Pink Carnation Series: Danger & Irresistible Romance in Regency England

Book Review: Pink Carnation series (2005-2015) by Lauren Willig

From her authorial debut until relatively recently, Lauren Willig has been churning out historical fiction. Well, she still is to much acclaim and success. However, from 2005 to 2015, she published a dozen novels in her so-called Pink Carnation series. Inspired by Jane Austen classics and Baroness Orczy’s tales of The Scarlet Pimpernel, Willig has meshed her historic interest in the Regency period (she’s a historian by way of education) with her obvious love of Austen heroines and flamboyant spies. It all comes together in her Pink Carnation series – romantic suspense historical fiction.

Noms de Guerre Amidst Georgian Gentility

What if the Scarlet Pimpernel was real? Just the first and the most famous in a long line of British spies during the post-French Revolution and Napoleonic era? What if there was a whole network of spies – French and British – all with flowery noms de guerre? Fleurs de guerre, I guess. The Purple Gentian, the Moonflower, the Black Tulip, the Marigold, and, naturally the Pink Carnation. And what if instead of just lounging about drawing rooms and ballrooms, waiting for suitable suitors, women – Georgian, Austenesque women – found themselves in for a bit of derring-do? Out adventuring with some daring romantic leads?

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So, the whole premise of the Pink Carnation series rests on a twenty-first-century historian, an American Ph.D. student. She arrives in England to research British espionage during the Napoleonic Wars. The Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian were unmasked in their day, so much is known and written about them.

Our intrepid researcher, Eloise Kelly, is especially interested in turning up anything on the very elusive, possibly mythic (non-existent) Pink Carnation. The research is going dismally until she’s invited to look at private documents owned by the Selwick family. The Selwicks are descendants of the Purple Gentian.

She hits historical pay dirt that will rock the academic world with the Selwick papers. The Pink Carnation did indeed exist, the master spy in a network of espionage crossing continents. Eloise learns the identity of the Pink Carnation (which I won’t reveal here). And a whole intricate world of spy schools and treachery and treason and thwarted plans reveals itself. Throw into the mix a certain gruff, secretive and very sexy Colin Selwick, and Eloise embarks on a romantic adventure of her own. This modern-day romance interweaves throughout all the books.

Male + Female + Mystery = Romantic Suspense

Each novel, and again there are twelve of them, is a new story with a focus on a new set of would-be daring lovers. Although, many characters do show up again and again throughout the series. A minor character in one novel will take romantic centerstage in another and so it goes. So, there is this continuity there. That said, every book could be read as a stand-alone piece. They’re self-contained enough that it’s not necessary to be intimate with the entire series. Although it does make it a bit more fun, and there are little threads woven through every book.

With a new set of romantic leads in every novel, Willig writes a wide variety of types. From vain dandies to ice queens, from headstrong heroines to randy rogues, from fainting violets to disciplined men of honor. Yeah, all sorts of types have their tales told and their chance at romance. Dismissed and irritating minor characters in one novel often get a chance to be fleshed out and redeem themselves in another. Redeemed through knowledge of their thoughts and motivations and histories. It’s fun stuff.

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The scandalous gossip and asides in an Austen novel are set a bit more center stage in the series. This is my way of saying that there are some steamy scenes in the novels. Sex occurs. But never to the point that we’re into total bodice-ripping. Although, I will put a flag on the first book, which has at least two juicy scenes. But later novels might have none or one, depending on the lead types. It varies. Yes, the descriptive explicitness of the physical intimacy does seem to dampen as the series progresses.

Willig is an academically trained historian, so her eye for historical details is sharp. You’ll learn far more about the Napoleonic Wars than you ever thought possible and have fun doing it. Unless, of course, you’re a history buff and have already studied all that. I haven’t. So, it’s entertaining and enlightening, even if things aren’t quite historically accurate. Willig always has a little historical overview at the end of every novel. She discusses what’s fact and what’s fiction, and where she took a detour and artistic licenses.

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So, if you enjoy historical fiction and romantic suspense and romance and adventures and mysteries, well, Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series just might be your cup of tea. À votre santé! Cheers!

A Dozen Tales of Derring-Do

So, without further ado, here are the twelve novels of the Pink Carnation series with brief synopses. As mentioned before, they can be read as stand-alone works. But I would recommend trying to read them somewhat in order. Personal favorites include The Deception of the Emerald Ring and The Mischief of the Mistletoe. (Which I, admittedly, read again immediately upon completion.) Yeah, it’s one of those gleeful ones, where you just want to savor it as long as possible.

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The Secret History of the Pink Carnation (2005)

Setting off for England, Eloise is determined to finish her dissertation on two spies, the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian. But what she discovers is something 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 has more and more 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 of her own?

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The Masque of the Black Tulip (2005)

The Black Tulip, France’s deadliest spy, is in England with instructions to track down and kill the Pink Carnation. Only Henrietta Selwick and Miles Dorrington know where the Pink Carnation is stationed. Using a secret code book, Henrietta has deciphered a message detailing the threat of the Black Tulip. Meanwhile, the War Office has enlisted Miles to track down the notorious French spy before he (or she) can finish the deadly mission. But what Henrietta and Miles don’t know is that while they are trying to find the Black Tulip (and possibly falling in love), the Black Tulip is watching them.

