Since I read two books from the same series back to back, I decided it would make more sense to write one review about both instead a two individual ones, to keep from repeating myself unnecessarily.
I'm really impressed with Lauren Willig. The more books I read in her Pink Carnation series, the better I like them, and the more absorbed I get. The strangest part is that I seem to be reading them backwards (most recent to least recent) so I wonder a little bit if that means that her first novels were better, or if I'm just getting more wrapped up in the idea of the European flower-spy plots. Either way, both The Seduction of the Crimson Rose and The Temptation of the Night Jasmine were superb! Engaging from start to finish, and with twists that were genuinely surprising (especially in the case of Crimson Rose - hint hint).
As such, I'll star off with Crimson Rose. The entire book is based off the the point that the Black Tulip must be found, and killed, if possible, and the Pink Carnation has decided that Miss Mary Alsworthy would be the perfect bait. Mary, whose sister Letty recently wed Mary's would-be suitor, is recruited by Lord Vaughn to try to lure the Black Tulip out of hiding. Through their business relationship, Mary and Vaughn have wonderful bouts of verbal sparring (kudos to Willig for all the entertainment) which leave both wanting more than just words, but each unable to do anything about it. Their budding personal relationship was interesting to watch unfold. Weird, but interesting. Instead of the usual falling head over heels at first sight that usually happens in these types of novels, the two actually grow their love from seeds of mutual disdain. Mary knows Vaughn's reputation as a dissipated rake, while Vaughn knows Mary reputation as an almost ruined society beauty with manners to match. Neither personality is attractive to the other, but Vaughn and Mary are later drawn together by -- wait for it -- their intelligence. Vaughn admires Mary's ability to think and converse in the style he does, and Mary loves Vaughn for being everything that her typical suitor is not: brutally honest, insensitive, rude, and completely arrogant.
As for the rest of the book, which is equally engaging and fun, Willig throws in a very big plot twist at the end involving Jacobites (which I needed the historical note to figure out why Jacobites would be in a Napoleonic novel) that sent me reeling. Another interesting bit that continues throughout the novel is Mary's strained relationship with her sister and brother-in-law. I completely understand why she feels awkward. I know I would feel strange if my sister married the man that was supposed to marry me, but it's fun to see how they all cope. Willig also uses this as an opportunity to show what happens to women who don't or can't marry: after her sister's marriage, Mary is forced to depend on her for financial support, and her only way out would be a marriage of her own.
And of course, as Mary and Vaughn's relationship evolves, Eloise and Colin's own relationship buds and blooms. I missed the first novel in the series, so I've had to piece together what happened to bring these two together, but from what I've read so far, Willig wants it to work out between them. This time, Eloise and Colin survive yet another bout of doubt. Eloise, while doing research on Lord Vaughn meets Colin's sister's conniving ex-boyfriend, only to leave Colin with the suspicion that the ex and Eloise are in cahoots to get the Selwick papers. With a lovely date to follow...
On to The Temptation of the Night Jasmine. Here, there is no real mystery to solve. Robert, the Duke of Dovedale due to a familial technicality, has just returned from over ten years in India, to track down Wrothan, the man who killed Robert's commanding officer. Robert has sworn revenge, but the problem is that Wrothan has disappeared, and he can only assume that Wrothan has retreated back to England. However, Charlotte, daughter of the previous Duke who died when Charlotte was only nine years old, believes and hopes that Robert has finally come home to be the Duke that his title says he is. She has hopes to marry him -- partly because she remembers his kindness to her when her father died, and because she sees Robert as her knight in shining armor come to rescue her from her unloving grandmother. A hilarious train of mistaken ideas and false implications begins, that can only end with a proper explanation on both parts, but I loved reading all about it.
Wrothan, on the other hand, took some more effort to find. Robert has to covertly enlist the help of Lord Staines in order to gain entrance to the Hellfire club: a clandestine group of lordlings whose meetings tend to start with opium and end with an orgy (it's their idea of exotic rebellion and sin). The Duke is not keen on joining this club, but sees it as his only means to find Wrothan, who was a friend to nearly every member of the club. His plan works, but Robert finds out that Wrothan's treachery goes much deeper than a single murder, and the mystery I expected to find comes out at the end, with me wondering who the mysterious Frenchman really is and what he wants.
Meanwhile, our academic Eloise falls under the impression, on a visit to Selwick Hall, that Colin is secretly a spy, after a series of half-heard remarks, unforgivably early phone calls from Dubai, and bits of torn paper on the floor of Colin's study. The truth is much funnier and makes more sense than Eloise's assumptions, but her mental journey from initial ideas about Colin as a spy to her relief when she hears the truth from Colin herself, makes me think that what you read (whether history or fiction) tends to color your ideas about the world. Eloise, whose dissertation about spies left espionage on the brain, made an erroneous conclusion because she thought it would be slightly interesting if the family who began a school of spies, would keep spying as a family tradition as well.
I'll leave the rest for you to read, because these books are too much fun to spoil by all of the little details, but I do believe that I'll be reading the rest of this series (which I think I've said before), hopefully starting with The Secret History of the Pink Carnation! Thank you Lauren Willig for deciding to be an author!
1 comments:
I actually bought a copy of her novel "The Deception of the Emerald Ring" before I came to the States. Going to read it next week. Looking forward to your review of "The Secret History of the Pink Carnation".
Post a Comment