So, I love Julie Anne Long - but this book had its challenges for me. Although the end was great and worth the wait … the lead up was a challenge he for me.

Lead female character, the ward of the Duke who we met in an earlier book (married to Genevieve Eversea) who I adore… is named Tansy. She must, according to her father’s will, marry a Duke or a title…

She is a flirt and plays with men’s hearts and is beautiful.

Ian Eversea cuckolded the Duke in the earlier book and now fears the Duke. Ian is as much of a flirt as Tansy - and basically calls her out on her actions.

The book brings us through the dance of Tansy and Ian - and we learn more about the both of them as see their growth. But, I wasn’t pulled into either of their stories.

The ending is worth the read - so please do read it!!! That, you won’t regret!

One of the strongest entries in the wonderful Pennyroyal Green series. I would rank it tied for second with How the Marquess Was Won and behind Like No Other Lover, which is one of my favorite romances of any genre, of all-time. This has me looking forward to Olivia's story, which I believe will come next to round out the series. Pennyroyal Green is a must-read series for Regency fans.

The ending of this is much stronger than the beginning. There are certain things in it that seem unbelievable which is why it isn't quite a 5 star read. That and the fact that certain phrases and situations seem to have been repeated from the last book. I'm reading these all in a row, and I'm pretty confident the word lava was first mentioned in the last book (in a wonderfully romantic description of the heroine's lips) but it pops up here again. The couple's first kiss also felt very similar to the last couple's and there were a few other instances besides those. If years had passed between reading the stories these little things might not have stood out, but they were almost jarring when they occurred.

The book struggles to take off. Tansy, our heroine, is an odd character. We're given clues that she's not quite what she seems, but even her internal monologue makes her seem like a vapid, spoiled, vain, and selfish person. Ian is also difficult- he's always been shown as a thrill seeking rake, but here he seems less fun loving. He's still a rogue, but his devil may care attitude has disappeared. He doesn't quite seem like the same man we've met before.

It's through Ian's dawning understanding of Tansy that we start to see her for who she really is and it's his opening up to her that fleshes him out. It's clever and risky, especially since it takes Ian a long, long time to start caring for her and an even longer time to start telling her what his deal is.

Once they acknowledge their mutual attraction, the story does sing and I found myself caught up in how they would make things work. As an added bonus, there's quite a bit of Genevieve and Adam in this and I was happy to spend time with them again.

Sex in this series has always been modernized, but it never quite felt as out of place as it does here.

Spoiler

Tansy is a young woman who has lost so much in her life. Ian is a rake and is planning to leave to travel the world. He still decides he's going to have sex with her, knowing that it would put her in jeopardy. There's no thought in his mind that they'll have sex and then marry. It's reckless and we're supposed to believe that Ian's reckless days are behind him. Tansy is well aware of how precarious her situation is but she still decides to have sex and I couldn't believe her character made that call. This isn't a caught up in the moment decision either. They think about it and plan it. I felt like it didn't make sense for the characters.

All in all I ended up enjoying the story. I'm especially interested in finally getting Olivia and Lyon's story, so I'm hoping that I can be patient through the next book. Lavay is delightful so hopefully it will be fun and not torture.

I couldn't finish it. I was about 70 pages in. There was nothing that endeared me to either character. The writing was also very sporadic, not very detailed, and just kinda hopped from one thing to the next. I couldn't really follow along.

Titania Tansy Danforth can't get more annoying in the first half of the book, but you will soon find out that under her beautiful surface is nothing more than loneliness and sadness for the lost family. I can say that I pity her, and I liked her courage and bluntness, she didn't blush like an idiot every time, moreover, she would be the one who would turn the tables on the other. Ian was very annoying in this book and the whole ending seemed rushed to me. Yes, there were witty dialogues and hot scenes, but they seemed forced since the characters didn't grow on me.
To sum up, I felt the passion between Tansy and Ian, but not really love. The writing was good, as usual, but the main characters weren't interesting.

It was Julie Anne Long at her best! I loved both main characters and how their relationship developed and grew. And the best thing might be that I as reader got to know both of them only together with other one. Because in the beginning they are not very likeable characters, each with his flaws and strange actions. And there are no internal reflections to explain that. But as they get to know each other through conversations, so do I as reader. As they hurt for each other, so do I. And as they were falling in love, so did I with both of them.
I was smiling and crying and enjoying every bit of this book!

3.5 I've always loved Long's voice and her light, witty romances story arcs, but after reading 9 books in the Pennyroyal series, they're starting to feel all rather similar. Was tempted to downgrade this one to a 3 from my usual four because of it, but by the end she'd pushed me to a 3.5, she's just so good at what she does.

In this installment, both hero and heroine have angsty backgrounds, which justify their less-than-admirable behaviors (the hero's a womanizer, the heroine a beautiful flirt who basks in male attention, no matter if the male in question is married/engaged to another). But Long doesn't explore said backgrounds in much depth, only refers to them in passing; we don't get to FEEL Tansy's grief for her recently deceased parents and brother, nor Ian's distress over his war experiences. This is deliberate; it keeps the tone light and humorous, and the plot moving at a rapid clip. It's what many readers enjoy about Long's books, I'd surmise. Guess I just prefer an author who can give me something new every time, rather than giving me the same thing in slightly different packaging, no matter how delicious that same one thing is...

Another Goodreads reviewer noted the throwaway line Tansy gives about Americans being good with guns because of having to shoot so many bears and Indians, a line that equates killing humans with killing animals. Was Tansy being ironic here? Or are we supposed to find this funny? If we're supposed to take her at her word, the comment is definitely racist. A fairly common attitude toward Native Americans in that time period, no doubt, but something that really could have been easily avoided.

The romance makes no sense. One second Ian hates her and is mildly intrigued and the next he's super in love with her... what. Also what the heck does Tansy see in him other than lust? He's kind of a huge jerk.