To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn

The Bridgertons Series
#1 The Duke and I
#2 The Viscount who Loved Me
#3 An Offer from a Gentleman
#4 Romancing Mr. Bridgerton

Coming off of Romancing Mr. Bridgerton, the fifth entry in the Bridgertons series, To Sir Phillip, With Love, was a disappointment.  Eloise is twenty-eight, an unmarried spinster who has turned down several offers of marriage because she's holding out for a love match.  Sir Phillip is a recent widower with two unruly children.  They begin a correspondence and eventually Eloise runs away to visit him to see if they would suit for marriage.

Interesting characters: I wanted Eloise to be so much better. What, exactly, is she interested in?  What, exactly, does she want from life?  Sir Phillip is even worse, if you ask me. He's so involved in his work that he's ignoring troubling signs from his children.  When children are in the mix, it feels like higher stakes and I just can't get on with the neglect of the kids. In general, these two felt like generic characters involved in a generic plot. Quite disappointing.

Believable conflict: Phillip has daddy issues all around and Eloise has brother issues. I guess the conflict caused by these things is legitimate, but it wasn't particularly interesting, especially considering the fact that daddy issues are a reoccurring theme in this series.

Emotional tension: Look, I honestly don't see why either one of these fools would be interested in the other. Okay, Eloise is attractive and good with kids, so maybe Phillip thinks that's enough, despite the fact that he sometimes thinks she's impulsive and moronic.  Phillip is a seriously morose workaholics who doesn't take care of his children - how could that be attractive? I just don't buy that these two would work. 

Happily ever after: To use a quote from Luke in the Gilmore Girls, "go ahead, drop another sucker in this mess." If you absolutely must have another child for an ending to be happy, so be it, I guess.

Damn it, Julia Quinn, why do you do this flip flopping thing? You get my hopes up and then dash them into a million pieces.