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Binge-then-Read: Bridgerton

Lady Whistledown’s Society Papers 

Friday, March 25, 2022

Des Moines Public Library Edition 

Dearest Readers, 

Season two of Bridgerton premieres today on Netflix. In this edition of Binge-then-Read the Des Moines Public Library Book Chat librarians assisted me with pairing each of our beloved Bridgerton characters with the book they need to read. No genre is excluded in this game of matchmaking. Without further ado, let us preview our matches.  

Yours truly,

Lady Whistledown

Daphne Pairing

Daphne Bridgerton—Accidentally Engaged by Farrah Heron

Daphne Bridgerton is a kindhearted character who values her relationships with her friends and family. In Accidentally Engaged, Reena, like Daphne, enters a fake relationship with a man her parents want her to marry—Daphne could really use any tips she can get about navigating the pitfalls and triumphs of the fake relationship that she finds herself in. 

When it comes to bread, Reena Manji knows exactly what she's doing. She treats her sourdough starters like (somewhat unruly) children. But when it comes to Reena's actual family—and their constant meddling in her life—well, that recipe always ends in disaster. 

Now Reena's parents have found her yet another potential Good Muslim Husband. This one has the body of Captain America, a delicious British accent, and lives right across the hall. Reena refuses to marry anyone who works for her father. She won't be attracted to Nadim's sweet charm or gorgeous lopsided smile. That is, until the baking opportunity of a lifetime presents itself: a couples' cooking competition with the prize of her dreams. Reena will do anything to win—even asking Nadim to pretend they're engaged. But when it comes to love, baking your bread doesn't always mean you get to eat it too. 

  

Simon Ten Years a Nomad

Simon Basset (Duke of Hastings)—Ten Years a Nomad: A Traveler's Journey Home by Matthew Kepnes 

Simon has never been content to stay in one place for long. He has a restless spirit that if he lived in modern times would be called wanderlust. He would find a kindred spirit in Matthew Kepnes the travel blogger behind the New York Times best-selling book How to Travel the World on $50 A Day. This memoir documenting ten years of travel would be right up Simon's alley. 

Matthew Kepnes knows what it feels like to get the travel bug. After quitting his 9-5 job more than ten years ago, he realized that living life meant more for him than simply meeting traditional milestones like buying a car, paying a mortgage, and moving up the career ladder.  

With almost nothing tangible to show for it after traveling over 500,000 miles and staying in 1,000 different hostels in 90 different countries, Matt has compiled his favorite stories and experiences in this travel manifesto to show a different side of life. Filled with the color and perspective that only hindsight and self-reflection can offer, these stories get to the real questions at the heart of wanderlust. Ten Years a Nomad is for travel junkies, the travel-curious, and anyone interested in what you can learn about the world when you don't have a cable bill for a decade.

Anthony Bridgerton

Anthony Bridgerton—Dune by Frank Hebert  

Anthony Bridgerton is the Viscount and the head of the Bridgerton family and believes he is the most important person in the room at all times. He would be the person who reads the trending titles to be a part of the conversation. Anthony is also our reluctant hero of this story just like Paul Atreides from Dune by Frank Hebert. Based on everything we've seen so far, he also is in desperate need of a book that will let him escape his everyday life for another world. 

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for.

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream. 

Penelope Featherington

Penelope Featherington—The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Penelope Featherington, a wallflower often overlooked as less important, an intelligent young woman with a sharp wit and big heart. Penelope and Addie LaRue both are “invisible” to the worlds they inhabit, yet they shape the outcome of events as they unfold. While everyone forgets Addie, Penelope alters others’ fates through her secret identity as Lady Whistledown.  

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman, Addie LaRue makes a Faustian bargain to live forever--and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. 

Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name. 

Violet Bridgerton

Lady Violet Bridgerton—A Woman of Intelligence by Karin Tanabe 

Lady Violet is consumed with fulfilling her role in society, and setting her children up for success in advantageous and happy marriages. Our team think Violet would love to escape her hectic life and get lost in this thrilling story of a housewife who becomes an undercover agent for the FBI. 

