strange and random happenstance

The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla by Lauren Willig
Published by: NAL Trade
Publication Date: August 5th, 2014
Format: Paperback, 496 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Sally Fitzhugh spent all her time at Miss Climpson's Select Seminary for Young Ladies dreaming of the day when she would leave. Adventure was right outside the walls! Sometimes right inside the walls. Perhaps adventure is overrated. Sally is in her second season and she never thought the time would come when she would be bored with this life she dreamed of. Life was simpler surrounded by the four walls of Miss Climpson's. Life was wonderfully static. And her two best friends Lizzy and Agnes hadn't gone on a grand cross-county caper without her! And where was she? At another boring ball. As if things couldn't get worse the silly people of the ton are enraptured with Lizzy's step-mother's book, The Convent of Orsino, engulfing the little season in October in a vampire craze. The mania might have played itself out if not for the fact there is a member of the ton that perfectly embodies the vampiric ideal. He's moody, he's broody, he's been away for years, perhaps locked in a dungeon! He's an enigma to everyone, he's the Duke of Belliston. The newly returned Duke has been absent from England since the death of his parents years prior and all the rumors of anything supernatural comes to rest on his shoulders. He is the perfect vampire, or so everyone is saying. Everyone but Sally. She thinks it all too silly and is far more interested in the fact that Agnes and Lizzy are now out and perhaps they will enliven this dreary season. Only since their adventures after Sally left Miss Climpson's the trio is more a duo and Sally is feeling distinctly left out. At another interminable party abutting the regal home of the Duke of Belliston Sally dares to walk across the dormant gardens over to his house. Boredom and the assumption that she won't be caught make Sally rash and she strides straight into Lucien, the Duke himself. Events soon transpire to thrust these two together on a more daily basis... But is their relationship something the two of them might secretly hope for? Could Sally fall for a supposed vampire? Is there someone fueling the vampiric rumors? And, most importantly of all, was Lucien the adventure Sally was waiting for all along?

Lauren doesn't take herself too seriously and she is able to have fun with the historical genre while deftly skewering it at the same time with wordplay and modern nudges and winks. Here The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla vampire literature is lovingly lambasted. Just the idea that Miss Gwen, that bane of all young gentleman with her pointy parasol, would be the Stephenie Meyer of her day is a hoot. Miss Gwen not only has the ton in a virtual vampire frenzy, but she even has sparkly vampires, with Lauren creating parodies on so many levels, from what it is to be an author, to an author's fanbase, all the way to all the different vampire iterations over the centuries, that you can't help but fall for this book. This 19th century Twilight-Mania is far more entertaining than the actual Twilight-Mania was. Add to this the references to Monty Python's Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch and to The Princess Bride, Lauren's willingness to take liberties will make you smile. This series just gets better with each installment. And all these years later I still hope that a miracle will happen and new stories will appear. Because Lauren just keeps developing as a writer and I will always long to know what happens next. She was able to avoid many of the pitfalls of long running series by having each book be some offshoot of the first volume. Main characters will reappear, but never in more than background rolls, while the previous background characters take center stage. I love Sally Fitzhugh taking center stage, and yes, that's because I have a great love for all the Fitzhughs. But beyond that Sally is such an interesting character (but let's not talk about the chickens) with an indomitable will for one so young. And of course Sally's book would have to deviate from the staple of Napoleonic spies and secret leagues, with a murder mystery and a random attack stoat. Vampires and stoats and spies oh my! Give me more Fitzhughs or give me death!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Halloween, Lauren Willig, Lucien, Miss Climpson, Miss Gwen, Regency Romp, Sally Fitzhugh, Stephenie Meyer, Stoats, The Convent of Orsino, The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla, The Princess Bride, Twilight, Vampires

Lure of the Moonflower by Lauren Willig
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: NAL
Publication Date: August 4th, 2015
Format: Paperback, 528 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Jane doesn't know if it's wise to be working with Jack Reid, alias the Moonflower. But her mission is in Portugal, she doesn't speak the language, and he's the agent on the ground. Seeing as her old compatriot and chaperone Miss Gwen is married to Jack's father, Jane has heard all there is to know about Jack and his ever shifting allegiances. What she hasn't heard about Jack is that perhaps the legend doesn't match the man. And that man has sure heard of the legend of the Pink Carnation, who is now supposedly leading this new mission that he isn't allowed any input on. Jane is not suited to the search for the Portuguese Queen across the rough and tumble countryside, yet that is just what she plans to do. She is being dictatorial and living down to his expectations. But that is the problem. They have both prejudged each other and found the other lacking. It doesn't help that Jack unknowingly is the reason Jane had to go rogue because she was unmasked when he sent the Jewels of Berar to his sister Lizzy. If they could just start over then perhaps they could find more than just a serviceable working arrangement. That new start happens when the deadliest of French spies, the Gardener, appears on their trek. They both have a history with him, and neither one is pleased to see him. They scrap all their plans and go off the grid, trying to beat the Gardener to the Queen and trying to trust each other. But trekking across rough terrain while ensconced with the French army, albeit in disguise, was far easier than what they now face. The cold, the blisters, the unnamed donkey. As Christmas draws near can they achieve their goal? What's more, can Jane achieve her second, secret mission? Reuniting Jack with the family that loves and misses him. While in the future Eloise and Colin are facing something just as daunting; their wedding day. Which should go off without a hitch, that is until Colin's beloved Aunt Arabella is kidnapped the night before the ceremony and Colin reveals she was spy in her day! So they just have to deal with the kidnapper's demands and THEN they can get married.

Parting is such sweet sorrow. And the parting of ways here is occasionally as rocky as the terrain. I've never been the biggest fan of Jane. She's always been an enigma, and rightfully so, she is illusive after all. Always in the background setting the world to rights. Lauren previously needed her to be infallible and maddeningly omniscient and capable. These traits don't lend themselves to a character of flesh and blood, but an analytical ice maiden. A perfectly coolly composed heroine does not make the most interesting read. The Lure of the Moonflower gets off to a rocky start because, like Jack, we only see what Jane wants us to see. This capable perfect agent. When the truth starts to seep out, her self doubt, her sacrifices, how much she and Jack feel the weight of the mantle of spy, do you finally start to relate and to understand Jane. The loneliness, the long nights, the seclusion, the isolation from everything and everyone else as you have to be self sufficient and self reliant. That is where Lauren succeeds and the book comes together, she believably gives us insight into Jane. Slowly the layers are peeled away and the person who was once inconceivable is now all too human and relatable. And two can handle what one can't alone. It's Jane's opening up to Jack that not only makes Jane relatable, but that made me connect to her. Finding the right people, the right person, who is there to lift you up when you're down, to help you over the rough patches, that is the most precious gift we can get in life. And Jane realizes that Jack is just such a person. Someone who takes the weight of the mantle "The Pink Carnation" off her shoulders. Neither of them have any reason to trust the other, but their experiences together and their similar backgrounds makes them compliment each other. To have Jane find someone to compliment her is a wonderfully happy place to end this series, but more than that, to find someone to share her burdens, to rely on, someone with whom you can let down your defenses and admit you need help, that is the true happily ever after.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Berar, Christmas, Donkey, Jack Reid, Jane Wooliston, Lauren Willig, Miss Gwen, Napoleonic War, Portugal, Regency Romp, Spies, Spy, The Gardener, The Lure of the Moonflower, The Moonflower, The Pink Carnation

