Based on Julia Quinn’s Romancing Mister Bridgerton Season 3 of Netflix and Shondaland’s Bridgerton watches the friends-to-lovers romance between Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) bloom. While their book comes fourth in the series after Benedict’s love story, the show has moved their installment up in the order of Bridgerton sibling romances. Francesca’s (Hannah Dodd) love story also intertwines more significantly in the expanded two-part season, with Part 1 releasing May 16 on Netflix and Part 2 June 13.

Ahead of Season 3 Part 1’s launch, showrunner Jess Brownell, producer Shonda Rhimes and author Julia Quinn confirmed that an important scene in which Colin cuts his hand would feature in the show. This scene first sparks Colin’s more-than-platonic consideration of Penelope as she bandages his hand. She had been sneaking a look at his diary and reading his writing about his travels, and he gets angry with her, which brings him to cut his hand.

Other scenes and lines of dialogue transferred from Quinn’s pages to script and eventually screen, but changes have also been made to character plotlines, backstories, marriage statuses and more. Even those hovering around Lady Whistledown’s identity include different characters than Quinn’s book.

Here are the biggest differences between Bridgerton Season 3 and Julia Quinn’s Romancing Mister Bridgerton:

Part 1: Episodes 1-4

Eloise doesn’t know that Penelope is Lady Whistledown

Eloise (Claudia Jessie) remains unaware of Penelope’s covert column-writing as the infamous author Lady Whistledown throughout the majority of Julia Quinn’s book Romancing Mister Bridgerton. Colin even nurses the suspicion that Eloise could be the woman behind the gossip-mongering quill.

Cressida Cowper is already married

While Eloise has become close friends with Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen) in the wake of her big fight with Penelope following Season 2 of the show, the book focusing on Penelope and Colin’s romance has a different fate spelled out for the character. She goes by Lady Twombley as she is already married.

Benedict is also already married

Benedict Bridgerton’s (Luke Thompson) story, An Offer From a Gentleman comes third in the book series after Anthony’s, but Colin’s and Penelope’s love story has preceded this installment in the show. His wife, Sophie, was a servant girl he met at his mother’s masquerade ball. Season 3 watches Benedict continue to explore his sexuality.

Penelope and Eloise have way more marriage mart seasons under their belts 

At the age of 28 in Quinn’s novel, Penelope predicts a fate of spinsterhood for herself, and she has unsuccessfully taken on many more marriage market seasons in the years since she met Colin versus her embarking upon her third round in the show. Eloise, though held back a year unlike Penelope, has also gone through more seasons than in the show.

Colin is 33, which is an age fit for a man to marry in the books, though not so dramatically exaggerated as “old” like it would be for a woman his age. After falling in love with him upon first sight mixed with a stray bonnet that resulted in Colin’s falling off a horse into mud, a decade passes before any action in the way of friends to lovers takes place in the book.

RELATED: Here Are All the String Covers in ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3

There is a fourth Featherington sister

In addition to Prudence, Philippa and Penelope, a fourth Featherington sister — Felicity — exists in the books, where she is best friends with Hyacinth, similarly to the bond Eloise and Penelope share.

Francesca’s story doesn’t overlap as much

Francesca, who was first portrayed by Ruby Stokes in Seasons 1 and 2, was recast for the third season of Bridgerton. Hannah Dodd took on the mantle for the sixth Bridgerton child and third daughter in the family for Season 3. Francesca gets a separate book — When He Was Wicked — to herself for her story, but her debut in the marriage mart overlaps with Penelope and Colin’s romance in the show’s third installment.

Colin doesn’t offer to help Penelope find a suitor

Colin does return from a long stint of traveling in Romancing Mister Bridgerton, but he doesn’t offer to teach Penelope charm and help her find a suitor. The part where Penelope overhears Colin say he would never court her is slightly different in the books because he says he would never marry her. His brothers Anthony and Benedict were present for this moment in the book too.

There is also no Lord Debling (Sam Phillips) in Quinn’s novel.

Lady Danbury’s brother doesn’t come to town, the Mondrich’s storyline also doesn’t expand

Violet Bridgerton’s (Ruth Gemmell) spark of courtship with Lady Danbury’s brother Marcus Anderson does not take place in either Penelope and Colin’s book nor Francesca’s, though in When He Was Wicked, Francesca and Violet do have conversations about second chances at love for spoilery reasons. Marcus’ past with Lady Danbury provides a thread for potential exploration via Queen Charlotte which stars Arsema Thomas as a young Agatha Danbury. That, or the subplot ties up that loose end nicely as Lady Danbury and Violet discuss what happened between Agatha and Violet’s father in Queen Charlotte.

Will (Martins Imhangbe) and Alice Mondrich (Emma Naomi) also do not have as big of a sidebar plot in Romancing Mister Bridgerton or When He Was Wicked. Their son’s inheritance of the title of Baron of Kent could point to an expansion of the Queen Charlotte prequel series that flashes between present day and past for India Amarteifio and Godla Rosheuvel’s matriarch.

