Reviews with content warning for Grief - An Offer From a Gentleman

I liked this book more than the first two in many different ways. The story was more original than the first two ‘we have to get married to preserve your honour’ drivel. I liked Sophie’s character and the backstory.

What I didn’t like was Benedict. There were so many moments where I was reading with my whole face screwed up in horror/disgust. He is constantly coercing and manipulating Sophie and there’s a definite dodgy moment about consent where he tells her she must withdraw consent now or not at all which really made me feel nauseous. I like this books overall but there’s definitely some questionable moments regarding sexual coercion in a few of the books. Puts me off them really.

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kylasmv15's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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brandie_abbie19's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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ashleybeereads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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julesadventurezone's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

I quite liked Sophie and I understand why Benedict fell in love with her. On the other hand Benedict spends 3/4 of this book being entitled and rude and condescending, so the only explanation must indeed be, as Sophie posits, that she fell in love with him before she even met him. Really didn't like him, even after he finally apologized. Inconsiderate horrible man.
The Cinderella storyline with the cartoonishly evil stepmother really detracted from what was an interesting central conflict.

The titular offer from a gentleman is Benedict asking Sophie to be his mistress, since she is not of high enough class to be a suitable wife for a gentleman. Sophie says no because she doesn't want to risk bringing illegitimate children into the world.

What this arrangement or an 'unsuitable' marriage would mean socially went underexplored in favor of Cinderella-based melodrama, which I thought was kind of a shame.
Julia Quinn also did a good job at the beginning of the novel, when she wrote very nicely about

how much it hurts Sophie that Benedict doesn't recognise her anymore.

It was lovely angst! I was emotionally invested! Unfortunately she quickly discarded that in favour of the sickbed trope.
Out of the side characters only one had any significant development. The Bridgertons, especially Violet were all very nice and reasonably witty, though it seemed odd to me that no one had any objections to Sophie. Very modern sentiments from these period characters.
The sex scenes were unremarkable to bad. The audiobook narration probably didn't help.
The narrator did a nice voice for Sophie and other female characters but made all male characters including the ever so dashing Benedict sound like old men. Genuinely bad.

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