Book Review: An Offer From a Gentleman

Earlier this week I read the third book in the Bridgerton series, An Offer From a Gentleman. This one was especially interesting to me because it’s Benedict’s story and I didn’t know anything about it since it hasn’t been covered by the Netflix show yet since the show went out of order and did Colin’s story before Benedict’s.

An Offer From a Gentleman is inspired by Cinderella. It follows Benedict, of course, and Sophie Beckett. Sophie is the bastard child of an Earl and while her father never explicitly claimed her as his daughter he took her in as his ward and provided an upperclass life for her with a governess and mansion to live in etc. But when he marries and brings his new wife, Araminta, and her two daughters, Rosamund and Posy, to the house everything changes. Sophie thinks it will be fun to have two girls around her age living with them now and maybe they will be like sisters. Unfortunately, the minute Araminta learns of Sophie’s existence she hates her and forbids her girls from talking to Sophie unless they’re at their lessons and is very mean to Sophie. And then, like in Cinderella, the Earl of Penwood dies and leaves instructions to his wife that if she didn’t take care of Sophie she would lose her inheritance. But, Sophie doesn’t know all the details of his will nor what she was left with and is forced by Araminta to be a servant to her and her daughters. Then, one night the other servants help Sophie dress and slip in to the Bridgerton Masked Ball so she can experience one night of fun and dancing without anyone realizing she isn’t supposed to be there. It is there that she meets Benedict.

Benedict has no desire to marry even though it’s a top priority for his mother. Then, at. his family’s masked ball he meets someone who he can’t stop thinking about. Unfortunately, he never got her name and at midnight she ran off and he couldn’t catch her in time.

Two years go by and both Sophie and Benedict have been thinking of one another constantly. Sophie, at least, knows who Benedict is, but knows they could never be together because she’s a servant. Now working for another family, Sophie and Benedict cross paths at a party when he saves her from some drunk men. Benedict is instantly drawn to Sophie, not knowing she’s the one he’s been pining after for the past two years. He convinces her to go back with him to London and work for his mother because he wants to see her treated better, but also because he doesn’t want to say goodbye to her.

Will they be able to keep things platonic because of their different stations in life? Will Sophie ever realize the truth about her inheritance? Even if she’s not meant ot be a servant, can Benedict be with an Earl’s bastard?

I really liked this story because I loved Sophie and it was fun to finally not know what was going to happen in the storyline. Although the first two books were somewhat different from the tv show, which adds a lot more drama than the original material, this was nice to read since I had no idea of the storyline. I liked Benedict, but sometimes he was very sweet and caring and other times I found him to be mean and like he was purposely being obtuse when it came to why Sophie couldn’t or wouldn’t do certain things. But, that could be a realistic depiction of men in the regency era.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and especially loved Sophie.

Read this if you want a spicy regency era romance with secret identities and is inspired by Cinderella.

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