SPOILER ALERT: The following reveals major plot points for Season 3 Part 2 of Bridgerton.

Part 2: Episodes 5-8

Lady Danbury sets the challenge and reward to unmask Whistledown, not Queen Charlotte

In Romancing Mister Bridgerton, Lady Danbury initiates the challenge to unmask Lady Whistledown for a reward of one thousand pounds compared to Queen Charlotte’s incentive of five thousand in the show. The Queen has been after the author since Season 1.

Colin discovers that Penelope is Lady Whistledown before he proposes

Colin walks in on Penelope trying to smuggle a column draft to her printer in a church, and this is before the carriage scene and his marriage proposal to her. He is still very angry in Romancing Mister Bridgerton when he realizes, and his anger matches that of the show. The proposal and carriage scene actually takes place very shortly after Colin discovers Penelope’s identity in the books.

Kate and Anthony’s counsel also does not occur in Quinn’s book. Colin does visit his sister Daphne in Romancing Mister Bridgerton to get her advice on love, which is where the “thunderbolt from the sky” line he says to his brothers in the show in Episode 5 comes from.

Cressida discovers who Lady Whistledown is without the printing apprentice

Bridgerton. Jessica Madsen as Cressida Cowper in episode 306 of Bridgerton. Cr. Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2024

Cressida Twombley does claim to be the real Lady Whistledown, and she goes to some lengths to provide proof of her claim in order to secure the reward money from Lady Danbury. In the show, she prints several missives pretending to be the other while Penelope struggles to resist more than a correction, which she secures from her own printer. Cressida encounters a printer’s assistant with a big mouth who used to work for the man that did know Penelope was Lady Whistledown. The unknowing apprentice blabs about red hair and more to Cressida, who then takes the information to blackmail Penelope into paying her a huge sum. In the book, Cressida remembers that Penelope said “It would break my heart” if Cressida were Lady Whistledown, and Penelope wrote it in the column claiming that “This author” is not Ms. Cowper, or Twombley.

Cressida first approaches Penelope and demands double Queen Charlotte’s reward. She also hints to Portia that Penelope is Lady Whistledown.

The Duke and Duchess of Hastings throw the final ball

Rather than the foundational Bridgerton couple hosting the season’s final big event, which was a ball at Hastings House in the book, Prudence (Bessie Carter) and Philipa Featherington (Harriet Cains) decide to host a ball together. The theme follows the colors of orange and purple, and a beautiful swarm of monarch butterflies get released towards the end.

This ball is where a lot of key moments set up for future seasons of Bridgerton from Penelope’s revelation that she is behind Lady Whistledown and Francesca’s next steps. Penelope also funds the event with her Whistledown money because Philipa and Prudence’s husbands don’t have a budget big enough to suit their fancies.

Colin encourages Penelope to say she is Lady Whistledown

In Romancing Mister Bridgerton, Penelope’s coming clean as Lady Whistledown is prompted by Colin, not Queen Charlotte. In the show, the Queen comes sniffing around after Cressida publishes a column fully disparaging the Bridgerton family, and Penelope’s issue follows close behind it, giving the Queen reason to believe that Whistledown is a Bridgerton.

Colin takes a bit to come around to the idea that Penelope doesn’t want to give up Whistledown, and once he gets past his feelings of jealousy and realizes how remarkable her column is, he arranges for her to make the announcement at the final ball of the season. He asks Violet, Eloise and Hyacinth (Florence Hunt) to stick to Penelop like glue before getting the audience’s attention on a balcony overlooking the ball, with the help of Simon and Daphne.

In the show, Penelope sends two letters to Queen Charlotte and Violet Bridgerton explaining that she is the scribe. The Queen prompts her to step into the spotlight at her sisters’ ball, and she has her say. The Queen shows “her mercy” and seemingly encourages Pen to continue with her quill as long as “she remains” humbled, for after all, “What is life without a little gossip?”

Eloise doesn’t accompany Francesca to Scotland

At the end of Romancing Mister Bridgerton, Eloise actually steps out during the final ball of the season to embark upon her own love story and travel to meet Sir Phillip Crane. Penelope and Colin’s big announcement covers up her absence as she “steps outside” to get some air. What she actually does is get in a carriage and travel to Glouchester where Sir Phillip lives.

As Francesca plans to depart to Scotland and her new husband’s primary residence, Eloise asks if she can accompany her younger sister to Kilmartin. Francesca allows it as long as Eloise promises to stay in her wing of the castle.

Michael(a) Stirling!

Michaela Stirling’s (Masali Baduza) subtle introduction at the end of the Season 3 finale hints at big changes to Francesca’s plotline if the original arc is to be followed. In When He Was Wicked, Francesca does meet John’s cousin, but that cousin is a man — Michael Stirling. Showrunner Jess Brownell described the change as “a natural one to gender bend.” In the books, John tragically dies of an aneurysm, and Michael, who has coveted her since he met her after her marriage to John, steps in to be the Earl of Kilmartin. Michael and Francesca eventually realize their feelings for each other and that it makes sense to marry.