A review by julie2525
To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn

3.0

From what I could tell, of the Bridgerton kids, Eloise is the most like me (i.e. chatty, intelligent, efficient, feminine, loves correspondence), and her running off to another part of the country to do her own thing definitely tracks with my personal experience. But...

For a book about the character who hates women’s restrictions in life, this book is *highly gendered.*

Spoiler

Sure, Eloise is an extremely competent woman who enjoys picking up other people’s slack, but when a man proposes because he wants someone—anyone— to be his wife and do the wife things he’s not comfortable doing like mother his children for him yet NEVER TELLS HER HE HAS KIDS, I can’t.

He’d found everything he’d ever wanted in a marriage. Eloise ran his life to perfection by day and warmed his bed with the skill of a courtesan by night. She fulfilled his every desire so well that he hadn’t noticed that she’d done something more. She’d found his heart. She’d touched it, changed it. Changed him.

I couldn’t imagine Phillip as someone I’d be interested in. For a big, burly man who doesn’t like to talk much and doesn’t have a lot of emotions, a lot of pages are dedicated to his raw, needy emotions. (I support emotions. The presumption that he shouldn’t have them is the problem.)

Most of the book is pleasant and enjoyable with enough adventures to keep the pages turning. I took issue with the above.

Trigger Warning: Suicide, Child Abuse