Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn

10 reviews

haileydeltano's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this is the best book in the series so far

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Fatphobia, Rape, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

kerrence30's review against another edition

challenging lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

Another male lead who is not particularly likeable. The only thing that would compel the female lead to love him is the mystery of his character given how they meet, but once she knows him better he seems like a worse person, until his complete character reversal at the end - he changes from a typically misogynistic man of the time, to a modern liberal and understanding day of today + hero of the story, and it’s quite unbelievable.
The storyline is based initially on Cinderella, which is actually fine - it’s adapted with enough point of difference to feel fresh and interesting, however the choice of that option feels rather lazy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Rape, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

britwalsh16's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This has been my favorite Bridgerton book so far!! And maybe that’s partially because I just LOVE fairytale retellings, especially Cinderella ones (even though Disney’s animated Cinderella is not my favorite in the least). But also cause Benedict is officially my favorite (in the books atleast), book Anthony & Colin were very lacking, I love them in the show, but their book personalities had a lot of… I guess faults, that I was not a fan of. But Benedict… I don’t know what it is…but Benedict just stole my heart! 

Especially the moment he realized he wanted to marry Sophie despite him thinking she was just a maid. He proved to be sweet & caring, and willing to say fuck society for this girl that he just couldn’t help but love!! It’s inspiring, and we all deserve a Benedict Bridgerton! 💜

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Medical content, Abandonment, and Deportation

Minor: Infidelity, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

krystleclear09's review

adventurous emotional relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Fatphobia and Violence

Minor: Physical abuse, Slavery, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

cleotheo's review against another edition

lighthearted medium-paced

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

1.0

"Sie hören sich an, wie die Heldin aus einem sehr schlechten Roman." Das war sicher von der Autorin nicht so beabsichtigt, aber es stimmt leider weitestgehend.
Ich habe dieses Buch gelesen, nachdem ich die Netflix Serie gesehen habe. Die Figur des Benedict ist nicht wiederzuerkennen. Die Dynamik der Figuren in der Familie Bridgerton ist vergleichbar: unterhaltsam. Leider hat dieses Buch aber Hauptfiguren.
Es handelt sich hier um eine Aschenputtel Geschichte. Das Machtungleichgewicht zwischen "Aschenputtel" und dem "Prinz" ist sehr prominent, allerdings wird sich nicht kritisch damit ausseinandergesetzt. Wem das in romantischen Beziehungen gefällt, wird hier sicher auf seine Kosten kommen. Andernfalls wird man wohl, wie ich, hoffen, dass "Aschenputtel" den "Prinzen" sitzen lässt und weit, weit wegrennt. Zusätzlich wären Konsequenzen für die Handlungen unseres "Prinzen" sehr willkommen. Aber das wäre wohl der Stoff für ein besseres Buch.
Am Schreibstil besonders störend fand ich die ständigen Wiederholungen, nichts wird nur angedeutet. Der Leser selbst muss keinerlei Verbindungen herstellen, man muss sich nichts merken, alles wird wiedergekäut.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Excrement

Minor: Deportation

jodiexmae's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Pregnancy

melaniies's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Rape

stupidforcupid's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Blood, Vomit, Grief, and Alcohol

kirbylover16's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

It's cinderella for the first few chapters but this book is over years. I liked all of the characters and how it mainly focuses on newer ones vs the rest of the Bridgerton family. I like the break away from the formula.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Minor: Kidnapping

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Confinement, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexism, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Deportation

Contains attempted rape by a group of men. Contains consent issues during sexual scenes on par with Julia Quinn's usual writing.