If I'm being honest, I did not go into this book unbiased. I am not a huge fan of fairy tale retellings such as Cinderella in this case.
Bridgerton: An Offer from a Gentleman (by Julia Quinn)
Published in 2001
Let's start with my reading records before getting into the book:
I started the book on the 14th June 2022 and finished it on the 19th June 2022.
Out of those 6 days I had 4 active reading days.
My edition had 358 pages
23 Chapters + Prologue & Epilogue
(I am mentioning the epilogue because Julia Quinn also published another book, Bridgerton: Happily Ever After where all of the epilogues and second epilogues of all 8 siblings are included)
I confidently gave it a score of 4/5 *
Tags:
Romance; Historical; 17th Century; Cinderella Retelling; Dating outside of one's social class; Found Family; Evil Stepfamily, Love Triangle; Fiction
Trigger warning:
Death; Parental Neglect: Emotional; Parental Abuse: Emotional; Extortion; Attempted Rape
Despite not enjoying the Cinderella trope at the beginning, I did start liking it when the story gradually strayed from the trope. There were a few problematic scenes in the novel that could trigger someone while reading. Fortunately, however, all of those situations were safely escaped. While I overall enjoyed the writing of the 3rd novel in the series more than the others, Benedict's disregard of his love interest's decision (trying to convince her to become his mistress despite being told no. He never forced her to anything though).
The redeeming points of the book that lead me to give it 4/5 * were: that the book is very self-aware about the fairy tale retelling trope while pointing out its fictional romance tropes. Moreover, the female main character shows agency and knows her own value, hence, being the strong female lead she deserves to be.
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