This novella is the long-awaited story of Isolde and Isaiah and it’s full of passion and raw emotion. If you are a fan of Julie Anne Long’s books, especially the Pennyroyal Green series, this is a must read! I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it – it’s so good!

The story is a love triangle between Isolde Sylvaine, Isaiah Redmond, and Jacob Eversea. As the story, here, begins Jacob has been spending time with Isolde and her family. However, he has always wanted to travel and craves adventure, so when his father wins half of a sugar plantation in a game of cards, he volunteers to go to Barbados to check it out for the family. He is smitten with Isolde and gives her an enamel celandine plant and asks her to wait for him but he doesn’t offer for her or make her promises when he leaves. He tells her he’ll be gone for six months and will return by her eighteenth birthday but he’s been gone for eight months without a word and Isolde is hurt and lonely.

Isolde and Isaiah first meet at two entwined oak trees while she is waiting for her sister and he is waiting for a friend. They are immediately intrigued by each other and laugh and flirt. Isolde and her friends have been working on decorations for a picnic and assembly that will be taking place in Pennyroyal Green to celebrate the new town hall. Isaiah is thrilled when his sister suggests he come help her group of friends clean the church yard and assembly hall. He and Isolde end up cleaning the church yard together for a week and it’s here that we see them fall in love.

Isaiah’s father has someone he wants Isaiah to marry and she is the diamond of the season. Isaiah has strived his whole life to make his father proud and he has always tried to do his family duty to please his father. His father has chosen a beautiful woman that would elevate their fortune (something that Isolde can’t do). But he is in love with Isolde and basks in her warmth and beauty. 

When Jacob returns from Barbados, he realizes he has made a terrible mistake and has been unfair to Isolde. He took her for granted and now he has to win her back. He doesn’t want to lose her. Emotions build as it comes time for the assembly where things come to a head. I was surprised at the twists and turns I didn’t see coming, how and why who ended up with whom. After reading this story I’m not sure I agree with it, but I still loved it.

The way Julie Anne Long writes about these characters and the village of Pennyroyal Green is magical and I treasured this story. Long says she hopes to write a second installment of their story and I’m all in for that! I can’t recommend this novella enough.