The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla by Lauren Willig
Published by: NAL Trade
Publication Date: August 5th, 2014
Format: Paperback, 496 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Sally Fitzhugh spent all her time at Miss Climpson's Select Seminary for Young Ladies dreaming of the day when she would leave. Adventure was right outside the walls! Sometimes right inside the walls. Perhaps adventure is overrated. Sally is in her second season and she never thought the time would come when she would be bored with this life she dreamed of. Life was simpler surrounded by the four walls of Miss Climpson's. Life was wonderfully static. And her two best friends Lizzy and Agnes hadn't gone on a grand cross-county caper without her! And where was she? At another boring ball. As if things couldn't get worse the silly people of the ton are enraptured with Lizzy's step-mother's book, The Convent of Orsino, engulfing the little season in October in a vampire craze. The mania might have played itself out if not for the fact there is a member of the ton that perfectly embodies the vampiric ideal. He's moody, he's broody, he's been away for years, perhaps locked in a dungeon! He's an enigma to everyone, he's the Duke of Belliston. The newly returned Duke has been absent from England since the death of his parents years prior and all the rumors of anything supernatural comes to rest on his shoulders. He is the perfect vampire, or so everyone is saying. Everyone but Sally. She thinks it all too silly and is far more interested in the fact that Agnes and Lizzy are now out and perhaps they will enliven this dreary season. Only since their adventures after Sally left Miss Climpson's the trio is more a duo and Sally is feeling distinctly left out. At another interminable party abutting the regal home of the Duke of Belliston Sally dares to walk across the dormant gardens over to his house. Boredom and the assumption that she won't be caught make Sally rash and she strides straight into Lucien, the Duke himself. Events soon transpire to thrust these two together on a more daily basis... But is their relationship something the two of them might secretly hope for? Could Sally fall for a supposed vampire? Is there someone fueling the vampiric rumors? And, most importantly of all, was Lucien the adventure Sally was waiting for all along?

Lauren doesn't take herself too seriously and she is able to have fun with the historical genre while deftly skewering it at the same time with wordplay and modern nudges and winks. Here The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla vampire literature is lovingly lambasted. Just the idea that Miss Gwen, that bane of all young gentleman with her pointy parasol, would be the Stephenie Meyer of her day is a hoot. Miss Gwen not only has the ton in a virtual vampire frenzy, but she even has sparkly vampires, with Lauren creating parodies on so many levels, from what it is to be an author, to an author's fanbase, all the way to all the different vampire iterations over the centuries, that you can't help but fall for this book. This 19th century Twilight-Mania is far more entertaining than the actual Twilight-Mania was. Add to this the references to Monty Python's Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch and to The Princess Bride, Lauren's willingness to take liberties will make you smile. This series just gets better with each installment. And all these years later I still hope that a miracle will happen and new stories will appear. Because Lauren just keeps developing as a writer and I will always long to know what happens next. She was able to avoid many of the pitfalls of long running series by having each book be some offshoot of the first volume. Main characters will reappear, but never in more than background rolls, while the previous background characters take center stage. I love Sally Fitzhugh taking center stage, and yes, that's because I have a great love for all the Fitzhughs. But beyond that Sally is such an interesting character (but let's not talk about the chickens) with an indomitable will for one so young. And of course Sally's book would have to deviate from the staple of Napoleonic spies and secret leagues, with a murder mystery and a random attack stoat. Vampires and stoats and spies oh my! Give me more Fitzhughs or give me death!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Halloween, Lauren Willig, Lucien, Miss Climpson, Miss Gwen, Regency Romp, Sally Fitzhugh, Stephenie Meyer, Stoats, The Convent of Orsino, The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla, The Princess Bride, Twilight, Vampires

The Passion of the Purple Plumeria by Lauren Willig
Published by: NAL Trade
Publication Date: August 6th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 480 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Colonel William Reid is retiring to England to live out his life in leisure with his two daughters, Kat and Lizzy, leaving behind three very different, one very difficult, sons in India. Little does he know that the school in Bath that Lizzy has been attending, Miss Climpson's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, seems to be the epicenter of spies in the battle between the French and the English. For two years Miss Gwendolyn Meadows has been at the center of that fight, or slightly next to the center, wielding a dangerous parasol as the second in command to Britain's chief operative, The Pink Carnation, aka, Jane Wooliston. She has ostensibly been the dragonish chaperone of Jane while they lived in France under the roof of Jane's cousin, who has his own secrets to keep. Jane has received a missive from her family that finds Jane and Gwen on the steps of Miss Climpson's just as Colonel Reid arrives. As fate would have it these three must unite because Jane's sister, Agnes, has gone missing along with Colonel Reid's daughter Lizzy. William doesn't grasp the seriousness of this, thinking it's just girls being girls. Jane knows that this is probably not the case. Somehow Agnes and therefore Lizzy's disappearance has to do with Jane's subversive activities, she just knows it. When William and Gwen are attacked while inquiring after Lizzy at Kat's home in Bristol, he comes to see that his littlest girl is truly in danger. He might not have been the best parent so far, but he was going to fix that. The attack also shows that the reason for the girls disappearance might not be Jane's fault and might actually be tangled up with William's most dubious of children, Jack, and not Jane at all... Or at least not directly. Rumors are that besides switching sides from the French to the English Jack has made off with the famous jewels of Berar... Jewels which are rumored to have been sent to Lizzy. This means that Jane, Gwen and William aren't the only ones looking for the girls. That most dangerous of French spies, The Gardener, is also on their trail.

Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series is like the ultimate comfort read, like watching The Princess Bride mixed with Bridget Jones's Diary. There's "fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles"... Well, maybe not giants, monsters, or fencing per se, but there is Miss Gwen with a rapier parasol, and Lizzy Reid with a bow and arrow, and Lizzy alone is just as dangerous as those three things together. In this tenth installment we have a character we have loved since day one and who demanded her own book, seriously, ask Lauren. Miss Gwen has always been a pillar of strength and fortitude. Ready to take down the French with an arch look or a well placed parasol to shin or other vulnerable body part. We have seen this hilarious yet adept spy trailing behind The Pink Carnation, almost as an accessory to Jane. It is as if Gwen herself was Jane's multifunctional parasol weapon. In The Passion of the Purple Plumeria we see that the reserve that Jane has always exhibited doesn't exclude Gwen. Gwen is just as in the dark as other agents, just hoping that in lying to herself that she has found a place where she belongs, working beside Jane. Holding on to the dream that her life has purpose and that this work will continue. Lauren brings such depth to Gwen, showing that while she is strong and kicks ass at her job, there's a vulnerability. Gwen could lose Amy and therefore lose her calling. Beneath the gruff exterior Gwen really does have a gooey center. She is a mature heroine that has lived and loved and is therefore all the more relatable as I get closer and closer to Gwen's age. Yet in revealing Gwen's weaknesses, in showing us her painful history, Lauren doesn't take away anything, Gwen can be both vulnerable and strong. Like a parasol, something light and frilly, but with a hidden sword in the shaft. Gwen is just simply remarkable, "beneath that stern exterior was a lifetime's worth of adventure for the man brave enough to win her."

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Berar, Bridget Jones's Diary, Colonel Reid, Jack Reid, Jane Wooliston, Lauren Willig, Lizzy Reid, Miss Gwen, Pink Carnation Read Along, Regency Romp, The Passion of the Purple Plumeria, The Princess Bride

Ok, ok, so yes, I have used Rachael Stirling before in a Lauren Willig "Dream Casting" but she's such a good actress can you blame me for using her more then once? Also, seriously, I think she'd be the ultimate Miss Gwen!

Name: Rachael Stirling

"Dream" Character Casting for the Lauren Willig Miniseries: Gwendolyn Meadows

First Impression: Tipping the Velvet... kind of hard to forget the scene with all the "John's" or the scene with the leather, you know... I'm not going to type it out, but it lead to her being fired by Caroline Bingley... mainly cause Caroline wasn't on the receiving end... overall a lackluster production despite being written by Andrew Davies... and who knew Caroline Bingley was so into women? Well the writers of Lost in Austen for one.

Why they'd be the perfect actor for the Lauren Willig Miniseries: I have spent much thought on Miss Gwen because she has such a distinct personality. Rachael works because she has the decorum needed but also has a biting comeback on the tip of her tongue that could easily scare the young rogues of the ton, if they were able to avoid her parasol that is.

Lasting Impression: Marple, "Murder at the Vicarage." The first episode of the new Marple and Rachael was perfect. I also want her wardrobe. No seriously. I NEED her wardrobe.

What else you've seen them in: From mysteries like Poirot, Miss Marple and The Bletchley Circle, to more gender bending roles in Lewis, Tipping the Velvet and the comedy Boy Meets Girl. As well as more big budget movies, like Snow White and the Huntsman and Salmon Fishing in Yemen, and Julian Fellowes' The Young Victoria. Rachael is always wonderful and always willing to walk the line of male and female, with her feminine features and her husky voice, it also shows she has an adeptness to the "breeches" roles Miss Gwen loves to employ... She could take on any role and anyone and be victorious.

Can't believe it's them: She was in the horrid Maybe Baby, which I'm sure everyone involved from Hugh Laurie to Emma Thompson wishes would just disappear off their resumes. Seriously, there's a scene with a moped that won't leave my mind. Literally I saw this movie once, and it won't leave!

Wish they hadn't: I'm actually going to move beyond my hatred of Maybe Baby this time around and go with Women in Love. I still can't believe how much they messed it up. Ugh, the scene with Joseph Mawle and Rory Kinnear wrestling in the sand? Burn out my eyes please!

Bio: Think she looks familiar? Could it be because her mother is none other than Diana Rigg? Why didn't they just get her for The Avengers... Uma Thurman my ass. If her mother as The Queen of Thorns is anything to go by, you can only imagine the wroth and the cracking put-downs that Rachael will be able to channel as Miss Gwen. As for the two of them ever acting together? Check out the Doctor Who episode "The Crimson Horror." It's Victorian campy Whovian fun! Plus, it shows the vulnerability that Rachael is capable of and which is needed for the softer side of Gwen. I know! Who knew there was one?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Diana Rigg, Doctor Who, Dream Casting, Knee Breeches, Lauren Willig, Lewis, Marple, Miss Gwen, Rachael Stirling, The Bletchley Circle, The Passion of the Purple Plumeria, Tipping the Velvet, Women in Love

The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (Pink Carnation Book 11) by Lauren Willig
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: NAL Trade
Publication Date: August 5th, 2014
Format: Paperback, 496 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Sally Fitzhugh spent all her time at Lady Climpson's Select Seminary dreaming of the day when she would leave Bath and get to go to all the balls she could wish for instead of trying to get out of doing homework. Sally has been out a year and she never thought the time would come when she would be bored with this life she dreamed of. If things couldn't get worse the silly people of the ton are enraptured with Sally's friend Lizzy's step-mother's book, The Convent of Orsino, and a vampire craze has engulfed the little season this October. All the rumors of vampires and the occult are swirly around the newly returned Duke of Belliston. He has been absent since the death of his parents years prior and seems the perfect vampire, or so everyone is saying. Sally isn't one of them.

Sally was hoping that the arrival of her two dearest friends, Lizzy and Agnes, would enliven things, but their trio is now more a duo and Sally is feeling distinctly left out. At a party abutting the regal home of the Duke of Belliston, Sally takes a dare to walk over to his house, bored and assuming she won't be caught she strides straight into Lucien, the Duke himself. Events soon transpire to thrust these two together on a more daily basis... but is this relationship something the two of them might secretly hope for? Could Sally fall for a supposed vampire?

If you've never met Lauren, she's this little pepperpot of energy powered by caffeine that talks a mile a minute from topics ranging from the sex lives of socialites in Kenya to Cary Elwes in Ella Enchanted to her high school debates. She exudes such a fun and vibrant energy that her happiness and far ranging interests are contagious. While being a writer of historical fiction she is, in my mind, the exact opposite of the more staid and reserved "traditional" historical fiction authors out there, ahem Philippa Gregory. The reason for the comparison is that Lauren's bubbly enthusiasm carries over to her books. Lauren has the research and the facts down, she has the academic and scholarly aspects of Gregory, but it's her enthusiasm that makes her books so much more then a well written piece of historical fiction. Lauren's books are fun because she brings herself into the equation, perhaps a little more in this volume with Eloise's fate. She loves her characters and her stories with such zeal that you are carried along with her on a reading adventure that you won't forget.

