Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn

29 reviews

marylinaris's review

dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

3.5

The story was great, the romance meh. 

The author couldn’t really sell me the ‘love at first sight’ story she tried to tell, so romance lacked development for me afterwards. Adding to that we have a villain character who sexually harasses out female main character, Sophie, from whom Benedict saves her from. The interesting choice of storytelling came after that though, with Benedict also overly pushing Sophie’s sexual boundaries. Just because he didn’t resort to straight up assault, his actions didn’t feel less scummy. 

Generally Benedict had no real trait about him that made me like him or root for him. He had a nice relationship with his mother but besides that he felt bland, if he wasn’t obsessing over Sophie. 

I did however enjoyed most of the female characters in this book. Sophie had clear motivation (though she lacked some long-term goals), was witty, and a backstory packed with trauma that you just want her to catch a break and have a good life. Penelope shows up only for a couple of short scenes, but between putting Colin down and recognizing Sophie she managed to be memorable. Seriously though, she had met Sophie for half a second at a masked ball two years ago and STILL remembered her, while Benedict couldn’t even remember the color of her eyes the day after that ball, even though he was already half-way into being in love and straight up obsessed with her. Men a weak, water is wet. 

One of my favorites in this book must be Violet though. She was just wonderfully nice and supportive. We really got to see her caring side but I also immensely enjoyed her set-down of Araminta during the final chapters, where she showed just how clever and how willing she is to protect those she deems as family. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

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

hmlongstreet's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

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

4.25

As I continue my journey to read all the main series Bridgerton books I find myself to be enjoying each book a little more than the last. I really liked this one in particular. And I know a lot of people did not.
 
I enjoyed the chemistry between Benedict and Sophie and the lack of "we must get married right now, as I have comprised you." Both main characters had very real and understandable fears and I found the book had a lot less talk about sexual desire (that doesn't mean there wasn't any) and more about quality time with one another which was a good break from the past two books. I was also quite surprised to learn how many ideas were taken from this book to be used for the second season of the Netflix show, which is Anthony's story. You'll see what I mean if decide to read this book and watch the show.

Again there were more questionable actions from the characters that make you go, "Ok wow that is like really not ok." But however, I think this book did a better job "making it okay" than the other two by having Sophie put up a bit more of a fight with Benedict and confronting him about his actions.

A strong opinion I still hold have briefly touched upon in my The Duke and I review is that these books are truly meant for a specific genre of people and if you are looking for a historical romance series without angsty male lead characters and timid female ones this series is really not for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Abandonment

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Body shaming, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

lunep's review against another edition

lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Slavery, Abandonment, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Misogyny, Medical content, and Death of parent

Minor: Infertility, Rape, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

tessamcevan's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted sad slow-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? It's complicated

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Trafficking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Alcohol

brandie_abbie19's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Rape

ashleybeereads's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Blood, and Pregnancy

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.

writtenbydnicole's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, and Pregnancy

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, and Death of parent