Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn

19 reviews

booksalacarte's review

dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

3.75⭐️ 3.25🌶️

Book 5 covers the marriage of convenience/love letters/single father side of romance tropes. I have to say that this is one of the top 3 in the series for me. 

Julia Quinn gets some things very right, but also some things very wrong. I didn’t like the snapshot into common Edwardian marriages, but to ignore expectation would be even more unrealistic. And for what it was I think it was handled well.

The trauma on top of trauma that Phillip had to work through was not delt with as well as I would have liked. His character had ostrich tendencies, which needs to be worked through with more than the time that was given. 

Elouise’s character was consistent from the first books and great. She is opinionated, brash, and she got a complicated relationship, but anything less wouldn’t have forced her to grow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Mental illness, and Suicide

Moderate: Death, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse

cocopeia's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Toxic relationship

saliwali's review against another edition

hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

penandpaper's review

lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Not bad, especially for a Bridgerton book, but also not the best. The characters were interesting, and the premise was intriguing. But overall, the author dropped the ball on a lot of the emotional groundwork made in the beginning of the novel.

Most of the emotional pieces, like abuse, didn’t really come into play, and the book would have benefited from a bit more nuance with how to approach depression. Making a woman a villain for being depressed and emphasizing how much better a woman without depression is was not the way to handle Phillip’s trauma

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Suicide

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

josefineojda's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Rape, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Emotional abuse

kirbylover16's review

lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Really don't like how the book frames Marina or Eloise. Eloise is an outgoing almost modern girl and her story is don't push your husband, Stop talking. Sir Phillip has so much baggage and both Elosie and Philip tell themselves that he owns Elosie now. Also since there's no lady whistledown anymore they use Elosie's letters which could have worked if they were more focused. Like I don't care about one sentence from Elosie from years ago talking about her sisters' relationships. I was more interested in the letters between Elosie and sir Philip.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Chronic illness, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Mental illness

Minor: Rape and Suicide attempt

marionlundqvist's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Suicide attempt

catherinemcfall's review against another edition

lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

I love Eloise but I have to give up on the series after this. Phillip is consistently emotionally abusive and out to find a mother for his kids rather than develop as a character and it sucks that most of the book focuses on him rather than Eloise. Eloise is reduced from being a witty intelligent character to playing mum to some kids and accepting that she can never ever be sad in her relationship with Phillip. The treatment of Marina and her depression in this book is horrible. I hope the TV show does justice to Eloise, because she deserved better.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Mental illness, and Grief

aliciafroy's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.25

With books 2-4 I've always found slightly iffy moments or just plain bad writing, but the overall reading experience has at least been fun (and in the cases of books 2 and 4 I genuinely liked the books, flawed as they are). This is the first Bridgerton novel I've read that it was actually a struggle to get through. The handling of depression and suicide is abysmal, sir Phillip is incredibly unlikeable, and I just can't buy that his relationship with Eloise is remotely romantic. I'm not going to shame anyone for enjoying this book, but if you want to know if you can skip this one or not, you definitely can.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Domestic abuse

A lot of demonizing of a character who was depressed and took her own life. Said character is then used as an excuse to guilt trip the heroine into thinking her marriage is actually great. There is repeated mentions of a sexual situation that I personally read as rape too, so beware.