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Pink Carnation #6
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily
A New York Times extended list bestseller in hardcover-the sensational sixth book in the national bestselling Pink Carnation series.
Whisked away to nineteenth-century India, Penelope Deveraux plunges into the court intrigues of the Nizam of Hyderabad, where no one is quite what they seem. New to this strange and exotic country- where a dangerous spy called the Marigold leaves venomous cobras as his calling card-she can trust only one Captain Alex Reid.
With danger looming from local warlords, treacherous court officials, and French spies, Alex and Penelope may be all that stand in the way of a plot designed to rock the very foundations of the British Empire...
Whisked away to nineteenth-century India, Penelope Deveraux plunges into the court intrigues of the Nizam of Hyderabad, where no one is quite what they seem. New to this strange and exotic country- where a dangerous spy called the Marigold leaves venomous cobras as his calling card-she can trust only one Captain Alex Reid.
With danger looming from local warlords, treacherous court officials, and French spies, Alex and Penelope may be all that stand in the way of a plot designed to rock the very foundations of the British Empire...
514 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 23, 2009
105 people are currently reading
2605 people want to read
About the author
Lauren Willig
42 books4,730 followersLauren Willig is the New York Times bestselling author of nineteen works of historical fiction. Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages, awarded the RITA, Booksellers Best and Golden Leaf awards, and chosen for the American Library Association's annual list of the best genre fiction. After graduating from Yale University, she embarked on a PhD in History at Harvard before leaving academia to acquire a JD at Harvard Law while authoring her "Pink Carnation" series of Napoleonic-set novels. She lives in New York City, where she now writes full time.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 541 reviews
February 20, 2010
SPOILER ALERT - I've really liked Willig's previous books (however guiltily) and wanted to like this one too, but I dislike being put in the position of rooting for a character to commit adultery, however unhappy the circumstances of her marriage. Others might not struggle with that, but it ultimately left me with a sadder feeling about the book than her other novels. I also felt like this was one of her weaker stories, narratively. The "spy" aspect of the plot seems far more contrived with this book than the others, although the Indian setting and depiction of 19th century British life there mostly made up for it. While I don't doubt that there was some historical veracity to some of the schemes she describes, I found them poorly explained, hard to follow and generally less "urgent" or persuasively dire than the nefarities and schemes-to-be-foiled in her previous books. Finally, not to pile on, but this book's dialogue isn't as witty as her previous books. In some ways, I wonder if her inspiration for the series is petering out a bit. Having read all six "Pink" novels, I think the one set in Ireland (#3) is still my favorite.
February 1, 2010
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily is the sixth installment in Lauren Willig's delightful Pink Carnation series, which chronicles the romantic adventures of Napoleonic (aka Regency) era British spies and the romantic misadventures of modern-day Harvard doctoral student Eloise Kelly, who is researching said spies for her dissertation.
At the very beginning of the series, Eloise is struggling to find sources--any sources--for her dissertation on super-spies the Scarlet Pimpernel (in the series, a real person), his successor the Purple Gentian (Willig's own invention) and the elusive Pink Carnation (ditto), whom she hopes to finally unmask. Eloise is about to throw in the towel and write about espionage and constructs of masculinity (ugh...) when the academic equivalent of manna from Heaven appears: a previously unseen archive in the home of a fairy godmother-esque descendant of the Purple Gentian. What Eloise finds in those archives, and the archives that follow, are the plots of Willig's novels. Did I mention that there is also a Prince Not-So-Charming? Eloise's benefactor's surly but strapping great-nephew, Colin, makes his entrance in the first book as a foil to our heroine, and their inevitable courtship forms the basis of the series's secondary plotline.
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily is a departure from the other books in the series in that its heroine is already married at the beginning. If you have read the other Pink books (recommended but not required) then you have already made the acquaintance of Penelope Deveraux, bosom friend to the Purple Gentian's younger sister and one of the most incorrigible flirts of the ton. Penelope has finally succeeded in ruining her own reputation. "Compromised" after being caught canoodling with the loutish Lord Freddy Staines, Penelope finds herself rushed to the altar before the book begins. Blood Lily also departs, quite literally, from the series's familiar setting of Franco-British courts, assembly halls, and country estates for the wilds of colonial India, where Freddy and Penelope are packed off to allow the scandal surrounding their marriage time to die down. Several of her friends express optimism that exile could be the making of their relationship...
It isn't.
This revelation should not be news to anyone who has read the book jacket. Penelope does not find marital bliss in India. What she does find is a decidedly extra-marital romance in the shape of the dashing Alex Reid, a captain in the British colonial forces charged with escorting Penelope and Freddy to Hyderabad, where Freddy is to assume a low-level diplomatic post at the court of the Nizam. Their romance is one of Willig's finest yet, hard-won, even-handed, and utterly believable. It helps that Penelope is no wilting flower. Like Mary Alsworthy of The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, Penelope is a "difficult" heroine--willful, world-weary, but whose hard-armored coquettishness hides a desperate desire to be loved and understood. Penelope shoots cobras, dives into rivers, and matches words with the Nizam's sinister Prime Minister. She is also horribly lonely, having been sent away from all her friends to a strange country with a husband who treats her with utter disregard. Her surprise romance with Alex, who hasn't had the easiest time of it either, is very much a meeting of the minds. That they are first friends before they become lovers is a testament to the deep respect, regard, and understanding that they have for one another.
As for the rest of the plot, this is a Lauren Willig novel so naturally, spies are involved. Our villain, a French spy called the Marigold, was introduced in the last installment. While the Marigold's political treachery isn't fully realized until late in the book, his (or her) personal threat to Penelope, Freddy, and Alex is keenly felt from the first broken girth. Willig does a good job with the suspense and we spend as much time looking over our shoulders as we do straining out bodices. She also does a superb job rendering the elaborate world of colonial India and its intrigues. Many of Blood Lily's juicier elements--the mad Nizam, the leprosy-ridden Prime Minister--are culled straight from history and rendered in perfect detail.
But the plot itself, I'm sorry to say, is at times not quite up to her usual standard. I did keep guessing until the end who the Marigold was (a first for me), but the reveal was something of a letdown. I can't say much more without spoiling it, but we do not get the sense here, as we do in her other books, of the villain's drive. Instead of the mastermind behind a great conspiracy, we find someone who seems to have merely stumbled into a great conspiracy. She also leaves several very blatant loose ends. Chekov famously said that one should not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it. In other words, objects introduced in a story must be used later on or else not included. There are two loaded guns here--big ones--that are never fired, and whose lack of use definitely contributed to my feeling not quite satisfied when I turned the last page. A debt that is never repaid? An enemy who never strikes? To say more would reveal too much so I'll just say that a red herring is one thing, a dead end is another.
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this book. It's actually a testament to how far Willig has come as a novelist that I'm nit-picking and griping about the spy plot, which in her first few books served more as a backdrop to the romance than a principal player. As accomplished a writer as she now is, I can't help but feel that she should know better.
In terms of the writing itself, however, Blood Lily is Willig's best yet. Her prose, which was charming but light in her first book, has become nuanced, rich, and elegant. Her characters are vibrant and pointedly realized, her atmospheres are lush, and her descriptions--one in particular of a bloated corpse--at times approach the poetic. Her dialogue, always a strong point, is pitch-perfect and sparkles with echoes of Waugh and Wodehouse. And like Waugh (and occasionally Wodehouse) her writing is also earnest and poignant when called for. We may laugh when Penelope lays into Freddy but we cringe when he sets her down and betrays her trust. There is style, but there is also real emotional substance.
This series is one of my favorite guilty-pleasure reads. It's light without being too light--the intellectual's answer to the dime-store romance. Perhaps it won't come as a surprise that the series came about as an escape for Willig from her own dissertation research. It is by definition escapist literature, the perfect getaway for those of us who want to take a break from the real world and fall blissfully into the past where the men are swashbuckling and the women run the show.
Pierre de Ronsard, Renaissance France's answer to Ariosto, wrote: "History only recounts things the way they are, or were, without disguise or ornament,...the Poet contents himself with the plausible, to that which could be." This is what I see Willig, a former Ph. D. candidate, doing. She loves history, really loves it, to the point where she has to make it come alive and imagine what these people could have said, could have thought, could have done. Her books are impeccably researched down to the type of knee-breeches Lord Freddy would have worn and impeccably imagined down to what Lord Freddy would have said at breakfast. You can't help but feel that these characters must have lived and, what's more, you wish that they did. And that is what historical fiction is all about.
A merry romp and a surprisingly evocative and accomplished book. Grad students past and present especially ought to dive in, as here at last is a heroine (and author) who Understands. I can't believe I have to wait another year for the next one.
At the very beginning of the series, Eloise is struggling to find sources--any sources--for her dissertation on super-spies the Scarlet Pimpernel (in the series, a real person), his successor the Purple Gentian (Willig's own invention) and the elusive Pink Carnation (ditto), whom she hopes to finally unmask. Eloise is about to throw in the towel and write about espionage and constructs of masculinity (ugh...) when the academic equivalent of manna from Heaven appears: a previously unseen archive in the home of a fairy godmother-esque descendant of the Purple Gentian. What Eloise finds in those archives, and the archives that follow, are the plots of Willig's novels. Did I mention that there is also a Prince Not-So-Charming? Eloise's benefactor's surly but strapping great-nephew, Colin, makes his entrance in the first book as a foil to our heroine, and their inevitable courtship forms the basis of the series's secondary plotline.
