CBR18 Book 35: "Game of Rogues" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4.5 stars

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own. This book is out on June 3rd, 2026. 

Guinevere "Ginny" Woodville travels alone and unchaperoned to London to confront the man known as "The Reaper", Gabriel Marchand, owner of one of the most exclusive gentlemen's clubs/gaming hells in the city. Her newly come of age younger brother, who also recently became the Earl of Highgrove after the death of a cousin, got drunk one evening and gambled away not just the entire newly acquired fortune, but also mired himself in debt. Since some of that money was going to provide dowries for the Woodville women, so they could secure good marriages, it's imperative that Ginny get the money back within the month.

Marchand offers to forgive her brother's debt of several thousand pounds to him if Ginny agrees to spend a whole night in his bed. Naturally, she refuses his offer and hopes to never have to see him again. As fate and the sort of coincidences that usually only happens in romance novels to throw our lovers together would have it, Marchand and Ginny are both staying at the Grand Palace of the Thames, where the rules of the proprietresses require all guests to dine together and socialise in the parlour at least four nights each week. 

Ginny manages to identify the person her brother lost a whopping 15,000 pounds to (in addition to the 4000 he owes Marchand), and he's none other than the Earl of Sydenham, her father used to call friend, but who also seemed to never have forgiven that Ginny's mother married Woodville instead of the Earl. If Ginny manages to locate a rare Ming vase, part of the inheritance her brother would have gotten from the late Earl of Highgrove, Sydenham is willing to forgive the debt. Otherwise, he wants it paid in full in a month.

The Woodville siblings became orphans when Ginny was sixteen, after her father drove his high-flyer too quickly around a corner. Ginny's mother survived her husband by two days, and on her deathbed, Ginny promised to always take care of her younger brother and twin sisters, and make sure they all made good marriages someday. Having single-handedly spent the last eight years raising her siblings, taking care of the family finances, managing their crumbling estate, basically taking on the responsibility of both her deceased parents, Ginny is determined to find the vase so she can restore the fortune that her brother lost. Unexpectedly, Marchand proves to be a valuable help in this search, both helping to locate possible places the vase may be, and providing protection when she insists on going to more unsavoury areas of the city to look for it.

Of course, all this galivanting around unchaperoned with a devastatingly handsome rogue, while also seeing softer sides of him when they spend evenings together in the cosy parlour of their boardinghouse, means that Ginny not only stops hating Marchand, but also realises that she may be ruined for all other men, not least Francis, the carefully respectful third son of a duke she had assumed she would marry until she had to go off to London to save her family. Marchand is equally surprised to find that this stubborn and unusual young woman, who refuses to be afraid of him and constantly challenges him, is making him yearn for a very different future, one that doesn't involve him eternally striving to acquire more wealth and influence. 

Really good historical romance is getting harder to find. Meredith Duran is no longer writing. Sherry Thomas is writing historical mysteries. Tessa Dare's last novel was published in 2019, and fans are still waiting for the promised fourth book in that series. Julia Quinn is busy with the TV adaptations of her work and is now apparently making luxury hardback editions of romance novels for collectors. Loretta Chase and Courtney Milan publish a new book every few years. Julie Anne Long, however, is still reliably publishing a romance a year, and while I thought the first few novels of her Palace of Rogues series were merely good, not great, the last three have been absolute stone-cold classics, and I'm happy to say that this book continues her streak. I was both happy and surprised when I was granted an ARC, and because of my terrible memory and my tendency to fall behind on reviews, I waited to read it until just before the release date.

Some books take a while for me to get into. Not so Ms. Long's books. Within the first few chapters, reading one of her books feels like a soothing escape from reality. Each new book in the Palace of Rogues series introduces us to a new main couple, but also lets us come back to the comfortable found family of regulars to see how they are getting on (we're getting closer and closer to a romance between Pike the footman and Dot the maid with each story). Delilah and Angelique, their handsome husbands, Mr. Delacorte, Mrs. Pariseau - it's like seeing old friends again, while also getting to experience a new and exciting love story each time I pick up one of her books. 

We're rapidly nearing the end of term, and I have a lot of work to do and many grades to finalise, yet once I started this book yesterday morning, I pretty much ignored all of my other responsibilities until I had finished it before lunchtime today. Julie Anne Long writes interesting characters, and frequently her heroines are people who have been shouldering a huge amount by themselves, and have spent their lives fixing things for others, until they finally find the man who wants to ease their burdens and take care of them. Her heroes are often intimidating, powerful men who have troubled backgrounds and finally find the woman who sees their insecurities, refuses to be intimidated by them and makes them soften, without really losing any of the things that make them powerful. 

I don't know how many books Ms. Long has planned for in this series, but her Pennyroyal Green series ended up being twelve books and a novella, so I'm hoping I can keep visiting this comfortable and charming corner of the fictional Regency for many years to come. If you've enjoyed other books by her, this is another keeper, which I can see myself returning to for re-reads, if not as many times as with What I Did for a Duke, in my opinion, her best book, and one of my favourite ever romances. And I only just now realised that both of the heroines have very similar-sounding names. No wonder reading this made me want to reread it, for the umpteenth time. 

Judging a book by the cover: Since these books will no longer be printed in mass market paperback format (a development that makes me very sad), it seems that Avon decided to introduce a new cover design entirely, which means this book won't match its predecessors. Since some of the covers earlier in this series have been, at least in part, really awful (usually the portrayal of one or several of the people on said covers), this isn't necessarily a bad thing. But as someone who hates it when my physical books don't match, this radical difference in cover design also annoys me. That said, the choice to make the cover look like a playing card, with very stylised silhouettes rather than realistic images of the couple, works for me. It feels classier than the traditionally illustrated covers. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR16 Book 60: "The Beast Takes a Bride" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 3.75 stars

Disclaimer: This was an ARC from NetGalley. It hasn't affected my opinions in any way

Spoiler warning - this review will contain some discussion of plot points I found difficult, so you may want to skip some parts of it until you've read the book

Alexandra Bellamy has been taking care of her father and her siblings since her mother died. She has no dowry to speak of and knows her father has massive gambling debts. So when her father announces that the impressive and formidable war hero, Colonel Magnus Brightwall, will not only clear his debts, but pay an additional five thousand pounds for her hand in marriage, she doesn't really have any choice but to accept the offer. Unfortunately, only hours after the ceremony, Magnus witnesses something that makes him convinced his wife has betrayed him, and instead of taking Alexandra with him on his diplomatic posting to Spain, he leaves her in his townhouse in London, with barely any communication between them. 

Their reunion five years later takes place in Newgate prison, where Alexandra has unfortunately found herself imprisoned after being involved in hijinks involving her impulsive cousin, an angry duke and possibly a stolen carriage. Magnus shows up to fetch her, but instead of taking her to the house she's lived in alone for the past five years, he takes her to The Grand Palace of the Thames, where they will stay while he's preparing to sell the townhouse. There are already all sort of rumours swirling because of Magnus and Alexandra's long separation, and now, with this new scandal, Magnus is worried about his reputation. So he's made a plan (without at any point consulting his wife about her thoughts on the matter). 

So Alexandra is basically told that they will appear together in public for enough social events to convince the public that their marriage is strong and loving and clearly gossiping about them is wrong and uncouth. Then Magnus will sell the townhouse, and ship Alexandra off to America, where as long as she agrees to this scheme, she will have a house of her own and a generous allowance. If she says no, he'll cut her off entirely, and she'll be forced to live with one of her siblings, entirely dependent on their charity.

One of my friends put this book down halfway because she was so annoyed at Magnus and the completely outrageous way he treats Alexandra in the beginning, because of his pride and insecurities. She needed me to finish the book and convince me that it was worth finishing and reassure her that she wasn't going to have a rage aneurysm because of Magnus' continued mistreatment of his lovely wife. I question the opinions of readers who feel that Magnus' early behaviour is entirely within reason, and he's correct in treating Alexandra the way he does. I'm a member of Julie Anne Long's fan group on Facebook, and amusingly, on release day (this Tuesday), someone posted a very well-written AITA from Magnus' point of view. Unsurprisingly, most people agreed that he was an A. 

So what was it that kept me from throwing this book across the room (metaphorically, I would never risk my beloved e-readers in such a way) in a fit of rage? It is to Julie Anne Long's credit that she manages to write so well that even when I want to thump him, I also have some sympathy with Magnus. Because get to see what both Alexandra and Magnus are experiencing and thinking, the reader is first of all very aware of the remorse that Alexandra feels about her impulsive actions that led to her being immediately estranged from her husband, but also how conflicted Magnus feels. My main gripe with the story is that while the reader gets insight into his insecurities and tormented thoughts about his wife and his marriage, he never really shares them with his wife. 