A Fifth Avenue address, parties at the Plaza, two healthy sons, and the ideal husband: what looks like a perfect life for Katharina Edgeworth is anything but. It's 1954, and the post-war American dream has become a nightmare. As a single girl in 1940s Manhattan, she is a translator at the newly formed United Nations, devoting her days to her work and the promise of world peace--and her nights to cocktails and the promise of a good time. 

Now the wife of a beloved pediatric surgeon and heir to a shipping fortune, Katharina is trapped in a gilded cage, desperate to escape the constraints of domesticity. So when she is approached by the FBI and asked to join their ranks as an informant, Katharina seizes the opportunity. A man from her past has become a high-level Soviet spy, but no one has been able to infiltrate his circle. Enter Katharina, the perfect woman for the job. 

Colin Bridgerton

Colin Bridgerton—The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Colin is the go with the flow, laid back brother. He likes to travel but unlike Benedict it isn't because he is restless, he is just always up for the next great adventure. We bet that if he had the opportunity to join the Wayfarer crew he would jump at the chance to go to space.  

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It's also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn't part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other.  

To survive, Rosemary's got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn't necessarily the worst thing in the universe. 

Benedict Bridgerton

Benedict Bridgerton—If We Were Villians by M.L. Rio 

Benedict is artistic and reserved. He prefers to appear distant and uninterested than to engage in the drama of the season. For him the parties filled with other artists of a lower social standing are where it is at. For all of these reasons we recommend he pick up If We Were Villians by M.L. Rio, a moody, high-drama murder mystery set around a Shakesperean troop. 

On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and after ten years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it. A decade ago: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extras. 

But in their fourth and final year, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students' world of make-believe. In the morning, the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tragedy, and their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other, and themselves that they are innocent. 

Circe Miller

Lady Danbury—Circe by Madeline Miller  

Lady Danbury is a strong female character with big feelings and opinions who won't be walked all over. When Simon was a child she took him in and raised him as her own. Our Book Chat Team thinks that she would connect to the defiant spirit of Circe as portrayed by Madeline Miller. 

Circe is the daughter of Helios, the sun god, and Perse, a beautiful naiad. Yet from the moment of her birth, she is an outsider in her father 's halls, where the laughter of gossiping gods resounds. Named after a hawk for her yellow eyes and strange voice, she is mocked by her siblings until her beloved brother Aeetes is born. 

In Circe, Madeline Miller breathes life once more into the ancient world, with the story of an outcast who overcomes scorn and banishment to transform herself into a formidable witch. Unfolding on Circe's wild, abundant island of Aiaia, where the hillsides are aromatic with herbs, this is a magical, intoxicating epic of family rivalry, power struggles, love and loss and a celebration of female strength in a man 's world. 

Queen Charlotte

Queen Charlotte—Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan  

The 1813 societal debut starts with all of the eligible young women being presented to the Queen. While Queen Charlotte may want everyone else to believe she is above the drama and the gossip, secretly she can't get enough of it. We think she would love the society, drama and Opulence in Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians series. 

When New Yorker Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nick has failed to give his girlfriend a few key details. One, that his childhood home looks like a palace; two, that he grew up riding in more private planes than cars; and three, that he just happens to be the country's most eligible bachelor. 

On Nick's arm, Rachel may as well have a target on her back the second she steps off the plane, and soon, her relaxed vacation turns into an obstacle course of old money, new money, nosy relatives, and scheming social climbers.

Eloise Bridgerton

 

Eloise Bridgerton—A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas 

Eloise is not interested in the balls or the parties. She wants to study and escape the looming restrictions of life as a married woman in the early 19th century. For this reason, we think Eloise would connect with Charlotte Holmes from A Study in Scarlet Women. Charlotte also wants to escape society's expectations and live life on her terms.  Eloise strikes us as the type of mystery reader who would want to figure out the mystery before she gets to the end of a book. 

