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When He Was Wicked – Julia Quinn
The Bridgerton Family
Book Seven
AVON,
July 2004
ISBN-13: 978-0060531232
ISBN-10: 0060531231
Reviewed by Erin
July 2004
For the past two years Michael Stirling has been guilty of something unspeakable. He has fallen in love with his cousin’s wife. Being the gentleman he is, not to mention a loyal friend to his cousin, John Stirling the Earl of Kilmartin, Michael has kept his feelings carefully hidden for two years. He is forced to sit back and watch the couple with pangs in his heart, knowing she will never be his. This is no ordinary infatuation; he has loved her from the moment he laid eyes on her. He lives with the knowledge that he could never love another and therefore has damned himself to a solitary life because no woman could ever match his darling, Francesca.
Francesca is the sixth child in the Bridgerton family, a powerful and insanely popular family in the ton. When she met John Stirling she felt an instant attraction to him because they were so similar in temperament. She has enjoyed being his wife and the Countess of Kilmartin these past two years with an intensity that is rarely found in ton marriages. Therefore, she is absolutely devastated when she returns from a walk with Michael one night and finds John dead in his room.
Michael is equally devastated but things do not stop there. He is supposed to be the next heir but when Francesca admits that she is pregnant they must wait until the birth to see if the child is a boy. If so the earldom falls to the son, not Michael. After only a few weeks of mourning for her husband Francesca is further tortured. She loses the baby as well. With the knowledge that he is heir, Michael does not know what to do with himself. He feels incredible guilt for stepping into John’s shoes so quickly after his death and his feelings for Francesca have only gotten stronger. He vows that he will never disgrace his dear cousin’s memory by taking a role as her husband. That would be the ultimate insult in Michael’s eyes. He is trapped. Francesca still wants him to be there for her, to comfort and befriend her but he knows he can’t. His feelings for her are too strong. So he does the only thing he can; he leaves.
Julia Quinn never ceases to amaze me as a writer. Just when you think you know what she’s about and what sort of writer she is, she writes a book that takes you by surprise. She has this uncanny ability to reinvent herself as an author with every book she writes.
WHEN HE WAS WICKED had me crying in the first chapter. It plays with your emotions so thoroughly that you have to read further if only to get the knots out of your stomach and make sure everything turns out alright. This story contains a myriad of elements that make for one of the best stories I have read in a long time. It is heartbreak and sorrow with tragic reality, deliciously wicked and achingly sweet all forged together in a novel that takes your breath away. It’s a beautiful story that keeps you interested until the final page and makes you wish there was so much more.
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