PLOT SPOILERS IN THE NEXT BIT:

While the man we meet in the present day of the novel is the impressive Colonel Magnus Brightwell, known for his heroic actions during the Napoleonic war (he even nearly died saving the Duke of Valkirk's life on the battlefield), for most of his life, Magnus has been unwanted and tolerated on sufferance. He was found on the doorstep of a Yorkshire manor house and spent his early life working the worst possible jobs of the household to earn his keep. Because of his rough appearance, he was given the nickname "Beast" early on, and it seems to have stuck with him. No one showed him any affection or kindness, so when he eventually learned to shoot, and won a marksman competition as a teenager, he spent the prize money buying himself a comission to the army, where he rose in the ranks and earned respect and acclaim he'd always dreamed of. So the dude has a chip on his shoulder, and a whole host of insecurities, fair enough.

However, for far too much of the book, Magnus (despite claiming to have been in love with her since the first time he saw her) doesn't seem to see Alexandra as a person, a woman with wants and needs and dreams of her own. He was taken in not only by her beauty, but her kindness, charm and unfailing loyalty to her family, but because he was so convinced of his own worthlessness and couldn't possible imagine her actually accepting his suit if she was given any sort of choic, he manipulated the situation so she literally had no choice but to accept him. If she refused him, her family would be destitute. He didn't care about what her life had been like before he literally bought himself a pretty wife. Having not really had any conversations of note with said wife before they married, Magnus had no idea that she had comforted herself with a deeply innocent and chaste infatuation with her brother's tutors for some months before she ever even met Magnus. Both parties were extremely aware that they would never be together, and the romance was never going to end in marriage between a poor scholar and a viscount's daughter. 

Alexandra broke it off as soon as she agreed to marry Magnus, but a few hours after the wedding, she sees her former suitor at the garden gate (where they used to meet and chat - never anything more than that) and he kisses her goodbye. The thing that so upsets Magnus is seeing that for a brief moment, Alexandra doesn't fight back, but lets herself enjoy her first kiss. His sense of betrayal at seeing her chastely say farewell to someone who had offered her solace for a few months is deeply misguided. Not even when Alexandra is entirely honest about the situation, and apologises for her misstep and for having hurt Magnus, is he able to listen to her or understand her. He goes off in a snit to be a diplomat in Spain, leaving his wife to languish alone and rejected in his town house in London. She's the one who has to contend with the rumours and malicious whispers about why they aren't living together, and she has to keep herself and her behaviour above reproach in respect of his precious reputation. The one night she throws caution to the wind and does something ill-advised with her cousin, she ends up arrested. Even when Magnus realises how judgmental he's been, he never actually apologises for his actions and his harsh and cold treatment of Alexandra. Where he could have had an open and honest conversation with his wife, and owned up to being a judgy asshole, he instead manipulates the situation once more, to make it possible for her to "choose him" this time around. Which she does. 

Magnus doesn't think he could ever get a beautiful and accomplished woman like Alexandra by honest means, and since all his life he has had to strategise and scheme to reach his goals, he does the same to get himself a wife. He just never seems to properly acknowledge that this was wrong and that Alexandra deserved so much better. Not better than him, because he is clearly not a bad person, just a proud and prickly one, but she deserved respect, an actual choice and a proper and grovelling apology for having had those choices taken away from her, and then being super harshly judged for saying goodbye to a part of her past and innocently responding to being kissed. She didn't even initiate the kiss, she just allowed it to happen and didn't forcefully push away the young man who kissed her. She never denied what she did, and she was deeply and honestly apologetic immediately after the fact, knowing that what she did was unfortunate and clearly hurtful to Magnus. The fact that he in return never apologises properly to her for his mistreatment of her, both five years ago and early on in the present, left a sour taste in my mouth that keeps me from giving this book a full four stars. 

Pride is clearly a major theme in the story. At one point, Alexandra mentions that she's reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (I was going to get all snippy about how it was published "by a lady" - but this book seems to be set five years after the end of the Napoleonic wars, at which point Ms. Austen had been dead for a few years, and the true identity of the author would have been revealed, so snippiness retracted). I suppose the reader is supposed to draw parallells between Mr. Darcy and Magnus, but while Mr. Darcy initially delivers one of the worst proposals in literary history, he then takes great strides to change, broaden his horizons and makes efforts to be less proud and imperious before he proposes to Elizabeth once more. Magnus just buys himself a wife and seems upset when it is revealed that she had a past and lived a (very innocent) life before she ever met him. 

END SPOILERS

One of the things I enjoy about The Palace of Rogues series is that it's a bit like a long running TV show. Instead of a "mystery of the week", we get a "romance of the week", which introduces new characters and plot beats for a while, but we also get to spend time with recurring characters we've come to know and love. I've seen some reviews complain that they thought the hijinks of the supporting characters took up too much space and detracted from the main romance, but I disagree. If it hadn't been for the delightful other guests at the Grand Palace on the Thames, not to mention ditzy housemaid Dot and handsome footman Ben Pike's slowly developing feelings for one another, I would have rated the book even lower. This is the first time I've rated a book 3.75 stars, and my annoyance at never getting a proper grovelling scene from Magnus is balanced out by several laugh out loud moments involving other residents at the boarding house, not to mention the delightful sequence where Mr. Delacorte takes our protagonists and Dot to a late-night donkey race. 

The previous book in the series, My Season of Scandal, is my favourite Julie Anne Long book since my all-time favourite, most beloved What I Did for a Duke. The previous one before that, To Tame a Wild Rogue, was also delightful and a five-star read for me (if a lower five-star than My Season of Scandal). They can't all be winners. I'm still very happy I was granted an ARC of this (thank you, Netgalley!) and am happy that the series is clearly continuing for a while yet. 

Judging a book by its cover: I have mentioned before that I find a lot of the covers of this series just plain bad. Thankfully, this is one of the better ones. I feel the cover artist could have made more of an effort not to make Magnus' trousers look like blue jeans, but I guess we can't have everything. Alexandra looks pretty much as described in the book, and the shade of lilac she's wearing is lovely. 

Rating the Palace of Rogues series

1. My Season of Scandal - 5 stars

2. To Tame a Wild Rogue - 5 stars

3. After Dark with the Duke - 4 stars

4. Lady Derring Takes a Lover - 4 stars

5. The Beast Takes A Bride - 3.75 stars

6. You Were Made to Be Mine - 3.5 stars

7. Angel in a Devil's Arms - 3.5 stars

8. I'm Only Wicked with You - 3 stars

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR16 Book 32: "You Were Made to Be Mine" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 364 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Christian Hawkes was a British spymaster during the Napoleonic wars and ended up spending years in a French prison after someone sold him out. Now he's free, but left destitute and mostly friendless. The Earl of Brundage, tipped to become an ambassador, hires Hawkes to locate his missing fiancée and a very valuable necklace (who was only on loan to the Earl) the young woman had in her possession when she went missing.

Hawkes would like nothing better than to tell Brundage to go to hell, but he needs money, and he also needs time to find enough evidence that Brundage was a French spy during the war (which has helped him rise to the position he's now in) and the man who betrayed Hawkes to the French. He most likely stole Hawkes' money too. Pretending to look for Brunage's intended will give Hawkes more time to find the evidence he needs.

Lady Aurelie Capet (a distant cousin to French royalty), Brundage's betrothed, has indeed run away. After discovering that Brundage was not the man she believed him to be, she saved, plotted and schemed to get as far away from him as she can. Alone and scared, she has managed to cross the English Channel and has found refuge in the Grand Palace on the Thames under an assumed name.

Hawkes dramatically arrives a few days later, staggering over the doorstep, bleeding profusely from a stab wound (or maybe a gunshot wound, I forget and I can't bother to go back and double-check). Either way, it's a serious injury and the arrival causes quite the uproar amongst the owners and guests. As the inhabitants of the Palace for several days had anticipated the arrival of a clergyman, there is initially some confusion as to the identity of their new, unconscious houseguest. Aurelie feels sympathy for the injured man and offers to care for him and sit by his bedside until he wakes up. Once he does awaken, it doesn't take long for the couple to fall head over heels. 