Lauren doesn't take herself too seriously and she is able to have fun with the historical genre while deftly skewering it at the same time with wordplay and modern nudges and winks. Though the theatre major in me had a major chuckle over the "renaming" of Sheridan's The School for Scandal as The Tutelage of Scandal, it's really vampire literature that is most lovingly lambasted in The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla. Just the idea that Miss Gwen, that bane of all young gentleman with her pointy parasol, would be the Stephenie Meyer of her day is a hoot. But that Miss Gwen not only has the ton in a virtual vampire frenzy, but that she even has sparkly vampires, that Lauren is creating parodies on so many levels, from what it is to be an author, to an author's fanbase, all the way to all the different vampire iterations over the centuries, that you can't help but fall for this book. Add to that references to Monty Python's Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, to The Princess Bride, Lauren's willingness to takes liberties will make you smile inside and want to hold onto this series forever.

The fact that The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla is such a strong entry in the Pink Carnation series means that next year when the final volume, The Lure of the Moonflower, is published the ending will be bittersweet because Lauren just keeps developing as a writer. Lauren has been able to avoid many of the pitfalls of long running series by having each book be some offshoot of the first volume. Main characters will reappear, but never in more then background rolls, while the previous background characters take center stage. I love Sally Fitzhugh taking center stage, and yes, that's because I have a great love for all the Fitzhughs. But beyond that she is such an interesting character (but let's not talk about the chickens) with an indomitable will for one so young.

Though it's the events Sally is thrust into that really gripped me. Because at the heart of all the Napoleonic spies and secret leagues, the core of this book is a murder mystery, with a random attack stoat. While the spy angle has always been important, the truth is, spies aren't for everyone. I think this volume will have a wider appeal then previous ones because of the apparent murder/suicide of the Duke of Belliston's parents. This mystery gave the book a greater urgency and made me devour it at a most rapacious rate. Come next year I don't know what I shall do once I finish reading that final volume... luckily until then I will occupy myself with re-reading all the books with The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla being one of the highlights.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Historical Fiction, Lauren Willig, Miss Gwen, Philippa Gregory, Pink Carnation, Sally Fitzhugh, The Convent of Orsino, The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla, The Princess Bride, Turnip Fitzhugh, Vampires

The Passion of the Purple Plumeria by Lauren Willig
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: NAL Trade
Publication Date: August 6th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 480 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Colonel William Reid is retiring to England to live out his life in leisure with his two daughters, Kat and Lizzy, leaving behind three very different, one very difficult, sons in India. Little does he know that the school in Bath that Lizzy has been attending, Miss Climpson's Academy, seems to be the epicenter of spies in the battle between the French and the English. For two years Miss Gwendolyn Meadows has been at the center of that fight, or slightly next to the center wielding a dangerous parasol as the second in command to Britain's chief operative, The Pink Carnation, aka, Jane Wooliston. She has ostensibly been the dragonish chaperone of Jane while they lived in France with Jane's cousin. Jane has received a missive from her family that finds Jane and Gwen on the steps of Miss Climpson's just as Colonel Reid arrives.

As fate would have it, these three must unit in their cause because Jane's sister, Agnes, has gone missing along with Colonel Reid's daughter Lizzy. William doesn't grasp the seriousness of this, thinking it's just girls being girls. Jane knows that this is probably not the case. Somehow Agnes and therefore Lizzy's disappearance has to do with Jane's subversive activities. When William and Gwen are attacked while inquiring after Lizzy with his other daughter Kat, he comes to see that his little girl is truly in danger. He might have not been the best parent so far, but he was going to fix that. Though the reason for the girls disappearance might just not be Jane's fault and might actually be tangled up with William's most dubious of children, Jack, and not Jane at all... or at least not directly. Rumors are that, besides playing for both the French and the English, Jack has also made off with the famous jewels of Berar... the jewels which are rumored to have been sent to his little sister. This means that they aren't the only ones looking for the girls. That most dangerous of French spies, The Gardener, is also on their trail.

Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series is like the ultimate comfort read, like watching The Princess Bride mixed with Bridget Jones's Diary. There's "fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles"... well, maybe not giants, monsters, or fencing per se, but there is Miss Gwen with a rapier parasol, and Lizzy Reid with a bow and arrow, and Lizzy alone is just as dangerous as those three things together. The release of yet another book in this series brings joy to my heart which was tripled when I realized that The Passion of the Purple Plumeria (an alliteration worthy of Gwen's lurid prose) was yet again raising the bar of this series. To have a long running series, ten books and counting, and to have each entry just as fresh and alive is a fete that Lauren needs a round of applause for. Yet in this installment we have a character we have loved since day one and who has been desperately demanding her own book, seriously, ask Lauren, Miss Gwen said her book was next and so it was.

Miss Gwen has always been a pillar of strength and fortitude. Ready to take down the French with an arch look or a well placed parasol to shin or other vulnerable body parts. We have seen this hilarious yet adept spy trailing behind The Pink Carnation, almost as an accessory to Jane. It is as if Gwen herself was Jane's multifunctional parasol weapon. In The Passion of the Purple Plumeria, we see that the reserve that Jane has always exhibited doesn't exclude Gwen. Gwen is just as in the dark as other agents, just hoping that in lying to herself, that she has found a place where she belongs, working beside Jane. Holding on to the dream that her life has purpose and that this work will continue. Lauren brings such depth to Gwen, showing that while she is strong and kicks ass at her job, there's a vulnerability. Gwen could lose Amy and therefore lose her calling. Beneath the gruff exterior Gwen really does have a gooey center. Yet in revealing Gwen's weaknesses, in showing us her painful history, Lauren doesn't take away anything, Gwen can be both vulnerable and strong. Like a parasol, something light and frilly, but with a hidden sword in the shaft. Gwen is just simply remarkable, "beneath that stern exterior was a lifetime's worth of adventure for the man brave enough to win her."

