What to Read After Bridgerton

If you’re like us and as soon as you finished watching the first season of Bridgerton, you wanted to go back and start all over again, then just keep reading! Bridgerton the show is based on the series of Bridgerton family novels by the prolific romance writer, Julia Quinn. You can read ahead in the series (the second book follows the oldest brother, Anthony, to the altar and beyond), but if you don’t want to ruin any potential surprises in the show, we get it!

We’ve put together a list of other reading recommendations based on your favorite character in the show. Did you feel for Penelope, whip smart but stuck on the sidelines of the ballroom? Or did you identify with Lady Bridgerton and her struggles to get just one of her children to settle down and start making grandchildren? Maybe you just want more steamy love scenes with dangerous Dukes….

Note: Some of are recommendations are straight up romance novels, which include the steamier side of things, while others are more regency novels, or what I think of as “Jane Austen Lite” and are more about romance and ballrooms than the bedroom. We noted the type below each recommendation, just in case you’re wondering if it’s safe to share with your mom without blushing.

If you loved Lady Violet Bridgerton:

I have to say, I got such a kick out of the matchmaking mamas on the show. Lady Bridgerton wants her to kids get married, both for their happiness and her own success, but she isn’t willing to sell them off to the highest bidder. She wants them happy and in love, even if she isn’t good at talking about feelings or explaining the marriage act. In the Regency novel The Chocolate Debutante by M.C. Beaton, Harriet Tremayne is a wealthy spinster (she’s actually all of 30) who gets roped into sponsoring her beautiful but flighty niece, Susan, for the London season.  Makeover scenes and ballroom scenes ensue, and it looks like one of Susan’s suitors, Lord Dangerfield, may have more of an eye on the chaperone than the debutante. 

Rating: Regency

If you loved Eloise:

Besides her name, which is obviously the best, Eloise is one of my favorite characters because coming after her perfect older sister, she’s not interested in competing to be the most beautiful or ladylike, instead she’s smart and bored and good at creating trouble for herself. Georgette Heyer’s books Arabella and The Grand Sophy are both regency novels about high-spirited young women who get themselves into trouble and create their own adventures within the ton. Arabella comes from a modest background, but when she meets one of the leaders of the ton, Robert Beaumaris on her way to London for season, she overhears an offending remark and pretends to be a great heiress to defend herself. He’s amused by her and perpetuates her white lie, only to find himself embroiled in her determined efforts to help everyone around her and causing quite a ruckus doing so. 

Rating: Regency

If you loved Penelope:

Who’s heart didn’t break a little for Penelope when she realized that Colin just didn’t see her that way? Between her terrible older sisters, the wild fashion that her mother dressed her in, and just not fitting the typical mold for the time, Penelope was dealing with a lot. I loved that she was too smart to take that sitting down, and I’m looking forward to seeing what she does in the second season. In Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean, Lady Calpurnia Hartwell is the plain and reliable sister, daughter and lady of the ton. She’s unwilling to settle for one of the suitors willing to marry her for her name and dowry and dreams of love and romance. When she decides to throw herself at the handsome rake, Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston, she instead finds herself entangled in a scheme that may end in happiness or heartbreak.

Rating: Romance

If you loved Daphne:

Daphne’s willing to play by the rules of the ton, but she also idealistic and wants to find true love and create a family. In Something Wonderful by Judith McNaught, the Duke of Hawthorne has been through hell and is now a cold and sophisticated rake. When young and innocent Alexandra Townsend comes to his rescue and they’re forced to marry, it’s an epic mismatch, and Alex’a naïveté about society and her husband is almost her undoing. When her husband is forced to disappear, Alex grows up and learns a lot about the world around her, and when Jorden returns, it’s to a much more sophisticated version of his wife. Will they be able to find real love on a more equal footing?

Rating: Romance

If you want more Duke:

Are hot and dangerous Dukes your thing? (I mean, they’re everyone’s thing, right?) Look no further than A Rogue by Any Other Name: The First Rule of Scoundrels by Sarah MacLean. Penelope and Michael grew up as friends on neighboring estates, but then he disappeared from polite society for years. Now the Marquess of Bourne and co-owner of London’s most exclusive gaming hell, he’s bent on revenge and that includes marriage to Lady Penelope by any means possible. There are also three more books in this series, one where the main male character has a very “Lady Whistledown” role!

Rating: Romance