Book Review - Lauren Willig's The Seduction of the Crimson Rose
The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig
Published by: NAL
Publication Date: January 31st, 2008
Format: Paperback, 480 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy
Things aren't going very well for Mary Alsworthy. Her midnight elopement ended with a married younger sister and herself still on the shelf. Not that she really loved Geoff or anything, but the title and the houses were just the thing. Now she's stuck rusticating with the new couple who are sickeningly in love and oversolicitous of her. She might just be able to stomach it if they weren't so apologetic about the whole situation. But when she hears that they are going to pay for her next London season she can't take their kindness anymore. Lord Vaughn, at the urging of the Pink Carnation, has made Mary an offer. With her coloring and her bearing she appears to be just the type of girl a certain Black Tulip might hire as one of his assassins. After his recent foray in Ireland he is short a few petals. Mary agrees to play the game in exchange for one last chance at a suitable match. With Vaughn as her escort and entree to some of the more radical groups, she tries to establish herself as just the type of girl a famous French spy might seek out. From Vauxhall to Vaughn's House, she tries to find her way in the world, all while trading barbs with the king of cynicism and insult, Lord Sebastian Vaughn himself. Mary does meet one eligible prospect, a Mr. St. George. But an earnest lord who spends so much time rusticating in the country with his widowed sister looks less and less appealing next to the unattainable Vaughn. Mary would rather trade insults with Vaughn than words of endearment with St. George. Could it be that the ice maiden, who has always viewed her marriage as a commodity where the best bank balance wins, be falling for a man who turns out to be unattainable after the reappearance of his long dead wife? But matters of the heart might not signify if one of the hearts is no longer beating, because the Black Tulip doesn't hesitate to spill blood and he really wants to spill Vaughn's. Someone will die and a happy ending might not be in the cards. And while Eloise looks into Vaughn's past, could her present collide with Serena Selwick's heartbreaker?
Lord Vaughn has been a scene-stealer since his inception. Once he showed up in The Masque of the Black Tulip he has been unwilling to cede his title until he met his match. Surprisingly that match showed up in Mary Alsworthy. She who is conniving and cold-hearted and only looking out for herself. But she is also wickedly smart. Therefore Mary and Vaughn are the perfect sparring partners. They duel with words in a way that is sheer entertainment and hasn't been seen since Elizabeth and Darcy, though with far more innuendo on Vaughn's part. No saccharine sweetness, we have barbed and witty repartee that just keeps the pages flying long through the night. They are what this series needed more than ever, a balance. Not all heroes are virtuous and good, not all are in it for the good of the country. Some heroes are just in it for themselves. And the fact is that Vaughn looks down on the Pink Carnation and her ilk because, while yes, they have saved the country time and time again, they haven't really paid the price. They haven't been subjected to the darker side because in the end their love for each other and king and country have put blinders on them and their can-do attitude. It can be sickening. Too much sugar isn't good for you, everyone needs a bit of Vaughn once in awhile. If this book has one flaw, it's that once they start to fall for each other their bark is worse than their bite. Their claws retract a little and it's never more enjoyable than when they are at each other full force. There are also no misunderstandings between the two. They have their obstacles, that's for sure, but they always know where the other one stands. They are a perfectly matched set. I just hope that married life doesn't sweeten them one bit. But aside from the titular hero and heroine, we finally get a satisfactory conclusion to the identity of the Black Tulip, who is far more deranged, deluded, and demented than we thought. With motivations that work for and against France, he was a nice surprise and not a simplistic ending to a plot device that has been going strong for three books. A satisfactory ending all around, even if just the tiniest bit of sweetness sneaks in at the end, but who can fault a happy ending?
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Bookstore: 
While looking for ideas as to what to make for the Jane Austen crafting exchange for the bicentenary of Pride and Prejudice I had with Miss Jessica my eye wandered to this skateboard deck I had had for many years. You might at this time be asking why I had a random skateboard deck just in my office, well, I'll tell you how that came about. A handful of years earlier when I had just started as the secretary of Madison College's Art Club the board thought it would be fun to have a screen printing workshop run by an acquaintance of the club's president. One of his specialties was doing skateboard decks and he offered to sell anyone who wanted one a deck at cost. I couldn't come up with a reason not to get a deck because there were so many interesting designs I saw people doing and I thought it would be fun. It became a fixture in my office that often fell on my foot, usually when I wasn't wearing shoes and as time moved on, more and more of an annoyance that was just taking up space. But then when the crafting exchange came about I knew that the time had comes to use this deck. 
One of the first things I remember about Miss Jessica when I met her was that she was a skater. There was a time when I visited her in New York and she was getting back into it and I actually went shopping with her for a new helmet at this way trendy store in Times Square. Why it took this crafting exchange for me to connect my blank deck with a present for her is beyond me. Originally I had this idea of just having her favorite Austen quote done up in fancy hand-lettering that a friend and fellow Madison College student was doing for me but in the end, what with the squareness of the workable area, I decided to go for a more graphic old time advertisement approach similar to a design I had submitted to Madison's Frosty Dog Jog a few years earlier. I already had many of the icons I ended up using from doing The Jane Austen Centre brochure redesign for a class assignment. What I added was not just a story of Jane's life, but many of the recurring jokes that Miss Jessica and I over the years shared about Jane Austen and the various adaptations her work had spawned. This finished design has such jokes as Mr. Hurst's nickname being Fatty Fat Buckle. Seriously, just watch how he "sits" on a couch in the 1995 miniseries and you'll understand why. As for the "Dancing" and "British" you must shout the former when they say it on screen and the latter when a particularly British male dancer appears! The key is usually their teeth.
