While Romancing Mister Bridgerton was the least offensive of the Bridgerton series so far, it still fell into the same toxic tropes of glorifying mediocre men. But worst of all, the writing in it was so incredibly lazy! This book was romance by numbers, with the actual romantic parts skipped over in favour of faux drama.
The relationship between Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington never actually developed. We've known since book one that Penelope was in love with Colin, but on Colin's part, his love for Penelope existed for no other reason than the plot demanded it. His personality had to change for that to happen. Gone was the sweet, funny young man from the previous books (his character was always a highlight), and he was replaced with a man crippled with toxic jealousy and an almost violent temper to boot! Former Colin was a romantic hero I could get behind. New Colin is just another privileged, controlling Bridgerton brother.
The laziest part of Romancing Mister Bridgerton was the Lady Whistledown reveal, however. That Penelope Featherington is Lady Whistledown made perfect sense to the plot, but what didn't make sense was the first quarter of the book trying to hide that fact. Much of the conversation surrounding Whistledown is held in Penelope's presence, and she has no reaction during her internal monologues. It's just so, so lazy! Penelope's Whisteldown identity didn't exist for the first quarter of the book because it would have been inconvenient and spoiled the reveal, but there are ways to have Penelope react in natural ways without making it seem obvious. Instead, Penelope's own PoV just ignores the elephant in the room and pretends it doesn't exist until the plot requires it to.
Penelope was a sweet character, and Romancing Mister Bridgerton could have seen her develop into a strong woman of independent means. Instead, like all Bridgerton heroines, she forgave Colin his horrible behaviour, gave up her own dreams to support those of her husband, and gave away a huge chunk of the savings that could have given her an independent living to an emotionally abusive mother. These are all things the novel holds up as laudable traits. It's always a happy ending when a woman gets married and pregnant. After all, what else are we good for?
Add to all the above the JQ sex trifecta (boobs, fingers, missionary), and Romancing Mister Bridgerton was an incredibly average read. It wasn't romantic. It wasn't sexy. It wasn't interesting.