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily is a departure from the other books in the series in that its heroine is already married at the beginning. If you have read the other Pink books (recommended but not required) then you have already made the acquaintance of Penelope Deveraux, bosom friend to the Purple Gentian's younger sister and one of the most incorrigible flirts of the ton. Penelope has finally succeeded in ruining her own reputation. "Compromised" after being caught canoodling with the loutish Lord Freddy Staines, Penelope finds herself rushed to the altar before the book begins. Blood Lily also departs, quite literally, from the series's familiar setting of Franco-British courts, assembly halls, and country estates for the wilds of colonial India, where Freddy and Penelope are packed off to allow the scandal surrounding their marriage time to die down. Several of her friends express optimism that exile could be the making of their relationship...
It isn't.
This revelation should not be news to anyone who has read the book jacket. Penelope does not find marital bliss in India. What she does find is a decidedly extra-marital romance in the shape of the dashing Alex Reid, a captain in the British colonial forces charged with escorting Penelope and Freddy to Hyderabad, where Freddy is to assume a low-level diplomatic post at the court of the Nizam. Their romance is one of Willig's finest yet, hard-won, even-handed, and utterly believable. It helps that Penelope is no wilting flower. Like Mary Alsworthy of The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, Penelope is a "difficult" heroine--willful, world-weary, but whose hard-armored coquettishness hides a desperate desire to be loved and understood. Penelope shoots cobras, dives into rivers, and matches words with the Nizam's sinister Prime Minister. She is also horribly lonely, having been sent away from all her friends to a strange country with a husband who treats her with utter disregard. Her surprise romance with Alex, who hasn't had the easiest time of it either, is very much a meeting of the minds. That they are first friends before they become lovers is a testament to the deep respect, regard, and understanding that they have for one another.
As for the rest of the plot, this is a Lauren Willig novel so naturally, spies are involved. Our villain, a French spy called the Marigold, was introduced in the last installment. While the Marigold's political treachery isn't fully realized until late in the book, his (or her) personal threat to Penelope, Freddy, and Alex is keenly felt from the first broken girth. Willig does a good job with the suspense and we spend as much time looking over our shoulders as we do straining out bodices. She also does a superb job rendering the elaborate world of colonial India and its intrigues. Many of Blood Lily's juicier elements--the mad Nizam, the leprosy-ridden Prime Minister--are culled straight from history and rendered in perfect detail.
But the plot itself, I'm sorry to say, is at times not quite up to her usual standard. I did keep guessing until the end who the Marigold was (a first for me), but the reveal was something of a letdown. I can't say much more without spoiling it, but we do not get the sense here, as we do in her other books, of the villain's drive. Instead of the mastermind behind a great conspiracy, we find someone who seems to have merely stumbled into a great conspiracy. She also leaves several very blatant loose ends. Chekov famously said that one should not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it. In other words, objects introduced in a story must be used later on or else not included. There are two loaded guns here--big ones--that are never fired, and whose lack of use definitely contributed to my feeling not quite satisfied when I turned the last page. A debt that is never repaid? An enemy who never strikes? To say more would reveal too much so I'll just say that a red herring is one thing, a dead end is another.
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this book. It's actually a testament to how far Willig has come as a novelist that I'm nit-picking and griping about the spy plot, which in her first few books served more as a backdrop to the romance than a principal player. As accomplished a writer as she now is, I can't help but feel that she should know better.
In terms of the writing itself, however, Blood Lily is Willig's best yet. Her prose, which was charming but light in her first book, has become nuanced, rich, and elegant. Her characters are vibrant and pointedly realized, her atmospheres are lush, and her descriptions--one in particular of a bloated corpse--at times approach the poetic. Her dialogue, always a strong point, is pitch-perfect and sparkles with echoes of Waugh and Wodehouse. And like Waugh (and occasionally Wodehouse) her writing is also earnest and poignant when called for. We may laugh when Penelope lays into Freddy but we cringe when he sets her down and betrays her trust. There is style, but there is also real emotional substance.
This series is one of my favorite guilty-pleasure reads. It's light without being too light--the intellectual's answer to the dime-store romance. Perhaps it won't come as a surprise that the series came about as an escape for Willig from her own dissertation research. It is by definition escapist literature, the perfect getaway for those of us who want to take a break from the real world and fall blissfully into the past where the men are swashbuckling and the women run the show.
Pierre de Ronsard, Renaissance France's answer to Ariosto, wrote: "History only recounts things the way they are, or were, without disguise or ornament,...the Poet contents himself with the plausible, to that which could be." This is what I see Willig, a former Ph. D. candidate, doing. She loves history, really loves it, to the point where she has to make it come alive and imagine what these people could have said, could have thought, could have done. Her books are impeccably researched down to the type of knee-breeches Lord Freddy would have worn and impeccably imagined down to what Lord Freddy would have said at breakfast. You can't help but feel that these characters must have lived and, what's more, you wish that they did. And that is what historical fiction is all about.
A merry romp and a surprisingly evocative and accomplished book. Grad students past and present especially ought to dive in, as here at last is a heroine (and author) who Understands. I can't believe I have to wait another year for the next one.
April 14, 2021
I didn't care for the first Pink Carnation book but I figured now that I knew what I was getting myself into, maybe I would swallow the story better. Lower expectations and all that.
Plus, this one came with a recommendation! And I do appreciate the recommendation because I want to like this series and it seemed like a good idea to plunge in with the story set in India. Less room for me to note historical inaccuracies.
And I didn't loathe it. I just felt generally meh.
I still find the interjections from the 21st century boring and unnecessary. But I now knew I could skim most of those.
It was the romance in the 19th century that didn't work for me. It could have been cute. But the story trades hard-won romance for a lust-fueled adultery and predictable misunderstandings.
I also struggled to follow the spy-story. Maybe I just didn't care as much. But I never bought the tension. Too many lecherous creeps floating around.
Plus, this one came with a recommendation! And I do appreciate the recommendation because I want to like this series and it seemed like a good idea to plunge in with the story set in India. Less room for me to note historical inaccuracies.
And I didn't loathe it. I just felt generally meh.
I still find the interjections from the 21st century boring and unnecessary. But I now knew I could skim most of those.
It was the romance in the 19th century that didn't work for me. It could have been cute. But the story trades hard-won romance for a lust-fueled adultery and predictable misunderstandings.
I also struggled to follow the spy-story. Maybe I just didn't care as much. But I never bought the tension. Too many lecherous creeps floating around.
October 23, 2017
After the fifth Pink Carnation book, I kind of felt like I needed a little break from the Pink Carnation series. And by little break I mean like five years….thats how long it’s been since I read one of the Pink Carnation books.
I love the series as a whole but the last book in the series that I read, just left me a little wanting in the uniqueness category.
So I abandoned it in favor of other books, though I always knew that someday I would come back to it because lets face it, I am in love with this series, but I needed little time to step away from it and come back to it in order to love it.
Granted five years seems excessive, but it happened eventually.
I picked up The English Wife also by Lauren Willig, though it is not connected to the Pink Carnation books, I easily fell in love with her writing and story in The English Wife. So much so that I was reminded why I love the Pink Carnation books…..superb story telling. So I picked up The Betrayal of the Blood Lily and went to town.
As I’ve mentioned before in my other reviews of the series, Willig has a kind of ‘formula’ that she uses in her Pink Carnation series…..strong aristocratic lady meets stubborn dashing bachelor in tights and they blunder through espionage 101 and ultimately end up having a HEA. While it’s formulaic, it doesn’t ring false for Willig because she always comes up with memorable and unique characters.
I never liked Penelope in the other books. She was kind of the resident ‘skank’. She was reckless and impulsive and I just wasn’t really into her, however I was interested to see how her ‘romance’ was going to play out in this book. Could Willig convince me that she was able to find true love based on what I had seen of her in the other books?
The short answer is yes.
I loved how Willig took the classic romance troupe and kind of made an anti romance of sorts. When we meet Penelope she is married to Freddy whose she was forced into a marriage with back in the fifth book I believe.
Freddy is positively useless and a complete jack ass. In the fifth book, Charlotte had said that maybe the marriage and removal to India would be the making of their marriage, so I thought that this book would be about them coming together but it was far from that. I literally couldn’t stand Freddy by the end of the first chapter. He was irritating, useless, and puffed up well above his station. I felt so bad for Penelope but at the same time, I wasn’t completely sorry for her.
Then we have Captain Alex Reid. Straight laced and noble. A man who can hardly stand the sight of Freddy. It became rather apparent that Penelope had designs on Alex but as a noble officer, he was inclined to pass on that situation. However against his better judgement, he finds himself being won over by Penelope.
I agree with Collin’s great aunt’s opinion of Penelope’s story…..it’s the most tragic. Penelope is so impulsive and self destructive at times that is boarders on disastrous. I loved how that played out in the developing romance between Alex and Penelope. It made for a completely different approach to romance than in some of the other Pink Carnation books. In this book, Penelope is very married and Alex is almost too noble when it comes to respecting women. Slowly I was just as won over as Alex and I appreciated the unique trope in this book. I didn’t find the adultery aspect distasteful at all, though others might not agree.
The only thing that I thought distracted from this novel was the Indian history. All the other Pink Carnation books are set in England. The last book’s hero was from India but it was still set in England so the landscape and politics were familiar. In this book that is not the case. I had a hard time following or appreciating the politics in India and basically the entire setting didn’t do a whole lot for me. It should have been this exotic and unique land but I felt like the setting was under utilized. I was more interested in the romance than anything else and as far as I can tell it was only set here to set up future books and characters. In my opinion, this could have been set in England as well but I guess if Willig wanted to give readers a break from the Western politics then India seemed like the next logical setting.
