To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn

Sir Phillip knew that Eloise Bridgerton was a spinster, and so he'd proposed, figuring that she'd be homely and unassuming, and more than a little desperate for an offer of marriage. Except . . . she wasn't. The beautiful woman on his doorstep was anything but quiet, and when she stopped talking long enough to close her mouth, all he wanted to do was kiss her . . . and more.

Did he think she was mad? Eloise Bridgerton couldn't marry a man she had never met! But then she started thinking . . . and wondering . . . and before she knew it, she was in a hired carriage in the middle of the night, on her way to meet the man she hoped might be her perfect match. Except . . . he wasn't. Her perfect husband wouldn't be so moody and ill-mannered, and while Phillip was certainly handsome, he was a large brute of a man, rough and rugged, and totally unlike the London gentlemen vying for her hand. But when he smiled . . . and when he kissed her . . . the rest of the world simply fell away, and she couldn't help but wonder . . . could this imperfect man be perfect for her?

Another great read from JQ. In all honesty, it didn't impress me as much as WHWW did but for a book set in rural Regency England, JQ did very well in keeping me turning the pages without a single ball in them. Suffice it to say that I love reading about parties, especially in this setting.

I know y'all have the read the book so I'll come straight to the point: my most favorite part. That would be when the Bridgerton brothers descended on Romney Hall. I really had a good laugh reading that part. I, for one, don't have any brothers and I'd always wanted one. And I've always wondered up to what extent could brothers get overprotected and I fell like I've missed something terribly important when I was growing up. But this doesn't mean that I'm not grateful for my sisters. Although I'm sure those peeps who do have brothers feel differently.

Eloise Bridgerton is a character I could relate to because I myself am on the fast track to spinsterhood. (Don't ask.) And taking her own fate into her own hands was a really brave thing to do. But I'm sure that even with her apprehension to marry Phillip (after her brother Anthony's 'edict'), she was already in love with him. Otherwise, she wouldn't be there in the first place, level-headed girl that she was. And Sir Phillip turned out to be an interesting hero to read, worldly enough to complement Eloise's innocence and vice versa.

So, yeah, I have been and will be scrounging bookshelf after bookshelf at the UBS for JQ books. Although I'm obviously not the only one looking for her novels because every time I got there they seem to have run out of the stuff. And those letter tidbits at the start of each chapter helped to do me in. Cute.

Final verdict: 8/10. Must read, must-have.