Book Review - What Happens in London

Guys, stop reading. There's no point in your continuing with today's blog post.

I'm a BIG Julia Quinn (Regency Romances) fan, so I have no idea why I let What Happens In London sit on my TBR stack for so long. I wish I hadn't. I don't think I've ever been so happy while/after reading a book. It was the strangest thing. I smiled, laughed, grinned, chuckled, chortled gleefully, and any combination thereof that you all can think of. I even snorted out a laugh once. I've read books with humor, subtle or otherwise, and this one had lots of humor, without even really trying. The scene where four society bachelors, one butler and three under-maids are all in the parlor watching one of the bachelors read and act out scenes from a lurid gothic novel that has absolutely horrible prose and plotting, is too funny (mainly because they're all completely enthralled by the hideous thing - I mean, one of its plot mechanics is that a character's mother gets pecked to death by pigeons - no joke). Plus, I've never read a book where the main characters made each other so freaking happy, like this one did. They bubbled over with joy and so did I. Like I said, it was very bizarre.

What made it so great besides the humor? Well, there was Quinn's usual delightful dialog. It makes sense, it's witty, it flows. Then there are the secondary characters - Olivia's brother Winston, and Harry's cousin Sebastian are uber-entertaining. The real kicker though, and the thing that tickled me every time it happened was that the majority of their romance is carried on via window - they talk to each other through their windows, as they live in neighboring houses. So they go about their day, do their thing and then come home and meet up at their windows to touch base, talk about their day, and read the hideous gothic novel to each other so they can mock it. You get the real idea of their friendship this way. It was cute. And it made me happy.

If you click the above link to B&N.com, you can read the prologue and first two chapters (just click the "See Inside" graphic over the book cover).

Anyways, off to grocery shop. Did anyone else enjoy this book like I did?