A review by irinak
Eloïse: La chronique des Bridgerton - 5 by Julia Quinn

5.0

People tend to... have mixed feelings about this one, and up to a certain extent, I can see why, since the tone is somewhat a lot more serious than the previous ones. That being said, I think that what Julia Quinn was attempting to do in TDAI (namely, a romance between two flawed people where the MC has baggage due to his past) was a lot better done here. Childhood trauma and dealing with depression will sometimes lead to lashing out, self-loathing, doubt, having trouble communicating properly... Julia Quinn did manage to balance it out by showing that for all his shortcomings, Philip does want to change and he's a good-hearted man, and what allowed him to pursue that change was Eloise's support.

I have a few issues with how Marina's depression was dealt with - I wouldn't say the perspective given to her struggles was lacking in compassion, but there was some misunderstanding as to how her mental health problems might have come about, which admittedly the show tried to rectify, although I can't really say it's all that uncommon for Regency people to have that perspective (with the theory about the 4 humors still being in use and all).

All in all, this is still one of my favorite in the series. ❤