Over all this was a good book and I was reading well into the night. Even if I didn’t think it was as good as some of the others in the series, I still enjoyed it enough to start the next book immediately after closing the cover on this one.
See my full review here
I love the series as a whole but the last book in the series that I read, just left me a little wanting in the uniqueness category.
So I abandoned it in favor of other books, though I always knew that someday I would come back to it because lets face it, I am in love with this series, but I needed little time to step away from it and come back to it in order to love it.
Granted five years seems excessive, but it happened eventually.
I picked up The English Wife also by Lauren Willig, though it is not connected to the Pink Carnation books, I easily fell in love with her writing and story in The English Wife. So much so that I was reminded why I love the Pink Carnation books…..superb story telling. So I picked up The Betrayal of the Blood Lily and went to town.
As I’ve mentioned before in my other reviews of the series, Willig has a kind of ‘formula’ that she uses in her Pink Carnation series…..strong aristocratic lady meets stubborn dashing bachelor in tights and they blunder through espionage 101 and ultimately end up having a HEA. While it’s formulaic, it doesn’t ring false for Willig because she always comes up with memorable and unique characters.
I never liked Penelope in the other books. She was kind of the resident ‘skank’. She was reckless and impulsive and I just wasn’t really into her, however I was interested to see how her ‘romance’ was going to play out in this book. Could Willig convince me that she was able to find true love based on what I had seen of her in the other books?
The short answer is yes.
I loved how Willig took the classic romance troupe and kind of made an anti romance of sorts. When we meet Penelope she is married to Freddy whose she was forced into a marriage with back in the fifth book I believe.
Freddy is positively useless and a complete jack ass. In the fifth book, Charlotte had said that maybe the marriage and removal to India would be the making of their marriage, so I thought that this book would be about them coming together but it was far from that. I literally couldn’t stand Freddy by the end of the first chapter. He was irritating, useless, and puffed up well above his station. I felt so bad for Penelope but at the same time, I wasn’t completely sorry for her.
Then we have Captain Alex Reid. Straight laced and noble. A man who can hardly stand the sight of Freddy. It became rather apparent that Penelope had designs on Alex but as a noble officer, he was inclined to pass on that situation. However against his better judgement, he finds himself being won over by Penelope.
I agree with Collin’s great aunt’s opinion of Penelope’s story…..it’s the most tragic. Penelope is so impulsive and self destructive at times that is boarders on disastrous. I loved how that played out in the developing romance between Alex and Penelope. It made for a completely different approach to romance than in some of the other Pink Carnation books. In this book, Penelope is very married and Alex is almost too noble when it comes to respecting women. Slowly I was just as won over as Alex and I appreciated the unique trope in this book. I didn’t find the adultery aspect distasteful at all, though others might not agree.
The only thing that I thought distracted from this novel was the Indian history. All the other Pink Carnation books are set in England. The last book’s hero was from India but it was still set in England so the landscape and politics were familiar. In this book that is not the case. I had a hard time following or appreciating the politics in India and basically the entire setting didn’t do a whole lot for me. It should have been this exotic and unique land but I felt like the setting was under utilized. I was more interested in the romance than anything else and as far as I can tell it was only set here to set up future books and characters. In my opinion, this could have been set in England as well but I guess if Willig wanted to give readers a break from the Western politics then India seemed like the next logical setting.
Over all this was a good book and I was reading well into the night. Even if I didn’t think it was as good as some of the others in the series, I still enjoyed it enough to start the next book immediately after closing the cover on this one.
See my full review here
July 3, 2022
Enchanting and mysterious India is the setting for this latest in The Pink Carnation series and we have a bad girl paired with a squeaky clean heroic guy to track down the latest of Napoleon’s spies, The Marigold. Full of light banter, frivolity, and a good dose of romantic espionage, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily progresses the series.
This sixth book loosely connected with the previous ones takes another outlandish aristocratic society lady who is an unlikely preserver of Britain’s interests in India and pair her with a true blue honor-bound soldier.
Penelope Devereaux, flirtatious and frivolous society beauty gets herself into a situation where she is forced to marry rakish and profligate Lord Fred Staines. The tarnished pair are married and packed off to India. Freddie’s excesses only get worse and Penelope blossoms in her own unconventional way as to earn the notoriety and dubious respect of many for being able to out-ride, out-shoot, and out-do many a man let alone all the ladies. Then a certain French spies’ escapades draw her, not so willingly, into a shadowy world of danger and daring do next to a man she devotedly wants to seduce off his high horse. In the Hyderabad court full of intrigue, the French and British secretly battle for supremacy and it looks like the French will get the upper hand when gold and weapons go missing.
Captain Alex Reid feels the security work involving the newlywed Staines is the worst form of torture. Keeping Lord Freddie and Lady Staine out of trouble is more effort than he thought possible, but he has a job to do and British interests in India are in jeopardy if he doesn’t find a way to quash the Marigold’s efforts. He reluctantly accepts Penelope as partner and fights his attraction to a married woman.
In truth, I got things mixed up all around. At first, I thought this was to be another such as The Seduction of the Red Rose where two shady types are redeemed somewhat by their work helping their country. I thought the loose screw husband, Freddie, was to be rehabilitated and then I was made to understand that the pairing was with another man and he was far from black sheep-ish. Hmm, now I went from excited to wary. Penelope is a married woman no matter the fact that Freddie is worthless. I was none too pleased that she was set on seducing Alex. I suppose there are extenuating circumstances, but this didn’t set well with me and particularly how it came down.
There wasn’t as much historic India as I was hoping, but there was definitely enough to give pleasure. I love that Lauren Willig took us to a different locale and enjoyed the work to thwart the French spy, Marigold. Penelope was somewhat- okay, a lot- spoiled and I just wanted to thump her, but it went with her character. The sparks really flew between Penelope and Alex because they were such opposites, but both bright and able to banter off each other well.
All in all, this was a mixed bag. I liked and loved many elements in this one, but couldn’t get past the cheating. Just one of those things. Others might respond differently especially in the context of this story. I didn’t love this one, but I did like it in the end. Onward through this fun series.
This sixth book loosely connected with the previous ones takes another outlandish aristocratic society lady who is an unlikely preserver of Britain’s interests in India and pair her with a true blue honor-bound soldier.
Penelope Devereaux, flirtatious and frivolous society beauty gets herself into a situation where she is forced to marry rakish and profligate Lord Fred Staines. The tarnished pair are married and packed off to India. Freddie’s excesses only get worse and Penelope blossoms in her own unconventional way as to earn the notoriety and dubious respect of many for being able to out-ride, out-shoot, and out-do many a man let alone all the ladies. Then a certain French spies’ escapades draw her, not so willingly, into a shadowy world of danger and daring do next to a man she devotedly wants to seduce off his high horse. In the Hyderabad court full of intrigue, the French and British secretly battle for supremacy and it looks like the French will get the upper hand when gold and weapons go missing.
Captain Alex Reid feels the security work involving the newlywed Staines is the worst form of torture. Keeping Lord Freddie and Lady Staine out of trouble is more effort than he thought possible, but he has a job to do and British interests in India are in jeopardy if he doesn’t find a way to quash the Marigold’s efforts. He reluctantly accepts Penelope as partner and fights his attraction to a married woman.
In truth, I got things mixed up all around. At first, I thought this was to be another such as The Seduction of the Red Rose where two shady types are redeemed somewhat by their work helping their country. I thought the loose screw husband, Freddie, was to be rehabilitated and then I was made to understand that the pairing was with another man and he was far from black sheep-ish. Hmm, now I went from excited to wary. Penelope is a married woman no matter the fact that Freddie is worthless. I was none too pleased that she was set on seducing Alex. I suppose there are extenuating circumstances, but this didn’t set well with me and particularly how it came down.
There wasn’t as much historic India as I was hoping, but there was definitely enough to give pleasure. I love that Lauren Willig took us to a different locale and enjoyed the work to thwart the French spy, Marigold. Penelope was somewhat- okay, a lot- spoiled and I just wanted to thump her, but it went with her character. The sparks really flew between Penelope and Alex because they were such opposites, but both bright and able to banter off each other well.
All in all, this was a mixed bag. I liked and loved many elements in this one, but couldn’t get past the cheating. Just one of those things. Others might respond differently especially in the context of this story. I didn’t love this one, but I did like it in the end. Onward through this fun series.
January 3, 2010
I'm so happy I scored the ARC and got to read this before seeing a bunch of other reviews for it! Although its also a mixed blessing, because I'm (of course) already dying for the next one and now I just have to wait that much longer for it.
Anyway...on to my review.
Henrietta and Miles have been dethroned from the status of my favorites of the series. Alex and Penelope really got to me! I LOVE how they have all sorts of issues; I hate disgustingly perfect characters. Alex's issues rest mostly on his family and crazed sense of loyalty, while Penelope has a rather large mass of unresolved personal issues she wrestles with throughout the book. I really love the way Willig interpreted her character, and have a great respect for her ability to do so because I don't think most authors could have pulled it off. Just like Aunt Arabella told Eloise, she comes off as spirited, but she is also pretty weighted down with horribly low self worth. Like Alex comes to realize, the spirited, courageous Penelope is hidden behind the stone cold Lady Staines. He helps Penelope kick Lady Staines out on her ass, and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed reading about it! I love when authors can convey a real chemistry between characters, it comes off wanting more often then not. This series, however, never fails to deliver...I was blushing and getting warm fuzzies right along with Penelope.
