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An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn


Rating:

4 Stars


Themes:

Regency Romance, Historical Fiction, Romance, Forbidden Love


Thoughts:

A beautifully written forbidden style romance with a Cinderella style twist. An illegitimate daughter to a Duke is turned into no better than a maid but in one night of fashion, she falls for a Bridgerton boy, and after a very slow burn they finally get their happily ever after. Sophie herself is such a sweet and loveable individual who remains strong despite what she is put through. Bennedict, however, is a lot more problematic than I expected he would be. The night of the ball he is a loveable character and I loved the chemistry between him and his mystery woman (who we know is Sophie) and seeing him rescue her from assault years later reinforced this. But his later actions not so much, he is imposing to Sophie when they're both in My Cottage willingly blurring boundaries, he then continually propositions her to be his mistress after multiple refusals, threatens her to get her back to London and even continues to press and pursue her after she is employed by his mother knowing her job is at risk. They do make a lovely couple and looking at the epilogues I am glad they worked out but I don't like the way in which it came about and the message of acceptability this is sending, it definitely contradicts the book title calling him a Gentleman. 


Favourite Quote:

"He wasn’t certain how this woman had come to mean so much to him. It seemed that one day she was a stranger, and the next she was as indispensable as air. And yet it hadn’t happened in a blinding flash. It had been a slow, sneaky process, quietly coloring his emotions until he realized that without her, his life lacked all meaning."

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