Review: Since the Surrender by Julie Anne Long

Format: Mass market paperback
Pub Date: August 2009
Publisher: Avon
Length: 371
POV: 3rd, past
FTC: purchased used

I discovered the Pennyroyal series really late. I've read a few over the years, but was so out of the loop that I didn't realize they were a series until recently. This is an earlier entry in the series (there's a myspace page on the author bio), and it's a good one.

Although I've heard complaints about anachronisms, I think what sells JAL's books is her voice. She writes with such emotion and could probably lead a master class on how to show and not tell. Her books are immersive. This one was so particularly strong on sensory details that I made a ton of notes of favorite passages...something I'm usually far too lazy to do.

An example:

Just slightly, he brushed his cheek along hers, and she felt the heat of his skin, the start of whiskers, the hard plane of his jaw. His breath, hot, soft, brushed the lobe of her ear, and then his firm lips were there, just scarcely brushing the whorls of it, and gooseflesh danced over arms and legs and spine and, for all she knew, her very soul.

TBR Challenge Review: Like No Other Lover by Julie Anne Long

Format: mass market paperback
Length: 371 pages
Pub Date: 2008
Publisher: Avon
FTC: purchased used

This is one of those series that everyone seems to love...but I honestly can't remember if I've read any of the other entries in it. I may have read I Kissed an Earl, but I have no record of it. It sounds really familiar. I hate my memory sometimes. Anyway, I think this qualifies for this month's theme, since I am *really* behind on the series. I'm especially behind everyone else who has read the series because they're all breathlessly awaiting Lyon's book. I'm back at #2. We'll just call this month's theme "aka Late to the Party."

I love Julia Anne Long's voice. Her writing is so evocative, you just sink into the story. It's sly and witty without being too obvious about it. I found myself smiling at turns of phrase, just because. And the characters were all uniformly well formed. There are no cardboard secondary characters here.