With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper class society. But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London. 

When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name. She'll have help from friends new and old--a kind-hearted widow, a police inspector, and a man who has long loved her. But in the end, it will be up to Charlotte, under the assumed name Sherlock Holmes, to challenge society's expectations and match wits against an unseen mastermind. 

Kate Sharma

Kate Sharma/Sheffield—My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite  

*In the Netflix series the Sheffield’s last name was changed to Sharma

Kate may be declared a spinster by polite society, but she is determined, competitive, and will do anything to ensure her sister makes the right match (including intimidate any suitors who don't meet her standards). As such, we think she'd enjoy reading about another loyal sister whose personal desires may not always align with familial responsibilities. In My Sister,The Serial Killer, Korede isn't protecting her sister from amorous suitors, but from the law. 

Korede's sister Ayoola is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola's third boyfriend in a row is dead, stabbed through the heart with Ayoola's knife. Korede's practicality is the sisters' saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood (bleach, bleach, and more bleach), the best way to move a body (wrap it in sheets like a mummy), and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures to Instagram when she should be mourning her "missing" boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.

Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she's exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola's phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she's willing to go to protect her.

Edwina Sharma

Edwina Sharma/Sheffield—The Governess Game by Tessa Dare 

*In the Netflix series the Sheffield’s last name was changed to Sharma

Edwina is beautiful, sweet, and has been declared the incomparable of the season. With guidance from her older sister, all she wants is to find her own happily ever after where love conquers all. We think, to escape the pressures of the season, she'd pick up a historical-for-us but contemporary-for-her romance where another sweetly strong-willed heroine finds love in an advantageous match. Alexandra Mountbatten, from Tessa Dare's The Governess Game, is just the literary heroine to inspire Edwina in her own romantic pursuits. 

He's been a bad, bad rake—and it takes a governess to teach him a lesson. The accidental governess. After her livelihood slips through her fingers, Alexandra Mountbatten takes on an impossible post: transforming a pair of wild orphans into proper young ladies. However, the girls don't need discipline. They need a loving home. Try telling that to their guardian, Chase Reynaud: duke's heir in the streets and devil in the sheets. The ladies of London have tried--and failed--to make him settle down. Somehow, Alexandra must reach his heart...without risking her own.

Newton Sharma

Newton Sharma/Sheffield (the Corgi)—To Fetch a Felon by Jennifer Hawkins 

*In the Netflix series the Sheffield’s last name was changed to Sharma

We couldn’t leave Newton, the corgi out of the fun. In addition to attention from some of the most eligible women in high society, Newton holds a place of high esteem in the Sheffield/Sharma family. While his mistresses are courting eligible bachelors, he will need some quality entertainment. We recommend checking out To Fetch a Felon by Jennifer Hawkins. We think Newton will relate to the crime solving corgi at the center of this series. 

Emma Reed and her beloved Corgi move from London to Cornwall with the dream of opening a tea shop-but first they'll have to collar a criminal in the first book in a charming new series.  

Emma leaves London and her life in high finance behind her and moves to an idyllic village in Cornwall, with its cobblestone streets and twisting byways. She plans to open a village tea shop and bake the recipes handed down to her from her beloved grandmother, and of course there'll be plenty of space for her talking corgi, Oliver, to explore. Yes...talking. Emma has always been able to understand Oliver, even though no one else can. 
 
As soon as Emma arrives in the village she discovers that the curmudgeonly owner of the building she wants to rent for her shop hates dogs and gets off on the wrong foot with Oliver. Although some might turn tail and run, Emma is determined to win her over. But when she delivers some of her homemade scones as a peace offering, she finds the woman dead. Together, Emma and Oliver will need to unleash their detective skills to catch a killer. 

  

 

Published on March 24, 2022
Last Modified March 29, 2024