To Sir Philip, with Love [Mass Market Paperback]

TO SIR PHILLIP is set immediately after ROMANCING MR. BRIDGERTON, and coincident with WHEN HE WAS WICKED. In broad outline, it has some similarities to Daphne's story in THE DUKE AND I, but with a still more extreme emotional situation for the male lead, in some ways.

Sir Phillip's mother, like Simon's, died in childbirth, leaving him to be brought up by a demanding father, though here prone to physical rather than emotional abuse. Like Simon, Philip found himself in scholarship, taking a first at university (though in botany rather than mathematics). Unlike Simon, Philip wasn't firstborn, and planned to remain at Cambridge as an academic. Philip's no rake, either; he wasn't the sort of "first-tier" bachelor whose status offset his lack of relationship skills much.

After his brother's death at Waterloo, however, Phillip (unlike Simon) opted to do his duty: making the family estate's agricultural aspects turn a profit (with botanical experiments on the side), and marrying his late brother's fiancee. Unfortunately Marina suffered from clinical depression, which only deepened after the birth of twins. Phillip's marriage became an endless strain upon him, effectively a single parent with *no* knowledge of householding or child-rearing, other than an iron determination not to follow his father's lead. Then the final blow fell: Marina's death after a botched suicide attempt.

Phillip receives a letter of condolence from cheerful chatterbox Eloise Bridgerton, a cousin of Marina's whom he's never met. Appreciating the gesture, he encloses a pressed flower with his response, thus beginning a long correspondence with Eloise (who loves writing letters, and had never before received such an enclosure). The story skims over this, as Phillip realizes that the right kind of wife would solve most of his problems: someone who can deal with his out-of-control seven-year-olds, and *not* be suicidal. Heck, a take-charge person who'd run *his* life is welcome to it, if she can straighten out the mess...

So the main story *really* begins when Eloise, in the wake of her best friend's marriage, opts to take Sir Philip up on his tentative invitation to visit with a view toward seeing if they'd suit. Unfortunately, she neglects to give *anyone* - from Sir Phillip with his rowdy children (whom he, in turn, neglected to mention) to her own matchmaking mother to her overprotective quartet of brothers - any warning of her plans.

Yes, Gregory is now old enough to join in one of the Bridgerton brothers' little chats with their sisters' suitors. (Reminiscent of the Pall Mall scene in THE VISCOUNT WHO LOVED ME, the Bridgertons at one point have a marksmanship contest.) On the plus side, although Eloise didn't learn much from Daphne's problems with their brothers, she and Francesca *did* have sense enough to pool their money years ago to bribe a maid into a frank discussion of the facts of life. :) (That doesn't explain, though, why Eloise never passed any information along to Penelope.)

In fact, despite her long-term frendship with Eloise, Penelope doesn't appear. (If she or Kate tagged along, the brothers might behave more sensibly in the presence of a grown-up.) Violet has only one scene. Benedict lives near Sir Phillip, though, so Eloise has Sophie to commiserate with. :)

This book deals with the story of Eloise, who runs away in answer to an invitation from a man she has been corresponding with for over a year but has never met.

I did enjoy this book and I found the characters to be believable and likeable although I did find there were instances where some of the things they thought and did seemed out of character based on what we had been told and learned of them. For example, although she had run away from home I found it hard to believe that Eloise would not give a thought to her mother or how she would be suffering not knowing where Eloise was. I was also on occasion annoyed by how dense Philip was being but I suppose that's about par for the course with men in general!!

The sub plot of Eloise dealing with the children also seemed to fade out and become less important as the book went on and I was disappointed that more couldn't have been done to wrap things up together nicely at the end.

Despite all the faults, I genuinely did like this book and I think those who are familiar with the Bridgertons will enjoy it as much as I did.

This book, like the others before it, is likely to make you smile. Perhaps even broadly at times. But for me, there was no laughing aloud as in Daphne and Simon's story (‘The Duke and I’) neither were there any seriously engaging feelings of empathy as in Anthony and Kate's book (‘The Viscount who Loved Me’). In those books, the heroines had character (albeit rather similar personalities, but Quinn won my approval by acknowledging that early on in the second book) and the heroes were (typically!) very arrogant and very sexy. To put it bluntly, the personalities in ‘An Offer from a Gentleman’ (Benedict and Sophie) I didn’t find terribly exciting and for most of ‘Romancing Mr Bridgerton’ (Colin and Penelope), I found the story, and particularly the attraction between Colin and Penelope, mostly implausible and not very romantic at all! In each of those two books, and again in this one, I had the distinct sense that Quinn was trying very hard to balance the need to distinguish each character from the next (or the last), with that of maintaining a level of familiarity for the reader with each of the Bridgertons. She didn’t quite manage it in my opinion, but to be fair, I have admired her departure from the archetypal angry (but deep down just scared), arrogant (but really just wanting to be loved), and borderline cruel hero in all of the last 3 in the Bridgerton series, which isn’t typical of historical romances. Colin and Benedict Bridgerton really are just nice guys!

Perhaps too much is made of the relative extremity of each of the siblings’ personalities in preceding books, so that Quinn doesn’t feel completely free to be totally adventurous with the characters in their own subsequent stories. But to be fair, little quirks like Colin’s huge appetite and Anthony’s fear of bees reappear in some of the other stories and the familiarity really can be quite charming.

Eloise and Philip's story is sweet enough, but the level of character development really isn't a patch on some of the other books. I was disappointed with Philip as a dashing, sexy hero (although at times felt there was so much potential), and Eloise I found mostly predictable (although I will admit that having a tendency to talk too much and to be quite direct myself might have had a lot to do with that!). The passion between them wasn’t entirely overwhelming either, and, let’s face it, that’s why one reads a book like this. Disappointingly, the banter between Eloise and Philip really could have been from any of the other Bridgerton books with the names merely swapped over, and I think if I had to read another book where they heroes were married by special licence, I might have to rip my hair out! Although, to be fair, in ‘Romancing Mr Bridgerton’, Colin and Penelope actually had a fairly decent wait of a couple of months before they were married.

More generally, the Bridgerton boys playing superheroes on horseback every time one of their sister's reputations is ‘at stake’, at what must be now over 40 years old (the eldest - Anthony - at least) really just gets a tad ridiculous and fairly tedious once you've seen it for the 5th time. But then, scenes like that may be part of the Bridgerton appeal, after all, I’ve now read all five, and am looking forward to the 6th (although to be honest, not as eagerly as I did some of the earlier books). As an aside, for those of us familiar with the other Bridgerton books, I wrote Julia Quinn an email right after I read Benedict’s story – I was convinced I knew who Lady Whistledown was and it turned out I was right! She wouldn’t say either way though and I had to wait almost a whole year to find out. Sad, isn’t it?

‘To Sir Philip, With Love’ is all very light-hearted, and an easy enough read, but not the funniest, and certainly not the most engaging of the Bridgerton tales. I'm loathe to criticise my beloved Bridgertons, but I’d say that 'To Sir Philip, With Love' is one whose appeal is much greater if read as part of the entire series. Nevertheless, another of the ever-charming Bridgerton stories, and one can’t help but look forward to the next.