Customer Reviews

The Perils of Pleasure (Pennyroyal Green Series)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Perils of Pleasure", Julie Anne Long's latest historical romance, is a wonderful treat for fans of the genre, featuring vividly drawn, memorable characters and Long's trademark elegant prose.

The devilishly handsome, notoriously roguish Colin Eversea has been wrongly convicted for murder following the sudden disappearance of the only witness to the crime; he is about to be hanged when he is boldly rescued from the gallows by a mysterious woman, Madeleine Greenway. Madeleine, who is a mercenary with a skill for orchestrating difficult and dangerous tasks, tells Colin that she has been hired to save him but not to release him; unfortunately, she is not sure who employed her. When someone tries to kill Madeleine before she can collect her fee, she joins forces with Colin in an effort to discover who has engineered Colin's conviction and financed his subsequent escape, and who may be responsible for the attempt on her own life. Colin is desperate to clear his name and halt the marriage of his childhood sweetheart to his older brother, an event which is scheduled only one week hence. Madeleine wants to collect her money and use it to start a new life in America. But as the two travel through London and the surrounding countryside searching for answers, they find it increasingly difficult to deny either their increasing fascination with each other or their escalating mutual attraction.

Both Colin and Madeleine are wonderful, fully realized characters. One of Julie Anne Long's greatest talents is her ability to breathe new life into tired romance cliches, and in TPOP she works her magic on the handsome, rakish, devil-may-care romantic hero and creates Colin Eversea, a very memorable charmer. Colin's dangerous charm and irresistible sex appeal positively zing off the pages of the book; but it is his little insecurities that he hides behind his facile quips, his conflicted feelings regarding his brother, and his simmering rage about the injustice of his recent fate that make him come fully alive. Madeleine is a refreshingly unusual romance heroine--mature, pragmatic, efficient and enigmatic. Her past history and her tight control over her emotions are very slowly peeled away from her by Colin during their journey. They are a delightful couple and the sexual tension between them is allowed to build slowly to a wonderful peak, without a lot of gratitious mental lusting.

As always, Long's prose is a delight to read and her dialogue full of wit and flair. She is really one of the most talented writers in the genre at this point, IMHO.

Highly recommended for historical romance lovers who enjoy character-driven romance, particularly those who love strong, unusual heroines.

In PERILS OF PLEASURE, Colin Eversea is about to be hung for murder but is rescued by mercenary Madeleine Greenway. Her assignment is to kidnap Colin and prevent his hanging. On her way to return him and collect her pay, she learns that her employer has changed his mind and now wants Madeleine dead.

When I heard the plot for this book, I knew I had to read it. My love of historicals aside, it sounded like a fast read with all key elements packaged in. I read the first few pages and relaxed into the assurance that this author and I had become friends.

Miss Long was a very nice writing style that is easy and enjoyable to read. Once you adjust to the head-hopping and point of view slips, there isn't anything jarring and no 'why am I being punished' moments. She tells the story seamlessly from start to finish.

At the halfway point, something bothered me. I was not feeling a connection to the characters. I stopped reading to understand why I didn't care about Colin and "Mad". I certainly wanted to, I liked this author's style. What I came up with is this: a good part of the book is told from the male mc's point of view. This is not necessarily a bad thing. However, Colin didn't seem to have much depth. He is engaged to a childhood sweetheart, but at the same time is a major player who is very hormonally driven. This characteristic is not endearing to me. We weren't in Mad's point of view deep enough to really know her. Realizing what I was facing, I continued, but the end of the book felt contrived and disappointing.

Overall, I'm torn on my feelings for this book. Would I read this author again? Absolutely. There is more than enough of what Miss Long does well that would make me read her other works.

CarolASpradling.com author

I don't often label a book a keeper - but I will keep this one and look for more from this author. I really like the heroine - Madeleine Greenway - she's totally unique, with an interesting past, a very different profession, and a maturity that is rare in historical romances. Ms Long has created an endearing hero in Colin Eversea, and it's fun to see him struggle with the reality of Madeleine and his attraction to her. I was swept along with them on their crazy race for answers to the mystery surrounding Colin. Highly recommended!

What a surprise this book was! The title isn't very promising and cover was a rather generic picture for a historical romance with a lady falling out of a dress and a man's hand on her thigh. However the story within the cover was an excellently-written, at times amusing but also complex and enjoyable story about a man and a woman on the run, trying to clear the man's name so he can marry the woman he's loved his whole life.