Hawker never had any intention of reuniting a sheltered young woman with a villain like Brundage, but his revenge quest against the man becomes even more serious after he discovers what actually happened to Aurelie and why she felt she had no chance but to run away from him. Until Hawker can acquire the final pieces of evidence against the man, however, he is the one in danger. Brundage has accused Hawker of kidnapping Aurelie and stealing the valuable necklace.  

Throughout reading the story, I kept wondering if Hawker (both the name and character) were inspired by Joanna Bourne's spymaster Hawker in The Black Hawk (a book I absolutely adore). I couldn't find anything in the acknowledgements about it, but I'm still going to wonder. 

This was another enjoyable romance from Julie Anne Long, but readers should know that there is indirect mention of rape in the book, and there is a fair age gap between Aurelie and Hawker. I'm not a huge fan of insta-love stories, but this one is done well. There are some romances by Long that I re-read again and again, and while this was fine, I don't think this is one I'm going to revisit multiple times. 

Judging a book by its cover: I don't know what cover designers have against Julie Anne Long's romance novels. Most of the covers in this series are absolutely dreadful. There are so many things that just seem off with this cover. The weird pose while kissing, which seems like they'd both get neck and/or back pain. His hair. Her dress, with skirts that seem to take up a third of the cover. The kiss also looks awkward. Not great, Avon, you can do better. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR15 Book 1: "After Dark with the Duke" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Mariana Wylde arrives at the Grand Palace at the Thames only seconds after curfew, dripping wet and terrified, since she escaped her own lodgings because a literal angry mob blocked her residence. The talented opera singer, dubbed "the Harlot of Haywood Street" by the press after two rich, young noblemen fought a duel for her favour (something she very much didn't want them to) and one of them nearly died. Her reputation is in tatters and she's almost broke but begs the proprietresses of the boarding house to let her stay, at least for a night. Delilah (first introduced in Lady Derring Takes a Lover) and Angelique (who found her HEA in Angel in a Devil's Arms), the women who own and run the house, are intrigued by her presence. Since they recently built a ballroom with a stage in their annex and would love to bring some publicity to their boarding house, they agree to let Mariana stay for a month, room and board included, as long as she performs in a musical evening they will all share the profits for. The ladies hope that by that time, the press and outraged rabble will have found a new target to persecute.

The other notable guest staying at the Palace is General James Blackmore, made Duke of Valkirk after his successes on the battlefield in France. Known far and wide for his strategic brilliance, his impeccable manners, and valorous conduct (he even wrote a book entitled Valour), the former general has snuck away to the boarding house to have peace and quiet to write his memoirs. He makes some rather ungenerous assumptions about Mariana's character early on and is forced to apologise not only to her, but to the proprietresses and the other long-term guests at the inn. As the duke used Mariana's inability to understand Italian to humiliate her in the drawing room one evening, Delilah and Angelique believe it would be fitting for the duke to offer her free lessons in Italian during her stay. Being the daughter of a cobbler, Mariana has not had access to a classical and rounded education and has so far in her career learned all the operas she sings by sound. While she wants to tell the arrogant duke to go to the devil, she can't reject the chance to learn to understand and better interpret the words she sings (if she's ever forgiven for her role in the current scandal and actually hired anywhere ever again). 

It's not exactly surprising that the daily lessons in the duke's chambers lead to a better understanding of each other's true natures while exploring the mysteries of Italian, and from going to deep antipathy for one another, Mariana and Valkirk are soon unable to deny the sizzling chemistry and growing attraction between them. Valkirk is widowed, with a recently-married son only a few years younger than Mariana. While he also came from humble circumstances, he has worked hard and relentlessly and is now one of the most powerful and respected men in the country. Of course, absolutely no one knows who he really is, they only see the stern and professional mask he presents. Mariana can't set foot outside the door of the boarding house for fear of the public finding her and subjecting her to society's harsh judgment. While she too has worked hard to get where she is, being an opera singer is a lot less respectable than being a lauded general and she makes no attempts to hide that while she in no way wanted or encouraged the behaviour of the two men dueling over her, one of them was her former lover, and she doesn't regret no longer being a virgin. 

As the month progresses, it seems as if very few people will actually be coming to the planned musical evening because the parents of the noblemen involved in the duel have demanded she be shunned. Delilah and Angelique try not to fret. Neither Valkirk nor Mariana have the time to worry, however, as they embark on a passionate love affair, meeting in secret every night, knowing all too well that their time together is unlikely to lead to a life-long future together. Mariana is offered a part in an opera in Paris (either playing a mermaid or a singing lobster, no matter which, she's determined to give it her all) and will have to leave the boarding house pretty much the day after the planned concert. Neither expects to ever see the other again after this date - it's not like a celebrated duke can marry a tarnished opera diva. 

While this book will never hold the exalted status in my heart as my beloved What I Did for a Duke, Ms. Long once again proves herself adept at writing a couple with a significant age difference without it becoming creepy or inappropriate. It also doesn't seem strange that Valkirk and Mariana are drawn to one another once you realise that they are both from humble backgrounds and have had to be very driven to succeed in their chosen careers. While Valkirk was married and has a son, he and his wife were from different social classes, and it's clear that it was a marriage of convenience and he doesn't really mourn his departed wife much. He seems sad that he doesn't have a closer relationship with his son, but takes steps to improve that connection over the course of this book. Valkirk has been alone for a long time, not letting anyone see the real him. For reasons he can't really explain, he wants to show his vulnerable side to Mariana. 

Refreshingly, for all that Mariana is currently in rather dire straits because of the scandal surrounding the duel, and it becomes clear from the Italian lessons that she is frequently the object of unpleasant comments and handsy men around the theatre, she seems to have had a good childhood and a loving relationship with her parents, until the tragic loss of her father when she was 14. For much of the book, she's composing hypothetical letters to her mother in her head. Her mother has been forced to go live with relatives in Scotland, and Mariana sends her as much money as she can. Normally she's a regular correspondent with her mother, but after the scandal and her new lodgings at the Palace, she can't seem to sit down and commit words to fool scrap. 

While she very occasionally writes an absolute classic, mainly I rely on Julie Anne Long to write witty, uncomplicated and interesting romances that never veer into the too angsty or shocking and which allow me to relax and enjoy myself for the hours I'm reading. Her Pennyroyal Green books had some recurring characters, in the Palace of Rogues series, there's a whole cast of recurring characters, like Delilah and Angelique, their husbands, servants like the maid Dot and the cook Helga, and long-time lodgers like the comical Mr. Delacorte. There are small storylines running throughout the series for the enjoyment of the regular readers (the hunt for a competent and non-lecherous footman progresses), but there is nothing that demands that you have read earlier books to get a fun read. I'm now only one book behind in the series, with a new book coming in June. I look forward to it.

Judging a book by its cover: For some reason, this cover, with the red flower on the mantelpiece, the roaring fire, and Mariana's luxurious-looking furlined pelisse made me think this was set during the holidays. It is not. So I hadn't needed to save it for a December read. Ha!

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR14 Book 3: "I'm Only Wicked with You" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 3 stars

Hugh Cassidy is an ambitious man. He knows exactly what he wants from life, he's going to run for mayor of his hometown, from thence devote his life to politics. While his parents may not have been particularly distinguished, they clearly loved one another and raised Hugh and his siblings to believe in hard work, as well being moral and upstanding people. Hugh is in England to try to track down the runaway daughter of a good friend (and as the story progresses it becomes clear that there may have been some form of sentimental attachment between Hugh and the young lady), and while he's travelling around, he's using the comfortable Palace of the Thames as his home base. Complications involving the beautiful high-born daughter of a nobleman complicating were the last thing Hugh expected to face. 

Lady Lillias, the eldest daughter of the Earl and Countess of Vaughn, is both angry and frustrated. Stuck in some pokey boarding house near the docks just because her idiot brother decided to bring a snake home and a large hole was shot in their wall, she now finds herself confined to her chambers, chastised like a naughty child, just because some insufferable American caught her in the garden, smoking a cheroot. Hugh Cassidy may be tall, trapping, and very handsome, but as far as Lillias is concerned, he may as well be the devil, having tattled to her parents and gotten her barred from shopping, socialising, and anything else that could make her involuntary exile somewhat more bearable. All the while, the gossip sheets are speculating about her absence, not to mention what advantageous match she is likely to make during the end of the season. Of course, no one, not even Lillias' family, knows that she's nursing a broken heart, convinced that she'll never really find love, as the only person she's ever felt close to seems likely to offer for another. 

Hugh and Lillias may not seem like an obvious match, and while this was a perfectly fine romance novel, I must admit I found it rather lacking compared to Long's previous entries in The Palace of Rogues series so far. The book is probably still better than the most forgettable of her Pennyroyal Green books, but nevertheless, a diverting read, if a bit slow to start.

