To Sir Phillip with Love |Julia Quinn| Book Review|
A life of spinsterhood and spending a life alone is something that most ladies of the ton hated to even imagine and more so feared. From childhood, their mothers groomed them to become the most elegant and perfect women that any man would want to marry. Eloise had never made this the aim of her life but neither had she imagined that at twenty-eight she would still be a spinster, at least not alone. When her best friend too married her brother, she is left all alone to reconsider her choices. ‘To Sir Phillip, with Love’ is a unique love story of Eloise Bridgerton as she navigates her way towards marriage.
‘To Sir Phillip, with love’ is the fifth book in the Bridgerton series. There are eight books in the series which tell the stories of the eight siblings.
Plot
Eloise loves writing letters. She spends most of her time writing letters to family and friends. One day, she writes to Sir Phillip to console him over the death of his wife who also happens to be her cousin. The innocent few letters turn into conversations and the conversations turn into elaborate accounts of each other’s life and before you know it, a year has passed by.
Sir Phillip just had one reason to remarry and that reason was his twins, Oliver and Amanda. All he wanted was for them to have a mother that would look after them. Someone who would fill in as a mother as well as a father as he never considered himself a good enough father for the kids. He though Eloise was smart enough to be a good mother and considering that she was a spinster, he thought she must be eager to get married. Hence, he invited her to see if they would match.
In Eloise’s haste to get away from home without having to mention her destination, she forgot to inform Sir Phillip about her plans of coming over to Romney Hall. Sir Phillip hence could not arrange for a chaperone. And what happened next led to the unfolding of this unique and endearing love story.
Positive points of To Sir Phillip with Love
Although this is my first Bridgerton series book, I have of course watched the Netflix series and needless to say the elegant and beautiful style of writing is something to die for. It’s like a poem in a novel, so free flowing and flawless. The vocabulary is vast. It never fails to amaze me how beautifully someone can write.
Eloise Bridgerton is portrayed as a fearless and independent woman who loves to communicate. She is intelligent and has ideas of her own. She is a go getter and will not shy away from charging towards something that she wants. At the same time, she is gentle and caring towards the children and knows how to make them behave. Her personality makes the story much more entertaining.
Not so happy with
There are a few points that I wasn’t too happy with. For example, Sir Phillip is portrayed as a very caring and considerate man but at the same time, there are some instances where he comes across as a misogynist. There are also some instances where he doesn’t want to listen to Eloise and tells her that she talks to much. I would definitely have been offended. How Eloise chose to forgive him without even a sorry is questionable. Considering those were different times, I am however willing to overlook it.
Eloise has always made her own decisions up until now. It is however not at all pleasing to see her dilemma when faced with a major decision of her life. As someone who had started off as different, I wish her story was more deviant but then again, it’s a different time we are talking about. This rule may not apply to Netflix however and who knows, they might actually change her story for the best. As for the original novel version, I will continue to like it.
Author: Julia Quinn
writing: 4.5/5
Presentation: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Overall: 4/5
Genre: Fantasy/ Fiction/Historical fiction
