A review by marylinaris
An Offer From a Gentleman by Julia Quinn

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. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings