Clara’s Verdict
It’s in His Kiss is the seventh Bridgerton novel, and it hands the reins to Hyacinth, the youngest and most fearless of the eight. She is clever, blunt to the point of alarming her suitors, and easily my favourite kind of heroine: one who is more likely to solve the mystery than swoon over it. Pair her with Gareth St. Clair, a man saddled with a hostile father and a diary he cannot read, and you have a romance with an actual puzzle at its heart.
I enjoyed how much the book trusts its heroine’s intelligence. The courtship runs on banter and shared curiosity rather than misunderstanding, and the treasure-hunt thread gives it a momentum that pure drawing-room romance sometimes lacks. It is bright, funny and affectionate, and it never once asks Hyacinth to be smaller than she is.
It is not reinventing the form, and the mystery is more charm than intrigue. But as late-series comfort with a genuinely likeable pair at its centre, it is a delight, and among the most purely enjoyable listens in the whole run.
About the Audiobook
The seventh of Quinn’s beloved Regency novels, now part of the Netflix series, It’s in His Kiss tells the story of Hyacinth Bridgerton and Gareth St. Clair. Gareth is in a bind. His father, who detests him, is determined to ruin the St. Clair estates and beggar his inheritance, and Gareth’s sole bequest is an old family diary that may hold the secrets of his past and the key to his future. The catch is that it is written in Italian, of which Gareth does not speak a word.
Hyacinth, fiendishly smart and devilishly outspoken, is by Gareth’s own estimation probably best taken in small doses, and yet there is something about her, charming and vexing at once, that will not let him go. She offers to translate the diary, her own Italian being slightly less than perfect, and as the two work through the mysterious text they discover that the answers they seek lie less in its pages than in each other. It is a romance about wit meeting its match, wrapped around a family secret worth unravelling.
The Narration
Rosalyn Landor narrates, and across eleven hours and eleven minutes she gives Hyacinth exactly the quick, fearless energy the character demands. The banter between Hyacinth and Gareth is the engine of this book, and Landor’s timing keeps it crackling; you can hear the smile behind the sparring. She handles the diary’s Italian passages and the mild mystery with clarity, and the familiar Bridgerton household is once again drawn with an easy, practised warmth.
It is a reading that leans happily into the book’s comedy without losing its heart. Landor lets the tender moments land softly amid the wordplay, and the whole thing keeps a light, propulsive step from first minute to last.
What Readers Say
With a rating of 4.6 from 31 reviews, this is among the highest regarded instalments in the batch, and the enthusiasm for Hyacinth is unmistakable. Amber Coates calls her the greatest heroine she has ever read, smart and cunning and sure of what she wants, and singles out her friendship with the formidable Lady Danbury for particular joy. Book Gannet, reliably, places Hyacinth as the youngest of eight and so like the fearsome dowager countess that she frightens off her suitors entirely.
Others keep their praise short and unreserved: a perfect book that arrived quickly and was loved from first second to last, another great read full of comedy, a little sadness and eventual happiness, and a simple, contented recommendation to read it. Several mention the pleasure of finishing the book before watching the corresponding Netflix episode. The picture is of a warm, witty, thoroughly enjoyable listen with a heroine readers adore.
Who Should Listen?
This is for listeners who like their romantic leads clever and their courtships built on sparring rather than sighing, for fans of a light mystery folded into the love story, and for Bridgerton followers who want one of the series’ most purely enjoyable turns. If Hyacinth’s brand of fearless wit appeals, you will race through it.
If a funny, warm-hearted Regency romance with a heroine to root for sounds like your evening, this is the one to choose. Listen to It’s in His Kiss on Audible
