Making my way through the Pennyroyal Green series by Julie Anne Long, but dependent upon the library, so, while I’ve read these all this year, they weren’t exactly in order. Luckily, I’ve been keeping notes. Now that the top five are covered, I figured I’d put out this half of the reviews. Spoilers abound!
Perils of Pleasure – Colin Eversea is trouble – but it’s rogue-ish trouble, typically – And yet, we find our hero headed for the hangman’s noose, literally, about to hang for a murder he didn’t commit. He’s literally on the way to the gallows, as the crowd cheers and sings and readies themselves for someone to have a worse day than them, when there’s a minor explosion, a quick change of venue, and Colin is whisked off, very sneakily & successfully. By a certain female someone, we come to find out, paid good money to see him freed and away. But there’s a quick double-cross (or two, or five), and our rescuer, one Madeline Greenway, & the charming rogue must team up to keep them both alive, while also clearing his name. Chaos & camaraderie ensue, humor, good sense, & innate charm get each of them only so far before they start falling for the other, and all’s well that ends well. Honestly? Good story, had some great moments of witty banter, but the best part of this being book one is Colin the Cad Eversea spending the rest of the series (so far, I’m only halfway through) pontificating on the benefits of marriage to all who will listen (and many who will not.) For this reason alone, I give you this, quote of the book:
“He had one of those chins what…” One of the innkeeper’s hands went up to squeeze his chin into two little folds. “…a chin what looks like an arse.”
“A chin dimple? A cleft?”
“Not cleft so much as dented, Mr. Eversea. And blue eyes. Went nicely with his costume.”
Dumbstruck silence followed this observation.
The innkeeper sighed. “It’s me wife. If ye gets yerself a wife one day, Mr. Eversea, ye’ll come ou’ wi’ things like that, too, mark my words, mark my words. ‘This matches wi’ that or with this,’ and so on. They talk like that, women do. She makes me look a’ things and give opinions. She’ll turn me into a girl yet.”
This seemed unlikely, but all Colin said was, “Blue eyes and an arse chin. Thank you, that’s very helpful, Mr. Croker.”
In Like No Other Lover, we find ourselves meeting the Pennyroyal Green version of the Hatfields to the Eversea McCoys – The Redmond family. This is Miles Redmond’s book, the second son, but he’s also the ‘heir-apparent’ due to the fact that his older brother Lyon has vanished. Supposedly because of a broken heart caused by none-other than Miss Olivia Eversea, and deepening the already primed vein of Force-like hatred the families have towards each other. But this isn’t Lyon’s book, it’s Miles’, so we’ll save that bit for later. Miles is a scientist & writer, an adventurer who has published tales of his travels, & done quite well for himself. He’s also, as his sister Violet puts it, the true gravity of their family, the one without whom they would ‘all go flying apart, cartwheeling off through the solar system.’ (Having a complicated sibling family system myself? Word.)
He also, some time ago, experienced a reverse gendered Mr. Darcy moment with the then-belle-of-the-ton, Miss Cynthia Brightly, overhearing her unfortunately lacking review of the possibility of them being a match. And he’s holding a bit of a grudge. Which is kind of a bummer for the no-longer-quite-as-well-regarded Miss Brightly, who has come to the Redmond’s house party to find a mate before scandal makes it impossible for her to do so. Surely, they can come to some kind of understanding, though, right?? The understanding turns out to be that Miles sees what none of the other (male) doofuses seem to have understood about Cynthia, that she is, in fact, the absolute freaking best, and everyone else is awful and she would be wasting her life married to any of them. So their understanding has to evolve, a little bit, because he’s not going to let her do that, it would be ungentlemanly of him. The Quote of this book just happens to be when he’s trying to help her see the light:
“He can be charming. Any man can be charming, given incentive.”
And at this, Miles froze. He stared at her incredulously. He opened his mouth briefly, closed again. And he put the quill down so sharply that his hand all but slapped the desk. She flinched. His voice was low and quick and fiercely exasperated.
“No, Cynthia, Millthorpe is a blustery rustic, Goodkind is a pompous ass, and Ardley is an unfinished, arrogant twig. Not a one of them is actually charming. It’s YOU! You make them charming! You spoke of spiderwebs to Goodkind, I’ll tell you of chemical reactions.”
She was completely taken aback – “I … I beg your -”
“You are the.. the compound that makes them effervesce. You transform them, Cynthia, with your… efforts. You listen, you smile, you coax, you include. Otherwise, those men are precisely as I describe them.”
These last words were delivered with a ferocious weight, as if he had been storing them for quite some time.”
Since the Surrender is the oddest of the lot (so far), IMO. We’ve got war hero Chase Eversea, kinda bored now, tbh, now that there’s nobody to rout and not much adventure afoot in Pennyroyal Green (I don’t think he’s paying close enough attention, honestly, bc it seems like there’s plenty happening there, to me.), so his family sends him on an errand to go fetch them back a pastor, and along the way, he of course, falls head first into both an adventure and a beautiful, mysterious woman from his past. Mrs. Rosalind March was the wife/is now the widow of his former commander & friend, who he may have kind of… little bit have a crush on then. He’s definitely over it though now. For sure doesn’t have anything to do with why he agrees to help her track down her missing sister. Or why he starts feeling awfully protective of her once it turns out her sister is not the only missing young, beautiful, caught up in a petty crime lady.
I had some issues with this one, probably because there was a lot of trying to go back and forth, between bawdiness and bastardry, and it wasn’t always, to me, 100% successful? I mean, if you’re going to talk sex-trafficking, it’s probably also very difficult to balance that out with awkward dick puns, but maybe that’s just me? I also had an issue, as I always do with the danger-banging. I really just think I am do ace to completely comprehend the lure of a danger bang, but especially when there’s possible murderers and sex-traffickers around, ya know?