And of course, there is the ever-wonderful Eloise and Colin. I think Eloise has to be one of my favorite characters of all time. She is bumbling, awkward...and also loyal, charming, and absolutely hilarious. I will never give up hoping they will get their own book one of these days. I hate only getting short glimpses into their world, I want more!
Anyway...this series as a whole is just fabulous. The settings are always historically sound, the characters and their feelings always believable, there is always an abundance of delightfully biting wit, and some of the capers these people get into are ridiculous enough to be on the point of spoof (I don't mean spoof in a bad way - I mean it as in the characters are channeling the spirit of Amelia Peabody), but real enough to put you on the edge of your seat. In short, this series has it all. And this one, for me, was the best of the lot so far.
There was one thing- toward the end, Alex and Penelope rush off somewhere in a hurry, so she just jumps on his horse with him, but then when they are leaving, their horses (plural) are waiting for them. But, I do just have the ARC, so maybe it was cleared up? *shrug* small potatoes, either way.
Anyway...on to my review.
Henrietta and Miles have been dethroned from the status of my favorites of the series. Alex and Penelope really got to me! I LOVE how they have all sorts of issues; I hate disgustingly perfect characters. Alex's issues rest mostly on his family and crazed sense of loyalty, while Penelope has a rather large mass of unresolved personal issues she wrestles with throughout the book. I really love the way Willig interpreted her character, and have a great respect for her ability to do so because I don't think most authors could have pulled it off. Just like Aunt Arabella told Eloise, she comes off as spirited, but she is also pretty weighted down with horribly low self worth. Like Alex comes to realize, the spirited, courageous Penelope is hidden behind the stone cold Lady Staines. He helps Penelope kick Lady Staines out on her ass, and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed reading about it! I love when authors can convey a real chemistry between characters, it comes off wanting more often then not. This series, however, never fails to deliver...I was blushing and getting warm fuzzies right along with Penelope.
And of course, there is the ever-wonderful Eloise and Colin. I think Eloise has to be one of my favorite characters of all time. She is bumbling, awkward...and also loyal, charming, and absolutely hilarious. I will never give up hoping they will get their own book one of these days. I hate only getting short glimpses into their world, I want more!
Anyway...this series as a whole is just fabulous. The settings are always historically sound, the characters and their feelings always believable, there is always an abundance of delightfully biting wit, and some of the capers these people get into are ridiculous enough to be on the point of spoof (I don't mean spoof in a bad way - I mean it as in the characters are channeling the spirit of Amelia Peabody), but real enough to put you on the edge of your seat. In short, this series has it all. And this one, for me, was the best of the lot so far.
There was one thing- toward the end, Alex and Penelope rush off somewhere in a hurry, so she just jumps on his horse with him, but then when they are leaving, their horses (plural) are waiting for them. But, I do just have the ARC, so maybe it was cleared up? *shrug* small potatoes, either way.
July 26, 2021
I was delighted that this series was headed to India, although pre British Raj, so not the stuff of M.M. Kaye or various PBS shows. Alex was absolutely the best hero of the Pink series so far!
March 10, 2022
I am actually going to raise my rating from three to four stars on this reread. Something about Penelope's isolation really spoke to me, and her evolving relationship with Alex and herself was really nice to read. I had forgotten just how absurd the Selwick family relations were and did not entirely enjoy that aspect of the book upon reread, which is unusual for me because I really do love Colin and Eloise throughout the series. Also, !!!! I love him so.
Series Ranking:
1. The Masque of the Black Tulip
2. The Seduction of the Crimson Rose
3. The Deception of the Emerald Ring
4. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily
5. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
6. The Temptation of the Night Jasmine
Series Ranking:
1. The Masque of the Black Tulip
2. The Seduction of the Crimson Rose
3. The Deception of the Emerald Ring
4. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily
5. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
6. The Temptation of the Night Jasmine
January 18, 2013
While I’m rating this one 2 stars, it’s more like a “meh” than an ‘it’s okay’. To clarify, that amounts to about a 1.5 star. Anyway, I just think Willig should have stopped the series at The Seduction of the Crimson Rose (#4). I felt like The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (#5) was rather pointless. It only served to bring the Hell Fire Club into existence so that Willig could continue the mystery plotline in the rest of the series. However, this story line has fallen by the wayside. I feel like Willig is just stretching at this point.
Also, the modern story with Eloise and Collin continues to irk me. As I predicted in my Temptation of the Night Jasmine review the progress on the relationship is inching forward. Eloise has become more meddlesome by playing matchmaker for Serena and delving further into Colin’s family and his career. Her constant reminders that Colin is her boyfriend made me want to bitchslap her. Her commentary and constant musings made me want to double that bitchslap. So yeah, she’s not my favorite character as this point, which is a shame considering Eloise is a constant protagonist.
As for the historical couple, I thought the story line would be good since Penelope was a fun bitchy character in the previous books. It was nice getting to know her, but then she turned super bitch in the end for no reason or at least no justifiable reason in my opinion. I don’t want to go into details to prevent spoilers, but the storyline was horribly predictable and the love match was just okay.
Bottom line is if I didn’t have the next 2 books in the series listed for a challenge I probably would drop this series. I’m hoping that the series picks up, but I don’t really have any expectations at this point.
Also, the modern story with Eloise and Collin continues to irk me. As I predicted in my Temptation of the Night Jasmine review the progress on the relationship is inching forward. Eloise has become more meddlesome by playing matchmaker for Serena and delving further into Colin’s family and his career. Her constant reminders that Colin is her boyfriend made me want to bitchslap her. Her commentary and constant musings made me want to double that bitchslap. So yeah, she’s not my favorite character as this point, which is a shame considering Eloise is a constant protagonist.
As for the historical couple, I thought the story line would be good since Penelope was a fun bitchy character in the previous books. It was nice getting to know her, but then she turned super bitch in the end for no reason or at least no justifiable reason in my opinion. I don’t want to go into details to prevent spoilers, but the storyline was horribly predictable and the love match was just okay.
Bottom line is if I didn’t have the next 2 books in the series listed for a challenge I probably would drop this series. I’m hoping that the series picks up, but I don’t really have any expectations at this point.
August 14, 2021
I really enjoyed this seventh book in the Pink Carnation series. Set in India, this book transported the reader to a different country, climate, and culture. Willig did an excellent job of making a likeable heroine out of Penelope Deveraux, who appeared somewhat snarky in the previous books. Her edginess and tendency to take risks became more understandable as her character was explored in depth in Blood Lily. Willig also introduced a new male hero in the character of Alex Reid, stationed in India and sensitive to the native population. He was not the typical British soldier portrayed during this time period, as he had grown up in India and had three half siblings.
Reid's family members become featured in later books in this series.
Sent to India with her new husband, Penelope is now Lady Frederick Staines since she allowed herself to be compromised in the previous book. Some time away from England is supposed to allow this scandal to gradually die down. However, this is not a marriage of love, and Penelope soon finds herself at odds with her husband. Enter Alex Reid, the Army Captain who is leading the couple to their new station in Hyderabad. He is not quite sure how to take the bold Lady Frederick, but doesn't like the way her husband treats her. Along with the culture clash, this novel contains a mystery of stolen guns, missing treasure, and French spies. All weave together in a plot rich with description of the Indian society, topography, and exotic plants and animals, including crocodiles and cobras.
I enjoyed this book just as much on a second reread. Loved the India setting!
Reid's family members become featured in later books in this series.
Sent to India with her new husband, Penelope is now Lady Frederick Staines since she allowed herself to be compromised in the previous book. Some time away from England is supposed to allow this scandal to gradually die down. However, this is not a marriage of love, and Penelope soon finds herself at odds with her husband. Enter Alex Reid, the Army Captain who is leading the couple to their new station in Hyderabad. He is not quite sure how to take the bold Lady Frederick, but doesn't like the way her husband treats her. Along with the culture clash, this novel contains a mystery of stolen guns, missing treasure, and French spies. All weave together in a plot rich with description of the Indian society, topography, and exotic plants and animals, including crocodiles and cobras.
I enjoyed this book just as much on a second reread. Loved the India setting!
April 8, 2020
I noticed the next parish orphans book mentioned India, and my brain immediately flashed back to this book. So I went back to the beginning of the series and skimmed everything that sounded interesting. Skimming - rereading - frothy and funny stuff - it seems to be the only thing my brain can focus on right now. And this series is really entertaining! I’d forgotten how much I liked Jane, hovering in the background like a deadpan, freakishly competent actual spy (albeit one who awarded herself her job?), counterbalancing the outrageousness of all the flowers sprouting up everywhere. The tone is like that: too glib and outrageous to be taken seriously, and the couples are like that, too. (One exception before this one: Mary’s book. I liked that one a lot.)
And then I got to this book, which does center on India, and which doesn’t have Jane. And I like it so much. Willig is at her best, I think, when she’s writing characters like Penelope (or Mary): she’s not cute and perky, and there’s a sense of real pain lurking beneath the surface that allows this book to be more than spy hijinks in India. It’s so well done, in fact, that I found this not to be a spy story at all: this is Penelope’s story, and it’s prickly and difficult and great reading.
And then I got to this book, which does center on India, and which doesn’t have Jane. And I like it so much. Willig is at her best, I think, when she’s writing characters like Penelope (or Mary): she’s not cute and perky, and there’s a sense of real pain lurking beneath the surface that allows this book to be more than spy hijinks in India. It’s so well done, in fact, that I found this not to be a spy story at all: this is Penelope’s story, and it’s prickly and difficult and great reading.