Colin Eversea has been arrested for murder but on the way to his hanging someone rescues him - that someone being a woman, Madeleine Greenway. It seems, though, that the person who paid Madeleine to rescue Colin is now trying to kill her. Colin and Madeleine work together to find out what's happened, to try to clear Colin's name and to return him to his family in time for him to prevent the marriage of his brother to Louisa, the woman Colin has always loved. Their investigations into the events are hampered by Colin being a famous criminal with a price on his head and with the paucity of evidence as to what actually happened. However as Colin and Madeleine travel, hide and investigate together they begin to see more in each other than they originally thought.

What was outstanding about this book was the author's writing style. She has an excellent light touch with the writing but covers deep themes with some well-drawn characterisation. Her sense of time and place in history worked well in the book and the plot always kept the reader interested, even when it got quite complex. Some surprises as the villain was revealed were unexpected and the overall feel of the book was very much one of an enjoyable read with more depth to the plotting than many other stories in this genre.

Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2008

The first part of the book is very entertaining. It's not your typical Regency book, both regarding the plot and the characters, especially Madeline, who is a mercenary.
The mystery part is well developed and it has a good end, but the romantic one isn't as good, mainly because of the hero's behaviour in the second half of the book.

Perhaps I'm the one at fault, but I couldn't like or respect a person that, with the idea to stop the immediate wedding between his brother and the woman who has loved all his life, could make love to another woman. I don't mean that he should be a monk until he marries her, but if he's in love with a woman (or he thinks that) and plans to stop her wedding, how can he can have an affair with another woman? And I don't care that she's the heroine.
This doesn't speak well of his character: how little he values the person he loves, no matter who she is, how little respect he has for love itself.
I may seem a little harsh, but in my mind, if I think I love someone who's going to marry another and I race to stop the wedding, I don't have an affair while getting there.

I think it would have been different if Colin had started to have confused feelings for both, or realized that his feelings were changing. That he hadn't really loved Louisa that way, or that Madeline had awakened in him real love. Some internal conflict would have been great.
I suppose that was what really happened, but we didn't see it. Colin made love to Madeline while thinking of stopping the wedding and get back Louisa. Suddenly, at the end, he realizes that he loves Madeline, and that it's different for what he felt for Louisa. Well, it would have been more realistic to show a gradual change of feelings, and not a realization at the end.

Another thing that wasn't very convincing was the absence of information or thoughts regarding Madeline's first husband. We know he existed, but not how he affected Madeline, and so on.

I think the problem is that it was sorely missed an internal perspective of the hero and heroine, their feelings, so I couldn't connect with them. We only see their actions, and in a romantic aspect, at least for me, they weren't very telling. And so, when we got the required "I love you"s, they seemed a little sudden and awkward, although from Madeline were a little more believable.

It's not a bad book, and I like Julie Anne Long's writing style --hence the 3 stars--, but as I couldn't get involved with the romantic aspect of the story, I couldn't enjoy it.

One of the best romance books I've read. The characters are rich and the feelings complex. I absolutely believed every step of the building attraction. The ending was a complete shocker yet absolutely believable. All the secondary characters seemed fully human, despite how quickly sketched in they were or how brief their appearance. I can't wait to read more!

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.

Wrongly convicted of a crime and sentenced to be hung, Colin Eversea is without hope of life until, out of nowhere, his freedom is purchased by Madeline Greenway, who has been assigned to procure his life. She is not, however, to release him, nor does she know who did this. Her motives are simple, to earn enough cash to start over in America. It seems, though, that someone wants her dead. Could the same person be the true culprit in the crime for which Colin was convicted? Is her unknown employer trying to avoid paying? Solving these puzzles and preventing the wedding of the woman Colin thinks he loves will unite the pair for a while longer, and might change at least one of their minds about what they want in the future, should they survive to have one.

Deftly weaving together humor, mystery, and adventure, Ms. Long brings her scenario to vibrant life. Strong characterization as well as an action laden plot make this one no historical romance fan should miss.

Amanda Killgore

I read this book out of order in the series. The first one I read was No Other Lover and then I Kissed an Earl. I enjoyed both of them very much, I am not a huge fan of dragged out mysteries but the other 2 stood up. This book had too many twists and turns and I made it to about page 250 before I skipped ahead to read the last few chapters. I agree with the other reviewers, each character didn't have that much depth and we never feel the pain of Madeline's past. Even when I read what the mystery was, I thought it was a big stretch and while I don't read romance for total plausibility this made no sense.

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.