I Kissed an Earl

Written by Julie Anne Long

Narrated by Justine Eyre

I Kissed an Earl is another installment in rapidly rising star Julie Anne Long's sensual and emotionally charged Pennyroyal Green series, centered around the longstanding feud of the wealthy Eversea and Redmond families of Pennyroyal Green, Sussex. I Kissed an Earl absolutely brims with romance, adventure, and, of course, intense passion, as a beautiful, willful Regency lady searching for her lost brother stows away on a sailing ship-and ends up enchanting the vessel's highborn, hard-headed Captain.

Contains mature themes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Dec 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781541430853

Julie Anne Long

USA Today bestselling author and Rita® Award winner Julie Anne Long’s books have been translated into eighteen languages, nominated for numerous awards, and have appeared on dozens of “Best of” lists. NPR named her Pennyroyal Green series as one of the Top 100 romance series of all time. She currently lives in Northern California.

Reviews for I Kissed an Earl

[Stephanie Johnson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The author is truly gifted. I love the story. Violet’ s unabiding connection with Lyon & ultimately she falls in love herself. How she & the Earl experience love first hand.

[Roman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great story pacing! The first two books in this series were disappointing and I skipped book 3 because of poor reviews. However, Violet and Asher’s story has encouraged me to keep going on with this series. I absolutely loved the sexual chemistry between them and the plot. To make it better Violet is a strong character with a strong spine.

[jorgeousjotts · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There were several things I enjoyed about this book, and I chuckled outloud to myself many times, but it was brought down by some significant flaws as well, that kept it from being 4 stars for me. The heroine had just appalling judgement at every turn, as well as being reckless, spoiled, and naive. She wasn't entirely unlikable, but she frequently made it difficult for me to enjoy her.

There was a significant power imbalance between the hero and heroine as well, not only is he the captain of the ship she's on, which would usually be plenty, but he's also capable, knowledgeable, experienced, heroic, etc., and she really doesn't have much going for her. She can claim being from a privileged background, having family members who love her, being beautiful, and having some luck, but none of that is by her doing. The story repeatedly claims she's very clever as well, but besides some skill at chess, I didn't see any evidence of that. And apparently she can't even school her features when she needs to bluff, or keep a secret, or gather information, or bargain, etc. So especially against someone as impressive as the hero is described to be, it made her seem like a 16 year old dating a 30 year old. The hero definitely had his moments that didn't impress me either, but overall the balance was like 85/15, which isn't nearly as fun or interesting to me.

Some things in the plot were especially contrived or didn't quite make sense as well, but it probably didn't annoy me as much as the other issues. All that said, I was entertained and I laughed, and ultimately I wished them well, so I'm not displeased to have read it. But I feel like it had more potential than it lived up to.

[samnreader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Let's start this off with the right context. This book is not realistic. It is, however, a fun adventure and perfect for Violet, the smart-as-can-be Redmond (well, I guess they all are), with superhero hidden talents and a penchant for stirring up trouble whether the reason be ennui or curiosity. She is, without a doubt, one of the most fun heroines. Between her regal take-no-shit, perfect hair, her expectations of a suitor that didn't bore her to tears and her abiding love for her family she is an absolute delight.

Asher Flint is harder to get to know, and that is completely fine. I like a mysterious hero. But at his core he's loyal, ambitious, committed, and absolutely sentimental. These two have quite organic interactions and conversations that veer into the deep, in a convincing and material way. I felt the romance and the adventure were balanced. JAL stuns me with the fact that she can write these essential, riveting, tense relationships right along with long sex scenes that make you, well, feel. And they feel new.

I don't know if this is a 5 star book. I do know that it was a 5 star read. It hit me just at in the right way, kept me entertained and delighted. It was a wonderful surprise, read at the right time.

"Perhaps you believe this about Lyon simply because you’ve never been in love, Miss Redmond.”
She looked up sharply. “How do you know I haven’t?”
“Have you?”
He sounded so unflatteringly skeptical it grated. She would have preferred him to sound possessive; she would have preferred him to be wrong.
She would have preferred not to discuss it, in truth, unless he could provide her with some answers about love, because she was genuinely suffering over the question.
“No,” she said, managing with some effort not to sound defensive. “I do unquestionably love my family. I suppose I am very particular. An argument can be made for my own singular character and the challenge in finding a suitable match for me.”
“What a very lengthy and elegant way to call yourself a piece of work, Miss Redmond.” He was insufferably amused.


