Book Review: To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn

 

Goodreads Summary: Sir Phillip knew from his correspondence with his dead wife's distant cousin that Eloise Bridgerton was a spinster, and so he'd proposed, figuring that she'd be homely and unassuming, and more than a little desperate for an offer of marriage. Except . . . she wasn't. The beautiful woman on his doorstep was anything but quiet, and when she stopped talking long enough to close her mouth, all he wanted to do was kiss her...
Eloise Bridgerton couldn't marry a man she had never met! But then she started thinking... and wondering... and before she knew it, she was in a hired carriage in the middle of the night, on her way to meet the man she hoped might be her perfect match. Except... he wasn't. Her perfect husband wouldn't be so moody and ill-mannered. And he certainly should have mentioned that he had two young - and decidedly unruly - children, as much in need of a mother as Phillip is in need of a wife.

Goodreads Rating: 3.08 stars with over 100,000 ratings

Genre Listing: Romance, Historical Fiction, Regency Era

Goodreads Challenge: 8/48

2022 Reading Challenge: #47 Read a book that was published in a year that was important to you (Find the entire challenge here)

Book Review:

Hello, Readers! I hope everyone is doing well. I may or may not have binged season 2 of Bridgerton the other day and decided I needed to read more of the series. Since I slept most of the afternoon because of a headache, I was up all night. Long story short, I read this in one sitting. 

Going into Eloise's story, I wasn't sure how much I would like it. I'm not sure why, but I was concerned that I would be disappointed since I liked some of the other books so much. A lot of the story wasn't necessarily new, as some of Eloise's abrupt decision is covered in the fourth book. To Sir Phillip, With Love obviously goes into a lot more detail. 

I thought it was interesting that both Phillip and Eloise let their assumptions and expectations get the best of them. It made for this awkward dynamic at first, which I found fairly commical. They seemed like polar opposites, and I thought that Phillip's backstory was unfortunate, but it made him someone you wanted to root for. He was a little rough but seemed very sweet. I feel like theirs was the least love match of all the Bridgertons thus far. I think there was more of a match of convenience.

One of my favorite scenes is when Phillip meets the brothers. It was somehow intimidating and also hilarious. I feel like this is probably encompasses most of the meetings with the Bridgerton brothers for the other characters (their sisters not included.) 

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. It was a light read and while it wasn't my favorite, I still enjoyed it quite a bit and don't really have any negatives to say for it. As for why I put it on #47 for the challenge,  that is because according to Goodreads it was published in 2009, which is also the year my husband and I got married. We actually just celebrated our 13th anniversary on the 11th. Me picking this book for that slot was not actually intentional. I wanted to read it and I discovered the publishing year when I was trying to figure out where it could fit on the challenge.