planning on starting this book, I have a few words of advice. Don't go into it expecting too much because it will disappoint you which is what happened with me. There could have been so many moments where this book could be a lot more thrilling, especially considering its potential. The characters do have great chemistry, but it wasn't enough to make the readers overlook the book's other flaws. I hope this review helps and I look forward to reading your own opinions.

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