The Perils of Pleasure (Pennyroyal Green Series)

This is my third Julie Anne Long book. I loved both of the previous ones I've read. Therefore, it came as a bit of a surprise that I was so bored with this book.

At the beginning of the book, Colin Eversea is about to be hanged for a murder he didn't commit. Having resigned to his fate, he did not expect to be rescued from the gallows literally right as they were about to string him up, nor did he expect his rescuer to be a beautiful woman.

Madeleine Greenway had only taken on the assignment of rescuing Colin Eversea so she can earn enough money for passage to America where she plans on starting a new life. But when a mysterious villain tries to shoot her only moments after she rescued Colin, she finds herself teamed up with the irrepressible rogue in his quest to prove his innocence. She tells herself that she is only doing it for the reward money the Everseas are going to pay her once Colin is returned safely to the bosom of his family. But the more she gets to know him, the more she gets under his spell. Dare she risk giving her heart to Colin, especially when he has his heart set on proving his innocence so he can marry Louisa, a girl he claims to have loved all his life?

The book opens with an excellent prologue in which the feud between the Everseas and the Redmonds are introduced. It was also during this prologue that, by describing how the other villagers see Colin and the splash he's made in society, that we get an idea of the kind of man Colin is - daring, charming, and a big of a roué. Unfortunately, that's all the glimpses we get of this Colin. The Colin that we do finally get to meet, once Madeleine has broken him out of jail, is bland and does not exhibit any of the flair that made him such a household name that broadsheets about him can be found circulating around the kingdom. He is like a celebrity of his time, but it's hard to find that level of fame justified when reading about a hero so laid back that he pretty much let Madeleine call the shots...she even had to initiate their first sexual encounter. Also, considering that he was facing his execution and that his family and friends were expecting to die, many of the scenes featuring him and his family could have been written with more emotional heft. As the way they were, it felt like these people are just going through the day like any other day of the week.

As for Madeleine, very little ink is spent on her background to really let the reader to get to know her. She started out as an enigma and remained one throughout, which made it very hard for this reader to care about her. We know that she's smart and self-reliant, but that's pretty much it. For a book that opened with such an exciting prologue and first chapter, I was kind of surprised to find the rest of the book so character driven - this is basically a road romance in which Colin and Madeleine travel together through the country side and got to know each other. This in itself is not a bad thing, provided that the characters are interesting enough to sustain our attention. But for a character-driven book to focus on a generic hero that may as well have popped up from any of a number of other romance novels, and a heroine that just never came alive for me, the result is a great big yawn. There is a subplot in the book about Colin's brother Marcus and Louisa, and I found these 2 people so much more fascinating that I found myself looking for passages about them - most of them too short to be satisfying - and becoming disappointed whenever the author turns her attention back to Colin. There's also a big of a mystery thrown in regarding the identity of the villain, but I found that a bit too far-fetched to be believable.

I know that this book is the start of a series and some of the sequels have received really good reviews. Given Ms. Long's track record, I'll probably give the series another chance. But this is one book I will not be re-reading.

This book begins with dramatic circumstances: a man sent to the gallows for a crime he didn't commit is rescued by a mysterious woman who in turn is nearly murdered by her comrades. But it turns into a long, boring story about the couple on the run together with the hero pining for his brother's fiancee.

I got halfway through, was bored, then jumped to the last 50 pages just to see what happened. It didn't improve.

The descriptions of the times may have been more realistic but as a love story this one falls very flat.

**2.5 stars**

I was torn between two stars and three. This was the second JAL novel I read, and by the third I realized she's just not for me. This was my favorite of the three, but that may be damning with fairly faint praise! I'll try to sum up the pros and cons as I saw them in hopes of helping other people decide whether this book is worth the space on your Kindle and bookshelf, bearing in mind that we all have different preferences, pet peeves etc.!

Pros:

1. This is purely a matter of personal preference, but I tend to love my romances with a healthy dash of mystery, suspense and adventure. The mystery of who framed Colin and subsequently tried to kill Madeline, while not exactly a brilliant plot that dame Agatha Christie would covet, gave this book a purpose, focus and added jolt of interest beyond the usual 'well, we already know they're going to end up Happily Ever After, so I guess it's just an issue of when and how...' I can see why some thought those elements of the book took focus off the central romance, but I felt like we got enough of Colin/Madeline as is...MORE than enough, in fact :)

2. I do like Julie Anne Long's writing style. She's clever and witty without veering into dopey silliness, and at times knows how to subtly inject just the right amount of depth and insight.

