Asia
4/5
I enjoyed this book. Which, if you don't know me, is very surprising since I hate show Penelope and don't care for show Colin.
But I digress.
I loved Colin since the first book, he was awesome. I always love sarcastic heroes and he was. Sassy too. I love this relationship with his siblings (especially his brothers) and I was intrigued to see how his relationship with Penelope progresses in the books.
Penelope, who is so different in the books that I can't help but admire. She's an amazing friend, very kind and nice and forgiving. And she's great as Lady Whistledown: so witty and sarcastic and delightful and funny. She's not at all cruel, she just reports on what happens without any malicious comments (the show did her dirty). Every time Lady Danbury said "I like her" about Penelope, I was like "me too, actually!"
Book Penelope and Colin are much better characters, and I love them.
Lady Danbury was a lovely surprise. She's somewhat similar to her show's counterpart but less meddling, which I appreciated.
As for the other characters, I love Eloise and Hyacinth so much, as well as their relationship with each other, Violet, and Pen. They're both super sassy and hilarious, and I can't wait to read their books, especially Hyacinth's one.
However, Anthony will forever remain my favourite. And this book only solidified that.
He was incredible. i love how much he honestly cared about Penelope and saw her as his sister since the beginning: the cut he gave to Cressida, how he walked Pen home after Colin's comment, how happy he was to welcome Pen to the family,a nd how proud he was when he found out she was Whistledown (and I wish we saw those conversation between him and Colin in the book!). he was the second person (right after Danbury) to clap for her after the announcement! Truly, the nicest man in London.
I love that Penelope and Colin were honest with each other and confessed their feelings before their wedding so there would be no miscommunication at all. I'm not always a fan of an unrequited love but this one was done well. And it was so refreshing to see Colin actually realize he loves Pen now but didn't before - so many books have MMCs say stuff like "it was always you I was just an idiot and didn't see it but I felt it", but not here. Instead, it's much more realistic, "I should have noticed you years ago but I didn't and I'm sorry. I love you now and i was too stupid to not see you like that before" which I appreciate.
I would have given this book 4.5 stars if not for 2 things: one) Colin annoyed me a little bit when he was so jealous of Pen's accomplishments, but he wouldn't tell her and instead refused to speak to her about Whistledown completely.
and 2) the book was a bit boring after they got engaged. There was nothing happening for almost 15% and while I'm glad that they were happy, it was boring. Nothing happened until Cressida's blackmail and suddenly then all of things happened at once: Colin's plan, Eloise's weird behaviour (if it weren't for the 2nd epilogue, I wouldn't know what was going on, but there were so many hints in hindsight), Hastings ball... it was hard to keep up. So yeah, I was really bored for a few chapters.
All in all it was a really good book and I'm glad that unlike his brithers (and Simon), Colin didn't do anything horrible to Penelope (like lying about not being able to have children. Or tossing her a key that she couldn't catch so she would kneel in front of him. Or harassing her to become his mistress). He was so sweet and gentle and amazing. And I'm glad he found his passion in life (other than the food that is).
4/5
I enjoyed this book. Which, if you don't know me, is very surprising since I hate show Penelope and don't care for show Colin.
But I digress.
I loved Colin since the first book, he was awesome. I always love sarcastic heroes and he was. Sassy too. I love this relationship with his siblings (especially his brothers) and I was intrigued to see how his relationship with Penelope progresses in the books.
Penelope, who is so different in the books that I can't help but admire. She's an amazing friend, very kind and nice and forgiving. And she's great as Lady Whistledown: so witty and sarcastic and delightful and funny. She's not at all cruel, she just reports on what happens without any malicious comments (the show did her dirty). Every time Lady Danbury said "I like her" about Penelope, I was like "me too, actually!"
Book Penelope and Colin are much better characters, and I love them.
Lady Danbury was a lovely surprise. She's somewhat similar to her show's counterpart but less meddling, which I appreciated.
As for the other characters, I love Eloise and Hyacinth so much, as well as their relationship with each other, Violet, and Pen. They're both super sassy and hilarious, and I can't wait to read their books, especially Hyacinth's one.
However, Anthony will forever remain my favourite. And this book only solidified that.
He was incredible. i love how much he honestly cared about Penelope and saw her as his sister since the beginning: the cut he gave to Cressida, how he walked Pen home after Colin's comment, how happy he was to welcome Pen to the family,a nd how proud he was when he found out she was Whistledown (and I wish we saw those conversation between him and Colin in the book!). he was the second person (right after Danbury) to clap for her after the announcement! Truly, the nicest man in London.
I love that Penelope and Colin were honest with each other and confessed their feelings before their wedding so there would be no miscommunication at all. I'm not always a fan of an unrequited love but this one was done well. And it was so refreshing to see Colin actually realize he loves Pen now but didn't before - so many books have MMCs say stuff like "it was always you I was just an idiot and didn't see it but I felt it", but not here. Instead, it's much more realistic, "I should have noticed you years ago but I didn't and I'm sorry. I love you now and i was too stupid to not see you like that before" which I appreciate.
I would have given this book 4.5 stars if not for 2 things: one) Colin annoyed me a little bit when he was so jealous of Pen's accomplishments, but he wouldn't tell her and instead refused to speak to her about Whistledown completely.
and 2) the book was a bit boring after they got engaged. There was nothing happening for almost 15% and while I'm glad that they were happy, it was boring. Nothing happened until Cressida's blackmail and suddenly then all of things happened at once: Colin's plan, Eloise's weird behaviour (if it weren't for the 2nd epilogue, I wouldn't know what was going on, but there were so many hints in hindsight), Hastings ball... it was hard to keep up. So yeah, I was really bored for a few chapters.
All in all it was a really good book and I'm glad that unlike his brithers (and Simon), Colin didn't do anything horrible to Penelope (like lying about not being able to have children. Or tossing her a key that she couldn't catch so she would kneel in front of him. Or harassing her to become his mistress). He was so sweet and gentle and amazing. And I'm glad he found his passion in life (other than the food that is).