All that said, Long still writes like she’s tapping a vein – just pouring her whole heart in to making these two humans understand that they have hearts and are supposed to use them for their intended life & loving purposes. Quote of the book, case in point:
“What I’ve learned is that what I was made for is to love and protect. Specifically, I was made to love and protect you.”
He waited. She could not speak over the clanging of her heart, but something in her face must have encouraged him to continue.
“I know you wanted a chance to determine what you want. But what I want is this – I want to be wherever you are. Whatever that means. Wherever that might be. So if you want me, I will stay. For as long as you want me. Because.” He sighed. “I love you.”
Said with such absolute certainty and finality, the way he said everything.There passed a silence, noisy with glorious, unspoken things, during which they gazed at each other, and she couldn’t feel her hands or her toes. She was tempted to reach behind her whether perhaps she had sprouted wings like that prurient angel in the Rubinetto painting.
Imagine Captain Charles Eversea offering up his grand, brave, scarred, difficult, beautiful heart to her. She would die for the honor of protecting his heart forever.
“Chase,” He waited, pale, his jaw taut, his eyes fiercely blue. “I love you, too.”
I Kissed an Earl is our swashbuckling entry (I believe another is still towards the end of the series, but I haven’t read it yet.), and my only REREAD. Back in 2016 I gave it 3.5 stars, but mostly bc I jumped in in the middle and had no idea who any of these people were. It doens’t fare any better now that I’m better acquainted w/the series, though, because Violet is a doooope.
Here we find Violent Redmond, Miles’ sister, finding out that the newly Earl-ed Ardmore, Asher Flint, is on the hunt for a pirate, who she now believes might be her runaway eldest brother Lyon. She then has the TSTL idea that she should stowaway on the Earl/Captain’s ship and convince him not only not to catch her brother but to keep her safe all along the way. The problem is, as I have said, Violet has made a very stupid decision. And yet she is decidedly NOT stupid. That’s probably what’s most annoying to me, because I really, really feel for her. The poor girl is bored. And frustrated. And nobody in her family will LISTEN to her absolutely correct observations and predictions. In fact, Lyon winds up coming off pretty good here, because when he (the pirate, as she has predicted!) finds out she’s on that damn ship, he doesn’t come flying to the rescue, he uses codes and secret messages and just… asks her if she’s ok, or if she needs rescuing. Then when she warns him away, he LISTENS to her. Gives her a head’s up when he can, tries to help her out without giving up his mission, but also does the whole big brother thing with Asher, when he feels like he absolutely has to. Asher, also, eventually, comes out looking not that stupid, either, because he does, in fact, let her brother continue pirating, once they figure out the why. And he goes after the girl, when she thinks going home and pretending nothing has changed is a good idea. Violet. You absolute dope.
Quote of the Book:
“She needed to know more. “But that means…”
“It means I love you, Violet. I have never said that aloud to another human being.”
He said it quickly and tonelessly. As if he was afraid of the words. Violet stood basking in those words the way she might a sunbeam after a long, gray day. She closed her eyes. And she knew she was lit from within.
“Do not let me just stand here having said those words,” he said stiffly. “It’s undignified.”
“I love you, too,” she said softly, hurriedly. Feeling abashed. Eyes still closed. Egads. So this was what it was like to be in love. Awkward and foolish, indeed.”
What I Did For A Duke – This book has a plot. It’s not even a bad plot – about revenge on a scoundrel brother and recuperating from losing your first real love. But I found that I mostly disregarded the plot of this book, in favor of watching the hero & heroine do the same. They just literally, could not help themselves, and I … simply adored them for it.
The titular duke – Alexander Moncrieffe – is a ‘perhaps he murdered his first wife’ widower, who has finally reemerged into society. Accumulating a fine fiancé and doing nothing do offset his fierce (and unearned) reputation. But though the fiance is beautiful, she is perhaps not quite fine, since the first chapter finds her cuddled up in bed with a certain rogue rake from a local family, Ian of the famous Everseas. After promptly dispatching him out the window sans his clothes, Moncrieffe lets the ‘lady’ in question cry off (while ordering her to find her herself far, far away as quickly as possible), and turns his attention to revenge. He sets his sights on Ian’s youngest sister, the gentle Geneveive, who would probably care more about that if her heart wasn’t currently shattering in her chest. See the house party that brings Moncrieffe has started with Genevieve’s closest friend – & man she assumes is going to propose to her, Harry Lord something unimportant, – pulling her aside not for the expected proposal but for a conversation on how he will be proposing to their mutual other bestie, Millicent, during the party. To say she cares little for the Duke’s overtures in the wake of such news is to put it mildly. To say that this, in turn, fascinates and enthralls him, also an understatement. Best of all, this, of course! leads them to make a very necessary ‘let’s make Harry jealous and Ian scared straight’ pact, & the shenanigans ensue.
Like any good, ‘holy shit this woman is actually too good for me’ comeuppance book, the Duke falls first and he falls hard and far. Leading to the quote of the book,
He’d never known a more clawing hunger for a woman’s body, and it shocked him. He was clever enough to know it had only a little to do with her body. An incinerating honest passion, the equal of his, was only an expression of who she truly was. He wanted to know all of her thoughts. He wanted to tell her, well, most of his. He would ask nothing else from life if he would be allowed to protect and cherish her for the rest of his.”
All in all, a bunch of mostly fours, and I’m looking forward to the back end of the series, whenever Libby and/or Hoopla should bless me accordingly.