3. While Colin was certainly not the most original, compelling or memorable hero I've come across, I did find him quite likable (albeit with an exception I'll mention below!) He was witty and appealing, with just enough emotional depth and vulnerability beneath his charming exterior to save him from superficial arrogance.

Cons:

1. The Perils of Pleasure is quite long---and, more to the point, it often FEELS quite long! To be fair to Ms. Long, this issue isn't exclusive to her books; I've found that a lot of romance novels, even my favorites, tend to be a lot longer than I'd consider necessary. I couldn't help thinking that chopping a solid 75 or so pages (at least!) would have given this book a much smoother, tighter pace and made it more engaging overall.

2. Initially, I had such high hopes for Madeline. I loved that she seemed like such a strong, atypical heroine who violated a lot of the traditional gender constraints of her era. Alas, I somehow just never warmed up to her. I agree with people who felt we got surprising little insight into who she was despite spending so very many pages with her. I certainly didn't *dislike* her, but she ended up the stock, generic 'tough but vulnerable' heroine we've seen elsewhere so many times before. And she seemed to leap rather suddenly from not even allowing herself to admit she liked Colin to inwardly declaring she was deeply, insanely in love with him. The progression of their relationship just wasn't especially steady and believable, with a promising beginning and interesting buildup but with an ending that felt vaguely unearned to me. Like all of JAL's couples, they feel far more in lust than in love.

3. Given that the draw of this series is supposed to be the focus on two colorful and compelling families, I was really disappointed to find that we hardly got to know any of the family members or their dynamics at all. We got very few scenes with the Everseas and even fewer with the Redmonds, and almost none of these scenes was especially memorable, revealing or even as amusing as I'd hoped!

4. ***WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD***
Fellow reviewers have touched on this already, but the writer did neither Colin nor the overall story any favors by trying to emphasize his deep love and devotion to Louisa Porter, with whom Colin had some vague 'understanding' for years before she became engaged to his brother by necessity, while ALSO stressing that he'd had steamy, mutually enjoyable love affairs with half the women in England during the years he was supposedly pining after (and planning/hoping to marry) Louisa. Maybe we were supposed to assume that Colin being such a 'playboy' throughout the entire time he ostensibly loved Louisa was a sign that he didn't ever *truly* love Louisa to the degree that he would now love Madeline, but instead it just came across like a muddled inconsistency in the way Ms. Long wrote her hero. Even worse, immediately after making love to our heroine yet again, Colin is STILL focused on stopping Louisa's wedding so that he can be with the woman he's (again, allegedly!) loved for most of his life! How...romantic?! ;)

I'm not someone who believes that the hero and heroine should never have had any feelings for people other than each other, and in fact I often connect with heroes and heroines who are still dealing with the sadness and disappointment of lost love. But both of the Julie Anne Long books I've read so far feature characters who spend the VAST majority of the story battling their still very much alive, current feelings for people *other* than each other. We all have our personal turnoffs in romance novels, and suffice it to say that this is one of mine! It's hard for me to buy that the hero and heroine are 'destined to be' when one of them still ardently adores ANOTHER PERSON for a solid 85-95% of the novel :) JAL just doesn't write very romantic romance to me, though obviously these things are subjective.

************************END OF SPOILERS ***********************************

Overall, I'd give this a C+. I hope this was helpful to potential readers whose tastes and preferences happen to be similar (or dissimilar) to mine!

Colin Eversea is a rascal and a rogue, the most entertaining Eversea in decades. He is also in Newgate, sentenced to hang for a murder he didn't commit. Someone has made his eyewitness disappear and all his appeals have come to naught. But on his way to the hanging, he is rescued and spirited away from the gallows, only to be tied up and locked in the basement of an inn in St. Giles. He smells lavender and knows there's a woman in the cellar with him, but before he can try to escape, someone tries to kill the woman, who it turns out masterminded his escape for a fee - in other words, she's a mercenary. Unfortunately for both of them, she has no idea who hired her.

Now Madeleine Greenway and Colin Eversea are both on the run, looking for clues to find out who hired Madeleine and who tried to kill her (are they different people or the same one?) while avoiding capture by the soldiers who are seemingly everywhere they turn. AND Colin needs to find Horace Peele, the missing witness who can exonerate him and get him back to his childhood sweetheart before she marries his brother Marcus.