Originally I was going to do this all by wood burning, and even bought a nifty wood burning kit. The thing is I had never actually done any wood burning up to this point and I was on a tight deadline as I was seeing Miss Jessica in a few weeks and I really didn't have time to master it. Because, to say that my first attempt was dreadful is an understatement. I quickly saw there would be no way to maintain the thin lines and the delicacy of the type. What was interesting though is that the process for transferring the design onto the wood actually looked really good. You print an inversion of your design and then get it photocopied. The key is that it has to be a photocopy because it needs the static and the heat set on the paper which you will then transfer onto the board using the wood burning kit you have not bought in vain. And this looked really cool. Of course because of the wood burning snafu I had had to sand some sections and this distressing that resulted looked even cooler. Therefore I decided to just go with it, distressing some sections, emphasizing others. And yes, I did add gesso. Because, if you haven't guessed by now gesso is one of my most favorite things in the world and can literally be used for and on anything. After the gesso had dried I then sealed the deck and now it hangs proudly on Miss Jessica's wall, showcasing her love of Austen and her love of skateboarding. Two things that you'd think would cancel each other out but just make her that much cooler. 
So I recommend Bath with the full knowledge that Jane Austen herself is pissed at me for doing so. But it's an irony of life that the place that she most hated, living there for a few bleak unproductive years, is the place now most associated with her. Not just because her two posthumously published novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, are predominately set there, but because Bath itself is virtually unchanged since her time and houses the Jane Austen Centre which hosts the yearly Jane Austen Festival, which is in September if you're interested in attending. So if you're following in the footsteps of Jane and her novels, you must invariably go to Bath. Sorry Jane. But for the Janeite it's such a thrill, to be able to walk past Jane's house at Number 4 Sydney Place, to go to the pump room where you can still take the waters! Though they do sound gross and are warm. To marvel at the Roman Baths, and yes, that's basically where the water is from. To promenade along the Royal Crescent. To literally BE in her world. It's the closest you can get to a time machine. 
But most importantly, it's where the Jane Austen Centre is located. Oh, how I LONG to make the pilgrimage there. And for me it IS a pilgrimage. Though I fear the gift shop might bankrupt me, it's bad enough I can order some things online! And I just noticed they have a bicentenary mug... I think that's a must buy. While the centre does have many wonderful artifacts and recently unveiled the most accurate depiction of Jane to date with a new waxwork that 
When I was working towards my BS in art at the UW-Madison I had an assignment to do a series of pieces, all the same size, that were interconnected. At the time I was heavily playing tabletop card games like Steve Jackson's Munchkin, so I envisioned the project as a set of playing cards that explained my personality. There was "A Vicious Feline of Extreme Loyalty" at plus three points that cancelled out my "Inability to Figure Out Your ID," existential angst being a college prerequisite. There was a good fairy balanced by a bad fairy, and physical traits like back problems and corrective vision. But it was my "Jane Austen/Darcy Obsession" at minus one point that captured my imagination. Is it any surprise? I was admittedly an addict. But I viewed it as a gentle and genteel addiction, hence it only encumbering me to a factor of minus one. Yet in creating this piece inspiration stuck and I had this need to continue on, to re-interpret famous Jane Austen illustrations in new mediums that captured the emotion behind the image. Jane Austen had sparked my sensibilities to create and create I must!
Pride and Prejudice
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (Bridget Jones Book 2) by Helen Fielding
When I was trying to define Chick Lit for myself awhile back, this is what I came up with:
Accessorizing is the key to Steampunk. Finding, making or modding just the right item to bring everything together. Now that the overall clothing is done, I realized, I needed footwear... sigh, such a hard thing buying shoes... no really! I wear a size 10/11 so truly, hard to find. So I headed out to DSW at the start of boot season, go any later and those other big footed women get my shoes! I was more than mildly distracted by the craft store next door, more on that below, but then I found the perfect pair! I kid you not! They're comfy, roomy and lace up, but than again, you can see for yourself...
I love them so much I also bought them in black too. And seeing as I was stopping at Target I was able to pick up a cheap pair, doubly cheap because they where on sale, brown knee high socks, because my theory is, why wear tights when you don't need to?
Here is the hat I found through Ladies' Emporium, also, obligatory goofy picture of me wearing the hat. Fits like a dream and looks so nice with some of the bling I bought.
For my outfit, I view my hat as the true expression of the inner Steampunk geek coming forth. Because, let's face it, my costume so far could easily pass as just someone doing a Victorian Renn Faire. Last year at Teslacon I saw someone who had the most gorgeous hat with faux flowers in it. I had been eyeing my mother's faux sunflowers for a few weeks when I decided to go to Michaels Craftstore and check out what they had. I found these lovely beauties. The dark brown is luscious and will go so well against the hat (truly, they look wonderful together!), while the cream will bring back in the colors from the tea dyed skirt and the blouse. So in love with this find. But not as much as the rest of the stuff I found...
So, needless to say, I spent more money than I should have at the craft store, but look at all these cool Steampunk bling to mod my hat! Gears and cogs and clock bits and unfinished pocket watches and birdcages and birds! So much awesomeness I went around the store in a state of bliss. Also, cunning me, because while this costume is earth tones, two of my other costumes aren't, so I bought some silver paint to bling the bling to the starlight side!
