Customer Reviews

An Offer From a Gentleman: Bridgerton Family Series, Book 3

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What can I say Julia Quinn has done it again. I confess I love reading about the Bridgerton brothers, and in her previous book "The Viscount Who Loved Me" Benedict was VERY appealing! He is the sort of man we all dream about, a bit of a rogue, a charmer and not to mention very attractive! If only men like this existed in real life! I hate reviews that tell you nothing about the story so here is the basics. Sophie Beckett is the daughter of an earl but as she was born out of marriage her stepmother hated her and made her into a servant in her house after Sophies father died. One night Sophie breaks free and goes to a ball, where you've guessed it, she meets Benedict and they both fall in love. She runs away at midnight and her stepmother throws her out of the house when she discovers what she has done. Then she takes on a position of house maid where eventually she meets Benedict again after a few years. The rest I will not reveal as it will spoil the story. Enjoyable.

I started this book in the bath Sunday morning and stayed in there until the water had gone cold Sunday afternoon reading it. This is a non-putter down, without a doubt, we meet the Bridgertons again and this time the story is focused on Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Beckett, Sophie is of course our Cinderella, with Benidict being prince Charming and Araminta the wicked stepmother. Also adding to the plot are the ugly sisters, Sophies stepsisters, and the regal Lady Bridgerton. This is a boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl, boy loves girl kind of story. You really begin to feel like you are in the middle of the story. If you read the previous Bridgerton books you'll be glad to know that they all pop up again here. And of course there is Lady Whistledown, I think I have figured out who she is and this books helps you take her one step further. Please read this book, fall in love with the characters, once you read one Juila Quinn there is no going back!

I was a little disappointed in this story, because "The Duke and I" and "The Viscount Who Loved Me" are (in my opinion) among the best romance ever written, so I had high expectations for this one. It was OK. As usual in Julia Quinn's books the caracters were sympathetic and the tone humorous, but I found the story a little too ignorant of the social context of that time, even for a romance novel. (Though it wasn't as silly as "Eveything and the Moon" where the heroine goes from respectable vicar's daughter to workingclass seamstress to countess.)
I hope the next one, "Romancing Mister Bridgerton" is better. There is an excerpt at Julia Quinn's home page, and it seems promising!

It's always a pleasure to read a Julia Quinn book, they are humours and generally beguiling ..... and this one was no exception - a Cinderella story if you will.

Miss Sophie Beckett is the illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Penwood, and lived with him from being a young child as his "ward". When Sophe was around 8 the unmarried Earl takes the step of marrying Araminta and brings his new Countess and her two daughters to Penwood Park.

Araminta takes an instant dislike to Sophie, and when eventually the Earl dies she is forced to keep Sophie or see her annual income reduced by a vast amount. Sophie is put to work by Araminta - indeed, she does the work of 3 or more servants. The only kindness she receives at all is from the staff.

One night those staff arrange for her to attend a Masquerade Ball held by the Bridgertons', where Sophie meets and falls in love with the handsome Benedict Bridgerton.

The story follows the usual path from there she disappears at midnight, leaving behind a monogrammed glove, and Benedict tries and fails to track her down. Araminta finds out and Sophie runs away to find work in the country.

Several years later Benedict attends a drunken house party and rescues a serving maid from certain rape, he doesn't recognise her of course, but he takes it upon himself to remove her from the situation and place her in the household of his Mother.

When will he find out that this servant girl is the beautiful woman he has longed for in the intervening years. Indeed, the only woman he could ever imagine becoming his wife?

A 4 Star read and highly recommended.

"[Love] isn't like some thunderbolt from the sky, instantly transforming you into a different man. I know Benedict says it was that way for him, and that's just lovely, but you know, Benedict is *not* normal."
- one of Benedict's sisters, years later in ROMANCING MR. BRIDGERTON

A thumbnail sketch of the opening of this story is simple enough: Cinderella with a few twists, before veering off in a different direction. :) This is a love-at-first-sight story with some general similarities to Quinn's earlier novel of that type, EVERYTHING AND THE MOON, but with less initial bitterness between the leads. After the romantic leads first meeting, they're separated for a few years by circumstances, during which the lady has to earn her living as a servant. And when they meet again, the differences in their respective status prompts the gentleman to make an offer of something other than marriage (though here he doesn't recognize the lady from their earlier encounter).

"Cinderella" herself is Sophie Beckett, illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Penwood, brought up on his country estate as his "ward". Her stepfamily occupies the "evil" role because her stepmother wasn't pleased that her new husband demanded that Sophie continue in the "ward" role and be educated accordingly, alongside his stepdaughters. Naturally, upon the Earl's death, the countess had a great deal of resentment stored up. Although the earl's will was written to protect Sophie as far as possible (by making most of her stepmother's allowance depend on looking after Sophie until her twentieth birthday), the earl neglected to install safeguards about *how well* his widow had to care for the girl (e.g. vigilant trustees).

Sophie's life becomes that of a servant in her late father's house: an unpaid lady's-maid with a lady's education. But the senior servants who see her as one of their own (the earl's blood daughter, and a good girl they've known from birth) take a hand as impromptu godmothers when the Bridgertons throw a masquerade ball, seeing a chance for Sophie to get a taste of her proper life, if only for a moment.

Unfortunately, as they're not magicians, they achieved the effect by borrowing bits and pieces of the stepfamily's wardrobe. The stepmother (in a very nice touch of characterization) turns out to be the kind of demanding employer who notices ANYTHING out of place - so Sophie gets caught, and sacked.

Two years later, Sophie leaves her employer to escape harassment by the son of the house, to be rescued by Benedict - who offers her a job in his mother's household. And so Sophie enters the housemaid wars of 1817, when society is finding that a good worker can be *much* harder to find than a marital prospect, and employees are competed for accordingly. :)

Information about the later lives of some of the supporting players can be found in TO SIR PHILLIP, WITH LOVE. Passing references are also made TO EVERYTHING AND THE MOON (Macclesfield) and SPLENDID (Ashbourne).

Have read and re-read the novels. Cannot get enough of them. They are pure page-turners and put a smile on my face.

I like to read associated books which is why I enjoyed reading about this entertaining and amusing family. Exellent reading.

Continuing with the Bridgerton family saga. All the characters are strong and we can relate to. Julia Quinn books are full of humour.

It is a wonderful love story. Very easy to read. I am definetly going to read more of Ms Quinn's books.

My first JQ book which I found thoroughly enjoyable. So much so, I bought the whole of the Bridgerton series and then all of her others!! I suppose I should have started from the first, The Duke and I, but the joy of Julias books is that you can select them randomly and not get confused with the plots. This one tells of Sophie, at the mercy of her hateful stepmother who is in the process of forbidding her to enter into polite society. A common theme but if you have a good author then it doesnt matter, its the way they tell them, so to speak! She is smuggled into the masquerade ball by the kindly housekeeper and, yes after encountering her Prince Charming, she flees at midnight leaving only her little glove behind with a very smitten aristocrat. It is a sweet love story, charmingly written introducing the reader to the Bridgerton family and the deliciously naughty Lady Whistledown (who should have a novel all to herself!) Highly recommended, as all Quinns books are.