What we see in Gwen's past sins and also in the destitute life that William's daughter Kat is living, is a different world from the one we are used to in this series. Up until now, any people from lower classes, which weren't that numerous, were always seen in the setting of the world of prosperity. Laura Grey was a governess in a Parisian home, Arabella Dempsey is a teacher at the aforementioned Miss Climpson's Academy, and Letty Alsworthy's family is just a little hard up. Yet they are still in the sphere of influence. They are not in the gutter or in crummy little houses taking in laundry to just get by. Yet these people existed. The children out of wedlock, the family scraping by, these are incidents straight out of Jane Austen that are there, pushed into the corners but never talked about, not really. Here Lauren tackles that to some degree, and in doing so, she has made her world more whole. Every level of humanity makes up the world and in showing us something not quite pleasant there is a satisfying feeling of completion.

And in speaking of completion... how many more books till the end? Lauren has often said that this series would be ending soon with Jane's book, yet characters are always speaking up and demanding their own book, ie Sally Fitzhugh coming out next year I hope. I personally would be happy to see this go on for quite some time, as long as Lauren's writing the Pink Carnation series, I will read it. Yet, with her first stand alone, The Ashford Affair, you can see that Lauren has considerable talent and a lot more to offer and that to keep her churning out this series is unfair to her as a writer, I mean, the series does have it's limitations with time period and historical authenticity. But with her second stand alone coming next year, perhaps a happy medium will be reached. Yet one does feel that in the final pages of this book there is a big game changer at the hands of The Gardner. The Passion of the Purple Plumeria does lend itself to flipping the page to the final chapter of The Pink Carnation's story. A final chapter that will be bittersweet.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bridget Jones's Diary, Colonel Reid, Jane Wolliston, Lauren Willig, Miss Climpson, Miss Gwen, Parasol, Pink Carnation, The Ashford Affair, The Gardener, The Passion of the Purple Plumeria, The Princess Bride

The Passion of the Purple Plumeria by Lauren Willig
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: NAL Trade
Publication Date: August 6th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 480 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Colonel William Reid is retiring to England to live out his life in leisure with his two daughters, Kat and Lizzy, leaving behind three very different, one very difficult, sons in India. Little does he know that the school in Bath that Lizzy has been attending, Miss Climpson's Academy, seems to be the epicenter of spies in the battle between the French and the English. For two years Miss Gwendolyn Meadows has been at the center of that fight, or slightly next to the center wielding a dangerous parasol as the second in command to Britain's chief operative, The Pink Carnation, aka, Jane Wooliston. She has ostensibly been the dragonish chaperone of Jane while they lived in France with Jane's cousin. Jane has received a missive from her family that finds Jane and Gwen on the steps of Miss Climpson's just as Colonel Reid arrives.

As fate would have it, these three must unit in their cause because Jane's sister, Agnes, has gone missing along with Colonel Reid's daughter Lizzy. William doesn't grasp the seriousness of this, thinking it's just girls being girls. Jane knows that this is probably not the case. Somehow Agnes and therefore Lizzy's disappearance has to do with Jane's subversive activities. When William and Gwen are attacked while inquiring after Lizzy with his other daughter Kat, he comes to see that his little girl is truly in danger. He might have not been the best parent so far, but he was going to fix that. Though the reason for the girls disappearance might just not be Jane's fault and might actually be tangled up with William's most dubious of children, Jack, and not Jane at all... or at least not directly. Rumors are that, besides playing for both the French and the English, Jack has also made off with the famous jewels of Berar... the jewels which are rumored to have been sent to his little sister. This means that they aren't the only ones looking for the girls. That most dangerous of French spies, The Gardener, is also on their trail.

Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series is like the ultimate comfort read, like watching The Princess Bride mixed with Bridget Jones's Diary. There's "fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles"... well, maybe not giants, monsters, or fencing per se, but there is Miss Gwen with a rapier parasol, and Lizzy Reid with a bow and arrow, and Lizzy alone is just as dangerous as those three things together. The release of yet another book in this series brings joy to my heart which was tripled when I realized that The Passion of the Purple Plumeria (an alliteration worthy of Gwen's lurid prose) was yet again raising the bar of this series. To have a long running series, ten books and counting, and to have each entry just as fresh and alive is a fete that Lauren needs a round of applause for. Yet in this installment we have a character we have loved since day one and who has been desperately demanding her own book, seriously, ask Lauren, Miss Gwen said her book was next and so it was.

Miss Gwen has always been a pillar of strength and fortitude. Ready to take down the French with an arch look or a well placed parasol to shin or other vulnerable body parts. We have seen this hilarious yet adept spy trailing behind The Pink Carnation, almost as an accessory to Jane. It is as if Gwen herself was Jane's multifunctional parasol weapon. In The Passion of the Purple Plumeria, we see that the reserve that Jane has always exhibited doesn't exclude Gwen. Gwen is just as in the dark as other agents, just hoping that in lying to herself, that she has found a place where she belongs, working beside Jane. Holding on to the dream that her life has purpose and that this work will continue. Lauren brings such depth to Gwen, showing that while she is strong and kicks ass at her job, there's a vulnerability. Gwen could lose Amy and therefore lose her calling. Beneath the gruff exterior Gwen really does have a gooey center. Yet in revealing Gwen's weaknesses, in showing us her painful history, Lauren doesn't take away anything, Gwen can be both vulnerable and strong. Like a parasol, something light and frilly, but with a hidden sword in the shaft. Gwen is just simply remarkable, "beneath that stern exterior was a lifetime's worth of adventure for the man brave enough to win her."

What we see in Gwen's past sins and also in the destitute life that William's daughter Kat is living, is a different world from the one we are used to in this series. Up until now, any people from lower classes, which weren't that numerous, were always seen in the setting of the world of prosperity. Laura Grey was a governess in a Parisian home, Arabella Dempsey is a teacher at the aforementioned Miss Climpson's Academy, and Letty Alsworthy's family is just a little hard up. Yet they are still in the sphere of influence. They are not in the gutter or in crummy little houses taking in laundry to just get by. Yet these people existed. The children out of wedlock, the family scraping by, these are incidents straight out of Jane Austen that are there, pushed into the corners but never talked about, not really. Here Lauren tackles that to some degree, and in doing so, she has made her world more whole. Every level of humanity makes up the world and in showing us something not quite pleasant there is a satisfying feeling of completion.

