Rate: 4/5
Medium: Audiobook
Overview (Spoilers Abound):
After reading Gone with the Wind, I was very much due for a happy read. Yes, as much as I thoroughly enjoyed the aforementioned classic, that ending left me so bereft that I immediately wanted to pick up a read that was almost guaranteed to have a warm and cozy ending. Thankfully, I’d been saving a novel back on my TBR list for just such an occasion, and To Sir Phillip, with Love was well worth the wait.
My last Bridgerton novel was centered around Penelope and Collin’s tormented love, and needless to say, it is probably the most scathing review I’ve given in years. Collin is seriously the worst. Despite my disappointment with the preceding novel, I was thoroughly looking forward to Eloise’s love story. I always admired her strong and willful demeanor and how she values intellect, refusing to go along with societal norms. In Collin’s novel we learn from his perspective that Eloise runs away and eventually is married but it mostly happens off screen. The events that led up to Eloise leaving London are still a mystery that I was eager to learn about.
To Sir Phillip, with Love is a romance fitting of Eloise as she finds love away from the busy London scene and with someone who is as intellectual as herself, albeit much more reticent. I still struggle to attribute her fleeing Phillip’s without any notice with Eloise. I didn’t see much of a need for her to rush, though I admit I feel like I’m forgetting the events that lead up to her night time escape in the previous novel. Eloise is too practical to have not realized what it would mean long term.
My favorite part of this book is how Eloise interacte with Phillip’s two children, especially the practical jokes. Did Eloise still have a black eye for her wedding? The children as a whole play such a big part in this novel compared to other Bridgerton books, even getting a glimpse of a Benedict’s family. That said, it felt off tune that the children were not encouraged to remember their first mother. Hearing Amanda’s second epilogue, she is even dismissive of her mother, wishing she would have died sooner. I can’t see Eloise not making sure their mother had a permanent place in the children’s hearts.
Overall, To Sir Phillip, with Love is a heartwarming romance of loss and discovery where two polar opposite souls stumble into a correspondence and love, healing a broken family in the process.
The Critiquing Chemist 