It's no secret I love the Bridgerton series. After binge-watching the first season, I then went and bought every single one of the books and read them all in a week. I've been meaning to dive back into Julia Quinn's world for a while, and when my local Barnes & Noble had the first two books of the prequel series, I knew it was my time.
Billie Bridgerton has never thought much about romance. Despite being a daughter, she runs the estate - her father not having the time, and she refuses to let the steward do his job. She's always assumed that one day she would marry one of the Rokesby brothers, the boys of the family of the estate right next door to her family's. But there is one thing she is absolutely sure of: George Rokesby is not one of her prospective matches. And as everyone in the romance world knows, this means that she and George are soulmates.
Aubrey Hall, the family estate of the Bridgertons, was a fantastic setting for the book - because while it was a giant part of The Viscount Who Loved Me, we never got an understanding of the estate itself or its intricacies. By letting the readers stay here, it lets us have a better understanding of what it would be like for the Bridgerton children as they grew up here. Between the tenants, the farmland, and the various other parts of their day-to-day, I also appreciated the way the Bridgerton family as a whole cared for their tenants. Plus, we get the backstory of the family's terrifying game of pall mall - and the origin of the black mallet.
The romance between Billie and George was also a comedy of errors. From getting stuck on a roof together to purposefully messing with George's brother's obsession with card houses. They are equal parts chaos goblins, but it presents differently between them. Billie's is all on the surface, as a way to hide the frustration she has at the fact that she's going to have to give up Aubrey Hall someday, despite her having done all the world an eldest son would have done to inherit it. George's, on the other hand, is hidden under the expectations of his station and the world he has to live in as the eldest. I love how it showed how much they had in common, despite them both being surprised by each of the reveals.
Overall, this book was perfectly fun and fluffy - all I want from a Julia Quinn book. The enemies-to-lovers trope was done perfectly, the banter was fun to follow, and it was so easy to see how Billie and George were destined for each other. i adored getting to know them, and I can't wait to get to know more about the previous generation of Bridgertons - and get some more insight into the siblings we fell in love with.