Title: I Kissed An Earl Series: Pennyroyal Green #4
Author: Julie Anne Long
Published: June 29, 2010
Genre(s): Romance: Historical
Page Count: 384
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Violet Redmond's family and fortune might be formidable and her beauty and wit matchless—but her infamous flair for mischief keeps all but the most lionhearted suitors at bay. Only Violet knows what will assuage her restlessness: a man who doesn't bore her to tears, and a clue to the fate of her missing brother. She never dreamed she'd find both with a man whose own pedigree is far from impeccable.
"Savage" is what the women of the ton whisper about the newly styled Earl of Ardmay—albeit with shivers of pleasure. Born an English bastard, raised on the high seas, he's on a mission to capture a notorious pirate for vengeance. But while Violet's belief in her brother's innocence maddens him, her courage awes him . . . and her sensuality finally undoes him. Now the man who once lost everything and the girl who has everything to lose are bound by a passion that could either end in betrayal . . . or become everything they ever dreamed.
This series is definitely seeing improvement. While certainly not flawless, the swashbuckling, pirate-y love story of Violet Redmond and Captain Flint was more than satisfying. I Kissed an Earl presents a somewhat unlikely story, given the historical context, but if you put that (admittedly major) issue aside, it’s still a decent romance.
Probably the main conflict in the entire Pennyroyal Green series is the where and why of Lyon Redmond’s, Violet’s oldest brother’s, recent disappearance. That question plays a significant role in I Kissed an Earl, as Violet runs away and boards Captain Flint’s ship in hopes of finding her brother and possibly saving his life (from Captain Flint).
The book is filled with unlikely events. Violet, a gentleman’s daughter, runs away to sea without a chaperone and when she comes back, her reputation isn’t ruined. She’s never shot a gun before, but her aim is perfect. In the forty-eight hours after she loses her virginity to Captain Flint, they have quite a lot of sex, which, though possible, would probably not be comfortable for Violet. All these little things make I Kissed an Earl sort of unbelievable, as I mentioned earlier, but Julie Anne Long isn’t overly ridiculous, and she more or less remains accurate to the Regency period. I’m not sure about how likely it would be that a lowborn bastard, who is part Cherokee Indian, would be made into an earl, but…I guess we’ll let it slide, right?
The one thing I probably would have liked to see most from I Kissed an Earl is deeper characterization. I liked Violet and by the end, I’d warmed up to Captain Flint, but I didn’t feel that Long had fully realized their potential. Violet, for instance, is presented as a spoiled girl who, in spite of her intelligence and forwardness, has always been treated as something of a pampered pet; running away to sea helps her become her own woman (plus she gets the hunky, “savage” sea-captain-turned-earl). That’s actually a great idea, except the only inkling we get of Violet’s past, as it were, is from Long outright telling us. I couldn’t see much of a transformation in her life because though I was told what she was formerly like, I didn’t have specific scenes I could use as reference points.
Captain Asher Flint, Earl of Ardmay, on the other hand, is a man I wanted to like, but it took too long to reach that point. For the vast majority of the book, Captain Flint was actually quite bland. He did nothing offensive, but neither did he do anything to endear him to me as a suitable mate for Violet. However, the final few chapters did wind up proving him to be an interesting (if somewhat lovelorn) character. His past as a bastard, the way he lived the “American dream” by pulling himself up by his bootstraps, his kindness masked with gruffness and “savagery”—all those things were major points in his favor. The problem was merely that Long took a fairly long time establishing those points.
Additionally, the fact that the big focus of the book is on Lyon Redmond and not Violet Redmond was somewhat detrimental to Long’s overall story. The series typically alternates between an Eversea sibling or a Redmond sibling, one per book, all leading up to (I expect) the grand finale romance between Olivia Eversea and Lyon Redmond, which (I expect) will be the final book in the series. That’s fine and all—I appreciate how Long is trying to build up suspense, etc. Unfortunately, by featuring Lyon Redmond as major aspect of I Kissed an Earl, I think the author might have shortchanged Violet herself, and made her romance less than what it could have been. On the other hand, we’re definitely adding to suspense and anticipation for whichever book will finally see Olivia and Lyon’s happy ending.
In the end, I enjoyed I Kissed an Earl. It was an easy novel that, while not standing out in any particular way, was palatable and inoffensive. The story is neither Long’s best nor her worst. I’m probably never going to claim the Pennyroyal Green romances as all-time favorites, but they’re readable and enjoyable, and those two qualities are never bad things.
