Historical romance novels are traditionally rather formulaic. Girl meets boy. Girl falls for boy. Girl loses boy. Girl gets boy back after underlying adventure or mystery is revealed or resolved. All the while the nuances of the period are interweaved into the story, not to mention lots of down and dirty sex. Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series, however, brings a refreshing new take to the historic romance novel, as evident in, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose.
The fourth book in the series (released in paperback in December), The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, continues the story involving a cast of characters established in the previous novels. The story is set in Napoleonic-era England and involves myriad high-society spies and the women who become entangled in their intricate plotting.
Mary Alsworthy is our heroine. In The Deception of the Emerald Ring, the man who is supposed to be promised to Mary ends up marrying her sister, Letty. Stuck at her new brother-in-law’s mansion with the two people who betrayed her most (not to mention a host of other members of polite society), Mary finds herself horribly depressed at the thought of yet another Season on the market and still no husband.
What’s worse is that her family cannot afford all of the trappings that are necessary for a proper young lady to attend all of the balls and events of London’s Season. Mary must rely on her newly wealthy sister to fund her efforts to land an equally lucrative match – something she doesn’t think her pride can stomach. The irony of her situation, not to mention her distaste for it, is apparent from page one.
Mary is determined to find her own way, which is why she takes the mysterious Lord Vaughn up on his offer. He approaches Mary on behalf of the British spy The Pink Carnation with a proposition: help him unmask the notorious French spy The Black Tulip and be richly rewarded. More intrigued by the money he is offering than anything else, Mary sees Vaughn’s offer as something that could be a somewhat exciting diversion from her present situation. If only it didn’t have to include so much time with Vaughn himself.
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