The Garden Intrigue: Pink Carnation, Book 9

I must say that I'm a huge fan of Lauren Willig's work, therefore, my review may be biased or unjust. Her Pink Carnation books are one of the rare series that I pre-order, and I wait until it is downloaded at midnight to start reading ravenously until my body demands sleep. The Garden Intrigue is the ninth installment of the Pink Carnation series (excluding the novella, Ivy and Intrigue); this story features Augustus Whittlesby, the terrible poet enamored with Jane Wooliston, and Emma Delagardie, a widowed young American socialite.Because of my great love and regard for Ms Willig's work, I hate to say that this wasn't one of her best books. I think that my expectations for The Garden Intrigue were a bit unfair as the two books prior, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily and The Orchid Affair, were my favorite in her series. Definitely, in my eyes, some tough steps to follow. I was hoping so much more for Augustus' great love story, as he has been a favorite fixture of mine throughout the entire Pink series. As a spy whose guise is a poet with a penchant for atrocious alliteration, I thought that his story would be one of the most entertaining of the series, but alas, I was left wanting.I feel that the story wasn't nearly as character driven as the rest of the series. I didn't particularly care for Emma and never connected with her, and Jane showed a side to her that I wasn't a fan of either, albeit probably necessary. I also didn't care for the Eloise running side story.Things not to deny, though, are Willig's always impeccable research, and her knack for turning a phrase and conveying her prose with much wit. I found her sneaking in random rhymes to be very amusing: "Nineteen and fearless he had been then, confident of the power of both his sword and his pen." (p. 15). These are sprinkled everywhere within the book.I realize that I have put Ms Willig's works on a pedestal, which is also why I acknowledge that my review may be unjust. I didn't hate this, but I didn't love it either.

Our favorite bad poet, spy Augustus Whittlesby, needs to get to Malmaison to find out what top-secret machine is being demonstrated there. His ticket in is Emma Morris Delagardie who is New York born but an old school friend of Josephine's daughter Hortense. Emma has been quite a vocal critic of Augustus's poetry but she definitely likes the way he wears his pantaloons. She agrees to collaborate with him on a masque to be performed during the house party.Emma is convinced the Augustus is in love with Jane who is the Pink Carnation. Augustus is pretty sure that he loves her too. Jane isn't interested which leads to some heartbreak for both Augustus and Emma who is sure that he will never see her as anything but a friend.There are all kinds of fun hijinks at the house party as they prepare for the play, discover and steal Fulton's plans for a submarine, and fall in love. There are all kinds of misunderstandings until both Augustus and Emma decide what they really want and decide to take a chance on each other.In the present timeline, a movie is being shot a Selwick Hall which has Colin upset. It doesn't help that his cousin/stepfather is hanging around the crew as is the man who dated and dumped Colin's sister just to get a chance to look at the Selwick papers. Eloise is coming to the end of her Fellowship year in England and has to decide whether to go back to Cambridge for a teaching position as she works on her thesis.This is a fun series. I like the way it weaves a historical romance with a contemporary one.

Number 9 in the Pink Carnation series was very good but I had a hard time caring about the characters quite as much as I did about most of the characters in the other books. For instance, Emma Delagardie, you get enough of her background story to feel for her but...I don't know something was off there I didn't care about her nearly as much as I should have. Augustus was pretty well developed but I wasn't a huge fan of the way that Lauren Willig put in the "notes" between Augustus and Emma to build their relationship. It of course saves space and shows you where the story is going but by pairing it down to a bare minimum like that I just wasn't invested in their caring for each other then when he "switched" his affections from Jane to Emma it seemed almost like he was a player because I hadn't built up the relationship between him and Emma in my head to where it should have been. I completely understand what Lauren was going for it just for me didn't quite get the job done. I was actually a bit of fan of seeing a cold Jane. I know some people have an issue with it but I think it makes her more believable and sets the series up for a harder romantic ending....because come on...we all know that will be the last book. Overall I thought the Garden Intrigue was a nice book, not the best in the series but definitely worth the read. I can't wait for the Purple Plumeria to come out so we can see what happens with Miss Gwen!

I had long looked forward to seeing the heart of Augustus Whittlesby be opened, but was very surprised and interested by the character chosen to touch it. I really enjoyed Emma's character and the choices she faced- more mature than other Willig heroines and very touching as well. By the way, I can't imagine what kind of personality will someday (I hope ) catch Jane's eye. She is the ultimate professional spy- esp in this book.The close look at the home life of the French characters and the historical details re American involvement in French politics at this time were were very interesting. Not many romance authors can lead a reader to actually go read more in actual history books -Ms Willig has the ability to open those doors. The Eloise plot has become a lot of fun. All the little bits of humor in this series are a real treat. As always- the writing is clear and engaging. A very pleasant series.

Another sparkling novel from this author.