I really enjoyed Eloise's story. The spicy scenes were very spicy. 

This books should’ve come with all kinds of trigger warnings. And, what an antiquated and insufferable male lead! Sir Phillip, kindly, check yourself! The misogyny was so bad (that’s on the author more than anything). But like, the ‘son with anger management because of an abusive father’ trope is not my favorite. In fact, I just straight up did not like that! Eloise deserved better. The story had so much potential. I am a sucker for step-parents. They are angels from heaven and have touched my life for the positive in so many ways. So why was this such a let down?! Ugg. 

phillip is so goddamn insufferable. he's a shit husband, a shit father, and a shit person overall. i was surprised, truly, that julia quinn could come up with an even more horrid man for her series (although, i'm sure she'll surprise me once more as i keep reading this series). eloise is also too lenient for someone who's characterized as "headstrong". like she rlly tried hard to be "im not like other girls 🙄", but failed instantly. yes, you are absolutely like every other girl raised in your time period & society, just as lenient, just as gullible, and just as stuck-up. 

i really wish this series would've had a lgbtq+ sibling or family member, and somehow i hoped that would be eloise. bc there's no fucking way that between 8 siblings, not a single one is queer (and dont talk to me abt "but it's not period accurate!" i assure you, 100%, queer people have always existed, so yes, we can have a period accurate queer romance, bc yes, it would make fucking sense, bc, like i said, we've always fucking been here).

this book was definitely better than the others story-wise, but the characters drove me up a fucking wall. especially, as you may have guessed, phillip. now i know, he's a product of his father's abuse and society's failures, but holy shit—he was so misogynistic, always going on and on abt women's shortcomings and how much better it is to be a man and how women are the inferior sex and all that dumb stupid bullshit, and, the cherry on top, admitted to having raped his late wife. like how insane is that. how are we, as readers (who, in the majority, are females, female aligned or afab), are supposed to feel abt a man who plainly admitted he fucking raped his late wife? idc if he puked his guts out later from the guilt, he still did it! and to quote directly from the book, he did it bc "even though she didn't say anything, she didn't say no". im pretty sure that's fucking verbatim. and no im not tagging this as a spoiler, bc i feel like ppl need to be warned abt that before heading into this book. genuinely, what the hell was quinn thinking when writing this. like, no. i dont want this man near me, not even 10 ft away from me. like he needs to be at least 50 ft from me, and i have to have a restraining order against him. (and against daphne, too. we all know why). 

i wonder how much shittier the men (and possibly other characters) will turn out in the rest of the bridgerton series...at this point i say: surprise me, julia quinn. surprise me.

This has been the worst Bridgerton book by a long shot. Phillip Crane is such a horrible love interest and character in general. His inner monologue terrifies me. Even setting that aside, him and Eloise have absolutely terrible chemistry. I feel like Julia Quinn got sick of her being unmarried and just, like, tossed Crane in there. I hated it. It took me almost a month to read. I'm really hoping the next few books are not this f*cking bad. 

I enjoyed this book. I definitely was left wishing there was more in between everything we got. I so badly wanted more family dynamics with the kids. More pining (without realizing they were pining). 

I understand everyone issue with feeling triggered by the main male character. He’s certainly flawed, but I also wouldn’t say that he’s not worthy either.