This is the fourth book in the series, and as such, not the best place to start reading. This review will also contain some spoilers for book 3, The Deception of the Emerald Ring, so skip this review if you’re not up to date.
Despite being one of the acclaimed beauties of the ton, Miss Mary Alsworthy is facing her third season. The only actual marriage proposals she’s received were from unsuitable candidates, and her attempt to secure a rich husband failed spectacularly when her intended accidentally compromised her younger sister instead and had to marry her. So now her former suitor is her brother-in-law and disgustingly happy with her little sister. Mary refuses to show them how much their domestic felicity bothers her, and she’s certainly not happy with the idea that her next season will have to be sponsored by her new brother-in-law.
So when the cynical and wealthy Lord Sebastian Vaughn approaches her with an alternative, she doesn’t hesitate for long. Lord Vaughn is working with the Pink Carnation (although Mary doesn’t know that part) and trying to locate the elusive French spy, the Black Tulip. As the spy seems to only recruit tall, pale-skinned, dark-haired beauties as his agents, Lord Vaughn suggests that Mary help him tempt the Black Tulip out of hiding. Yup, Mary is described with raven locks and ivory skin, so I have NO idea who the lady on the cover of this book is. I keep wondering if the marketing department have any idea what’s actually in the books when they design the covers? The woman on this cover doesn’t fit the description of anyone in the book. Sigh. Anyway, back to the plot. In return for Mary basically acting as bait, Lord Vaughn will fund her new season and she won’t have to take charity from her former admirer. As the two start working closely together, they are surprised to discover that they may have found a perfect match in each other. But there are a number of obstacles in their way, including the deadly Black Tulip.
Full review.
The title of your review is enough to put this book, and the others in the series, on my to read list.
Lord Vaughn is divine. I find his snarky disdain highly attractive. That piece of dialogue is just one of his many excellent lines in this book.
I’m with emmalita. Where should I start with Willig?
Never mind, I just snagged Pink Carnation, Blood Lily, and Night Jasmine from my e-library.
Pink Carnation is absolutely the place to start, because it will introduce you to the world and our plucky chick lit grad student, through whom we get all the interesting stories.
I’m insisting on reading them in order (because I’ve acquired the whole series through possibly less than legal means – I’m going to blame the fact that my library doesn’t do e-loans) and so far books 3 and 4 are my favourite. Just don’t take the books too seriously, they are clearly meant to be extremely frivolous entertainment, nothing too taxing for the brain.
I’m torn between pointing out that I read exclusively romance novels, so how seriously can I take them AND remembering my self-important reviews of same.
We’ll written and thoughtful does not equal self important.
Oh, your reviews are not self-important. They are just articulate and insightful. I love your take on romance. I just know that on occasion, you tend to find romances that veer towards the silly and melodramatic a bit too far for your disbelief, and I suspect Willig’s books fall in that category. So I just wanted to prepare you for the fact that these are more like Tessa Dare’s more silly endeavours than say Meredith Duran or Lisa Kleypas’ books.
You had me at “he reminds me of the Duke of Falconbridge” – I’m in!
Ha! Be advised that the heroes of books 1-3 are nothing like the Duke of Falconbridge, although Lord Vaughn features quite a bit as a supporting character in books 2 and 3. I really do hope he keeps popping up being his wonderful, snarky self in future books in the series too, but perhaps he’ll become more withdrawn once he gets his own happily ever after?