The Garden Intrigue

The Garden Intrigue (Pink Carnation #8)

by Lauren Willig

Hardcover, 388 pages

Published 2012 by Dutton Adult.

In the latest installment of the successful Pink Carnation series, modern day Eloise Kelly is living in her boyfriends English mansion and working on her doctoral thesis of Regency spies.

Her misadventures are interspersed with the Napoleonic Wars spymasters circle in 1804 Paris. American abroad Emma Delagardie’s social circle includes her friend Hortense and her family,  Kardashians of the 19th century, the Bonapartes.

When pressured to provide  a play celebrating the First Consul (make that Emporer’s) imminent naval victory, she asks a friend of a friend for help.

Her co-writer Augustus Whittlesby, a chaming, skillful agent for the Crown, is posing as a really bad poet. They find their partnership contentious, ultimately leading to romantic.

Wittig always provides an interesting cast of characters, crackling dialogue and enough historical background to make the reader feel immersed in another world.