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

2.0

As previously noted (in my review of The Duke and I), the Bridgertons were my first introduction to the world of romance beyond Harlequin. At the time, I was 3stars lukewarm on this. On second read, five years later and deep in the genre, I don't like this at all and am reducing it to 2stars.

First, Benedict is trash. He's high-handed and self-righteous with absolutely no regard for Sophie as an adult human being with rights, dignity, or intelligence. Sure, it's period-appropriate for him to be entitled and a bit oblivious but he never seems to understand the constraints on Sophie's freedom of choice or even attempt to seriously reflect on the ramifications of her social status.

Second, Sophie just does not use her words and is ultimately a bland pushover. She has a lot of good arguments in her head but never says any of it, which ultimately lets Benedict both get his way and never fully understand what a dick he's being.

Finally (and almost most egregiously) there are glaring in-book continuity errors that are almost offensively careless.

Spoiler

First, Sophie's epiphany that Benedict loves her because he shared his art with her -- he didn't share his art with her, she snooped while he was unconscious. They did have a brief conversation about it but that's really only because she had already looked. Second, that Sophie and Penelope had had any interaction at the masquerade. Benedict was walking toward Penelope and turned away from her to see Sophie. To awkwardly retcon that Penelope and Sophie were in physical contact at that moment is beyond careless.