Bridgerton Season Two: The Controversial Novel Changes

With season two of Bridgerton being released last month, fans have been wild over Anthony and Kate’s romance. The binge-worthy show has grabbed our attention and they can’t seem to get enough of the Bridgerton family.

If you didn’t already know, the Netflix series is based on Julia Quinn’s eight novels. Each book covers a different siblings’ romance and a chance at finding love. Read more about each love trope in Emily White’s recent article.

WARNING: spoilers ahead!

With all of the talk around season two, fans of the Julia Quinn series aren’t as excited as others. Major events to the season’s plot were changed from the book, making it almost unrecognizable from the novel that book fans love.

There are several additional details to the Bridgerton TV series that fans have noticed are different from the book. This includes the reason Kate dislikes Anthony in the beginning, who actually witnesses the father’s death, Kate’s fear of thunderstorms, the reason Anthony doesn’t want to marry for love, and so on.

In Quinn’s novel The Viscount Who Loved Me, there’s one critical point that forces Anthony and Kate to go from enemies to lovers; fans know it well as “The Bee Scene.”

In the show, it was a tension-filled moment that Anthony and Kate shared as they are becoming more familiar with each other. It was also when Anthony showed his true colors about his feelings towards his father’s death.

Yet in the book, it was a turning point for their relationship. Julia Quinn wrote that Anthony was so scared for Kate’s life that he tried sucking the “venom” out of her bee sting, which as we know from the show, was in a compromising spot for that time period. To make matters worse, in the book Anthony and Kate’s mothers, Violet and Mary, as well as lady Featherington, catch them in the situation. To avoid ruining Kate’s reputation, Anthony and her agree to marry the following week.

This happens moments after Kate gives Anthony permission to propose to Edwina. However, since they were caught, that proposal never happens. In the show, the love triangle between Anthony, Kate, and Edwina is exaggerated compared to the book. In Quinn’s novel, Edwina is more than supportive of Kate and happy for the couple—quite a change from Edwina’s devastating response at the alter.

By changing the course of Anthony and Kate’s relationship, their “happily ever after” starts in the last few episodes of season two. Yet in the novel, because they’re forced to marry, they have the whole book to fall in love and realize they want to marry for reasons besides saving Kate’s reputation.

Book fans were devastated to learn that from that moment on, the season wouldn’t be like their cherished The Viscount Who Loved Me. Many fans responded to the change with disappointment, anger, and frustration judging by the way they took to TikTok and Twitter. With the many other details from the novels fans’ beloved Bridgerton world that was changed, the love triangle between Anthony, Kate, and Edwina was just the cherry on top.

Many suspected that the major plot change was a result of the first two books being too similar to one another. This is since two couples, Daphne and Simon as well as Anthony and Kate, were both forced to marry when they were caught in compromising situations and ended up finding love through it. While the change makes sense to keep viewers on the edge of their seats and wanting more, it leaves the books following disappointed.

Shonda Rhimes—the creator of the hit Netflix show and of the production company Shondaland’s—has already announced that there will be Bridgerton seasons three and four. If they are like the books, they will follow Benidict’s story and then Collin and Penelope’s. However, Rhimes also claimed that they may make the books out of order as they continue the TV series. Many fans assume the next season will be Collin and Penelope’s story after the way the two characters’ relationship played out in season two.

It seems as though book fans will have to prepare themselves for more changes if they want to continue watching what happens considering the possibility of more changes in season three.

Comment below your opinion on the season and your favorite book!