December 1, 2009
But really more like 4.5 stars...we really need half stars on here. Anyway, the sixth installment of the Pink Carnation series does not disappoint and I think it might even get more new readers, seeing as it is set in India and does not rely overly heavily on past events. I also really enjoy Penelope as a heroine and with her starting out the book already married to a man she doesn't love we are in a far different position that previous novels. Instead of an innocent happy virginal character, we have someone a little flirty and a little bitter and very much taken. Of course there are spies and intrigues, but it's the witty banter and interaction between Penelope and Alex Reid (the "hero") that make this book great. Plus India, very exciting and exotic compared to England, Ireland or France. Only problem is...now that I've read it I want another and this one isn't even technically out till January!!!
Also I'm now giving away this book on my blog:http://strange-and-random-happenstanc...
Also I'm now giving away this book on my blog:http://strange-and-random-happenstanc...
September 10, 2018
This book reminds me why I like Willig's writing so much. The Pink Carnation universe has gotten rather large by this point, but her characters all seem so very different. In some series, the author's leads can fall into a particular type where Willig's all speak in unique voices.
In this installment, Penelope Staines has been essentially forced into marriage (an unhappy one, as it turns out) and banished to India with her husband, where he has a diplomatic assignment of sorts in Hyderabad. Captain Alex Reid is an officer's son and after growing up in India, has followed in his father's footsteps. He's very down to earth and sensible, and has little patience for his current job of escorting ignorant aristocrats to Hyderabad.
Given the rules of society at the time, the growing attraction between Penelope and Alex is very problematic and the fact that most readers know what will have to happen for these two to ever get together does cast something of a pall over the story. And yet this storyline really lets readers understand Penelope more than in previous books. She has always been high-spirited and has often gotten herself into scrapes or made a subject of gossip. However, in this book the author explores her motivations and this made me like her much more.
The characters really make this book, and I did enjoy learning more about some areas of history with which I wasn't very familiar. This is not an "India is exotic and there are exotic sexytimes to be had here" kind of romantic novel. The author devotes quite a bit of time to making sure readers understand that India is a country with a large number of different languages and traditions, and while there aren't any big infodumps, there are plenty of references to the historical period, including some of the more problematic elements such as the racist treatment of Indian and Anglo-Indian people.
In this installment, Penelope Staines has been essentially forced into marriage (an unhappy one, as it turns out) and banished to India with her husband, where he has a diplomatic assignment of sorts in Hyderabad. Captain Alex Reid is an officer's son and after growing up in India, has followed in his father's footsteps. He's very down to earth and sensible, and has little patience for his current job of escorting ignorant aristocrats to Hyderabad.
Given the rules of society at the time, the growing attraction between Penelope and Alex is very problematic and the fact that most readers know what will have to happen for these two to ever get together does cast something of a pall over the story. And yet this storyline really lets readers understand Penelope more than in previous books. She has always been high-spirited and has often gotten herself into scrapes or made a subject of gossip. However, in this book the author explores her motivations and this made me like her much more.
The characters really make this book, and I did enjoy learning more about some areas of history with which I wasn't very familiar. This is not an "India is exotic and there are exotic sexytimes to be had here" kind of romantic novel. The author devotes quite a bit of time to making sure readers understand that India is a country with a large number of different languages and traditions, and while there aren't any big infodumps, there are plenty of references to the historical period, including some of the more problematic elements such as the racist treatment of Indian and Anglo-Indian people.
July 27, 2019
So sad, so sexy!! I was a little bit anxious of the setting being a historical romance in a setting like India makes me nervous but this wasn't as bad as I expected to be, but there were still moments of hm - in terms of how characters described the setting but that's like what it is considering they're English people. But anyway, I really liked Penelope and Alex's relationship and how it progressed from antagonism to actual love! I liked how active Penelope was in this in unraveling the mystery and how Alex came to rely on that insight. Penelope is just so damn cool. The progression of Eloise and Colin's relationship is also extremely relevant to my interests and I like how they're coming along even if I feel that they get drowned out by everything else but I love them anyway.
July 13, 2025
Political intrigue - not my thing 2 stars
Happy ending - definitely my thing - 4 stars
Average - 3 stars
Happy ending - definitely my thing - 4 stars
Average - 3 stars
January 13, 2010
Penelope is forced to marry Freddy through her own flirtation gone awry. As Serena Selwick-Adderly says of Penelope; she's a bit of a "lost soul". There are none that think of her that way accept for Captain Alex Reid - the guard that takes charge of Freddy and Pen's travels to Hyderabad, the place where Freddy has a cushy job with a title he hasn't deserved.
Freddy doesn't love his wife and Pen most certaintly doesn't love her husband, hell, she doesn't even like him but there are ways that a marriage of convenience can hurt and Freddy knows how to twist the knife in. What no one expects, lease of all Alex, is that Penelope is daring, brave, stubborn, impetous, regal and hard but most of all she's just a young woman who feels alone. She acts out and sells herself cheaply when she's more than what she thinks and more than what most people assume. A crackshot, a horsewoman, a seductress and witty - Penelope meets her match with Alex.
Unfortunately it's a case of bad timing, or is it? Alex is the epitome of an honorable service man. He's a protector and believes in Penelope when even she doesn't. Of course, he has his own flaws and his own demons, most noticeably in the form of his brother.
India, beautiful but wild, untamed with parts of civilization and hot with bits of staggering coolness best describe Penelope and Alex, a British born child who had grown up in India, it's the perfect match.
Except for the husband, the spies and the politics. There is aspy going by the flowery-epitaph of the Marigold. Which one of Freddy's weasly friend's could it be? Or is it any of them? Could it be Alex? Is it Pen? Lots of accusations and suspicions abound but the core of this book isn't the spy story or the adventures. It's a lost little girl who was made a woman too soon through her own recklessness and treatment and a man who has a fierce love but no one he deems good enough to share it with.
There are twists and turns and it's all well worth it. The story, the landscape and the characters seem to come out of the page and grasp your attention with both hands. Willig has mentioned how much she loves and admires Georgette Heyer and I have a funny idea that Ms. Heyer would like this series as well.
Though this is more a standalone book with none of the core characters in it, there is one character that does show up toward the end and is a nice foil for Penelope's brusque blunt manner.
As with every book in this series, it is a story within a story and I must admit that I was a little bored with Eloise and Colin until their last two chapters. That might be part of the problems with carrying two stories, especially when the modern story is used as a vehicle to get the main historical story across, but I felt like Eloise and Colin fell a littel flat this time around. Let's hope they pick it up in the next book.
I did miss Jane and Henrietta but Penelope, with all of her faults, was a good enough heroine for me to overlook them for 396 pages.
Freddy doesn't love his wife and Pen most certaintly doesn't love her husband, hell, she doesn't even like him but there are ways that a marriage of convenience can hurt and Freddy knows how to twist the knife in. What no one expects, lease of all Alex, is that Penelope is daring, brave, stubborn, impetous, regal and hard but most of all she's just a young woman who feels alone. She acts out and sells herself cheaply when she's more than what she thinks and more than what most people assume. A crackshot, a horsewoman, a seductress and witty - Penelope meets her match with Alex.
Unfortunately it's a case of bad timing, or is it? Alex is the epitome of an honorable service man. He's a protector and believes in Penelope when even she doesn't. Of course, he has his own flaws and his own demons, most noticeably in the form of his brother.
India, beautiful but wild, untamed with parts of civilization and hot with bits of staggering coolness best describe Penelope and Alex, a British born child who had grown up in India, it's the perfect match.
Except for the husband, the spies and the politics. There is aspy going by the flowery-epitaph of the Marigold. Which one of Freddy's weasly friend's could it be? Or is it any of them? Could it be Alex? Is it Pen? Lots of accusations and suspicions abound but the core of this book isn't the spy story or the adventures. It's a lost little girl who was made a woman too soon through her own recklessness and treatment and a man who has a fierce love but no one he deems good enough to share it with.
There are twists and turns and it's all well worth it. The story, the landscape and the characters seem to come out of the page and grasp your attention with both hands. Willig has mentioned how much she loves and admires Georgette Heyer and I have a funny idea that Ms. Heyer would like this series as well.
Though this is more a standalone book with none of the core characters in it, there is one character that does show up toward the end and is a nice foil for Penelope's brusque blunt manner.
As with every book in this series, it is a story within a story and I must admit that I was a little bored with Eloise and Colin until their last two chapters. That might be part of the problems with carrying two stories, especially when the modern story is used as a vehicle to get the main historical story across, but I felt like Eloise and Colin fell a littel flat this time around. Let's hope they pick it up in the next book.
I did miss Jane and Henrietta but Penelope, with all of her faults, was a good enough heroine for me to overlook them for 396 pages.
June 21, 2010
This was my last audiobook for the year--I finished it Wednesday and school finished Saturday. I get a huge kick out of Willig's books, as they seem like novels my sister and I would've written in our early teens, when we devoured huge stacks of Georgette Heyer and Elswyth Thane and the like. This one, however, goes a bit too far in suspending our disbelief.
The main character, Penelope, is pretty unlikable. We only know her as being bitter and self-pitying, and we never get to see a more endearing side. Her willingness to have an affair while married was something I had real trouble overcoming--especially since her lover had the same trouble, and then suddenly had no trouble at all. Since part of Pen's husband's lack of appeal was his lack of fidelity, wouldn't the author expect us to dislike both Penelope AND Alex as well, since they disport themselves (in some thoroughly described scenes. . . cringe. . . . one drawback of audiobooks!) for four days in the same way the despised husband does?
