#sally britton

While Ellen has accepted her destiny as a spinster aunt, shuffled between her sisters’ families when needed to care for the children, it seems her cousin and friend have not settled on that themselves. In fact, they have schemed to set her up with her childhood friend Marcus. Marcus, for his part, has been issued an ultimatum. His mother will not relinquish his rightful property–Orchard Hill–until he marries. And so the two enter a mutual arrangement: Ellen receives a guaranteed home, respect, and friendship from her husband. Marcus fulfills the requirements of obtaining his home, Orchard Hill, and a practical and intelligent companion who can also help him manage his home affairs. But of course, practicality can only last for so long…

Once again, Sally Britton delivers on a sweet historical romance novel that plays with some of my favorite tropes. Ellen and Marcus have the foundations for adorable relationship struggles, and I truly enjoy the point in the novel where they’re both beginning to fall in love. Other than encouraging them to stay by each other, I’m not sure what the point of the conflict with the rest of society was, but it didn’t wholly detract from the novel. I kind of wish Ellen had been more stubborn about sticking to her spinster guns, but I also recognize that the decision making they both did was reasonable if also…rushed. Overall, I liked the characters, the use of fake marriage trope, and the love story!

Julia Devon continues to disappoint her father, and is thus banished from Kettering when her sister Christine marries before even having a London debut. Sent to her cousin, Virginia’s, in Bath, Julia is prepared to help her cousin through a most difficult time. Unexpectedly, she discovers that the physician attending to her cousin’s dying husband is none other than the man whose love for her began her descent from her father’s good graces. Julia, who struggled with her own feelings for Doctor Nathaniel Hastings, attempts to put aside the pain she caused for them both to support her cousin. For Nathaniel’s part, he also prioritizes his patient but cannot seem to stop thinking about the young lady who took his heart in London and carried it all the way to Bath.

Final Thoughts

This series has been a delightful surprise as a whole, and I’m so glad this book followed up to The Social Tutor so strongly. I’m really enjoying the delightful characters Britton creates, and I appreciate that Mr. Devon aside, most everyone acknowledges marriages of love as the preferred situation. I think Britton has a better grasp on the time period she writes than most authors of the same genre, and it’s reflected in the interesting details included in this book from Nathaniel’s use of hand washing to the attitudes of nearly all the side characters in this novel. This is definitely a feel good series including some very lovely couples, and I’m happy to continue on to the next book!

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The Gentleman Physician, a summary

To begin with, lets have a potentially spoilery summary of The Gentleman Physician so you have some context. In the first book of the Branches of Love series, we are introduced to Julia Devon as a side character. She is the resigned, twenty-three year old spinster sister whose family knows only that when she had her debut in London she gravely disappointed their father and returned home unmarried. She confides in her sister that she fell in love with a man who was training to be a physician, and that man attempted to bring his suit to her father who soundly rejected him. Julia, herself, rejected him in an attempt to set him free from his love for her.

Following her sister Christine’s marriage to a man deemed unsuitable by their father, Julia is effectively banished from the Devon home in Kettering and sent to Bath to help her cousin, Virginia. Virginia’s husband is dying, attended to by Doctor Hastings–the same doctor Julia fell in love with. When reunited, the two realize they still have feelings for one another but struggle with their past, as well as prioritizing Virginia’s troubles. Most notably, Nathaniel must come to terms with Julia’s rejection of him and realize the reasons behind it had nothing to do with her own feelings.

Marriage for love versus status and money

As is often the case in a Regency romance, the main conflict of this book is the focus on love matches versus marriages of convenience. Julia had previously defied her father’s expectations of marrying for money and status, but also resigned herself to never marrying at all with the knowledge that his blessing was unlikely. In the first book, The Social Tutor, we actually meet Mr. Devon and learn just how far his ambitions for his daughters’ marriages go, so it’s unsurprising that Julia has some underlying trauma from being raised by him. All of the characters in this book, however, see marriage as ideally built on love. Virginia loves her husband very much and married him despite his status as a baron being lower than her own unmarried social status. Nathaniel’s friends, too, urge him to marry for love since as a physician with a decent income he can afford to support a wife and should choose one who makes him happy.