I think part of the problem is that it takes too long for the reader to get a proper insight into what Lillias is going through, and at the start, she just seems like a spoiled and bitter society maiden, with too much privilege and not enough experience about the world around her. It's difficult to see how she and Hugh will ever find any sort of common ground, and it takes a bit too long before the story progresses from sniping disguised as banter or insta-lust. It probably doesn't help either that to me, living in upstate New York in the early 19th Century, sounds like a fate worse than death. Rustic pioneer life really never appealed to me, I really didn't care how enthusiastically Hugh kept describing his home.

I very much enjoyed spending more time with the already established supporting cast of the series, however, and Lillias' family is also fun and remarkably understanding for your high-born noble parents. There's also the fact that even a middling Julie Anne Long historical is usually at least entertaining, and if I don't exactly remember all the details of the plot a year from now, that's OK - she still has some solid gold classics that make her worth my time and money. 

Judging a book by its cover: For some inexplicable reason, all the covers for this series are just a bit off, and there's always some element in them that doesn't work for me. In my review of book 2 in the series, Angel in a Devil's Arms, I mentioned that I hoped Ms. Long would be luckier with her next cover. Yes...and no. The many shades of green are very soothing to the eye, and we thankfully can't see the hero's face, as he's facing away from us (no sad Antoni knock-off cover model here), but the woman who I'm guessing is supposed to be Lillias looks sickly somehow. Possibly she's going through some sort of stomach bug? I think the look on her face is supposed to be flirtatious and sexy, but I think whoever drew this made her look bone-tired and/or possibly drunk instead. Sigh.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR12 Book 5: "What I Did for a Duke" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages
Audio book length: 9 hrs 23 mins
Rating: 5 stars

I first read and reviewed this book back in 2011 (when it came out), during Cannonball III. My original review, which among other things contains a plot summary, can be found here.

If you do take a look at my previous review (or just check my rating of this book), you can see that the rather unlikely romance between Miss Genevieve Eversea Lord Alexander Moncrieffe, the Duke of Falconbridge is one of my absolute favourites. I loved it utterly when I first read it back in 2011 and when re-reading several times since then. While I used to be a bit unnerved by listening to romance in audio format, I have had a change of heart in recent years, and especially like owning books I particularly enjoy in audiobook as well, so I can listen to the book when I want a comfort re-read.

Sadly, this has not been possible with Julie Anne Long's popular historicals before now. For years, literally, I've been looking for and bemoaning the fact that Julie Anne Long's Pennyroyal Green books were not available in audiobook. However, this changed towards the end of 2019, when once a month, another book in the series became available, and at the end of December, What I Did for a Duke was finally released (you had better believe I clicked that pre-order button the second the news was announced).

Checking Goodreads, I could see that when I started my current re-read, I hadn't really revisited this favourite for over five years. Many romances have been published since then, would it still retain its coveted position as one of my all-time favourites? Would Justine Eyre's narration add to or take away from my enjoyment?

I'm relieved to say that the book was just as good as I remembered it, if maybe a bit slow in the set-up (I mean, who really cares about dumb Ian Eversea?) and Ms. Eyre's narration is great. Considering how long I've been wanting an audio version of this book, it's good that I can have one that I can listen to repeatedly.

The quality of Julie Anne Long's Pennyroyal Green books is variable. Some of them are merely ok, some are a delight, and a very few are absolute romance classics. This may be my favourite of the entire series (although I may have to revisit It Happened One Midnight and The Legend of Lyon Redmond when they come out as audiobooks too.

Judging a book by its cover: Goodreads didn't seem to have an image for the cover that accompanies my audiobook version (and is utterly dreadful), so I'll just comment on the original paperback cover for this instead. I don't even know where to begin with the WTF here. Not sure who these people on the cover are, but they seem very unlike the way Alex and Genevieve are actually described in the book. There is also no scene at any point where they make out in what appears to be a wind tunnel, with Gen wearing a sheet? A weirdly bunched up chemise?  Something else entirely? It's such a bad cover - so, so bad.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR11 Book 87: "Angel in a Devil's Arms" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 368 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Official book description:
He has devil's blood in his veins. At least, that's always been the legend. How else could the Duke of Brexford's notorious bastard son return from the dead? The brutal decade since Lucien Durand, Lord Bolt, allegedly drowned in the Thames forged him into a man who always gets what—and who—he wants. And what he wants is vengeance for his stolen birthright...and one wild night in Angelique Breedlove's bed.

Angelique recognizes heartbreak when the enigmatic Lord Bolt walks into The Grand Palace on the Thames, and not even his devastating charm can tempt her to risk her own ever again. One scorching kiss drives home the danger.

But in the space between them springs a trust that feels anything but safe. And the passion—explosive, consuming—drives Lucien to his knees. Now his whole life depends on proving his love to a woman who doesn't believe in it...because his true birthright, he now knows, is guardian of Angelique Breedlove's heart.

This is the second book in Julie Anne Long's return to historical romances, her The Palace of Rogues series. While this book works perfectly fine on its own, it follows on pretty much directly from the first, Lady Derring Takes a Lover, which is also very worth reading. In a year when there really haven't been many romances that impressed me much, the fact that Long has written two is both remarkable and encouraging.

While Angelique Breedlove was quite the fallen woman before she entered into a partnership with the widow of her recently deceased lover, at the start of this book, she has a home, a business she's proud of, friends and a lovely found family. Delilah, the former Lady Derring, who should probably have hated her for being her husband's mistress, is instead her best friend and staunchest supporter. Captain Tristan Hardy, the naval hero who swept Delilah off her feet in the previous book, is a trusted friend. The ladies' boarding house, the Palace on the Thames seems to be doing well enough that the ladies are even thinking of expanding, hoping to buy the property next door.

So it's rather a surprise when the mysterious man who's been paying them to keep their nicest suite of rooms available shows up, with proof that he's in fact the scandalous Lord Bolt, who possesses a marquess' title, despite being the illegitimate eldest son of the Duke of Brexford. Everyone believed him to be dead, but instead he's been off making himself frightfully wealthy in the far East. Now he's back, bent on revenge on the people who had him set upon in the night, stabbed and pushed in the icy Thames. He believes the mastermind behind the plot against him is his own stepmother, the Duchess of Brexford (not a popular person in the Palace on the Thames after trying to steal their cook on more than one occasion) and he's determined to make it uncomfortable for the guilty parties by showing London that he's back, he's very much alive, and he's just as scandalous as ever.

Of course, while Angelique finds him extremely attractive, she has no wish to involve herself with a scandalous rake, no matter how handsome and wealthy he might be. She's had her share of drama, and now wants to live comfortably, happily unnoticed by the ton, securing the boarding house's reputation as a place of high standards and impeccable morality. She and Delilah explain their house rules to Lucien, believing he will choose to move elsewhere. They are surprised when he agrees to abide by the curfew, show up to the joint dinners and the communal evenings in the drawing room. He further impresses them by being pleasant to the other guest and quickly making friends with his charm and entertaining stories.

While revenge might have been Lucien's initial goal, he comes to realise that his provocative behaviour is keeping Angelique at arm's length. Against his wishes, he also meets his younger brother and finds that he likes the young man. His plans of causing a scandal and exposing the Duchess of Brexford to all of society would be very damaging to more than one person he has come to care about. To his credit, he uses his charm, intelligence and ruthlessness to redeem his former scandalous image instead, showing Angelique that he can be a worthy partner for her. When he gets a bit too alpha male and tries to defend her reputation in public, ending up confirming the gossip about her past, he works very hard to grovel and earn her forgiveness.

I said in my review of the first book as well, but I'm SO glad that Long is back to writing historical romances. Her contemporaries were perfectly fine, but her Regency romances truly shine. It seems that really good and memorable romances are fewer and far between these days, but I suspect I will enjoy re-reading this one.

Judging a book by its cover: I think the only thing I like about this whole cover is the font, and I'm not entirely sure about that one either. I hate the awkward posture of the dude in the background (who looks nothing like Lucien is described, apart from having dark hair). I hate that he looks like a cheap lookalike for Antoni from Queer Eye. While the female cover model's face is pretty enough, there's something about her posture and facial expression that makes me think they found her picture in some advert for a phone sex ad and photo shopped it onto the cover, then pasted the dress on paper-doll style. While I normally like yellow and it can be nice and cheerful, this whole ensemble just rubs me the wrong way. I think this cover actively detracts from the really excellent story inside the book and hope Ms. Long is luckier with her next one.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR11 Book 25: "Lady Derring Takes a Lover" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

From Goodreads:
A mistress. A mountain of debt. A mysterious wreck of a building.