And in speaking of completion... how many more books till the end? Lauren has often said that this series would be ending soon with Jane's book, yet characters are always speaking up and demanding their own book, ie Sally Fitzhugh coming out next year I hope. I personally would be happy to see this go on for quite some time, as long as Lauren's writing the Pink Carnation series, I will read it. Yet, with her first stand alone, The Ashford Affair, you can see that Lauren has considerable talent and a lot more to offer and that to keep her churning out this series is unfair to her as a writer, I mean, the series does have it's limitations with time period and historical authenticity. But with her second stand alone coming next year, perhaps a happy medium will be reached. Yet one does feel that in the final pages of this book there is a big game changer at the hands of The Gardner. The Passion of the Purple Plumeria does lend itself to flipping the page to the final chapter of The Pink Carnation's story. A final chapter that will be bittersweet.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Bridget Jones's Diary, Colonel Reid, Jane Wolliston, Lauren Willig, Miss Climpson, Miss Gwen, Parasol, Pink Carnation, The Ashford Affair, The Gardener, The Passion of the Purple Plumeria, The Princess Bride

The Passion of the Purple Plumeria by Lauren Willig
Published by: NAL Trade
Publication Date: August 6th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 480 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation novels have been hailed as “sheer fun”* and “charming.”** Now she takes readers on an adventure filled with hidden treasure and a devilishly handsome English colonel....

Colonel William Reid has returned home from India to retire near his children, who are safely stowed at an academy in Bath. Upon his return to the Isles, however, he finds that one of his daughters has vanished, along with one of her classmates.

Because she served as second-in-command to the Pink Carnation, one of England’s most intrepid spies, it would be impossible for Gwendolyn Meadows to give up the intrigue of Paris for a quiet life in the English countryside—especially when she’s just overheard news of an alliance forming between Napoleon and an Ottoman Sultan. But, when the Pink Carnation’s little sister goes missing from her English boarding school, Gwen reluctantly returns home to investigate the girl’s disappearance.

Thrown together by circumstance, Gwen and William must cooperate to track down the young ladies before others with nefarious intent get their hands on them. But Gwen’s partnership with quick-tongued, roguish William may prove to be even more of an adventure for her than finding the lost girls…"

While there's a part of me that's really really sad this isn't in hardcover and now my other hardcovers will feel lonely, there's another part that realizes, my favorite book in the series, Mischief of the Mistletoe, while hardcover, wasn't the same size as the others so therefore, size or binding doesn't matter. And truly, it doesn't, this book is so awesome you'll just devour it in whatever format it comes in.

Heirs and Graces by Rhys Bowen
Published by: Berkley
Publication Date: August 6th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"As thirty-fifth in line for the throne, Lady Georgiana Rannoch may not be the most sophisticated young woman, but she knows her table manners. It’s forks on the left, knives on the right—not in His Majesty’s back…

Here I am thinking the education I received at my posh Swiss finishing school would never come in handy. And while it hasn’t landed me a job, or a husband, it has convinced Her Majesty the Queen and the Dowager Duchess to enlist my help. I have been entrusted with grooming Jack Altringham—the Duke’s newly discovered heir fresh from the Outback of Australia—for high society.

The upside is I am to live in luxury at one of England’s most gorgeous stately homes. But upon arrival at Kingsdowne Place, my dearest Darcy has been sent to fetch Jack, leaving me stuck in a manor full of miscreants…none of whom are too pleased with the discovery of my new ward.

And no sooner has the lad been retrieved than the Duke announces he wants to choose his own heir. With the house in a hubbub over the news, Jack’s hunting knife somehow finds its way into the Duke’s back. Eyes fall, backs turn, and fingers point to the young heir. As if the rascal wasn’t enough of a handful, now he’s suspected of murder. Jack may be wild, but I’d bet the crown jewels it wasn’t he who killed the Duke…"

New Rhys Bowen? Yes please.

Possession by Kat Richardson
Published by: Roc Hardcover
Publication Date: August 6th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Harper Blaine was your average small-time PI until she died—for two minutes. Now Harper is a Greywalker, treading the thin line between the living world and the paranormal realm. And she’s discovering that her new abilities are landing her all sorts of “strange” cases.

When a comatose woman suddenly wakes up and starts painting scenes she’s never witnessed, with a skill she’s never had, medical science has no explanation. As more bizarre phenomena manifest, including mysterious writing appearing on the patient’s skin and strange voices issuing from her mouth, even her doctors start to wonder whether the woman may be possessed.

Frustrated, frightened, and at the end of her rope, the patient’s sister reluctantly turns to Harper Blaine to discover who—or what—is occupying her sister’s body. As Harper digs into this case of apparent possession, she discovers other patients struck with the same mystifying afflictions and a disturbing connection to one of the most gruesome episodes in Washington’s history...."

Oh, new Greywalker Novel... makes me remember I forgot to pick up the last one, oops.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Greywalker, Heirs and Graces, Her Royal Spyness, Kat Richardson, Lauren Willig, Miss Gwen, Pink Carnation, Possession, Rhys Bowen, The Passion of the Purple Plumeria

A few weeks back now, on April 12th, I was lucky enough to see Lauren in person at the Warren-Newport public library down in Gurnee, Illinois. Now this was not my first time meeting Lauren or ever my first time meeting Lauren at this library. The first time I met her was before I was a blogger and had just restarted going to school for Graphic Design and I trekked down to Illinois to gush at Lauren about her first four books with the fifth, The Temptation of the Night Jasmine in ARC form. It's hard to imagine that so much would happen in the intervening years. I never would have thought that I would be where I am now and running this blog which I love, but I could have guessed that Lauren would be a huge success, with nine Pink Carnation books in print, the tenth arriving this summer and the eleventh underway, and her first stand alone, The Ashford Affair out and hitting the charts, with her second stand alone off with her editors, and a baby on the way. She's been one busy lady!

Needless to say, no matter how many times I've seen Lauren, each time is wonderful and different because unlike some authors, she has a wonderful gift for gab and interacts great with an audience. As in an anecdote she said, when interviewing for Yale, the old interviewer didn't see her as a writer because she is so outspoken and did plays and musicals and forensics and debates, and writers are meant to be introverted. Lauren has definitely proved his theory wrong.

The crowd was a wonderful group of Pink fans and I was happy to see a few men in the audience. Though when an ARC of the newest Pink book, The Passion of the Purple Plumeria, was passed around, it was a bit like watching people touch a holy relic. Thankfully, while we may occasionally be squealing girls, no one stole the book and made a break for it into the grey stormy day. I was at least more calm then most because I had already put in my request for a copy with Lauren's publisher and thankfully had an electronic ARC by the beginning of the next week... and might I add, it's awesome. So, in retrospect, totally worth stealing...

