I love this series! It is the perfect juxtaposition of mystery, comedy and romance. Chic-lit for the historical buffs!

posted Feb 11, 2008 at 11:44PM

This is an updated swashbuckler, a story that combines the modern world with history—and throws in a bit of chick lit romance for good measure. Harvard graduate Eloise Kelly is completing her dissertation about English spies (like the aforementioned Scarlet Pimpernel) when she comes across a trunk of letters and documents about a previously unknown historical spy. Soon Eloise and the reader are plunged into a novel-within-the-novel, the story of Amy Balcourt in the year 1803. Amy and her brother Edouard set off to Paris to join the league of another dashing spy, the Purple Gentian. But Eloise in the twenty-first century and Amy in the nineteenth century are both obsessed with the story of the very mysterious Pink Carnation, even as romance appears in both the present and the past in the form of a pair of dashing gentlemen with secrets of their own. Part literary detective story, part historical thriller, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation updates the classic swashbuckler while remaining true to its spirit. For more of the Pink Carnation’s history, read the rest of the books in Willig’s Pink Carnation series: The Masque of the Black Tulip, The Deception of the Emerald Ring, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, and The Temptation of the Night Jasmine.

posted Jun 23, 2009 at 2:24PM

This is the first book of the Pink Carnation Series. I enjoyed the book, although there were several things I found lacking. First, the characters were interesting, but not very highly developed. Although the historical acuracy was brilliant, the plot itself seemed to be strikingly similar to The Scarlet Pimpernal, with many of the same ideas, and not very unique. I really liked how the past was inter-mingled with the modern, but I would have liked to have the characters in the modern part more developed. I do, however, plan to read the other books of the series and I recommend others do so as well.

posted Apr 4, 2012 at 3:11PM

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