Delilah Swanpool, Countess of Derring, learns the hard way that her husband, "Dear Dull Derring," is a lot more interesting—and perfidious—dead than alive. It's a devil of an inheritance, but in the grand ruins of the one building Derring left her, are the seeds of her liberation. And she vows never again to place herself at the mercy of a man.

But battle-hardened Captain Tristan Hardy is nothing if not merciless. When the charismatic naval hero tracks a notorious smuggler to a London boarding house known as the Rogue's Palace, seducing the beautiful, blue-blooded proprietress to get his man seems like a small sacrifice.

They both believe love is a myth. But a desire beyond reason threatens to destroy the armour around their hearts. Now a shattering decision looms: Will Tristan betray his own code of honor…or choose a love that might be the truest thing he's ever known? 

This is Julie Anne Long's return to historical romances, (to much greater success than some, Lisa Kleypas, I'm looking at you) after a few years of only publishing contemporary ones. While I thought her Hellcat Canyon books were just fine, gradually getting better with each book, it is really almost sad how much better I thought this was.

In this, the beginning of a new series, The Palace of Rogues, Ms. Long introduces us to Delilah Swanpool, whose really rather boring husband has died and left her with nothing but a lot of creditors and a large, empty building near the docks. When visiting her husband's solicitor, she also discovers that her husband had kept a mistress for years, and said woman is also down on her luck. After some consideration, Delilah suggests to the other woman, who goes by the name Mrs. Angelique Breedlove (NOT her actual given name), that they go into business together. They use what meagre funds they have, selling their jewelry and refurbish the building into a boarding house, ignoring all the warnings of the somewhat dodgy neighbours that the property has a notorious reputation and there is no way they will meet with success.

While it might have been natural for them to hate each other, Delilah and Angelique, helped by Delilah's well-meaning, but rather inept maid, as well as whatever former staff Delilah has been able to persuade to still work for her, set about making their boarding house not only a profitable business, but a cosy place that they and their guests can call home. They make sure to have set rules for what is allowed and expected of their lodgers, such as at least some mandatory socialising every week and communal meals. It's all rather sweet.

Unbeknownst to the two women, "Dear Dull (and now Dead) Derring" was involved in a smuggling operation, and the location they have chosen for their lodging house has such a bad reputation exactly because it was part of the smugglers' chosen hiding places. They suspect nothing untoward when the dashing Captain Hardy comes to stay with them (although he and Delilah are mutually attracted to one another from the moment they lay eyes on each other). Hardy has a sterling reputation, and always "gets his man". He has the trust of the Prince Regent and finds it unlikely that the women running the loftily named "Grand Palace on the Thames" could both have been intimately involved with Derring and not known about his involvement with the smuggling. As he comes to discover through his investigations, they are both innocent, and because he's pretty much fallen madly for Delilah at this point, he's very relieved to discover it.

While the romance is thoroughly satisfying, I think my favourite part of this book were the various female friendships. Delilah frequently despairs over the dimness of her maidservant, but nevertheless keeps the loyal and enthusiastic young woman in her employ as she knows she'll have nowhere else to go if Delilah fires her. Angelique and Delilah are very different women who form an unlikely and very touching friendship over the course of the novel. In so many novels (even romances, sadly) believable and supportive female friendships are lacking. Not so here.

If there's a weakness to the book, it's that it's not difficult to discover who the true villains in this book are, for all that our intrepid current and future heroines (Angelique's book is out in the second half of the year) are rather naive as to some of their lodgers' true natures. There's a rather unpleasant incident where Delilah is threatened with rape and rescued by Hardy which I'm not sure it was necessary for Long to include - I think she could have conveyed the danger posed to the women in some other way, but apart from that, the book is really rather delightful and features so much of what makes Julie Anne Long such an entertaining romance writer.

I'm so very happy that she is writing historical novels again, and since she got 11 books out of the inhabitants in and vaguely connected to Pennyroyal Green, I am hoping that she manages to mine this new location for a good few books yet.

Judging a book by its cover: While the dress the cover model is wearing is quite pretty (and period appropriate, what a nice change that makes from the majority of romance covers), the facial expression on the poor lady is awkward in the extreme to me. She doesn't really look as if she's glancing towards a lover, rather than wanting her hand to be released immediately, so she can go and scrub it and remove all traces of the person who just touched it. Still, the marketing department signed off on it, so I might just be overly critical.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR10 Book 49: "The First Time at Firelight Falls" by Julie Ann Long

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Ten years ago, Eden Harwood had a daughter, Annelise, and she has refused to tell anyone who the mystery dad is. Working as a florist, volunteering in the PTA, she's dedicated herself to being the only parent her daughter could need and giving her the best upbringing she possibly can, to the point where pretty much every moment of her existence is scheduled. She doesn't have time for anything except work and her daughter. Recently, though, Annelise has become more interested in the idea of a dads and what hers is like.

Gabe Caldera is used to the attention of the single women of Hellcat Canyon, but the only one he is interested in is Eden Harwood. She, on the other hand, barely seems to know he exists. Like Eden, most of Gabe's days are fully scheduled, with work, school board meetings, volunteering and soccer coaching, but he's determined to find time to woo Eden and after his time as a Navy SEAL, Gabe knows all about planning a successful campaign. He's well on his way to being successful when a certain someone from Eden's past comes to town and complicates things somewhat.

Everyone knows that in historical romances, the majority of characters are titled and the hero is more often than not a duke, or at least a viscount or an earl. In contemporary romances, there are a lot of billionaires, film or rock stars - but you can also just get fairly normal people doing everyday jobs in small towns. Like this book, which has a single mum heroine who runs a flower shop and the hero, who is the principal of her daughter's elementary school (although he's also an ex-Navy SEAL, because his super fit body has to be explained somehow). While reading romance to me is a lot about comfort (it always ends happily, even when it gets really angsty there for a while) and escapism, it can be nice to read to read something slightly more realistic, with characters who hold down regular jobs and are good at what they do for a living.

Both Gabe and Eden are hard working, very busy people, neither of whom are entirely sure that they even have time for dating. Eden's first priority is always her daughter Annelise, who she's trying to provide the best possible life for. For ten years, the girl has been happy with just one parent, but she can't help but notice all the other children who generally have two parents, and she's curious about both her own dad and about what dads do, in general.

Having never really taken any time for herself since she became a mum, Eden needs to come around to the idea of herself as a woman worthy of love and affection, not just a self sacrificing mother. One of the things she finds so attractive about Gabe is his reliability and competence, not just his fine physique. Their initial courtship involves purposefully interrupted conversations, ensuring that they both keep thinking of one another until the next time they run into each other.

I don't think it's a big spoiler to say that the complication that comes between Eden and Gabe is the sudden reappearance of Annelise's father. By the time his identity is revealed, I doubt many readers are all that surprised, there are some pretty heavy hints dropped earlier in the book. While there is some jealousy and male posturing, I liked that Eden made it extremely clear that what she had with Annelise's dad was a one time thing, and she has absolutely no further interest in him, romantically or sexually. Gabe and her baby daddy just take a bit longer to realise this.

This is the second contemporary romance this year where the hero is named Gabriel. I don't know if I just notice it more because that's the name I chose for my own little boy, but it creates a strange disconnect, that's for sure.

While it took Julie Anne Long a while to find her groove in contemporaries (the first few of her Hellcat Canyon books are not as good as her historical romances), the previous one in the series and this one had her trademark wit and while they may not have stood up to the best of the Pennyroyal Green books, they certainly entertained me and kept me wanting to read more. Annelise, Eden's daughter has something of the plot moppet about her, but never gets too annoyingly precocious either, and a single mother heroine is certainly better than some wholly inexperienced virgin. This book was a fun read, and Ms Long keeps introducing new characters that can support upcoming sequels with each new book.

Judging a book by its cover: I REALLY don't like people kissing on my romance covers. It's bad enough to have a couple of cover models who look nothing like my mental image of the characters (also the woman looks a LOT like Isla Fisher to me, but that could just be because the husband and I have been watching a lot of the later seasons of Arrested Development where she's one of the supporting cast), but having them in full-on PDA is not ok with me. Leave something to the imagination, please.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 82: "Dirty Dancing at Devil's Leap" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Avalon Harwood and Maximillian "Mac" Coltrane spent pretty much every summer together growing up, when the wealthy Coltrane family visited their giant mansion. First they were the best of friends, which developed into something more, until at seventeen, Mac broke Avalon's heart when she heard him talking dismissively about her to his father. They never saw each other again, until now.