Hygiene in medicine

We really take for granted today that our physicians and surgeons wash their hands. This was a controversial idea when it was first introduced, but ultimately was proven to reduce the health risks to the patients. Nathaniel is very intent on this, teaching Virginia and Julia how to “properly” wash their hands when dealing with the dying baron, so as to avoid worsening his condition or transmitting his disease to anyone else in the household. I thought this was an interesting little detail to include in the story.

Discrediting women, and “hysteria”

One of the brief subplots of this novel involves Mr. Macon, the baron’s younger brother. The two brothers weren’t friendly at the beginning of the book and by all appearances it seems the two are trying to reconcile when Mr. Macon arrives unexpectedly in Bath to visit his dying older brother. However, it quickly becomes clear that Mr. Macon has nefarious purposes when he begins work to prove his own brother mentally unfit so that he can void the will. His goal is to gain custody of his two nephews, as well as the estates and money that they are heirs to. He plans to do this by demonstrating that Virginia is an unfit mother, and his brother was incorrect in naming her legal guardian of her own sons.

When this plot becomes evident, Julia immediately works against it and discusses the issue with Nathaniel, and his friend who is a solicitor. The two men explain to Julia that it’s quite common for a male relative to fight in court for custody of nephews with inheritance, and that often they win by nature of how women are regarded. Emotions and the way Virginia could potentially react in her time of grieving work against her, despite the rational characters in the plot pointing out that this is a ridiculous way to discredit a mother.

Autonomy of women

One line from this story really stuck out to me, and it was during Nathaniel’s reflections on his feelings for Julia. As they begin to reignite, he confides in close friends and slowly comes to terms with his still having feelings for the woman who rejected him. Despite this rejection, he realizes (after learning what Julia’s father is like) that as an eighteen year old woman Julia didn’t have the autonomy to accept his courtship. It takes this realization for Nathaniel to really begin to accept his feelings for Julia persist. This is a really interesting commentary on feminine autonomy in the time period, because it’s true: at eighteen, Julia was not really in the position to defy her father and marry a man whose education and career were insecure. After a few years apart, Nathaniel has completed his training and begun a career that could support himself and a wife, leaving her the option to leave her father without his permission and marry Nathaniel.

Final thoughts

This isn’t a groundbreaking look at social commentary for the time period, nor is this a great example of heavy social thought in a novel. But I did find these aspects interesting because I think they say a lot about how the author views the historical period the novel is set. There’s a lot of misconceptions out there especially about idealized and romanticized periods of history. Seeing an author take the time to give their characters views on society and hygiene that are in general agreed upon by the cast of characters was refreshing and enjoyable!

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In this Regency-Era romance, we follow the lives of Christine Devon and Thomas Gilbert. Thomas has just returned from Italy where he studied horse breeding and collected three prize mares he hopes will be the beginnings of his horse farm. Unfortunately, due to a few bad years’ harvests and his father’s care for their tenants, the Gilbert estate is failing financially. The Gilbert fortune is at stake and Thomas must find a way to save his family’s finances without also giving up his dream of a horse farm.

Christine Devon is preparing for her first season and the expectations of her father weight heavily on her shoulders. His disappointment with her older sister Julia’s “failed” season is tangible in the home, devoid of much love and laughter since their mother’s death many years ago. Christine wants nothing more than to please her father, but her conversation and interactions with young men leave her seeing herself as lacking.

Final Thoughts

This was a pretty low stakes read all things considered, but one I definitely enjoyed! Christine’s intelligence was fun to read about, even if her father was not. Thomas is also an interesting and intelligent character and their mutual connection over horses was a great way to demonstrate what they have in common and how they fall in love. I also loved the way they end up resolving the barriers keeping them apart (no spoilers though). This book did a good job with the “acquaintances to friends to lovers” trope and additionally painted a convincing picture of the love between Christine and Thomas.