The Legend of Lyon Redmond (2015) and the love story of Lyon Redmond and Olivia Eversea has been a long time coming. Julie Anne Long has written numerous books about the small town of Pennyroyal Green and the many epic romances sprouting from the area. Every young man or woman of marriageable age and suitable demeanor has been swept up in Cupid’s influence, including every Redmond and Eversea sibling. A common thread throughout all of Long’s previous Pennyroyal Green books is the whispered mystery of the failed romance between Olivia and Lyon–a Romeo and Juliet story of a love despite two rival families. No one knows exactly what happened, but the end result was that Lyon disappeared and has been missing for five years. Rumor has it that he has become the notorious pirate, Le Chat. Olivia has finally given up on ever seeing Lyon again and has agreed to marry the dependable and loving Landesdowne. And that is where we begin.
The book alternates between present day, with Olivia preparing for her upcoming nuptials with Landesdowne, and five years earlier when she first meets Lyon. The two most powerful families in the area would not approve of their children marrying [because they hate each other–for unspecified reasons], so they sneak around, meeting when they can, and not thinking about the future. Olivia gets jealous when Lyon’s father tries to pair him with the daughter of a Duke, and eventually Lyon has to face his father. In the present day, Olivia is getting her trousseau prepared. Lyon learns that Olivia is to be married and is presumably making some kind of plan.
So, let’s just get this out there. I did not like this book. I found it frustrating and boring. Almost two-thirds of the book covers what we already know from previous books. Lyon and Olivia liked each other, and then Lyon takes off. After years of the hype of their romance, I was expecting something a lot more dramatic than a disapproving father and a misunderstanding. They spend significantly more time apart than together and besides instant attraction, I didn’t really feel that they were meant for each other.
***SPOILERS***
When we finally get to Olivia and Lyon together in the present day, about two-thirds or more through the book, it doesn’t make any sense. Instead of Lyon finding Olivia and talking to her like a normal person, he’s dressed up as a beggar to spy on her. He gets Olivia’s dressmaker to hire one of his employees in disguise, and then invites Olivia on a fake trip to meet some of her mentors fighting against slavery. Olivia decides to bring her newly hired dressmaker’s assistant as a companion [???] only to discover that her companion is Lyon’s employee and Lyon is there! Lyon takes Olivia on his ship to his beautiful home in Spain. First, they are mad at each other but then their attraction overwhelms them and they have a lot of sex. There is very little discussion about what Lyon’s been doing or the fact that Olivia is about to be married. Instead of discussing this, Lyon lets Olivia leave without a word when his ship comes back to pick her up.
My new pet peeve in romance novels is the dramatic conclusion at the wedding altar. If Lyon is really Olivia’s true love, and she’s been tortured for years because of his absence, how can she leave him to go marry another man? And why would Lyon let it come to that? And Landesdowne is a nice man. It is bad enough to end an engagement that will be talked and sung about forever, but to drag everyone from both of your families and the entire town to witness you dumping him and running after another man is just cruel.
The Legend of Lyon Redmond has 4 1/2 stars on Amazon, so there were quite a few people who appreciated it much more. I started wondering if I’m just burnt out on romance novels, or don’t know the previous stories well enough to appreciate the build-up. However, the more I think about it, the more frustrated I get. It just didn’t work for me. Also, I’ve always had a problem with excessive typos in Julie Anne Long’s Kindle books, and this continues to be a problem.
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*fist bump*
So many people here that I respect LOVED this book and I fully expected to as well. But I’m 100% in agreement with you.
*SPOILERS IN COMMENTS*
Their romance was supposed to be legendary but the flashbacks made it seem more like teen infatuation. Then the big breakup felt rushed. He shows up, “I’m running away with the gypsies!” “I can’t come with you – I’m not into poverty!” “NOOOOOOO!”
So much of Lyon’s behavior was unnecessarily stalkerish. Why did Lyon’s second mate need to insert herself into the whole dressmaker thing? What are the odds that a well-bred young woman would invite the veritable stranger seamstress to be her traveling companion? Also kidnapping your ex-girlfriend is not a romantic gesture guys!
Then they get to Sex Island and start with the sex. This is a personal preference, but I felt their relationship needed more built up/smolder as they’re essentially apart for 90% of the book. Also sex on the beach is a terrible idea and you’ll not convince me otherwise. SAND people, there is SAND EVERYWHERE.
THEN YES!!! THE ALTAR SCENE. Well I guess it’s OK to publicly and unnecessarily humiliate Landesdowne, who has been nothing but kind and loving, because you are an immature selfish prig. Lyon continues in stalker-mode by showing up to her wedding to see if she would go through with it. Luckily nobody in the small church thought to notice the strange figure in a cloak sitting in the back to question, “Who the hell is that weirdo?”
Building up an epic romance over an entire series puts enormous pressure on the author to stick the landing. It’s possible that given how high expectations were for this book, it would be all but impossible NOT to be at least slightly disappointed. But I felt Long missed the mark by a wide margin.
Yes, again to everything you said. Reading your comment was cathartic. I didn’t think about the sex on the beach and the lack of smolder, but I also very much agree with you on those points, too.
I loved this book specifically because it felt like Long was winkingly embracing genre tropes and indulging herself and readership in them – the altar, the beggar, the kidnapping.
I didn’t feel the relationship they had as children needed to be epic, they fell madly in love, they fell out, and then the world decided it was this giant catastrophic thing.
Sigh. I don’t know how I can love your reviews so much and then have such different views of the actual books. Oh well. I could see what Long was doing, but it didn’t seem tongue-in-cheek to me at all. Oh well.
Maybe I looked forward to it so much that I projected all of my enthusiasm onto the book and Long’s tendency to the twee got lost in my eager shuffle, but whatever happened I really enjoyed it. I do agree about the lack of smolder.
I thought the book was okay, maybe not as grand a romance as I was expecting after such a long buildup to it though. I don’t think I would go back and read it again, it didn’t resonate with me that much.