So what were some of the high points of the talk? Well, Lauren discussed her curtailing of her caffeine, which I have heard many of my pregnant friends lament, but I expect it is doubly so with Lauren because she is a prodigious coffee drinker. As the event was a Coffee Klatch, in honor of the book being set in Kenya, I'm sure it was doubly hard to avoid the temptation... coffee and kringle, it did look mighty tasty, the kringle that is, me not being a coffee person, yes, this manic me is all without caffeine. Speaking of Ashford, she said how much the modern section did mimic her life and how being a lawyer then writer is all just about the storytelling, or at least that's how she spins it. Also, the book originally had about 100 more pages in Kenya that was edited out, to which I say, put them back! More book! As for her second stand alone novel? It will once again have a modern and historical setting. This time a young woman shall inherit a house in England where she finds a painting of a Pre-Raphaelite artist who disappeared. Lauren said there actually wasn't anything sinister in that (or was there!) because they often gave up and wandered off to farm sheep.

Lauren discussed the fact that Jane's book actually won't be the next Pink book, though when it arrives, it will be the last. Sally, Turnip's sister, is to star in the next book, which I really really wish the publishers would realize that Lauren's title of The Dance of the Death Apple is so awesome and perfect. Why is it perfect? Well, firstly, it's Lauren's first autumnal tale, being set around Halloween, even if Halloween as such wasn't around as we know it. Secondly, it has Miss Gwen becoming a really popular author with her Convent of Orsino, which is liberally quoted in The Passion of the Purple Plumeria. Her popularity is a parody of the Twilight phenomenon, with Miss Gwen being besieged by teenage girls who love her vampire book. Yes, that's right, Miss Gwen started the vampire craze way back. Finally, Sally's love interest is a shadowy man... could he be a vampire? Oh, I just can't wait, and if you think about it, cause I've already read the newest book which isn't even out, I have to wait all the longer, sigh. As for Jane's book... well, there will be some need of research because it takes place in the Peninsular War, and all Lauren knows about that she learned from watching Sharpe. Mmm, Sean Bean in uniform. And Jane's prince charming? She knows, but the audience universally vetoed the reveal.

What else does the future hold? Hopefully a Mitford inspired book if Lauren gets her way... which I heartily approve. After all, Mitford fan typing this...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 4 comments  

Labels: ARCs, Ashford April, Halloween, Kenya, Lauren Willig, Lawyer, Miss Gwen, Mitfords, Pink Carnation, Sean Bean, Sharpe, The Ashford Affair, The Dance of the Death Apple, The Passion of the Purple Plumeria

See, no one reminds me, I go into a land of Turkey coma and emerge a week later to finally tell the thrilling tale of Lauren and her signing in Chicago. Thrilling if you like parking spots right in front of libraries and men in knee breeches. It was a mild and windless day... ok, perhaps that's further back than you'd like. After a book buying frenzy at the Michigan Avenue Borders (20% store wide!) and slaking our thirst at Ghirardelli's, my friend and I meandered back towards the gorgeous edifice of the Newbury Library on the quaint Washington Square Park, the less famous of those similarly monikered. We entered the lovely lobby to discover similar Turnip enamoured bookworms, in fact so many Turnip lovers that we had to be moved into a bigger room! One my way towards the facilities I spotted Lauren waiting in line at the information desk and was greeted with a hug and got to act as her unofficial escort while discussing, what else, books, in particular what the longevity of steampunk might be. I reclaimed my seat in the front row and Lauren claimed her seat of honour, which would rarely be used as her years of debate had taught her to ramble around while rambling, though we weren't to worry if she looked like she was making a break for the door, she wasn't leaving. Lauren is a rare species of authors, one who is also a fabulous speaker. Most authors live in their little world of words and have a hard time talking in front of large groups of people. Lauren is the opposite of this. She's just as alive and bubbly as her books. There's an enthusiasm that is infectious about her and the world she has created. It's easy to see Lauren as the creator of such memorable characters as the Pink Carnation, the Purple Gentian and of course, Turnip Fitzhugh. You can almost picture Lauren in Regency garb in the background of the Tullieries watching as Miss Gwen takes on Bonaparte and laughing while swigging pink champagne.

Starting with a reading of the Austen apocrypha, The Mischief of the Mistletoe's lost introduction, Lauren went on to describe all the ways she tried to avoid having Jane Austen in her book. Austen's world is a polar opposite to the one Lauren has created. Austen absolutely did not have young ladies hiding under tables and spies sneaking in through sashed windows. Lauren wanted to stay away from Austen with a ten foot pole and all those who had such firm views on this icon of literature, Regency Mafia anyone? But Turnip, her Regency Bertie Wooster, his story had to be told in Bath, and it had to be 1803, and that just had to be a time when Austen was in Bath and suffering from her dry spell. It just seemed as if Austen was now everywhere, even a vampire if you look in the right places, so Austen would be a part of Turnip's story.

The questions and answers section of the talk then took off with me asking about something I know we're all interested in. Who does Jane Wooliston, not Austen, end up with? Lauren says she knows, but only if her cunning plans agree to stay on track, which they never seem to want to do. After the first question was asked, more started pouring in. She described her research method as a period of immersion where she doesn't take notes, so that when she sits to write the story the history and the plot mesh together and she does spot research to fill in those details she needs more information on. Pink IX is already finished and it has our first American Heroine... one who might have appeared briefly in The Orchid Affiar is my newest theory, as well as Augutus Wittelby and Miss Gwen as a pirate Queen with the sage advice to plunder before burning. As for The Orchid Affair, we have a French hero for once! And as for a certain parasol wielding matron, it looks like she will get her own book and despite the recent Pink Comic illustrations, she is younger that she was portrayed, so my casting might work better than I thought! The reason for no Colin and Eloise in the newest book was made clear as a concession to the publishers to have a smaller, more giftable book for the holidays where Lauren could do justice to her characters. Also Waterloo was brought up, and no, not the ABBA song. Lauren said at the rate she's going, having barely made it out of 1803, she might have to do a time jump eventually, because otherwise it would take 83 books to get there, not that I'd mind, though my bookshelf might. After all there are so many places to take these characters, Russia, South Africa, Egypt (which I'm keeping my fingers crossed for!) While us readers tend to have our favorite books, Lauren always thinks the newest, the unstarted phantom will be the best, and is the least favorite after she's written it. Though she still has a soft spot for Mary and Vaughn, her bitch prom queen and jaded rogue. Now she's a full time writer she's realized her pace is such that soon her publisher will be surround by Pink manuscripts of which they can quite conceivably make a fort and that she might want to tackle that mystery set at Yale or that 17th century epic one of these days. But she vows to stop writing the Pink books before she gets bored because you see in some of these series you can tell when the author has lost interest and then disappoints the fans. Finally she said that in practicality she didn't get her History degree because it's a bad sign when it's taken you 7 years to cover a timeline of 3. The we got another little reading of Turnip arriving with the Christmas hamper for his little sister.

