I do love a bit of historical intrigue now and then so I was very happy when TLC Book Tours offered me a copy of The Garden Intrigue by Lauren Willig at no charge for my honest review.
About The Garden Intrigue:
Just in time for the post-Valentine’s Day chocolate hangover, THE GARDEN INTRIGUE is the latest novel in the nationally bestselling Pink Carnation series by RITA Award winner Lauren Willig. In this ninth installment, long-time readers and newcomers alike will be delighted to meet a character sure to become a fan favorite—a poet whose fervent ardor leads him to declare his feelings for the Pink Carnation in atrociously overwrought verse.
Lovable modern day grad student Eloise Kelly is back and on the trail of the Pink Carnation when she discovers a wretched poem among the papers of a code book. Poetry penned by the notorious fop Augustus Whittlesby for Jane Wooliston (aka the Pink Carnation)—Eloise can’t help but wonder; can anyone really be that bad of a poet? Or is something else hiding behind his putridly saccharine words? Back in 1804, New York born Paris socialite Emma Morris Delgardie doesn’t think so. She’s too busy sipping champagne to notice Whittlesby’s strange interest in a top-secret device Napoleon has commissioned. Unfortunately for Emma, she’s the poet’s entrée into the emperor’s inner circle. Fortunately for Augustus, this plucky American heroine could turn out to be his true muse.
About the Author:
Lauren Willig is the bestselling author of eight previous Pink Carnation novels. She received a graduate degree in English history from Harvard University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, though she now writes full-time. Willig lives in New York City.
For more information about Lauren and her work, please visit her website
My Opinion:
The escapades of the always cool, always in control Pink Carnation continue in this latest chapter, The Garden Intrigue. I have only had the pleasure of reading one other volume of this lady spy’s adventures but I dare say that I hope to read many more. This book focuses on Pink’s (Jane Wooliston) relationship with a British operative who uses the cover of a poet by the name of Augustus Whittlesby. Augustus is a very bad poet and he uses his bad poetry to pass information on to Miss Wooliston. The French police pay no attention to him as they see him as nothing more than a fop. But he feels himself growing tired of the role and finds himself falling in love.
But is it really Jane he loves or is it that rather forward American friend of hers, Mrs. Emma Delgardie with whom he is penning a masque for the pleasure of Hortense Bonaparte? Love is fickle, is it not? Especially the love of a poet for his muse.
The story is told in flashbacks as American Eloise Kelly continues her research into the Pink Carnation at Selwick Hall, the ancestral home of her boyfriend, Colin. His family relations are enough for a book all their own and his family history is well tied into that of the Pink Carnation.This is a light, frothy, fun read to chase away the demons of darker reads. The conversations are witty and in spite of the underlying issues of Napoleon and well, war, the book is really without much evil. Perhaps that will come, after all – Napoleon has only just declared himself Emperor.
Only a few quibbles with terms out of place; I doubt that young women in this era would tell their gentlemen to “scootch”, and at one point a character tells another that someone “has left the building” in an oh so Elvis kind of way. And then I truly, truly doubt that “resistance is futile” was a popular turn of phrase unless The Borg were helping Napoleon with his invasion planning.
Having the future invade the past in these ways can be like fingernails on a chalkboard as one reads. Or perhaps I read too much into the uses of the words. These are very minor complaints for a book that kept me pushing the button on my Nook to see what happened next. I will most certainly look forward to The Pink Carnation’s next adventure where ever it might take her.
You can find Lauren Willig on Facebook
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