Now their journey begins. Colin, of course, dare not be seen in public, so Madeleine must be the one to make arrangements, and she does so in entertaining ways - for example, when they're trying to see a doctor who may have helpful information, she describes Colin's 'ailment' as a "masculine problem" - poor Colin!

While their search for clues and escapes from danger form the basis of a good tale, it is the growing understanding of each other that make this a very good story indeed, as they progress from protagonists to wary partners to.....well, this IS a romance, a wonderfully told romance.

I enjoyed making the journey with them. They encounter many surprises along the way, but the double twist at the end was a masterstroke by the author.

Colin Eversea has always attracted or been in the midst of some scandal or mischief, only this time the reckless handsome rogue has been caught with blood on his hands and the only witness to his innocence has disappeared. All appeals have failed to save him, yet on his way to be hung Colin is literally snatched from the gallows and disappears in the accompanying chaos.

Madeline Greenway had developed a hard outer shell out of a necessity to survive. Cool headed and daring Madeline had become something of a mercenary and was contracted to plan a brilliant escape for Colin. She successfully completed what turned out to be his kidnapping, when the tables turned and whoever hired her to kidnap Colin tried to murder her! Now both Colin and Madeline had to negotiate an uneasy alliance to solve the mystery of who was behind it all.

Madeline would need to reinforce her determination to remain immune to Colin's charms, and Colin would come to realize real love was when Madeline kidnapped his heart.

*** All I can say is author Julie Anne Long continues to raise the bar in giving the reader the very best in original and creative plots. What a fabulous idea to have a woman in the Regency era turn out to be paid mercenary! Not so much in the sense that a mercenary is generally someone who goes to war and kills, but to plan strategy and effect a bold and successful kidnapping in front of thousands from the very scaffold Colin was to be hung from - that was terrific! Now, if I were to cast the part of Madeline - should Hollywood ever wake up and see the potential of this as a movie - I can only think of one kick-butt heroine for the part and it would be Kate Beckinsale (from Underworld) Think attitude and brilliance! Madeline had inadvertently discovered she had a talent for planning and had innocently fallen into the role of a mercenary finding it to be a lucrative life that would eventually buy her a new start in America.

On the other hand, Colin was a charmer, but for the better part of the story his charm did not seem to be working on Madeline (clueless - must be a guy thing). This could have been that Colin continually professed his love and determination to marry the `girl next door', who by the way, was now engaged to marry his elder brother. Colin never had such a challenge and was absolutely stymied over how ineffectual his wiles were NOT working on getting Madeline to notice, let alone succumb to him.

Long works her magic with the mystery and exhilarating chase Madeline and Colin embarked on to discover who and why someone would engage Madeline to save Colin, then try to kill her once she succeeded. The road to discover the answers was filled with multiple twists and turns as Madeline and Colin tried to unravel a very convoluted and surprise ending. I really loved the fabulous twist at the conclusion of this story. The character portrayals were fantastic and the depth of strength and vulnerability Long gives to Madeline is simply awesome! As are most of Long's original works, the PERILS OF PLEASURE is highly recommended reading.

Marilyn Rondeau, for [...]

2 out of 5 stars

Cut to the Chase:

This book has it all... in fact, the main problem I have with this book is it tries to do too much. We have side plots and intrigues (the countess and the footman, a frame-up for a crime), background love stories (that Colin's brother Marcus is about to marry the woman Colin's declared as his one true love), sad, involving backstories (our heroine lost her husband and child and has been making her living as a jill-of-all-trades mercenary of sorts), there's also a race against time (I think the whole novel takes place in one week), and... added together, it's just too much. We never get to stay, and truly focus on the hero and heroine. Their relationship is so constantly shrouded in outside forces, inherent mistrust and passion-mixed-with-danger, that even when they do decide they've fallen in love it just doesn't feel real. The characters are interesting, their love scenes are sensual, but at the end, the reader is left thinking: really?

Greater Detail (with some spoilers):

Colin Eversea is about to hang for a crime (murder) he didn't commit. He's always been reckless and so, even some of those who are closest to him don't seem surprised.

He's rescued by the mysterious and resourceful Madeline Greenway. She's a former cheese-shop proprietress whose husband and child are passes away, and who now makes a living as a mercenary of sorts. She gets things for people (jewelry a man accidentally gave to his mistress that belongs to his wife and so on). When she tries to turn Colin over and collect her fee, she's shot at... and having few choices, the two join forces.

