Bridgerton #3: An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Title: The Duke and I

Author: Julia Quinn

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Historical Romance, Historical Fiction

Publisher: Avon

Publication Date: April, 2021

Pages: 480, Paperback

Uuuhhhh!!! Benedict Bridgerton!!

An Offer From a Gentleman is Sophie Beckett’s and Benedict Bridgerton’s story, which is more like a Bridgerton series ripoff of the famous Cinderella tale.

That aside…

I have pretty mixed feelings about this one. I love the heroine; she is smart and most of all, knows her place in society and does everything possible not to make the same mistakes her mother did.

“They say that a smart person learns from her mistakes,” she interrupted, her voice forcefully ending his protest. “But a truly smart person learns from other people’s mistakes.”

― Julia Quinn, An Offer From a Gentleman

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You see, Sophie is a bastard child of an Earl, and you know how those eras were with bastard kids. You already know the drill with fairytale storylines; father dies and in steps the stepmother and sisters with the classic evil. But, homegirl gets a few hours off the busy slaving hours where she meets the charming prince.

Oh well, I wish Benedict was the classic Prince Charming. There are times he was just an insensitive and entitled jerk. Yeah, the moment Sophie walks into the Bridgerton’s masquerade ball and Benedict lays his eyes on her! That’s the quintessential love at first sight moment.

After an escapade at the private terrace, the clock strikes midnight and Sophie makes a run for it before the evil stepmother and step-sisters get back home and realize what she has done.

It takes 2 years of antagonizing search by Benedict for them to meet. This time, he meets Sophie as a maid, not the princess dressed in silver. He saves her from a rowdy group of men. But he doesn’t recognize her! Benedict offers to escort her from the premises and probably help her look for employment. However, he ends up catching a cold, and Sophie takes care of him… Weakling! Y’all know how men get when they have the flu:

“It has oft been said that physicians make the worst patients, but it is the opinion of This Author that any man makes a terrible patient. One might say it takes patience to be a patient, and heaven knows, the males of our species lack an abundance of patience.”

― Julia Quinn, An Offer From a Gentleman

Anyways, she cares for him, and he helps her secure employment with her mother. But Benedict is a** (I really have to be a little professional with my words on this site). Of course, he has feelings for Sophie, the help.

He knows they are from different classes in society so he can only take her as a mistress. The only woman he would have wanted to marry was the lady at the masquerade, and she seems to have disappeared into thin air. Sophie makes it clear that she cannot be his mistress, but Benedict, the a** (again, forgive these asterisks) that he is, keeps pushing her. (this is where I lose my respect for all his charming and smitten ways)

And he nearly loses it when he finally realizes that Sophie was the lady at the terrace at that masquerade ball. Anyways, he makes it up for all this when he saves her from her stepmother and asks to marry her.

But the real heroine of this story is Lady Bridgerton, Benedict’s mother. She really put that evil stepmother in her rightful place and saved the day.

You can go into this read expecting a fairytale romance, which it does achieve, I think. But don’t expect that happy ending to not come at a high cost of anger towards the handsome Bridgerton. And Sophie for not revealing her identity to Benedict sooner when they met for the second time (although this might have killed the storyline earlier, I presume).

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