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MY favorite out of all the Bridgerton series!
“This is the third book of The Bridgerton Series
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-08-08.
This is my favorite love story out of all the Bridgerton series. This is Benedict's story, whom I believe is the second eldest in the Bridgerton family. This is what I call an excellent Cinderella story with a regency twist to it. Superb writing and a GREAT love story.
This book is a "MUST have" to add to your romance book collection.
The series follows the Bridgerton siblings
1st book- "The Duke and I" Daphne's story
2nd book- "The Viscount Who Loved Me" Anthony's story *eldest sibling*
3rd book- "An Offer From A Gentleman" Benedict's story *my favorite story out of the series*
4th book- "Romancing Mister Bridgerton" Colin's story *second favorite*
5th book- "To Sir Phillip, With Love" Eloise's story -haven't read yet-
6th book- "When He Was Wicked" Francesca's story -haven't read yet-
7th book- "It's In His Kiss" Hyacinth's story -haven't read yet-
8th book- "On the Way to the Wedding" Gregory's story *THE LAST of the series* -haven't read yet-
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It was good.
“It was a sweet story. I really liked both characters, they had personality and I really did like them.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-07-11.
I guess this story line is just so over done that for me, I couldn't get really into it. I knew what was going to happen, I knew every step of the way what to expect. There was nothing really thrilling in it.
It was well written though. I do love Julia Quinn's style. So far Anthony's story is my favorite.
I really can't wait to read Colin's story.” -
A "Cinderella" Romance
“I've said it before: I'm a sucker for Cinderella stories. An Offer From a Gentleman definitely takes its inspiration from Cinderella.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-04-14.
Sophie Beckett is the bastard daughter of the Earl of Penwood. She knows it, and she lives in his home as his "ward." He marries the wicked stepmother, Araminta, who comes with two daughters, Rosamunde and Posy. When the earl dies, his will stipulates that Araminta gets thrice the amount of money if she shelters Sophie than she would if she turns Sophie out. So Sophie becomes the slave of the house until a masquerade ball becomes the catalyst for her to be tossed out of the home. The ball provides the magic moment when Sophie meets Benedict Bridgerton, a mere mister but still a wealthy and eligible bachelor. Circumstances bring them back together two years later when he rescues her from being raped at a party. There's a strong attraction, and Benedict feels responsible for her safety and finds her employment as a maid in his mother's home.
Sophie's my kind of girl, especially when she's around Benedict. She's sassy and smart, and their repartee reminds me of me and my husband. She stands by her principles, and she's practical. She knows what is realistic between her and Benedict, but she also can't control her heart. I like this girl.
Benedict starts off as quite the romantic. He falls totally in love with the mystery woman, and searches for her for two years. One of the things that attracted Benedict to the mystery woman was that she really didn't know he was a Bridgerton when they met. In two years' time, though, he becomes more experienced and a little more jaded. When he first met Sophie, he seemed to not have had much experience with women. When he meets her again as herself, he's got enough experience to ask her to be his mistress, but he's still not quite the traditional rake. Thank goodness.
When Sophie and Benedict first meet at the masquerade, they set off sparks. Julia Quinn convinced me that they had eyes only for each other, and that they did indeed fall in love at first sight. Their initial meeting seemed pretty magical for this reader. They still had chemistry when they met again two years hence. Benedict was captivated with Sophie-as-mystery-woman, and no other woman ever measured up as a potential wife. Benedict held out for Cinderella. When he doesn't recognize Sophie, she doesn't tell him who she really is thinking no good could ever come of it. This, of course, creates problems later.
The rest of the Bridgertons (from the two previous books in this series), Penelope Featherington, and, of course Lady Whistledown, all make appearances. Violet Bridgerton, the matriarch of the family, has quite a major role in the second half of the book, and the way she rescues Sophie and delivers justice to Araminta, the wicked stepmother, is priceless. The confrontation between Violet, Sophie, Araminta, Benedict and Posy, Araminta's less-well-liked child, were quite possibly my favorite part of the book.
Benedict and Sophie's romance ended quite satisfactorily. Julia Quinn delivers another winner in Benedict's story. While the humor was less laugh-out-loud obvious than in other stories, it's still here, as is the sweet love story and likable characters. Quinn also delivers a bit of a cliffhanger as Lady Whistledown decides to put down her pen and live life. I'm still not sure if I know who she is. I can't wait for Colin's story.” -
Book 3 of the Bridgerton series
“Julia Quinn does it again. Another beautifully written tale of the Bridgerton clan. You get lost in her books and transported away to another time and place. Nice way to spend a few quiet hours.”
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-04-01. -
1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
a cinderella story that's more disney than drew
“This was just a so-so read for me. I didn't find Lady Whistledown's columns (the snippets that preface each chapter) or the prose particularly witty or amusing. The interactions among the Bridgerton family didn't annoy me so much this time around however - which is a mystery, but I'm not complaining. As a family they seemed more natural, their banter less grating, their love for each other touching but less saccharine. They were my favorite part of the book.
An amazon user wrote this on 2009-01-26.
The romance between Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Beckett, however, left much to be desired. In this adaptation of the Cinderella fairy tale, Sophie is the bastard daughter of an earl. After her father's death, she's forced to slave as a servant for her evil stepmother and two stepsisters (one of whom isn't quite as evil as the other). She gets one night of reprieve from her life of servile drudgery and sneaks off to a masked ball. There she meets Benedict and they fall in love instantly. Nothing too exciting there. It's all very sweet I guess, but their big moment together really didn't grab me. She can't reveal her identity to him and runs away at the stroke of midnight. So that we can have a story, she keeps this secret, even after a serendipitous reunion with Benedict two years later. He saves her from a group of evil, drunken louts and gradually falls in love with what he thinks is a servant. The plot and their relationship revolve around Sophie guarding the secret of her identity like her life depends on it. It was mildly frustrating to me. As was the blandness of the hero. He complains about no one knowing who he truly is, of being known only as a Bridgerton, or simply "Number Two" among his many siblings. Sadly, he never manages to show the reader who he is - there's something about his being an artist thrown in, but nothing's really done with it. Being paired with such a nondescript heroine didn't help him much either.
As a Cinderella retelling, An Offer from a Gentleman was disappointing. Sophie was more Disney than Drew Barrymore, and her climactic triumph over the stepmother left me unmoved. (Though I thought Benedict's mother was very cute in rushing to Sophie's rescue.) The stepmother herself was one-dimensional, as was the righteous, long-suffering Sophie. It seemed that the author was trying hard to give Sophie some spunk while under her stepmother's thumb, but it never rang true and I could tell where the story was going from the first page. I'll still be reading more of Julia Quinn, if only to try and see what makes her so popular, but I couldn't get into this third installment of her Bridgerton series.
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