To Sir Phillip, With Love (Bridgertons #5)

Eloise is great & she deserves better. Philip is self-centered and has a LOT of red flags. The worst? He doesn’t give a flying fig about his kids. I’m NOT going to give him points for suppressing the urge to use a WHIP on them, because he still freaking beats them (ok, “spanks”, but: his kids are SCARED of him). And he doesn’t care when Eloise says the person he made responsible for his kids nearly 24/7 is hitting them and something “isn’t right”. He ignores that & chides Eloise for overreacting. How could a parent be so uncaring? We also get insight into Philip’s POV/thoughts and he RARELY has any inclination to be kind to his children or spend any kind of time with them, or make any efforts to even THINK about them more. He wants them to stop interfering with his own preferred activities, and it’s the only reason he wants a wife, to stop the occasional twinge of conscience about (or requirement for interaction with) his children.
Whew. Ok, done ripping him apart. Full transparency, I stopped 2/3 through to write this review. I won’t eat my words. There is NO redemption arc that would justify 8 years of treating your kids like crap.
I gave it a 3/5 stars because the writing is good and I think Eloise is an extremely interesting character.

When two strangers meet and then get married is one of my favorite tropes ever. Phillip Crane is grumpy, shy, doesn’t want anything to do with society, and most of all looking for a mother for his children. He doesn’t care about love, doesn’t desire someone to have more kids with, just wants someone who will take care of his two children who are hellions as best she can and will leave him alone. So he asks Eloise to marry him through a letter having never met her before. He figures she is 28, definitely considered on the shelf, and probably there for good reason so he won’t have to be bothered by her if she decides to accept his offer. That is until they meet and she isn’t want he thought and he never even mentioned he had children! It doesn’t seem like a match made in heaven but Eloise has put herself in a position she can’t refuse. I loved the dynamic between Phillip and Eloise, he was so grumpy and sometimes downright rude but she is use to it having 7 siblings and several older brothers. Eloise getting to know the twins and her relationship with the children made this novel honestly. I loved how she cared about them and listened to them when their own father wouldn’t give them the time of day and how she worked with Phillip to be better to his children. It really was the redeeming part of this book. I mean I love the troupe but without the kids there wouldn’t have been any real reason to their relationship. I hate secret baby but because the twins were older I don’t necessarily see them as secret babies, more like secret tweens. If you haven’t read any of the other Bridgerton books I wouldn’t start with this one, it is very emotionally connected to the previous ones with Penelope and Collins marriage being the reason Eloise ran off in the first place. Also this is one of the most emotionally heavy of the series with a trigger warning for suicide and dealing with the grief of someone who attempted to take their own life. I didn’t care for how Quinn just kind of created this character to fit a plot, but I don’t think the topic was done to terribly bad considering it is historical fiction and there is only so much we would say in that time frame. Overall it is a good read and a good addition to the series.

I have enjoyed the series until this one. This story was unfortunate. Eloise deserved better. Here’s my rewrite for Eloise:

Eloise has been secretly corresponding with a Sir Phillip, a famous scientist who happens to reside somewhere other than London. She has been using her brother Gregory’s name in the correspondence, knowing that in that time period a man would never listen to a woman’s thoughts about science. When Sir Phillip comes to London and wants to meet “Gregory,” Eloise panics. She ropes her brother into her deception and gets him to pretend it was him all along. A madcap comedy ensues. In the end, Sir Phillip falls in love with Eloise and realizes that she is actually the letter writer. They marry and Eloise becomes a scholar working alongside her husband. In the epilogue, at the end of her life, she is given an honorary degree from Oxford and acknowledged for her contributions to science.

Now then, isn’t that a better legacy for Eloise?

Trigger warning: In the real story, there is violent child abuse depicted.

Having read the previous books in this series I had to stop this one at chapter twelve. I realized that I could read no more about the Bridgertons. I do not think it charming that Colin is a glutinous pig. I do not think it cute that Hyacinth is a devious dishonorable little chit. The women are portrayed as airheads that need arrogant men to tell them what to think. I regret that it has taken me so long to realise that there were just a few people that I liked in this series and none of them where men

Contrary to my statement in my review for the previous book. I did continue to read this series despite my disappointment in it.

I should not have. The relationship between the leads can be seen as toxic but in this book it goes to a whole new level. Not only does Sir Philip beat his children, he takes advantage/rapes his wife who is suffering from depression or postpartum depression. For those who would defend him by saying “he’s from a different time! It’s not the same.” I would say that it was never ok. The author is from our time and tries to justify it, and tells us how terrible he feels. This does not make it ok. It can not simply be brushed over, had it been talked over and questionned maybe it could be useful to the younger reader. But no. yet again, women are told that relationships are all about toxicity and abusive passion and possession.

If you still read this book, please at least question what you are reading.

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