Nicholas Rokesby and Georgiana Bridgerton have known each other their whole lives. Growing up as the youngest siblings in their neighboring families, they were childhood friends. Now Nicholas is away at medical school in Scotland when he’s summoned home by his father. Georgie is in trouble: a man tried to abduct and marry her, and although she escaped, her reputation did not. So Nicholas’s father has the perfect solution: Nicholas and Georgie should marry. Never mind that they’re not in love.

This was a sweet friends-to-lovers story. Both characters get to grow up together, and their shared interests and genuine friendship made them a lovely pairing. I honestly could have used a little more story.

Delightful and entertaining! A story about two people who are meant to be together eventually, being pushed together by circumstances now. Witty and so much fun .

The last few Julia Quinn books have been so good, I was wondering how much better they could get AND SOMEHOW THIS ONE GOT EVEN BETTER. It was sweet, funny, and every time I looked down at the climbing percentage of how far along I was, I got more and more distressed that it would have to end.

I so enjoy all the Bridgertons and these early family stories are as entertaining as all the others. I like the characters and the plot. Will be recommending this one to anyone who hasn't read Miss Quinn - anyone who has read her previous Bridgertons will already want to read this next installment!

This is Georgie and Nicholas’ story. She is kidnapped for her money. She is ruined in society’s eyes. He is called home from medical school to marry her. They have been friends since they were children. It is not easy for either of them to accept, until they realize they are falling in love. I love the Bridgerton stories and this did not disappoint. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

This book might tie for first place as my favorite Julia Quinn novel. It was an absolute delight to read! Both main characters were immensely likable, their conversation and banter flowed very well. The tension and feelings between them felt natural, and delicious. There were cats! In carriages! I stayed up way past my bedtime reading it, and immediately wanted to turn around and start it again.
Julia Quinn knocks it out of the park again!

Ah, Julia Quinn, my old fave. Probably one of the first romance authors I really fell for, as an adult. I think I was working at Borders when I found the Bridgerton series, so I bought them all and read voraciously. I think she's had a bit of trouble adjusting, 20 years later, to a more feminist, less patriarchal way of writing romances. Her heroines are never QUITE convincingly feminist, and the books are just less badass than say, Sarah Maclean's, or...I don't know, Tessa Dare's. They're more gentle, somehow.

That said, I actually really did enjoy this, and thought that the heroine's unspoken feminist badassery was better done than other Julia Quinn heroines have been, so. Still, not my fave recommendation for young readers of romance.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC.

This book was... fine. I enjoyed it more than 'The Other Miss Bridgerton', which I actually found too tedious to finish, but I also don't know that it's going to stick with me at all -- and that's been a problem with a lot of JQ's recent efforts. It pains me to say that, as I've been reading her for decades, and her earlier novels are among my very favorites in the genre. But for several years now, they've been a bit tepid.

'First Comes Scandal' is a sweet little story, and if you prefer your romance novels without much action and drama, focused instead on characters learning each other, you'll enjoy this. Me, I could've done with more drama -- with *something* exciting, some conflict or challenge that wasn't easily swept away without any real threat to the characters or their relationship. Everything in this book is resolved very easily, and I recognize that may come as a comfort to some readers. If that sounds like you, I can definitely recommend this book. Georgie and Nicholas are clever and have good dialogue, especially when they fall into teasing each other. The glimpses of Edmund, Violet, and their boys are also a nice treat for fans of the Bridgerton series.

As a sidebar: I seriously, seriously need JQ to re-examine what she thinks she knows about corsetry and other foundation garments. Her 1791 heroine is not wearing something that will leave her short of breath. Stays of that period just didn't compress in that fashion. JQ has several lines about corsetry's effect on the body that are just straight-up false, drawing from myth rather than reality. Hating corsets is such a boring trope in historical fiction, and it smacks of internalized misogyny as well, because it's generally used as shorthand for how the heroine is better than other girls, more liberated, ~special~. It's dull, lazy writing. JQ can and should do better. There are so many more interesting things to play with when it comes to historical fashion rather than recycling the same unimaginative trope and beating it to death!

Anyway, setting aside that pet peeve, this book was fine. But it wasn't more than fine. It almost feels like it could've been a novella-length entry in a multi-author compilation, rather than trying to stand on its own.

On the one hand, thoroughly enjoyable! On the other... where's the other half of the book? I'm serious, I got to the epilogue and was sure there had to be some sort of error with the file for that to be where the book ended. There's just not a whole lot of conflict, and what there is gets resolved so quickly that it almost feels like a cheat. A few notes: virgin hero (!!!), chronically ill heroine (Georgie has asthma), what I'm guessing is a fairly period-accurate description of medical school/practice including discussion of bleeding as medicine, narrative climax involves asserting the patient's right to refuse treatment she doesn't want. I would have liked more of Georgie and Nicholas's life in Edinburgh because it seems like there was a whole lot that got skipped between the last chapter and the epilogue, but what there is is very cute "talk it out" style romance.