The big strike against the book, however, is that it is marginally historical fiction, but this time Willig casts all historical accuracy to the winds. In a country where servants were expected and everywhere, Alex and Penelope slip out to travel for four days without any--not even a faithful groom or a valet. Penelope, pampered since birth, seems to be fully capable of dressing and taking care of herself, and there seems to be no question raised by the idea that these two would travel unaccompanied. Add to that the fact that they seem to function extremely well on maybe two hours of sleep for days on end--no one ever collapses and sleeps like the drugged for two days, which seems cheating to me--and that the heat has no effect on either of them, and you get a story that had me wincing and saying, "Yes, but. . .!!" much more than I should've been.
Usually, Willig's deft humor and historical detail make her stories something my sister and I couldn't have written at age 13 and 15. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily, however, we could have.
The main character, Penelope, is pretty unlikable. We only know her as being bitter and self-pitying, and we never get to see a more endearing side. Her willingness to have an affair while married was something I had real trouble overcoming--especially since her lover had the same trouble, and then suddenly had no trouble at all. Since part of Pen's husband's lack of appeal was his lack of fidelity, wouldn't the author expect us to dislike both Penelope AND Alex as well, since they disport themselves (in some thoroughly described scenes. . . cringe. . . . one drawback of audiobooks!) for four days in the same way the despised husband does?
The big strike against the book, however, is that it is marginally historical fiction, but this time Willig casts all historical accuracy to the winds. In a country where servants were expected and everywhere, Alex and Penelope slip out to travel for four days without any--not even a faithful groom or a valet. Penelope, pampered since birth, seems to be fully capable of dressing and taking care of herself, and there seems to be no question raised by the idea that these two would travel unaccompanied. Add to that the fact that they seem to function extremely well on maybe two hours of sleep for days on end--no one ever collapses and sleeps like the drugged for two days, which seems cheating to me--and that the heat has no effect on either of them, and you get a story that had me wincing and saying, "Yes, but. . .!!" much more than I should've been.
Usually, Willig's deft humor and historical detail make her stories something my sister and I couldn't have written at age 13 and 15. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily, however, we could have.
November 26, 2011
I filed this under "frothy romance," but there's really nothing frothy about this. Willig goes very dark for this story of Penelope and how she finally finds love. This may be the best Pink Carnation book to date.
The thing I most like about Willig's series as it continues is that each story has a very different tone depending on the main characters. While some are romps (The Mischief of the Mistletoe is the prime example in this category), others are much more serious, such as this one and Crimson Rose.
Penelope has always been somewhat thorny and abrasive; this book allows us to see things through her eyes and understand why she is the way she is. As she journeys through India with a truly terrible husband who is spending the way through her dowry, one is left to wonder: how many women found themselves in this situation? Could they ever find a level of freedom? And how on earth did they survive wearing wool dresses during the summer in India?
Alex Reid, our hero, has a life that similarly reveal the world of complexities that Indian-born British colonists had to navigate, and his family life showed the many difficulties faced by the mixed-heritage children of colonists. Willig made Alex's dilemmas accessible and easy to empathize with.
The mystery was not predictable; I was not even sure who the villain was until the scene in which he's revealed. Willig also adds in several characters who would be worthy of books of their own, including Alex's younger half-brother.
There's a cut scene between Alex and Charlotte's husband (the Duke of Dovedale) on the website that I really wish had been in the book; it establishes that they knew each other and gives more perspective on Penelope.
I rolled my eyes at the Colin and Eloise bits; it didn't seem very intriguing at the time. But it all pays off in "The Orchid Affair."
At the end of this book, I found that I wanted to read more of Alex and Penelope's adventures, and more about the people that surrounded them in India. I hope that Willig finds a way to revisit them.
The thing I most like about Willig's series as it continues is that each story has a very different tone depending on the main characters. While some are romps (The Mischief of the Mistletoe is the prime example in this category), others are much more serious, such as this one and Crimson Rose.
Penelope has always been somewhat thorny and abrasive; this book allows us to see things through her eyes and understand why she is the way she is. As she journeys through India with a truly terrible husband who is spending the way through her dowry, one is left to wonder: how many women found themselves in this situation? Could they ever find a level of freedom? And how on earth did they survive wearing wool dresses during the summer in India?
Alex Reid, our hero, has a life that similarly reveal the world of complexities that Indian-born British colonists had to navigate, and his family life showed the many difficulties faced by the mixed-heritage children of colonists. Willig made Alex's dilemmas accessible and easy to empathize with.
The mystery was not predictable; I was not even sure who the villain was until the scene in which he's revealed. Willig also adds in several characters who would be worthy of books of their own, including Alex's younger half-brother.
There's a cut scene between Alex and Charlotte's husband (the Duke of Dovedale) on the website that I really wish had been in the book; it establishes that they knew each other and gives more perspective on Penelope.
I rolled my eyes at the Colin and Eloise bits; it didn't seem very intriguing at the time. But it all pays off in "The Orchid Affair."
At the end of this book, I found that I wanted to read more of Alex and Penelope's adventures, and more about the people that surrounded them in India. I hope that Willig finds a way to revisit them.
March 14, 2014
This historical fiction, set in 19th century India, has all the ingredients of an intrigue-filled adventure-romance. The author provides authentic insights into the politics of the times and sweeps us right into the durbar of the Nizam of Hyderabad and gives us a feel of Begum Johnson's lavish parties in Calcutta.
There is a contemporary angle to the story as well. The protagonist of the modern times is an American researcher, Eloise, whose history project takes her to England where she meets Colin even as she delves into the life and times of Lady Penelope Staines and her troubled relationship with her husband Lord Frederick Staines. The story flits between Penelope and Eloise's lives.
Penelope is by far the most interesting character who clearly has a mind of her own and an acerbic tongue to match. Her impulsive nature, which causes her much grief in upper crust English society, also lands her in trouble when she accompanies her husband to India. Soon she finds herself matching wits with the Nizam's wily prime minister, chasing a French spy who goes by the name of Marigold, besides falling in love with the straight as an arrow Captain Reid.
The only drawback in this well-researched and beautifully written story of adventure and romance is the contemporary thread which doesn't quite add much to the narrative and could have been easily done away with. I do hope the author will write a book about Captain Reid's half-brother, Jack, who is modelled on the real-life persona of Anglo-Indian mercenary Colonel James Skinner. Looking forward to reading more of Lauren Willig's work.
There is a contemporary angle to the story as well. The protagonist of the modern times is an American researcher, Eloise, whose history project takes her to England where she meets Colin even as she delves into the life and times of Lady Penelope Staines and her troubled relationship with her husband Lord Frederick Staines. The story flits between Penelope and Eloise's lives.
Penelope is by far the most interesting character who clearly has a mind of her own and an acerbic tongue to match. Her impulsive nature, which causes her much grief in upper crust English society, also lands her in trouble when she accompanies her husband to India. Soon she finds herself matching wits with the Nizam's wily prime minister, chasing a French spy who goes by the name of Marigold, besides falling in love with the straight as an arrow Captain Reid.
The only drawback in this well-researched and beautifully written story of adventure and romance is the contemporary thread which doesn't quite add much to the narrative and could have been easily done away with. I do hope the author will write a book about Captain Reid's half-brother, Jack, who is modelled on the real-life persona of Anglo-Indian mercenary Colonel James Skinner. Looking forward to reading more of Lauren Willig's work.
May 24, 2010
Another fluffy installment in Willig's formulaic series of semi-sympathetic lovers battling French spies during the Napoleonic wars. The basic concept is that following the successes of the The Scarlet Pimpernel a bunch of other English aristocrats also took floral code names and skulked around defeating the Froggies. In this instance the story is set in India and the espionage plot is rather minimal. Penelope is newly and unhappily married to jackass Freddy and, bored with her neglectful husband, decides to entertain herself by searching for some of those nasty French spies she heard about from her girlfriends (one wonders if any of these people ever keep any secrets). Mostly she alternately flirts and quarrels with English officers. I gather Penelope has appeared at least in passing in previous volumes, but I don't recollect her. Likewise, when her friend Charlotte shows up late in the book I couldn't remember her, either, despite her having been the protagonist of the previous book, which I read less than a year ago. She was one of the soggier heroines, and these books are awfully similar...
The main thing that stood out in this one was that in the frame narrative of Eloise, the grad student researching these spies, more relatives of her boyfriend Colin are introduced. Oh and just as a minor point of complaint: I didn't catch anyone using the titular codename. What's up with that?
The main thing that stood out in this one was that in the frame narrative of Eloise, the grad student researching these spies, more relatives of her boyfriend Colin are introduced. Oh and just as a minor point of complaint: I didn't catch anyone using the titular codename. What's up with that?
March 11, 2016
Les débuts furent laborieux et ont nécessité toute une pause déjeuner sur wikipédia pour me familiariser avec l'histoire de l'Inde du début du 19éme! Mais alors, les efforts en valaient la peine!
Après un roman très conte de fée avec l'histoire de Charlotte et Robert, Lauren Willig nous dépeint ici une romance bien plus adulte!
Alex et Penelope sont loin d'être naïfs mais conscients de ce qu'ils sont, de leurs qualités et de leur défauts. Alex est parfait! Penelope est un peu comme Mary (dans le tome Vaughn/ Mary) consciente de ce qu'est la place d'une femme dans la société et de ce qu'elle ne souhaite pas être.
Ensemble, ils sont très touchants. Par contre, j'avoue ne pas m'être intéressée à Eloise (un peu trop TSL à mon goût depuis quelques tomes) et Colin. Leur intrigue est un peu WTF.
Bref, une fois encore Lauren Willig m'a surprise livrant une histoire différente des autres.
