Crimson Roses for Valentine's Day

No, I didn't receive any; but I don't like cut flowers. Instead, I read the rollicking Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig. It's the fourth volume in her series about flowery named spies in Regency England. I absolutely loved it; it features Lord Vaughn, a dark and mysterious character who is more late Georgian than strictly Regency. He's one of my favourites in the series, so it was great to read a story all about him. The settings are perfect, and the dialogue sharp and funny. The story flips back and forth between the Regency era spies and conspiracies they have underway, and the present, where grad student Eloise is furthering her relationship with the dishy Colin Selwick -- whose family papers are providing her with information for her dissertation on English spies in the Regency. Willig is quite capable of switching the tone so that both elements work well; after I finished this I was dying for the next one to be written and published so I could get my hands on it, for both storylines. Of course, that will be a while yet, so I went back and searched out the original inspiration, The Scarlet Pimpernel. It is a wonderful book, even still! Percy Blakeney, yum.

In this book, Mary Alsworthy, a dark-haired beauty, is recruited by Lord Vaughn (working for the Pink Carnation) to lure the French spy known as the Black Tulip. Mary is a bit at loose ends since her younger sister mistakenly eloped with her fiancé in the last book; she has no marriage prospects and chafes at the idea of being beholden to her younger sister's (and previous fiancé's) charity. So she agrees to work with Lord Vaughn. The Black Tulip is known to have a weakness for women with black hair, and Mary does attract his attention. She also, unwittingly, attracts Lord Vaughn's attention. The interplay between these two is wonderful; they are both very worldly and cynical and there was a lot less of the boisterous running about of the previous books' heroines. I really like Mary; she seems an equal match for a misanthropic hero we met first in the previous Masque of the Black Tulip. Read the entire series, because these are very entertaining novels from an excessively talented writer. (Really, does a writer this good have to also be a Harvard graduate and a working lawyer?!!) This was a perfect read for Valentine's, romantic and hilarious.