It's a heck of a set-up, but that's honestly, not my main problem.

My main problem, as I've said before, is that there's just TOO MUCH happening. We've got Colin's brother, who's worried about him, trying to help/figure out what truly was going on, and is, at the same time engaged to Louisa, the woman Colin's sworn he's always been in love with (but who we later find out, Marcus also loves). We've got a distracting scene with a countess and her footman lover, and just... a whole host of side plots and intrigue and things that are ultimately more distracting than helpful in moving the relationship aspect forward.

Things keep happening to Colin and Madeline. They react, they fall into a passionate/sensual affair. But it all feels very... driven by outside events, as opposed to truly developing naturally. Because so much keeps happening in the action sense of this novel, the characters never really develop (Madeline does a little, but Colin remains more or less the fly-by-his-seats seducer, who continues to try to convince himself that he loves Louisa, even while he admits his growing desire for Madeline).

Honestly, for me, the romance here just never clicks. When the adventure is over and Colin tells Madeline he loves her... it just didn't feel believable, and when it all magically wraps up a mere 10 or so pages later, I just felt like there was no emotional satisfaction, fast-paced plot, yes, sensual love scenes, sure, but... little else to hold them, as a couple, together.

Comparisons to Other Authors:

For me, Julie Anne Long has been a bit all over the place — I don’t know that I’ve ever regretted reading one of her books, but she really likes to play with words/puns/etc in a way that is sometimes humorous, and sometimes just bleh and too farcical for me to appreciate. I think when she reels it in a little, she can be best compared to Julia Quinn, who likes to highlight the fun side to everything, and when she concentrates more on the plot elements, she’s like an earlier Kleypas… My favorite Long book is still definitely What I Did for a Duke

What a fun book! It actually worked equally well a nice mystery novel in addition to being a satisfying romance.

Colin Eversea is a member of the numerous, handsome and ever so scandalous Eversea clan of Pennyroyal Green. Their claim to fame is that no matter how big or small the scandal (or crime) it never seems to stick to the Everseas. Until Colin, the most scandalous (and handsomest rascal of the whole clan) is arrested and sentenced to hang for a murder he did not commit. Even as he is walking up the gallows stairs people somehow will not believe that he will be hanged. So the turnout for his hanging is the best London has seen in an age.

It shouldn't have surprised anyone when he magically disappears (in a puff of smoke, no less) minutes from having the noose flung around his neck. Colin himself is relieved, surprised and incredibly intrigued by the person who affected his escape. An incredibly capable and enigmatic widow, Mrs. Madeleine Greenway, claims to have been hired to engineer his rescue. She doesn't know who and she doesn't know why, she only knows she needs the money. But the person who shows up at the rendezvous point to give her the money attempts to assassinate her instead.

From this point, Colin and Madeleine form an uneasy truce as they are on the run from energetic soldiers. They are on a quest to find not only who hired Madeleine, but also who tried to kill her and and to track down the one, mysteriously disappeared witness who could testify to Colin's innocence.

This book was both a lighthearted romance and an airy breadcrumb mystery. I loved Colin, he was quick witted, funny, and reminded me a lot of Gideon from The Perfect Waltz. Madeleine was a cool customer. The book is at it's sparkly best when Colin is busy trying to understand and charm the formidable Madeleine.

The plot is a bit convoluted as Colin and Madeleine are led to one clue, only to be told only part of what they need to know and are sent off to another clue, another location. Like Hansel and Gretel following a trail of crumbs. At one point when they get to the end of the trail and find their disappeared witness they meet up with someone else who was trying to find the person who set him up. Colin is boggled to find out that that person had only looked at some account books to deduce the answer. Whereas Colin and Madeleine had run ins with cheating countesses, people with secret identities, crazy doctors and body snatchers.

Crazy plot notwithstanding, this was a quick and fun read.

Outside of the main romance and mystery plot is also the set up of what is looking to be a five(?) book
series. As set ups go, it is an excellent one. The Everseas and the Redmonds are the two pre-eminent families of Pennyroyal Green. And they are enemies along the lines of the Montagues and Capulets. There are some excellent cut-away scenes of both families as they are sitting in their sitting rooms during the time that Colin is supposed to be hanged. The author delves into what each family is going through as they are awaiting word. Of course we get great reactions when both families discover that Colin cheats death. I was so intrigued by the interplay between both families and the dribs of history she let drop that of course I need to follow up with the rest of the series if for no other reason to discover what happened to the oldest Redmond son and heir, Lyon, who mysteriously disappeared, supposedly because of a broken heart at the hands of the beautiful Olivia Eversea. I am sure the subsequent books will include a lot more family drama between the two families and more hints about Lyon dropped. And then there is a titillating tid-bit at the end of this book that makes me wonder if she'll do anything about it in later books?

