ARC Review: Between the Devil and Ian Eversea by Julie Anne Long

First, I want to say that Ms. Long is a very popular and accomplished author. I have read other work by her before and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, that was not the case with “Between the Devil and Ian Eversea (Pennyroyal Green #9). The story began interestingly enough. Titania "Tansy" Danforth is an American heiress. She is orphaned and travels to England so that her guardian can find her a husband. Ok, so far… Then we meet and get to know the actual heroine. Apparently she is so beautiful men go insane at the sight of her. Helen of Troy has nothing on “Tansy”. Men just become so enamored with her that they take leave of their senses. This I took with an eye-roll… Ok, moving along… We meet our hero- Ian Eversea. Tansy is IMMEDIATELY captivated with Ian. She finds him physically attractive but he doesn’t seem to fall all over himself and become a bumbling idiot like ALL the other men she encounters. (At this point, I’m done with the eye rolls and now taking deep breaths is the hope that I can finish this story).

Because Ian is not interested in Tansy (or he is interested in her just not a blithering fool) She is even more captivated. How can he not fall for her graces? Every other man has…? At this point I start to laugh at the absurdity of these characters and laugh at the nonsensicalness of it ALL. The supporting characters were equally as superficial and just incomprehensible. Genevieve, Ian’s sister, another great beauty. She too could give Helen of Troy a run for her money. Genevieve is shadowed by Tansy. All the attention went to Tansy and not to HER beauty. So this part had me laughing. Genevieve is also a tremendous beauty but not as beautiful. (Apparently only beautiful people make an appearance in this book.) The ugly people just don’t exist.

Ian Eversea kept the story going. He was not the typical English gentleman. He has seen the horrors of war and isn’t the usual type of man. He works with his hands and breaks a sweat. Ian is supposed to be very scandalous, in fact, the most scandalous thing he does is he calls Tansy “Tit-sy”. (That was the extent of his scandal). I actually thought Ian was a great guy, he was just not shallow, which seemed to be the driving force behind many of the characters. Even Olivia and Genevieve are very catty and superficial. Olivia doesn’t like Tansy because… she is a woman? As the story progressed Ian and Tansy get to know each other better and put aside their perceptions about one another. Unfortunately, I never felt a big connection between Ian and Tansy, other than their attraction for each other. The story, overall, repeated itself. Ian doesn’t want to like Tansy, Tansy has a number of admirers, she can’t figure out why Ian isn’t one of them, she counts her success by the amount of flowers she receives. Overall, not my kind of story.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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