The Passion of the Purple Plumeria (Pink Carnation Series #10)

by Lauren Willig

Overview

NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED!

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….

READERS GUIDE INCLUDED

*New York Times Bestselling Author Christina Dodd
**Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101614174
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/06/2013
Series:	Pink Carnation Series , #10
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	208,210
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The author of nine previous Pink Carnation novels, Lauren Willig received a graduate degree in English history from Harvard University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, though she now writes full-time. Willig Lives in New York City.

Hometown:

New York, New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

March 28, 1977

Place of Birth:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Education:

B.A., Yale University, 1999; M.A., Harvard University, 2001

Website:

http://www.laurenwillig.com

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for the Novels of Lauren Willig

“Jane Austen for the modern girl.”—New York Times Bestselling Author Christina Dodd

“Pride and Prejudice lives on.”—USA Today

"History textbook meets Bridget Jones."—Marie Claire

“Willig’s series gets better with each addition.”—Booklist

“[This] sparkling series continues to elevate the Regency romance genre.”—Kirkus Reviews

 

Christina Dodd

“Jane Austen for the modern girl…Sheer fun!”

Editorial Reviews

[An] enchanting, exciting, and clever story.” — Romance Reviews Today on THE GARDEN INTRIGUE

“[A] supremely nerve-wracking, sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat, can’t-sleep-until-everyone-is-safe-read…fabulous…Charming three-dimensional characters, lively action, witty dialogue, and a continuous contemporary story line that enhances the events happening the past.” — Library Journal (starred review) on THE ORCHID AFFAIR

“Willig’s sparkling series continues to elevate the Regency romance genre.” — Kirkus on THE ORCHID AFFAIR

“Pride and Prejudice lives on in the pages of Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation romance-spy series.”
— USA Today

“History textbook meets Bridget Jones.” — Marie Claire

“Jane Austen for the modern girl…Sheer fun!” — Christina Dodd

Praise for the Novels of Lauren Willig

“Jane Austen for the modern girl.”—New York Times Bestselling Author Christina Dodd

“Pride and Prejudice lives on.”—USA Today

"History textbook meets Bridget Jones."—Marie Claire

“Willig’s series gets better with each addition.”—Booklist

“[This] sparkling series continues to elevate the Regency romance genre.”—Kirkus Reviews

 

From the Publisher

Jane Austen for the modern girl…Sheer fun!

Christina Dodd

History textbook meets Bridget Jones.

Marie Claire

Pride and Prejudice lives on in the pages of Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation romance-spy series.

USA Today

[An] enchanting, exciting, and clever story.

Romance Reviews Today on THE GARDEN INTRIGUE

In April 1805, Col. William Reid has retired from the East India Company and is anxious to reunite with the daughters he sent to London a decade ago for safety and schooling. He finds, however, that his youngest, Lizzie, is missing along with her roommate Agnes Wooliston, little sister of Jane, aka The Pink Carnation. Did the girls run off on a lark or is there something sinister behind their disappearance? Miss Gwendolyn Meadows, Jane's right-hand woman, steps up to the challenge of finding the girls despite having to work with the very handsome and charming Colonel Reid. And the sparks begin to fly. VERDICT This tenth bloom (and the first trade paperback original) to be added to Willig's popular series (The Garden Intrigue; The Secret History of the Pink Carnation) is just as fresh and satisfying as any of the other flowers in the best literary bouquet ever created! Fans can rejoice in finding the outstanding features they've come to count on: intriguing historical details, double-crossing deceptions, complex characters, and plenty of romance. Readers will be pleased to discover a more mature couple featured within the historical portion of the story, the wink-wink humor of Miss Gwen's gothic novel, and the continued progression of our beloved contemporary couple.—Stacey Hayman, Rocky River P.L., OH

Library Journal

The 10th in Willig's witty series about Napoleanic-era spies focuses on a far-from-drowsy chaperone. Gwen, lady companion to Jane, aka the notorious English spy Pink Carnation, is enjoying her sojourn in Paris. There, she is not a pitied, unmarriageable spinster but a proficient and daring spy in her own right: She sallies forth at night disguised as a gentleman to learn, among other state secrets, what Napoleon's foreign minister, Talleyrand, is up to with a certain opera diva, Aurelia Fiorila. Too abruptly, Jane and Gwen are recalled to England: Jane's sister Agnes has disappeared from her boarding school. At the school, Gwen meets Col. Reid, who's come from India to reunite with the daughters he sent to England to be educated years before. Now, his daughter Lizzy has gone missing along with Agnes. Reid assumes the girls have taken refuge with his older daughter Kat in Bristol. After journeying there and learning, to Reid's dismay, that Kat is now taking in laundry and living in a hovel, Reid and Gwen are set upon by brigands. Although Gwen handily fights them off by deploying her sword parasol, Reid is wounded. Mutual attraction smolders as Gwen nurses Reid back to health. Back with Jane's family in Bath, Gwen is alarmed that Jane seems so susceptible to the blandishments of the Chevalier de la Tour d'Argent, who is either a double agent or a charlatan or both. The plot thickens when the colonel and Chevalier escort the two spies to an opera performance starring Fiorila. Gwen chronicles and exaggerates the exploits of her alter ego, Purple Plumeria, in a swashbuckling novel in progress, the Convent of Orsino. A present-day frame story features Colin, a descendent of the Pink Carnation, and his Harvard historian girlfriend, Eloise. The writing is acerbic, arch and funny, but the complex back story demands familiarity with the earlier books. For fans enmeshed in this intricate world, a welcome installment which those new to the series might find a bit too in media res.

Kirkus Reviews