The signing then commenced! I was ecstatic to get my copy of Mistletoe signed, as well as my ARC of The Orchid Affair and my Pink expurgated 1st, which I forgot to mention to Lauren. So Lauren, if you're reading this, that was my Pink with all the missing sexy sexy bits that someone artfully removed. But more importantly I was excited because I had brought a present for Lauren, seen above on the table surrounded by books, ie, it's rightful home. For awhile now I have done artwork based on the old drawings by the Brothers Brock in my grandmother's turn of the century editions of Jane Austen. My favorite was always the one I did from Mansfield Park entitled: "Not of Facts, Perhaps, But of Feelings." Ironically this was a piece that was very close to being trashed cause it was not cooperating with me. I am so glad I never did that, because I would have always regretted it. Anyway, last year, while sick and revelling in the restorative powers of The Betrayal of the Blood Lily, in the last chapter Lauren used that quote! I was so excited I knew that if I was to ever go to a Lauren signing I just had to give her a print of that piece. Because, let's face it, writers do so much for use. They fill our lives with stories and dreams and what do they get back? Yes, they get the good reviews and the fans, but they also get the bad reviews and the detractors. What physical, tactile proof do they get that they are appreciated? Plus, I love giving presents! See the Lauren themed Pretty in Pink Giveaway! Lauren has given me so much joy and entertainment over the years I felt I needed to thank her for everything. Plus, I got an even better gift in return, she hung my art above her desk, and that just gave me warm fuzzies.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bertie Wooster, Book Signing, Chicago, Lauren Willig, Mansfield Park, Miss Gwen, Newbury Library, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily, The Mischief of the Mistletoe, The Orchid Affair, Turnip Fitzhugh

The Deception of the Emerald Ring by Lauren Willig
Published by: New American Library
Publication Date: November 16th, 2006
Format: Paperback, 464 Pages
Challenge: Historical Fiction
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
Letty and Mary Alsworty are as different as two sisters can be. At a frizzy haired five foot, Letty will never be like her statuesque sister. And she would NEVER run off in the middle of the night for a midnight elopement with Geoffry Pinchingdale-Snipe. She might try to stop the elopement with all good intentions, but never elope herself. Until fate intervenes and she's the one being spirited away in the night to a rendezvous with a certain member of the peerage. Geoff, being Geoff, marries the sister whose reputation he inadvertently ruined. He might see her as a conniving and manipulative upstart who took her chance when the opportunity afforded itself, but at least his obligations to the Pink Carnation mean that he can hare off to Ireland and put some space between his broken heart and his unwanted bride. Practical Letty for once doesn't know what to do. She's been the one who has always taken care of her family and has never had a spot of bother. Now she's married to a man who has vanished and he hasn't let her explain what really happened. A little drunk, she gets the first packet out of London to follow Geoff to Ireland. But an unwanted wife in England is a completely different situation to an unwanted wife in Ireland interfering with his mission and the threat of a French and Irish alliance. Begrudgingly taking Letty into his confidences with one Pink Carnation named Jane Wolliston and one parasol wielding pyromaniac in the making, Miss Gwen, they all try to muddle through for the good of England. But add a dangerous cousin on the prowl for Geoff's title, Lord Vaughn, who's every word has double and triple entendres, and evidence that the Black Tulip is at it again, things might be trickier than anyone thought. Can this all be untangled and England saved? Because maybe fate intervened for a reason and Letty is the sister Geoff should have been wooing all along. But back in the present Eloise has an even more pressing problem. Can she get a certain Colin Selwick to call her and set up a date?

Whenever I think of this series of books as a whole I've always thought that The Deception of the Emerald Ring was the weak point. Maybe it was that here we have another idealistic, King and Country couple who are good and sweet and pure, who have just some misunderstandings to overcome and then everything will be as right as rain. On re-reading the book I realized I couldn't have been more wrong. I loved it. This time, not reading it just for Colin and Eloise, I realized that this book had so much more. Not only do we get the fun of having Lord Vaughn around with his ambiguous alliances, but we get Miss Gwen and her formidable parasol. We also get to see the inner workings of one Jane Wooliston, alias, the Pink Carnation's organization. We see how she's able to morph into other people, other lives, so that she is a force to be reckoned with. Those Frenchies better watch out! But what I love most about this book is how it takes the unsatisfactory resolution as to who the Black Tulip is and gives a far more plausible explanation with more depth and more terror. To not have just one sadistic spy, but sadists working for a criminal mastermind makes more sense that the Marquise ever did. She mistook Turnip for the Pink Carnation! I'm sorry, but anyone who could think that doesn't deserve to be a criminal mastermind. A pawn though... totally suited for a pawn.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 5 comments  

Labels: Geoff, Jane Wollison, Lauren Willig, Letty Alsworthy, Lord Vaughn, Mary Alsworthy, Miss Gwen, Reading Challenge, The Deception of the Emerald Ring, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation

Well, I have a secret. I'm addicted to theme months. I have another, not so big secret, I'm addicted to Lauren Willig's novels. So, despite Halloween and spooky themes that could prevail, I have decided to embrace a Pink Carnation instead of an orange pumpkin. In anticipation of the release of The Mischief of the Mistletoe later this month (which I believe could be Lauren's best yet), as well as The Secret History of the Pink Carnation in Mass Market Paperback, I decided it was time to re-read all previous books in the series and review them for this here blog o'mine. So time and school permitting, you'll see the books reviewed leading up to the release and my review of The Mischief of the Mistletoe along with my dream cast, one of the characters being someone I have cast long ago in the movies of my mind. There might also be a pretty nifty giveaway, but I feel in a month devoted to spies there should remain some mystery. But this magnificent book isn't the only new thing from Lauren this month. While yes, when I heard there was something on the horizon my mind leapt to miniseries and manly knee breeches, but what could be better than having a few of our favorite scenes illustrated a la comics, get your mind off the knee breeches. So, without further ado, here are the adventures of Eloise, Colin, Amy, Richard and Napoleon taking on Miss Gwen, all beautifully rendered by the talented Joanne Renaud.  (Click to embiggen as Patrick Rothfuss is wont to say.)

 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Colin, Comics, Eloise, Joanne Renaud, Lauren Willig, Miss Gwen, Napoleon, Patrick Rothfuss, Pink Carnation, The Mischief of the Mistletoe, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation