Because of Miss Bridgerton

Julia Quinn published Because of Miss Bridgerton in 2016, and it opened a series about the neighbouring Rokesby family. It was a New York Times best-seller in paperback.

Billie Bridgerton is a tomboy, and the expectation of everyone around her is that she will eventually marry one of the Rokesby brothers; the two families have been neighbours for centuries, and as a child she ran wild with Edward and Andrew, either of whom would do well enough in time.

The exception is George, the eldest brother and heir to the earldom, whom she is certain she detests and who is, she is equally certain, arrogant and not fond of her either. The two of them are then, quite literally, thrown together, and the novel follows what happens when the person each of them cannot stand turns out to be the person neither of them can do without. The book is the first of a series about the Rokesbys, and it takes place a generation before the Bridgerton novels, so it works as an introduction to the family as well as a comedy of its own.