I swoon. They are just right for me.

[lauren2013_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I Kissed an Earl
3.5 Stars

Although Julie Anne Long's Pennyroyal Green series is more miss than hit for me, this particular book is one of the better installments.

Violet is somewhat spoiled and childish but is quite likable despite her faults. Her love interest, the hunky Captain Flint, has the patience of a saint putting up with her shenanigans and TSTL moments. Their chemistry is off the charts and goes a long way toward compensating for the shortcomings of the writing and lack of historical accuracy.

All in all, not too bad and I will read the next one as I already have it for Kindle.

[fueledbycoffee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I always laugh at the "bodice ripper" type book covers. Very in-your-face and cliched but Ive never ever been one to judge a book by the cover...I picked this up under recommendation and for the life of me cannot remember who had me read this author. I'm so glad I did because truly, Ms. Long's writing is fantastic. FAN.tastic.These characters are intriguing, realistic, fully-faceted and yet, the author knows the exact phrase or word to unveil the characters slowly, unfolding brilliantly and constant as the story progresses. Engagingly strong with convictions. Spirited but not ridiculous or forced. Genuinely enjoyable to read. Royalty, mystery, pirates, sailing ships, ties of family, love, want, and loyalty all wrapped in superb storytelling.So grab your nearest book cover and quit your giggling. This author is well-worth a knowing eye from your librarian or bookseller over your newly acquired "bodice ripper". Yeah, yeah, yeeah...well rip this: As long as Julie Anne Long writes? She will always have a reader here. You go, girlfran.

[dukedukegoose · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There was a lot I liked about this and several things I did not like about this.

[cranberrytarts · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story was wonderful and absolutely what I've come to expect from Long. She always manages to just skirt the TSTL line with her heroines, but never quite cross it. Violet was no exception.

The editing was terrible. Seriously terrible. There were typos every few pages - bad ones - and the hero said and did everything ironically. Every.single.thing. If he made a gesture, it was made ironically. If he made a statement, it was made ironically. It drove me batty.

[ktleyed · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Normally, I space books out when I'm reading series, but I wound up reading the next in the Pennyroyal Series purely by chance. I enjoyed this addition, this time following the Redmond side, though it got off to a slow start. Violet Redmond is no shrinking violet. When she sets out to do something - she does it. This time, in search of her brother Lyon who has been missing for two years, she follows up a hunch that he is now the notorious pirate Le Chat. Handsome Captain Flint - a new earl, has been commissioned to find and bring the pirate to justice. What does Violet do? She talks her way onto Flint's ship and stows away until it's too late for him to turn around and take her back to England. Of course, tempers flare, and they can't stand each other at first but things change, as they always do in romance - especially shipboard romances - and they fall in lust love. Yet, the fly in the ointment is - he's out to see her brother hang, and she's out to save him! Quite the dilemma, which ended a bit anticlimactically, but overall, an entertaining read, particularly in the 2nd half of the book.

[kaetrin_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars.I liked this one in spite of it's flaws. It's got swash and buckle and a lot of humour but the plot and the characters weren't as well put together as in earlier books. So far, I've generally enjoyed the "Eversea" books more than the "Redmond" books in this series. I liked Flint quite a bit the heroine, Violet, was occasionally very nearly TSTL (and I note via Goodreads that many others thought she was actually TSTL). I liked the melancholy and the doomed lovers and, as mentioned before, the swashbuckling high seas adventure of it but I thought the ending involving Lyon was left dangling. It's my least favourite of the series so far. Also, what of Fatima? Since the Surrender is so much better.

[reesa00 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book has saved the Pennyroyal Green series for me which was just limping along before this point. There are a lot of things I shouldn't like but are woven together so well. Violet has instances where she behaves out of character and can be flighty but her overall character is very enjoyable and there is a lot of well done character development - I really enjoyed getting to know Violet as she learned more about herself. Flint is another strong character, despite having a biography that is more appropriate for a 50 year old than 32 year old. The book surprised me from the first chapter - which is hard to do! Several very sensuous scenes added a nice touch. The sensuality was more due to the writing than the actions and the scenes have become some of my favorites.