In the intervening years, Avalon has developed a highly successful app and runs her own tech company out of San Francisco. Mac's father was arrested for fraud and embezzling and his family lost all their money. No one really knows what happened to Mac or his brother. After coming home unexpectedly and finding her boyfriend of several years sleeping with their intern, in their bed, Avalon goes home to her parents in Hellcat Canyon. While angry and grieving for her lost relationship, she discovers that the big Victorian mansion the Coltranes used to own is up for auction and she impulsively decides to buy it, only to find the price being pushed up constantly by some stuffy lawyer. Turns out the lawyer was working for Mac, who has been working as a caretaker at the house and was hoping to buy back the family house, only to be outbid by Avalon, the girl that got away.

Avalon has decided to refurbish the house and sell it to a San Francisco friend looking for a new location for corporate retreats. She hadn't quite expected that the house was going to cost her so much. She's also dismayed to discover that part of the land she remembers so fondly playing on growing up, including the hot springs and the bathing area over by Devil's Leap, are NOT included in the purchasing price. They belong to her neighbour, in fact, none other than the house's caretaker, Mac. He still wants to buy the house from Avalon and decides to do everything in his power to sabotage her sale to what he considers corporate hacks. Avalon refuses to be bested, and they begin a battle of wits and elaborate pranks, while fighting their mutual attraction.

One of my major gripes in previous reviews of Long's contemporaries is her complete failure to address safe sex, which is not really necessary in Regency historicals, but really should be a feature of all contemporary romance. It does not need to take up a lot of page real estate, but responsible couples, especially individuals who haven't seen each other for the best end of two decades, should probably have a brief conversation about being STD free, whether the woman is on the pill, or they should just use condoms as a default. In this book, there is at least one love scene where condoms seem to make an appearance, which is better than in previous books, but there are still several where apparently the couple just don't care about things like pregnancy or STDs. It really does make me annoyed.

While I'm a huge fan of many of Julie Anne Long's historical novels, her contemporaries have been a bit hit and miss and while I by no means disliked them, they've not exactly stayed in my memory and I certainly have never felt a need to re-read them, which I frequently do with my favourite romances. While a lot of romance bloggers have been raving about the previous two books in the Hellcat Canyon series, this is the first one I felt I could whole-heartedly give four stars to. It doesn't hurt that while Avalon and Mac were childhood sweethearts of a sort, the comment Avalon overheard made her hate him, and returning to fight for the house now makes them rivals. I'm a sucker for a good enemies to lovers story, especially if it involves the various parties trying to one-up one another with creative and not too harmful pranks. See also The Hating Game by Sally Thorne and Dating You/Hating You by Christina Lauren.

While Long is not back on my pre-order list (which she was for her historicals), she's now closer to "would possibly buy for full price" than she was based on her previous contemporaries. I thought this one was fun, and there were a lot of quirky elements, like a girl scout troop full of adorable young ladies, some goats, a fluffy dog and other things that amused me while reading. I wouldn't necessarily recommend you rush out and read the previous two books in the series, unless you get them from the library, but this one is worth your time.

Judging a book by its cover: I really don't particularly like the exaggerated poses of the couples on these Julie Anne Long contemporaries, and once again, I just think it's a bit much. The landscape in the picture is different from that described in the book, and I really just don't think people do embraces like that unless forced to. The whimsically tilted letter in the title font just makes my eye twitch. Please Avon cover designers, go for something a bit more sedate next time.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR8 Book 128: "Wild at Whiskey Creek" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Glory Hallelujah (yup, that's actually her name) Greenleaf is the only one in her family who's never broken the law or deviated from the straight and narrow. Unlike most of her other family members, who only seem to leave Hellcat Canyon to go to prison or when they die, Glory was going to become a star, using her songwriting and singing talent to make it big. Of course, then her brother Jonah was arrested for meth dealing and she had to use all her savings to help pay her mother's mortgage, and now she's still impatiently cooling her heels, trying to make ends meet by waitressing badly.

Deputy sheriff Eli Barlow has loved Glory since he was twelve years old, but any chance he had of winning her heart was crushed when he had to arrest her brother, his best friends, for meth dealing. He can't entirely understand what she's still doing in town, considering she had several demo tapes recorded and was all set to leave to get herself a music career. He hates that he had to break her heart (and his own) by arresting Jonah, and desperately wants to make things right between them. When Hollywood talent comes to town and takes notice of Glory's talent, Eli realises that the best way to win this woman's heart is to make sure she can leave Hellcat Canyon forever.

Julie Anne Long will always have some leeway with me, having written one of my favourite romances of all time, What I Did for a Duke. I can respect that she wants to try new things, having written historical novels for most of her career. I thought Wild at Whiskey Creek worked moderately better than her first attempt at contemporary romance, Hot in Hellcat Canyon, although she still has quite a way to go to reach the levels of quality or entertainment value of her best historicals. In her biographical information for this book, Long reveals that she herself wanted to become a rock star and did both singing and guitar playing, but writing became her career choice instead. She certainly seems to know what she's talking about with regards to songwriting and composing (I know nothing about guitar playing, and only barely learned to strum a few chords during whatever basic lessons they gave us in music class in secondary school). I will also give her this, the earworm indie hit that is referenced throughout the story ended up getting stuck in my head as I read the book, despite the fact that it was a fictional song, that I'd never heard. I still ended up reciting the catchy chorus in my head. So kudos to you for that, Ms. Long.

Couples who have loved one another since they were children can be a tricky thing to pull off, but Ms. Long manages pretty well here. Since Eli and Glory's brother Jonah were best friends and grew up inseparably together, it seems natural he would also have spent a lot of time with Glory during that time. It's established that neither Eli nor Glory are silently and celibately pining for the other, they both date and have other relationships, but share one scorching and very memorable kiss when they are both single. Sadly, this is just before the bit where Eli has to arrest Jonah and send him to prison for years, making the fiercely loyal Glory shun him like the plague. Eli hates that he had to hurt her, and hates the reckless Jonah quite a bit as well, for giving the law-abiding Eli no choice but to do his job.

After pretty much rudely telling everyone in town where to stick it before her brother got arrested, because she was getting out and becoming a big singing star, Glory has been forced to apologise to a lot of people and help support her widowed mother and assorted hard-up half-siblings by waitressing. The arrival of Hollywood TV crews, filming new historical prestige show, set during the California Gold Rush, also brings handsome television and movie actor Franco Francone to town. He pisses off Eli by joyriding his Porsche way above the speed limit through town, and making the moves on Glory, who is clearly the most interesting of all the single ladies in Hellcat Canyon. She's amused by his attention, but mainly flirts with him to make Eli jealous. Eli, on the other hand, has been set up with one of the makeup artists on the show, and tries his best to forget his impossible infatuation with Glory, who he's always known is meant for far better than him and the little mountain region they're from, no matter how lawless and hopeless most of her family members are.

Because they've grown up together, there is no need for Eli and Glory to get to know each other. They have a shared past and just need to get past the conflict caused when utterly decent and law-abiding Eli arrested Glory's beloved, but rather careless brother. It's quite clear that Glory has a lot of talent, and needs to get her chance to show the world. So they need to figure out how they can reconcile their romantic feelings for one another, when Eli doesn't really have any plans of leaving Hellcat Canyon, while Glory wants nothing more than to get away.

Having written eleven Regency novels set in the little English town of Pennyroyal Green, Julie Anne Long is good at creating a cozy setting for her books. The towns of Hellcat Canyon and Whiskey Creek clearly have their fair share of colourful supporting cast that help populate the stories, many of whom the reader was already introduced to in the first book in the series. You by no means need to have read the previous book to enjoy this one, but it's quite clear that several of the secondary characters here will feature more prominently in future books.

Sadly, while these books are perfectly entertaining as you're reading them, they're not very memorable. I read this at the beginning of December, and already I'm having trouble remembering specific details about the plot, except that Glory's younger half-brother and his clueless selfishness really annoyed me, plus there was a little too much of the romance plot that was Eli or Glory jealous of the other, but not actually talking to each other. Oh, and Ms. Long needs to realise that now that she's writing contemporary romances, she NEEDS to acknowledge that in the modern world, couples use some form of protection and talk about it before they fall into bed with one another. Really, it doesn't need to take up a lot of page space, but the fact that in both this and her previous contemporary, there is no talk of condoms, other contraceptives, the possibility of STDs or pregnancy. It's a minor point, but I saw it referenced in another review of this book as well, and I absolutely agree.