Après un roman très conte de fée avec l'histoire de Charlotte et Robert, Lauren Willig nous dépeint ici une romance bien plus adulte!
Alex et Penelope sont loin d'être naïfs mais conscients de ce qu'ils sont, de leurs qualités et de leur défauts. Alex est parfait! Penelope est un peu comme Mary (dans le tome Vaughn/ Mary) consciente de ce qu'est la place d'une femme dans la société et de ce qu'elle ne souhaite pas être.
Ensemble, ils sont très touchants. Par contre, j'avoue ne pas m'être intéressée à Eloise (un peu trop TSL à mon goût depuis quelques tomes) et Colin. Leur intrigue est un peu WTF.
Bref, une fois encore Lauren Willig m'a surprise livrant une histoire différente des autres.
June 29, 2010
this is the sixth in the series and an interesting change of scenery.
we are taken to india with lady frederick when her husband, frederick, is appointed a post.
penelope staines has been duped into her marriage and doesn't really love frederick thus one can anticipate what will happen when we are introduced to the dashing captain reid.
the contemporary story of historian eloise plods along too slowly for me. i want to know more of what is happening with her.
it seems the more books that become part of the series, the less of eloise's story we get.
and i'd like to see more of the hijinx that took place in the previous novels. this one really seems to kind of ebb into the climax without much really happening.
we are taken to india with lady frederick when her husband, frederick, is appointed a post.
penelope staines has been duped into her marriage and doesn't really love frederick thus one can anticipate what will happen when we are introduced to the dashing captain reid.
the contemporary story of historian eloise plods along too slowly for me. i want to know more of what is happening with her.
it seems the more books that become part of the series, the less of eloise's story we get.
and i'd like to see more of the hijinx that took place in the previous novels. this one really seems to kind of ebb into the climax without much really happening.
March 25, 2017
A fantastic mix of historical romance and spy thriller with a bit of contemporary chick-lit mixed in.
The story is lightly about a modern American woman studying in London as she looks for resources for her dissertation on female spies in the Napoleonic wars; she ends up finding a note about a woman whose adventure takes place in India and thus is the historial romance/thriller interwoven into a contemporary story.
The parts that take place in modern times felt a bit forced at times (particularly when they cut into the engrossing historical plot), but I loved the historical part so much that I can forgive that.
I particularly appreciate that you can read it and understand everything despite it being book 6 in a series. It might as well be a stand alone volume.
The story is lightly about a modern American woman studying in London as she looks for resources for her dissertation on female spies in the Napoleonic wars; she ends up finding a note about a woman whose adventure takes place in India and thus is the historial romance/thriller interwoven into a contemporary story.
The parts that take place in modern times felt a bit forced at times (particularly when they cut into the engrossing historical plot), but I loved the historical part so much that I can forgive that.
I particularly appreciate that you can read it and understand everything despite it being book 6 in a series. It might as well be a stand alone volume.
May 8, 2021
A vast improvement from Willig's prior outing. Unlike her friend Charlotte, Penelope could never be mistaken as simpering. Or shy. Or boring. Her "boyish" interests in shooting, riding, and self-sufficiency make her more palatable to modern readers. Add early 19th-cent. India and you get an entertaining historical romance.
May 2, 2025
This book was entertaining and well written and I enjoyed Penelope and Alex. The author clearly did her research about the England and India and wove in a ton of details. Which ultimately makes this more of a historical novel, with a love story woven in, not a historical romance. There are a LOT of characters and a few times, that got confusing. Penelope and Alex have good chemistry although by the time they get together, it’s a little bland. The build up was great so I guess I wanted more. The one thing I was not expecting was the modern day timeline that kept breaking the story up. There is no mention of a dual timeline on the back of the book, either. And it really doesn’t need to be there (i think this is part of a series and maybe Eloise and Colin and the modern story ties the series?). It just took away from the flow of the historical side and that really turned me off.
November 24, 2025
Now I remember why I'm reading this series. This was full of adventure, fun and all the best kinds of excitement. The adultery didn't bother me nearly as much as it no doubt should have.
I particularly enjoy the way Willig leaves little gems of real history and characters throughout these books.
James Kirkpatrick actually was British Resident of Hyderabad and he did marry a local woman named Khair-un-Nissa, when she was 14! Their story is a sad one.
Meme Recamier was a French socialite who was married when she was 15 to a man thirty years older than her who was later rumored to be her natural father!
Truth really is stranger than fiction.
I particularly enjoy the way Willig leaves little gems of real history and characters throughout these books.
James Kirkpatrick actually was British Resident of Hyderabad and he did marry a local woman named Khair-un-Nissa, when she was 14! Their story is a sad one.
Meme Recamier was a French socialite who was married when she was 15 to a man thirty years older than her who was later rumored to be her natural father!
Truth really is stranger than fiction.
March 23, 2024
Willing's spy flowers move to India. Again a well thought out and fun read.
April 23, 2019
Never, ever disappointed by Lauren Willig...EVER! Storylines following history with twists, turns, turmoil and love! Another outstanding episode of The Pink Carnation!
April 5, 2024
Sixth book of the series! We journey along with Penelope in the wake of the disaster that occurred in the periphery of the fifth book, when she blurted out she had been in the bedroom with one Frederick Staines. To save her reputation and the tattered remnants of her honour, she’s immediately married off and he’s given a position in India, to which they both promptly sail. Things don’t go so easily for her with regards to her brand new husband, and she, like the other women of this series, find herself embroiled in spy work.
I wasn’t really feeling this one, alas, and certainly not in the wake of the previous two. I thought it would be much like Mary, where I didn’t like her before but came around in the course of the book. That didn’t happen. All Penelope did was flirt incessantly. I get that she views herself in terms of her sensuality, but she continued to do it even toward the love interest Captain Alex Reid before, during, and after she had captured his attention. It just felt so hollow. I didn’t really believe that it would have mattered who picked up her flirtations; it could have been anyone, it seemed like—even the pox-y Fiske—so long as someone gave her the attention she wanted. If she had dropped it sooner, or more quickly put feeling into it when attempting to woo Alex, I would have come around, but she didn’t.
Her attitude, too, drove me mad. She was constantly picking and sniping. It wasn’t cute as it can be in some instances but rather irksome, and when she wasn’t doing that she was spying, eavesdropping, and making wild accusations. It was just really hard to feel for her, because Mary was much the same way but one got a sense she DID want Vaughn whereas with Penelope we were more TOLD she wanted Alex. It took so long for them to even reach a point of warmth rather than hostility, and most of that happened off the page, like how we were told they rode every morning. Why not show some of that? Give us some soft scenes of them bantering rather than sparring, or having stirring longing. These books need to make me FEEL, to yearn with them, but there wasn’t anything there and I felt a little bored, to be honest.
As for the adultery: so many people have taken issue with this and I say: get a fucking grip. How would YOU handle living in a time where you wait until marriage to have sex (when so many people love their Tinder hookups and one night stands and FWB and situationships and polyamory) and you can and often were married off without much warning and to people you didn’t love, didn’t like, and were trapped until you or they died? Divorce didn’t become an easy (easier) concept until I believe the 1920s and it was almost impossible to obtain one prior to that time, especially for the woman seeking an escape, and they would be left virtually destitute and with a shattered reputation. How would YOU feel to be married to a man who doesn’t do any of the gentlemanly gestures expected of his station like making certain a woman is comfortable at a party or assisting her from a carriage and when he does he’s perfunctory, impatient, and snaps about it, is a drunk, gambles away your dowry, does drugs, indulges in orgies, ignores you to openly ogle women in public, installs his mistress in YOUR OWN HOME, and RAPED A FOURTEEN YEAR OLD CHILD who then subsequently got a venereal disease, dying with the child she obtained from the horrors she endured? Not only that but YOU also face the prospect of being raped if you don’t submit to him as well as the probability of eventually acquiring a disease that could rot your nose off and infect your brain, driving you to madness. This book had issues for me, but Penelope straying into adultery is something I understand—and I HATE adultery. “It’s not excusable for any reason!!” What a damn joke.
Anyway. Where was I? Oh yeah. So Penelope is frustrating with her actions (including pushing Alex away after Freddy’s death; I’m so glad Charlotte reminded her that she didn’t like him either) and the romance is lacking. There was also sooo many uses of “bloody” and “damn”. I’m not one to shy away from profanity (see: this review) but when it’s used like seven or eight times in the course of four pages, it gets to be a lot. Also the spy work was exceedingly minimal here. We don’t really get a lot of clues as to who it might be, it only becomes an issue rather late in the story, and it’s wrapped up SUPER quickly. Ah well; I know some are disappointed, but I’m here more for the romance than the spying, so I’m not all that bothered. I suspect we will see more of the Moonflower in the future, which could be fun!
One final note!
I have made frequent complaints as to how annoying the modern bits are in this series, but this book goes beyond the pale with Eloise’s antics. Somehow after the last novel we’ve moved from Eloise championing Serena to Serena’s ex and talking about how great she is and how lovely she is and how she needs to be protected, to Eloise raging about how concerned Colin is for his sister. Serena was verbally and emotionally abused in her last relationship and was used as a means to an end to access their family archives. It’s heavily implied that she has an eating disorder, but Eloise only finds that offensive, taking multiple opportunities to sneer over her size. “You didn’t see me starving myself into a size zero and sobbing into my Cheerios over it a year later” being a most interesting comment, given that prior to her landing Colin, that’s ALL SHE DID. Lots of mentions of her unfaithful ex and bemoaning how she hadn’t been laid in months and when will she find her Prince Charming? She even mentions it in this book, too, when she HAS A BOYFRIEND. How she can compare infidelity to abuse and come up with the idea that Serena needs to get over it, I can’t understand.
