What I Did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long

What I Did for a Duke (Pennyroyal Green, #5)

by Julie Anne Long

The next installment in talented author Julie Anne Long's sensual and emotionally charged "Pennyroyal Green" series.

Reviewed by Amanda on

4 of 5 stars

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It's quite possible I'm completely and utterly hooked on the Pennyroyal series now. Julie Anne Long makes me feel things. And makes me snort with mirth. It's one of the best combinations ever.

Reading this series out of order as I'm doing, I'd already met Genevieve and Alex after their HEA. Sometimes I think that changes the perception of their own book, but in this case it was okay -- it made Genevieve's annoying stubborn love to someone else (I can't even remember his name...) easier to deal with.

Because yeah, there's a love triangle of sorts. But in some ways, it's in line with Genevieve's character: a young twenty year old. And something had to be used to highlight the difference between Genevieve, at twenty, and Alex, at nearly forty.

Side note: Though we're never told Alex's exact age, I wanted to dislike the huge age difference. I mean, nearly forty... thirty-six to thirty-nine? That's still sixteen to nineteen years age difference. Old enough to father a child. And yet, Genevieve and Alex worked so well together it was easier to pretend there wasn't such an age gap than to get upset over it.

But I really enjoyed the way Alex saw Genevieve for who she really was -- something I'm sure any introverted woman can appreciate -- and how Genevieve was able to stand up to Alex in a way no one else did. They each did something for the other, and it had me cheering for them.

Even when I wanted to smash Genevieve for being so stupid. (But then, at twenty, I imagine we do all sorts of stupid things. It's just far more pleasant to erase them from the memory of our older selves.) The end was killer and even I, who'd read books after this, found myself ripping through to the end.

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  • Started reading
  • 21 November, 2014: Finished reading
  • 21 November, 2014: Reviewed