This book was on Kirkus Best of 2016 list of romances. They clearly have very different taste in romance from me, since the excellent The Hating Game wasn't even on the list, while several romances that I found entertaining, but really nothing special were represented. While this was a better contemporary than her previous one, Julie Anne Long will have to do better to truly impress me, and I'm not going to rush out and get her next book.

Judging a book by its cover: Woman in a denim miniskirt stands in a meadow with her back to the camera, holding an acoustic guitar over her shoulders. am assuming this is supposed to be Glory, but based on her description in the book, I don't think it fits her at all. She doesn't seem like the sort of person who would wear pink, for one thing. I'm also really annoyed by the askew "k" at the end of "Creek". I'm sure it's supposed to be playful and whimsical, but it just sets my teeth on edge.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR8 Book 60: "Hot in Hellcat Canyon" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Actor John Tennessee McCord was the star of a long-running TV show, but recently, his career has taken a bit of a dive. Having been one half of a big Hollywood power couple and then being rather publically dumped last year certainly hasn't helped. Now he's got a new TV series lined up about the California gold rush and while scouting out the locations for it, his pickup truck breaks down in Hellcat Canyon. Not that he minds all that much, as the burgers at the Misty Cat Cavern, the former Hellcat Saloon, are very tasty, and the blonde waitress there is clearly both intelligent and gorgeous.

Still physically and emotionally scarred from her previous marriage, Britt Langley really isn't looking for any kind of relationship and has gotten very good at charmingly turning away any male interest in herself. She works as a waitress at the Misty Cat Cavern and a part-time real estate agent to pay the bills and nurses plants back from the brink of death in her spare time. When the handsome and charming J.T walks into the Misty Cat, Britt is smitten despite her vows to stay unattached.

Liking the small time charm of Hellcat Canyon and the prospect of wooing the pants of Ms. Langley, J.T. decides to stay around town for a while. The chemistry between him and Britt is noticable to everyone around them, and it doesn't take all that long for them to act on their mutual attraction. But while J.T. may not be as hot a gossip commodity as he once was, the paparazzi will eventually track him down, and what started as a small town flirtation is soon broadcast all over the internet. Can their developing romance survive the sudden glare of the spotlight?

I read and mostly enjoyed the entirety of Julie Anne Long's Pennyroyal Green series. This is her first contemporary novel and I was curious to see how she'd manage writing a whole new genre. Sadly, the first half of this book is quite slow and rather boring in parts. The banter between Britt and J.T is pretty good, but nothing much of interest happens, even after they start hooking up. Britt is very wary of commitment and J.T is known far and wide as the "man allergic to the L-word". Just as they are starting to get more comfortable in each other's company, J.T's mega famous mean girl ex shows up to try to get him back. For the first two thirds of the novel, I was really just reading out of loyalty to Ms. Long, but then, towards the end, things started picking up and the book got really very entertaining. J.T delivers one heck of a wedding speech which would melt the heart of any right-thinking woman and Britt engages in some drunken billboard graffiti out of jealousy that made me laugh a lot. It's not enough to get the book more than half a star above 3, though.

Unsurprisingly, the book introduces a whole bunch of characters, both from the Hellcat Canyon region and from J.T's Hollywood life, whom I am sure we will meet again in future books. Ms. Long got 11 books out of her previous series, after all, and I'm sure she can mine the little mountain region for quite a few romances in years to come. I'm personally looking forward to that of J.T's former colleague and sometime frenemy, Franco Francone. He plays a significant enough part in this book that I cannot imagine he's a future hero. I pre-ordered this book based on Ms. Long's entertaining historicals, but based on this first contemporary, Ms. Long is off the auto-buy list for now. I'll still buy her books on sale, of course, but I'm going to need something more consistently good for her to move back to "buy at full price" status.

Judging a book by its cover: Things I like - the red pick-up truck is relevant to the story, as J.T loves his truck and has spent a lot of time and money making sure it still runs. The cover models look like they have the correct hair colours. I think Britt may have been wearing cowboy boots at some point. The flowers are a nice touch, even though no such profusion of wild flowers are ever mentioned in the book. Things I don't like - the absolutely ridiculous pose. Britt is supposed to be quite petite, which the cover model doesn't look to be. I also think both models could look older, as both Britt and J.T are in their mid-30s.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 104: "The Legend of Lyon Redmond" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 5 stars

Before I begin this review, I have to say that in a genre where where so many books have absolutely atrocious covers, where readers pick up and love the books despite the cover art, this book has one of my favourite covers in years. It fills me with joy and perfectly encapsulates the contents of the book. I wish more romances had covers this great. 

While many of Julie Anne Long's Pennyroyal Green books can be read out of order or completely independently of each other, this book is the culmination of the 11-book series, and as such, will probably not have the same impact on the reader as if it's read without some previous knowledge of the series in general and Olivia and Lyon's tragic romance in particular. There are SO many good books in this series, and one absolute classic. Go read some of them, then come back for this review.

It is said in Pennyroyal Green in Sussex, that the Redmonds and the Everseas have been enemies since the Dark Ages, but that once every generation, a Redmond and an Eversea will fall disastrously in love with each other. This generation's doomed couple - Lyon Redmond and Olivia Eversea, who met at a small assembly and almost instantly fell incandescently in love, despite knowing that their parents would never approve. Meeting an hour here and there in secret, conducting their courtship as secretly as they could, completely oblivious to the fact that everyone around them could see that they were besotted. Then Lyon Redmond suddenly left England, never to return. Gossip said it was because Olivia Eversea broke his heart.

Five years and thousands of hothouse flowers delivered to her door, Olivia Eversea shocks everyone by accepting the proposal of Lord Landsdowne, a quiet and unprepossessing viscount. Their wedding is the social event of the season, and as most of her siblings have had quiet weddings, Mrs. Eversea is determined that Olivia will get married with pomp and occasion. Yet at every turn, there are reminders of her long-lost love. A popular ballad is created, sung on every street corner. Illustrated prints depicting the possible adventures of Lyon Redmond appear in shop windows. He is seen as the dashing hero, she as the withered Miss Havishamesque creature who jilted him.

Lyon Redmond has spent the years away from England making a fortune, proving with every action that loving Olivia Eversea is what he does best. Now she is marrying another, and it's time for a reckoning between them. The last time he asked her, she refused to leave her family and go with him. Now Lyon will confront Olivia one last time and they will see if their love story is in fact a curse, or a blessing.

In each and every Pennyroyal Green book, the reader has got little snippets of the story of Lyon and Olivia. How they met and fell in love is never revealed, but that something Olivia Eversea said or did, made Lyon Redmond leave England and his family for good, is clear. That Olivia was never the same after he left, throwing herself into her worthy charitable causes and fending off eager suitors, seeming indifferent, yet never cruel, to all of them. Rumours of Lyon's exploits on the continent, making money hand over fist, possibly engaging in piracy. Olivia becoming thinner and more brittle, until one day she decides to accept a proposal, after all.

In this final book, which features cameos from many of the previous couples in the series, the reader finally gets to see how Lyon and Olivia met, what led to their separation and estrangement. It's become clear in the previous books that Isaiah Redmond is a strict and unforgiving father, whose four children all went against his express wishes in choosing their life partner. Lyon's refusal to bow to his demands, choosing to abandon his homeland and his family instead, probably spurred his younger siblings to exert their wills and make their own unpopular choices.

Olivia and Lyon's romance is in part a tragic one. They were young when they met and because of the enmity of their families, their feelings for one another were not well received by their parents. When push comes to shove, Olivia can't handle it. She cannot follow Lyon into exile. Having not even experienced her first season, she is still young and innocent, and terrified of what the future might bring. She breaks his heart and her own with the choice she makes and has to live in shattered loneliness in the years that follow, constantly hounded by suitors, watching her siblings and friends fall in love and settle down.

It was always obvious that Lyon wasn't going to be happy with Olivia's decision to marry another. Yet he cannot be surprised that she's unwilling to pine forever for him, having heard nothing to encourage her for five years. Their reckoning is a necessary one, and there are hurt feelings on both sides, but oh such a passion as well.

