The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
Ratings10
Average rating3.5
15
Ratings10
Average rating3.5
Nothing goes right for Eloise. The one day she wears her new suede boots, it rains cats and dogs. When the subway stops short, she's always the one thrown into some stranger's lap. Plus, she's had more than her share of misfortune in the way of love. In fact, ever since she realized romantic heroes are a thing of the past, she's decided it's time for a fresh start. Setting off for England, Eloise is determined to finish her dissertation on that dashing pair of spies, the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian. But what she discovers is something the finest historians have missed: the secret history of the Pink Carnation - the most elusive spy of all time. As she works to unmask this obscure spy, Eloise stumbles across answers to all kinds of questions. Like how did the Pink Carnation save England from Napoleon? What became of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian? And will Eloise Kelly escape her bad luck and find a living, breathing hero all her own?
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So this is actually a reread of this book, which I first read all the way back in the early 2000s, when it was recommended to me by a friend who also suggested I read The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy - of which this book is supposed to be a sequel.
(Yes, I know Orczy wrote actual sequels for The Scarlet Pimpernel, but my friend also told me NOT to read those because they were going to extinguish whatever love I had for the first book. I haven???t been inclined to go looking, so I haven???t read them.)
Anyway, back to this book! I remember being thoroughly entertained by this when I first read it, and I???m glad to note that it holds up pretty well to my memory of it the first time around. It???s still as fun and occasionally funny as I remember it being, and I???m still utterly delighted by the story as a whole. Amy and Richard???s romance is fun, even if it???s not EXACTLY the type of story that I usually favor, and their hijinks are very much in line with what I remember reading in The Scarlet Pimpernel. In fact, there???s plenty of that DNA in this book, which, if you???re coming right off reading Orczy???s novel, will certainly make this an even more enjoyable read.
Series
11 primary books14 released booksPink Carnation is a 14-book series with 11 primary works first released in 2004 with contributions by Lauren Willig.