Eloise is OFFENDED that his sister would DARE spend time with her brother. She MET Colin in November, they didn’t start dating until December, had spent most of that month apart, and now it’s Valentine’s Day. So at most he’s KNOWN Eloise all of 3 months and dated her 2, and yet she feels self-assured enough to tell him “at some point, you’re going to have to stop coddling her.” If I was him, and I had a woman I’ve known at most 100 days telling me how to navigate my familial relationships, when all I have is essentially my sister, I’d tell her to hit the bricks. But he doesn’t! He doesn’t even want to admit he’s angry at her when she asks and demurs instead of taking her to task for trying to force men on Serena in the hopes she’ll leave them alone. It’s NOT her place and it’s just remarkable to me how she was far more sympathetic to Serena when she mistakenly thought she was Colin’s girlfriend, holding her hair back as she vomited into a toilet, than she is now when she knows she’s his sister.
So there you have it! TL;DR: the romance was weak, I pitied Penelope but she made it really difficult with how she treated literally everyone, friend and foe alike, the spying was weak and almost kind of an afterthought, easily concluded, and Eloise was abominable. Ah, well. Unless the series horribly offends me at some point, I’ll keep going and indeed have the next one already lined up, into which I plan to dive shortly!!
I wasn’t really feeling this one, alas, and certainly not in the wake of the previous two. I thought it would be much like Mary, where I didn’t like her before but came around in the course of the book. That didn’t happen. All Penelope did was flirt incessantly. I get that she views herself in terms of her sensuality, but she continued to do it even toward the love interest Captain Alex Reid before, during, and after she had captured his attention. It just felt so hollow. I didn’t really believe that it would have mattered who picked up her flirtations; it could have been anyone, it seemed like—even the pox-y Fiske—so long as someone gave her the attention she wanted. If she had dropped it sooner, or more quickly put feeling into it when attempting to woo Alex, I would have come around, but she didn’t.
Her attitude, too, drove me mad. She was constantly picking and sniping. It wasn’t cute as it can be in some instances but rather irksome, and when she wasn’t doing that she was spying, eavesdropping, and making wild accusations. It was just really hard to feel for her, because Mary was much the same way but one got a sense she DID want Vaughn whereas with Penelope we were more TOLD she wanted Alex. It took so long for them to even reach a point of warmth rather than hostility, and most of that happened off the page, like how we were told they rode every morning. Why not show some of that? Give us some soft scenes of them bantering rather than sparring, or having stirring longing. These books need to make me FEEL, to yearn with them, but there wasn’t anything there and I felt a little bored, to be honest.
As for the adultery: so many people have taken issue with this and I say: get a fucking grip. How would YOU handle living in a time where you wait until marriage to have sex (when so many people love their Tinder hookups and one night stands and FWB and situationships and polyamory) and you can and often were married off without much warning and to people you didn’t love, didn’t like, and were trapped until you or they died? Divorce didn’t become an easy (easier) concept until I believe the 1920s and it was almost impossible to obtain one prior to that time, especially for the woman seeking an escape, and they would be left virtually destitute and with a shattered reputation. How would YOU feel to be married to a man who doesn’t do any of the gentlemanly gestures expected of his station like making certain a woman is comfortable at a party or assisting her from a carriage and when he does he’s perfunctory, impatient, and snaps about it, is a drunk, gambles away your dowry, does drugs, indulges in orgies, ignores you to openly ogle women in public, installs his mistress in YOUR OWN HOME, and RAPED A FOURTEEN YEAR OLD CHILD who then subsequently got a venereal disease, dying with the child she obtained from the horrors she endured? Not only that but YOU also face the prospect of being raped if you don’t submit to him as well as the probability of eventually acquiring a disease that could rot your nose off and infect your brain, driving you to madness. This book had issues for me, but Penelope straying into adultery is something I understand—and I HATE adultery. “It’s not excusable for any reason!!” What a damn joke.
Anyway. Where was I? Oh yeah. So Penelope is frustrating with her actions (including pushing Alex away after Freddy’s death; I’m so glad Charlotte reminded her that she didn’t like him either) and the romance is lacking. There was also sooo many uses of “bloody” and “damn”. I’m not one to shy away from profanity (see: this review) but when it’s used like seven or eight times in the course of four pages, it gets to be a lot. Also the spy work was exceedingly minimal here. We don’t really get a lot of clues as to who it might be, it only becomes an issue rather late in the story, and it’s wrapped up SUPER quickly. Ah well; I know some are disappointed, but I’m here more for the romance than the spying, so I’m not all that bothered. I suspect we will see more of the Moonflower in the future, which could be fun!
One final note!
I have made frequent complaints as to how annoying the modern bits are in this series, but this book goes beyond the pale with Eloise’s antics. Somehow after the last novel we’ve moved from Eloise championing Serena to Serena’s ex and talking about how great she is and how lovely she is and how she needs to be protected, to Eloise raging about how concerned Colin is for his sister. Serena was verbally and emotionally abused in her last relationship and was used as a means to an end to access their family archives. It’s heavily implied that she has an eating disorder, but Eloise only finds that offensive, taking multiple opportunities to sneer over her size. “You didn’t see me starving myself into a size zero and sobbing into my Cheerios over it a year later” being a most interesting comment, given that prior to her landing Colin, that’s ALL SHE DID. Lots of mentions of her unfaithful ex and bemoaning how she hadn’t been laid in months and when will she find her Prince Charming? She even mentions it in this book, too, when she HAS A BOYFRIEND. How she can compare infidelity to abuse and come up with the idea that Serena needs to get over it, I can’t understand.
Eloise is OFFENDED that his sister would DARE spend time with her brother. She MET Colin in November, they didn’t start dating until December, had spent most of that month apart, and now it’s Valentine’s Day. So at most he’s KNOWN Eloise all of 3 months and dated her 2, and yet she feels self-assured enough to tell him “at some point, you’re going to have to stop coddling her.” If I was him, and I had a woman I’ve known at most 100 days telling me how to navigate my familial relationships, when all I have is essentially my sister, I’d tell her to hit the bricks. But he doesn’t! He doesn’t even want to admit he’s angry at her when she asks and demurs instead of taking her to task for trying to force men on Serena in the hopes she’ll leave them alone. It’s NOT her place and it’s just remarkable to me how she was far more sympathetic to Serena when she mistakenly thought she was Colin’s girlfriend, holding her hair back as she vomited into a toilet, than she is now when she knows she’s his sister.
So there you have it! TL;DR: the romance was weak, I pitied Penelope but she made it really difficult with how she treated literally everyone, friend and foe alike, the spying was weak and almost kind of an afterthought, easily concluded, and Eloise was abominable. Ah, well. Unless the series horribly offends me at some point, I’ll keep going and indeed have the next one already lined up, into which I plan to dive shortly!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 26, 2010
I was very excited to finally receive the latest installment in the Pink Carnation series, and started reading with great relish. I was, however, greatly disappointed with "Betrayal of the Blood Lily".
I loved the change in setting! I thought India was a wonderfully exotic, and yet familiar thanks to the British presence at the time. It also seemed to suit Penelope better than the stiff and formal balls and drawing rooms of England. I loved the characters of Penelope (who, even in the past books, have always liked) and Alex, and I was intrigued about how Willig would deal with the fact that her heroine this time around was already married (unhappily) at the beginning of the story. What I didn't expect is that a major subplot would be adultery. Granted, given the write-up on the front flap, I did expect that Pen and Alex would get together, but I at least thought that Freddy would be dead first.
While spies are still involved (this time it is the dreaded Marigold), they are very much in the minority of the plot. While definitely more in evidence than in the previous volume, they are still not as critical to the plot as in "Secret History of the Pink Carnation" or "The Masque of the Black Tulip".
The continuing story of Eloise and Colin was also on the weak side and revolved around Eloise chaffing at Serena's always being a third wheel to her and Colin and having to spend Valentines Day at an event that supported Serena's Art Gallery, rather than alone with Colin. However all of the material about Colin's mother and stepfather was quite interesting and I'm looking forward to hearing much more about it in the next volume.
Suffice it to say, I was not too impressed with this installment of the beloved series. It definitely had its moments, but overall I was disappointed.
I loved the change in setting! I thought India was a wonderfully exotic, and yet familiar thanks to the British presence at the time. It also seemed to suit Penelope better than the stiff and formal balls and drawing rooms of England. I loved the characters of Penelope (who, even in the past books, have always liked) and Alex, and I was intrigued about how Willig would deal with the fact that her heroine this time around was already married (unhappily) at the beginning of the story. What I didn't expect is that a major subplot would be adultery. Granted, given the write-up on the front flap, I did expect that Pen and Alex would get together, but I at least thought that Freddy would be dead first.
While spies are still involved (this time it is the dreaded Marigold), they are very much in the minority of the plot. While definitely more in evidence than in the previous volume, they are still not as critical to the plot as in "Secret History of the Pink Carnation" or "The Masque of the Black Tulip".
The continuing story of Eloise and Colin was also on the weak side and revolved around Eloise chaffing at Serena's always being a third wheel to her and Colin and having to spend Valentines Day at an event that supported Serena's Art Gallery, rather than alone with Colin. However all of the material about Colin's mother and stepfather was quite interesting and I'm looking forward to hearing much more about it in the next volume.
Suffice it to say, I was not too impressed with this installment of the beloved series. It definitely had its moments, but overall I was disappointed.
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