SPOILERS Rivals Season 2 🥳

[Blossombunnyy]

On Disney in May 15th 2026

Who's excited?

I can't wait the trailer looks so good.

You sound very much like the Cameron in the books

Chatgbt says this is him

That seems more Rupert than Lysander. Wasn't he in his twenties?

He certainly looks older than 22!

That's a credible Rupert.

I love this. Here’s taggie looking like Kate Middleton

The description is absolutely nothing like her though!

She’s exactly how I pictured her though. Here’s Perdita

Doesn’t book Taggie have a cloud of black hair?

the images are pretty but very bland.

Perdita looks great, but I thought Taggie was supposed to have "cloudy dark hair" and grey-ish eyes.

When I read the books back in the 80s, I always envisaged Taggie as a young Andi Macdowell.

33 Portraits of Andie MacDowell in the 1980s ~ Vintage Everyday

I always thought of her as similar to Catherine Zeta Jones in Darling Buds of May. She was about 20 when she played Mariette.

I always picture her as a young Julia Roberts

Yes, I can see that.

The written description of Taggie with that photo is absolutely nothing like her in the books apart from being beautiful.
She's certainly not a skilled rider - she loves animals (of course - she’s a Jilly heroine) but doesn't ride.
You certainly couldn't call her fiercely independent or headstrong either.
Those things, along with the riding, make her sound more like Fen Maxwell from Riders.
And Taggie is very self-conscious about her severe dyslexia. That doesn't stop her being intelligent but she worries about not being able to read and write properly and that vulnerability is part of what causes Rupert to be so kind to her.
The above description just sounds like some generic "romantic heroine" from Mills & Boon.
Has she really been changed that much in the television adaptation?

I think that is AI's random interpretation of Taggie rather than reflecting the series character.
She's been criticised for being a bit wet in the series. I think that it is in part because they've underwritten her dyslexia and that has influenced how she sees herself. Maybe they found that difficult to translate from print(!), I don't know.

They also don't cover the fact that she keeps the family financially afloat for much of the story.

She's a little more outspoken than in the books - berating Rupert and arguing with Maud. But not fiercely independent. An animal loving homebody.

She hasn't really featured that much in episodes 1-6 of series 2.

How does Taggie keep her family financially afloat in the books? Surely not through her catering business?!

As I haven’t read the books I guess I just picture her looking like Bella Maclean, but it sounds like the book description is quite different (tall? Cloudy black hair). I’m guessing maybe we’re meant to picture her with that distinctively Irish colouring that Dervla Kirwan or Aisling Bea have, dark hair and alabaster skin? Or maybe like Caitriona Balfe in Outlander? I like Bella Maclean’s looks though, she manages to be preposterously beautiful without looking too modelesque (which I think Andre MacDowell does) or as if she’s trying too hard, or at all.

In the books Taggie works and works and works doing dinner parties, lunches and filling up people’s deep freezes - and she gets cash wages - she gives Declan £100 for new cords I think and Declan’s salary covers some things but Rupert buys the bluebell wood for a hugely inflated price to help them when Taggie says how broke they are. It keeps the tax man happy for a bit, and pays the school fees. Maud just spends and nicks clothes so Declan and Taggie are the only earners!

I’m sure the Ohara children all had Irish accents as well as the parents in the book.

They grew up in Fulham so they’d be unlikely to have Irish accents.

The O'Hara children have Irish accents in the books, when Archie meets Caitlin on the train it describes how he recognises her Irish accent.

I think Maud and Declan are so incompetent when it comes to running a household that all the money worries land on Taggie - bills, buying uniforms etc.

Jump and Tackle are not good. Overly sentimental and a bit lazy in their storytelling. Feels like her editor stopped being able to say no.

Does anyone remember the name of a book I think she wrote (but could be someone else to be fair) it was a slim book so not riders/polo etc…
Dowdy girl goes with a good looking man who’s an arse, another man and a glamorous woman who’s a model to the south of France something sul mere maybe.
Her man and the model end up getting together, she’s stuck in France feeling frumpy and depressed. Had a make over and ends up being beautiful. There is a mistral one day, the model had a mascara stained towel and is not very nice.
Does it ring any bells with anyone? I read it in my teens and loved it.
I also remember one about a group of people on a barge I don’t think it was the same book but I loved that one too. I would love to re read them.

I think the south of France one was Imogen? And the barge one is Octavia, that one is one of my favourite ever Jilly books.

@troppibambini6 Definitely Imogen. Mrs Darcy is correct on both counts.

Oh brilliant thanks so much will have look for them. I loved them both.