Lady Wombat says:

Closer to fairy tale than Quinn's other books, with a heroine, Cinderella-like, who is reduced to being a servant in her own house. Plot a bit harder to beleive than in Quinn's other Bridgerton books, but if you can overcome your disbelief, Quinn's nuanced character constructions will draw you in.

I was a little put off by the Cinderella aspect of the third in this series. I have to admit in Quinn's skillful hands, the story is better than I anticipated but still missing something. I enjoyed the budding relationship between Benedict and Sophia, but I think it was marred by the wicked (sorta) stepsisters and stepmother. But as always Quinn writes wonderful witty believable dialogue. Looking forward to the next one. ( )

This is the third book in the series about the Bridgerton family, and it focusses on Benedict Bridgerton, the second son of the family.

When reading the premisses, namely that Sophie Beckett, the bastard daughter of an Earl, sneaks into a masquerade ball, while normally being used as a slave by her stepmother, I was very afraid that is was going to be one of those thirteen in a dozen Cinderella stories. Boy, am I glad that was not the case!

Directly after the masquerade ball, things go horribly wrong for Sophie, who is forced to leave London. And poor Benedict, he can search all of London for his mystery girl, but he will never find her.

Then, a few years later, their paths cross again. Benedict is quite taken in by Sophie, but she's just a maid. The best he can offer her is becoming his mistress. And Sophie, although she loves Benedict dearly, cannot do that, for she will not risk bringing a bastard child like herself into the world.

If they ever get together, isn't really a question in these kinds of books. But the how of how they get together is very, very enjoyable to read. The only reason this didn't get a 5/5 score is the slight Cinderella topic in this book, which I don't care much for. That, however, is personal, and I do recommend the book. ( )

- An impoverished bastard of nobility, Sophie Beckett gets her only moment of fairy tale at a masquerade ball, where she meets the dashing and handsome Benedict Bridgerton, who immediately falls in love with the mystery woman. However, when he meets Sophie years later, he doesn't recognize her as his mystery woman, and is torn between his love for that unknown woman, and the desirable one in front of him. Very romantic, again, delightfully straight-forward and charming characters. ( )

Sophie Beckett is the illegitimate daughter of the earl of Penwood and that fact has marred her entire life. Raised by servants in a life of privilege until her father’s untimely death, Sophie is brutally cast down into the world of the servants by her stepmother, who hates her. One day, Sophie’s stepmother and stepsisters head off to a ball at the Bridgertons’. Knowing how much she wants to go to this ball, the servants conspire to help her attend. There, she meets Benedict Bridgerton and sparks fly, but she has to leave at the stroke of midnight. Benedict, enchanted, fails to find her, until they meet again several years later. Sophie has fled her stepfamily and taken a service job at a home where Benedict attends a party. He doesn’t recognize her, but takes her to his cottage with him when she is forced to leave her job, and unsurprisingly, sparks fly once again.

As you can tell, this is a retelling of the ever-popular Cinderella story, but goes beyond the typical legend. Benedict does not find her when he looks for her, and instead falls in love with her a second time, as a servant. The class struggle in Regency Britain is bitterly visible here; Sophie’s bastardy blemishes her entire life as her stepmother hides her inheritance and thus does not allow her to be a lady. She can’t even dream of marrying Benedict as a simple servant. That doesn’t stop this couple, though, as the Bridgerton family isn’t your typical aristocratic family, and I loved the way it all turned out in the end.

Naturally, this is darker than the first two novels in the Bridgerton series, but if possible, I loved it even more. I loved what it revealed about society and I grew very attached to these two in particular. In addition to Sophie’s reduced status, Benedict struggles with his identity and disappearing within his large family. He comes into his own here in making his own family rather than just vanishing behind his many brothers and sisters. Quinn always deals with these real issues in her romance novels, making them deeper than your average bodice ripper (and there isn’t much bodice ripping here, either, I think just one scene, so if that’s what you’re looking for, look elsewhere!).

http://chikune.com/blog/?p=362 ( )