Last week, I came to the realisation that The Legend of Lyon Redmond, a book I've been anticipating since I first heard it was being written, and pre-ordered months ago, would be released during my autumn break. With the stress of my work over the last few months, I have had much less time and energy to read, so the prospect of a whole day off when I could revel in this book was a gift from the fates. Like I suspect all long time readers of the series, I had very high expectations. Lyon and Olivia's story runs like a unifying thread throughout the other narratives and getting to read their story was almost too exciting to bear.

I adore What I Did for a Duke, the story of Olivia's younger sister and the Duke of Falconbridge. There are other books in the series that I am deeply fond of, but this is the only book in the series that I feel can rate as highly. Like in Genevieve's book, I got so caught up in the story that I literally shouted at the characters more than once. My husband seemed amused by my antics, assuring me that it would be a pretty unsatisfactory romance if the protagonists didn't end up happily together in the end. I nearly threw a cushion at him. Clearly both the Eversea sisters are determined to try my nerves by taking a really long time to realise what is best for them.

This is a wonderful book, but really does require the reader to have taken the journey through the series to fully appreciate the ending, not only to Olivia and Lyon's story, but to all the Pennyroyal Green books. I wasn't wild on the epilogue, where we are suddenly introduced to a current day descendant of the Redmonds and Everseas, and given insight into what happened to the children and grandchildren of all the heroes and heroines of the books in the centuries to come. I felt that was unnecessary, but it didn't ruin the perfection of the rest of the book. I will most likely skip it the many times I re-read this in future, though.

With this, I complete the Pennyroyal Green series and my double Cannonball.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 43: "It Started with a Scandal" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Miss Elise Fountain used to be a teacher at the school for wayward girls in Pennyroyal Green, but was fired after she spoke inappropriately to one of the patrons. Now she's managed to get a recommendation from the powerful Redmond family and is desperate to secure a position as housekeeper to the formidable Lord Philippe Lavay, an exiled Bourbon prince recovering from a near-fatal robbery in the village. He gives her a two week trial, expecting she will be gone before one has passed.

Elise, who was estranged from her parents when she foolishly got pregnant, hides her six year old son in the attic and sets out to get the prince's household in order. The remaining servants seem to range from the lazy to the downright sinister, but a combination of threats and flattery, Elise soon have most of them doing exactly what she wants them to. Soon the house is actually habitable and comfortable again, and she sets out to discover why Lord Lavay is acting more like a lion with a thorn in his paw than an honourable gentleman. Discovering the extent to his injuries, she's compelled to help him heal and with every passing day, the housekeeper and the nobleman grow closer and closer.

Janine, one of the reviewers for Dear Author, had this marked down as a DNF (Did Not Finish). She had a long list of reasons why she just couldn't enjoy the book, and I can see her point, even though I did enjoy this quite a bit. So many of the Pennyroyal Green books require a huge amount of suspension of disbelief, and there is absolutely all sorts of anachronisms in them. There are many questions about the plot that should bother me - how did Elise, with a child out of wedlock, get a teaching position at a school for wayward girls? How did she secure a recommendation from a family she's never worked for? How is she, the daughter of a gentleman, who has previously only worked as a teacher, quite such a naturally gifted housekeeper? Why do none of the servants, who all start out wanting Elise removed from her position, tell their employer that Elise has a bastard child? How is it that Lord Lavay, an exiled French aristocrat, has no misgivings about Elise's character, even after he discovers that Elise's illegitimate son is living under his roof?

And you know what - I'm not all that bothered. Julie Anne Long writes wonderful smoulder and always has great interactions between her romantic protagonists. Is it in any way plausible that an exiled French prince trying to recapture his fortunes gives up all his dreams for the future because of his infatuation with a disgraced single mother? Probably not. But I don't really read romance for the realism, but for the entertainment and escapism it offers me. So if the things I've mentioned will bother you, you'd be better off skipping this one. If you just want a diverting read that takes your mind off other things for a few hours, you could do worse. Of course, you could read one of Long's really great novels instead, like What I Did for a Duke. I won't judge.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR6 Book 28: "Between the Devil and Ian Eversea" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Miss Titania "Tansy" Danforth is all alone in the world. Her beloved brother was a soldier who died in the war of 1812, and her parents died in a carriage accident. Now she's had to leave the home she knew in New York to travel back to England, where she hasn't lived since she was a little girl. Her father's will states that she'll not have her fortune released until she marries a man approved by her new guardian, her father's cousin, the fearsome Duke of Falconbridge. Preferably someone rich in his own right and suitably titled. Tansy knows she's very beautiful and wields her charm like a weapon. She's determined that every man in Sussex will fall at her feet, but the one man who truly takes her own breath away, seems to be completely unmoved by her.

Ian Eversea has never really been able to settle down after the war. He's plagued by nightmares and restlessness and hopes that maybe exploring the world will solve some of his worries. He has about a month left until he leaves for his great journey when Tansy Danforth arrives in Pennyroyal Green, as his brother-in-law, Falconbridge's ward. A woman Falconbridge sees fit to warn Ian to stay specifically away from, or there may be dire consequences. Well aware of his checkered past where Falconbridge is concerned (see What I Did for a Duke, number 15 in my top romances of all time), Ian promises to leave the girl alone. It's not like she needs any more male attention, with most of the single, and quite a few of the married, men of the region making complete fools of themselves for a flattering glance and a kind word from the girl. Is Ian the only one who notices how rehearsed and forced Tansy's charm and flattery is? What is the woman really up to?

Tansy is achingly lonely, and knows that her chief asset is her stunning looks. She's deeply vulnerable and insecure, and in making the men around her fawn over her charm and beauty, she at least gets to be the centre of attention at social gatherings. She's an orphan, not even allowed to choose her own husband, lest she risk losing her fortune if she picks the wrong man. Her childhood home in Sussex is for sale, she's had to leave the only home she knows in America. Her new guardian is terrifying and has a scary reputation, yet is clearly disgustingly happy with his own young wife. When the Everseas, who have so kindly taken her in, all clam up about the rascal brother Ian, she becomes desperately curious, and when they finally meet, he makes her go clumsy, tongue-tied and flustered, pretty much the way the majority of men act around her, in fact. As he displays so little interest in her, she's all the more determined to find a way to charm him.

Ian is a rogue and a ladies' man, quite happy to stay unattached. He never makes women promises or feels the need to secure their affection with gifts. The war scarred him, both physically and emotionally and he's just biding his time until he can set off on his round the world journey. Accidentally assigned the room next to Tansy's, he's able to observe her, without her seeing him, on her balcony at night, and he sees a very different woman from the one most of the world is witness to. He's quite happy to respect Falconbridge's wishes and stay away from the flirt, until her ruthless charm offencive threatens to hurt his beloved sister. He calls Tansy on her recklessness and her studied flirtations, only to discover that she sees right through his defencive behaviour too.

Julie Anne Long is quite happy to let the reader believe, as Ian and several others around him do, that Tansy is a vain and shallow flirt with nothing on her mind but turning men's heads. She only gradually reveals Tansy's loneliness, the suffering she's gone through, and her knowledge that her parents always preferred her brother to her. For more than half of the book, I really wasn't sure what I though of her, or if she had much of a personality at all. It seemed that Tansy's main character trait was that she was stunningly gorgeous, which in the grand scheme of things didn't seem all that impressive. Yet at the reader, along with Ian, gets to know Tansy, it's clear that she is, as I've mentioned, lonely, quite insecure, adrift in a new country and desperately looking for love, security and a home she can call her own.

Another thing I loved in this book was the return of the Duke of Falconbridge, and his young wife Genevieve, from What I Did for a Duke. Despite there being a nearly twenty year age difference between the two, they are among my favourite couples in romance, and seeing them again, some time after their HEA has been established was great fun. I loved that although happily married, the duke is still seen as stern, scary and generally, as Mrs. Julien put it, "magnificently disagreeable". Only after several nerve wracking interviews with him does Tansy discover that the man may in fact have a wicked sense of humour and that there are good reasons why he and her father were so close.

I don't really want to spoil anything regarding Ian's history with Falconbridge, and you certainly don't need to have read any of Long's earlier romances to enjoy this one. However, it is an absolutely amazing book, so you may want to consider reading it before picking up this one, just because it will give you a complete picture of the complicated family relationships here, and show just how far Ian has developed as a character over time.

There is also a minor subplot involving Ian's sister, Olivia Eversea, which keeps running throughout Long's Pennyroyal Green books. One part in a star-crossed romance with Lyon Redmond (the other prominent family in the little village), the last few books seem to suggest that she may be moving on with her life. As Long herself has said that Olivia and Lyon's story will be the last one she tells, I'm going to be interested in seeing how far this develops before that book comes out.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.