If you like light hearted romances with a healthy dash of mystery this is a great book to read

I loved this book. I like the development of a romance within an adventure, and this one puts those elements together with a bit of mystery, lots of funny dialogue and comical situations, which all function together to create and develop some gorgeous characters. As the first book in the Pennyroyal Green series, The Perils of Pleasure nicely introduces the Eversea and Redmond families--their history, their conflicts, and some of their inner dynamics. In particular, the beginning of the novel presents a beautifully fine-tuned personality portrait of the harum-scarum hero, Colin Eversea. See, for example, the last conversation he has with his brother Ian before Colin is to be hanged:

"Colin's brother Ian had brought one of the most popular broadsheets to him: on it he was depicted with Satanic horns and a pointed tail and wielding a ridiculous knife--more a scimitar, really--dripping blood into a pool. In a rare note of authenticity, the artist had seen fit to sketch him in a Weston-cut coat.
'Looks just like you,' Ian had told him. Because that's what brothers were for.
'What bloody nonsense.' Colin handed the broadsheet back to Ian. 'My horns are considerably more majestic.' (chapter 1)

Makes me wish I had brothers. The conversation displays an essential feature of Colin's character. He's a classic charming, cheerful rake, in some ways, but he is neither a cliché nor reducible to his devil-may-care ways. The reasons behind his habits play an important role in the plot, which also avoids the cliché of a rake-who-magically-reforms-when-he-meets-the-right-woman story. Colin's transformation is believable largely because a brush with death often does prove life changing. Colin meets Madeleine, his heroine, in the midst of this transformation and she does help reshape him, but he does not turn faithful overnight because he becomes obsessed with her alone. The complexities make the story. As for Madeleine, I'm torn between wanting more of her personality in the book and realizing that her reticence and quiet strength make sense just as they are, and make her moments of sharp, witty humor all the more powerful. Her own transformation is much more subtle than Colin's, but just as poignant. They both end up very likable in different ways. I liked very much that Ms. Long cast Colin's match as a competent independent woman, and that they fall in love through their teamwork. Madeleine first demonstrates her fantastic dry wit, intelligence, and sense of humor when she pretends to seek a remedy for Colin's alleged *ahem* "problem of a masculine nature" in order to procure goods or information they need. I love seeing a Regency heroine making sex jokes in a way that seems totally plausible!

The plot takes some twisty turns that some readers might have difficulty following, but I like a novel that demands the reader pay close attention in order to work out a bit of the mystery along the way. The plot is fun, but the jump-off-the-page characters make this book. They're true to life especially in the way they relate to one another. I'd actually like to have these characters as friends, too. In terms of its effect, I found this book extraordinarily well-balanced. It is funny and witty without becoming slapstick or silly. It has depth and poignancy without sentimentality. Its hero and heroine have complementarily different personalities. The characters fit the plot.

So why only four stars? Well, even though I loved this book, some of the dialogue doesn't sound all that British-English--for example, a few too many contractions and some that don't sound especially British. In addition, there were some editing oversights, such as the repeated use of "thrice" where the correct word would be "trice," and "adverse" in place of "averse," and in one instance the wrong pronoun. These flaws unfortunately mar the imaginative world Ms. Long so brilliantly creates, diminishing its otherwise convincing realism. I still highly recommend visiting that world in this and her other Pennyroyal Green books, but if such editing mishaps bother you... well, be prepared to be bothered. But read the book anyway, because it's hard to find a story that combines the lovely features of this book as elegantly as this one does.

If you do like this book, you'll also likely appreciate Katharine Ashe's books, especially [[ASIN:0062031767 How to Be a Proper Lady: A Falcon Club Novel]] and [[ASIN:B007HBH26U How a Lady Weds a Rogue: A Falcon Club Novel]].

Julie Anne Long has risen a step above even the most accomplished writer of this genre. Her character development is such that I found myself quite liking them and feeling inordinately pleased with the way she created a perfect resolution in keeping with their personalities.

good condition