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The Deception of the Emerald Ring (2007)

Letty Alsworthy intercepts a note indicating that her sister, Mary, is about to make the very grave mistake of eloping with Geoffrey Pinghingdale-Snipe (second in command of the League of the Purple Gentian). In an attempt to save the family name, Letty tries to stop the elopement but instead finds herself swept away in the midnight carriage meant for her sister and is accidentally compromised. Geoff and Letty, to each other’s horror, find themselves forced into matrimony. Then, Geoff receives word that he is to travel to Ireland to help the Pink Carnation and disappears immediately after their wedding ceremony. Letty learns of Geoff’s disappearance and steals away on a ship bound for Ireland, armed and ready to fight for her husband and to learn a thing or two about spying for England.

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The Seduction of the Crimson Rose (2008)

Determined to secure another London season without assistance from her new brother-in-law, Mary Alsworthy accepts a secret assignment from Lord Vaughn on behalf of the Pink Carnation. She must infiltrate the ranks of the dreaded French spy, the Black Tulip, before he and his master can stage their planned invasion of England. Fighting their growing attraction, impediments from their past, and, of course, the French, Mary and Vaughn find themselves lost in a treacherous garden of lies.

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The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (2009)

After 12 years in India, Robert, Duke of Dovedale, returns to his estates in England with a mission in mind– to infiltrate the infamous Hellfire club to unmask the man who murdered his mentor at the Battle of Assaye. Intent on revenge, Robert never anticipates that an even more difficult challenge awaits him, in the person of one Lady Charlotte Lansdowne.

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The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (2010)

As Lady Frederick Staines, Penelope plunges into the treacherous waters of the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad, where no one is quite what they seem—even her own husband. In a strange country where elaborate court dress masks even more elaborate intrigues and a spy called the Marigold leaves cobras as his calling card, there is only one person Penelope can trust. Captain Alex Reid has better things to do than play nursemaid to a pair of aristocrats. He knows what their kind is like. Or so he thinks – until Lady Frederick Staines out-shoots, out-rides, and out-swims every man in the camp.

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The Mischief of the Mistletoe (2010)

Reginald “Turnip” Fitzhugh—often mistaken for the elusive spy known as the Pink Carnation—has blundered into danger before. But when he blunders into Miss Arabella Dempsey, it never occurs to him that she might be trouble. When Turnip and Arabella stumble upon a beautifully wrapped Christmas pudding with a cryptic message written in French, “Meet me at Farley Castle”, the unlikely vehicle for intrigue launches the pair on a Yuletide adventure that ranges from the Austens’ modest drawing room to the awe-inspiring estate of the Dukes of Dovedale.

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The Orchid Affair (2011)

Laura Grey, a veteran governess, joins the Selwick Spy School expecting to find elaborate disguises and thrilling exploits in service to the spy known as the Pink Carnation. She hardly expects her first assignment to be serving as governess for the children of Andre Jaouen, right-hand man to Bonaparte’s minister of police. At first, the job is as lively as Latin textbooks and knitting, but Laura begins to notice strange behavior from Jaouen—secret meetings and odd comings and goings. As Laura edges closer to her employer, she makes a shocking discovery and is surprised to learn that she has far more in common with Jaouen than she originally thought.

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The Garden Intrigue (2012)

Secret agent Augustus Whittlesby has spent a decade undercover in France, posing as an insufferably bad poet. New York-born Emma Morris Delagardie is a thorn in Augustus’s side. An old school friend of Napoleon’s stepdaughter, she came to France with her uncle, the American envoy, eloped with a Frenchman. Widowed for four years, she entertains herself by drinking too much champagne, holding a weekly salon, and loudly critiquing Augustus’s poetry. As Napoleon pursues his plans for the invasion of England, Whittlesby hears of a top-secret device to be demonstrated at a house party at Malmaison. The catch? The only way in is with Emma, who has been asked to write a masque for the weekend’s entertainment. In this complicated masque within a masque, nothing goes quite as scripted- especially Augustus’s feelings for Emma.

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The Passion of the Purple Plumeria (2013)

Colonel William Reid has returned home from India to retire near his children, who are safely stowed in an academy in Bath. Upon his return to the Isles, however, he finds that one of his daughters has vanished, along with one of her classmates. When the Pink Carnation’s little sister goes missing from her English boarding school, Gwen reluctantly returns home to investigate the girl’s disappearance. Thrown together by circumstance, Gwen and William must cooperate to track down the young ladies before others with nefarious intent get their hands on them. But Gwen’s partnership with quick-tongued, roguish William may prove to be even more of an adventure for her than finding the lost girls.

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The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla (2014)

In October of 1806, the Little Season is in full swing, and Sally Fitzhugh has had enough of the endless parties and balls. With a rampant vampire craze sparked by the novel The Convent of Orsino, it seems no one can speak of anything else. But when Sally hears a rumor that the reclusive Duke of Belliston is an actual vampire, she cannot resist the challenge of proving such nonsense false. At a ball in Belliston Square, she ventures across the gardens and encounters the mysterious Duke.

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The Lure of the Moonflower (2015)

Portugal, December 1807. Jack Reid, the British agent known as the Moonflower (formerly the French agent known as the Moonflower), has been stationed in Portugal and is awaiting his new contact. He does not expect to be paired with the legendary Pink Carnation.

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Please note that the following ratings are an average of the entire series. Individual books naturally vary with respect to romantic gestures, appealing leads, and so on.

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Have you read any of the Pink Carnation series? What are your thoughts? Do you have a favorite book?

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Editorial Note: This article is from our contributor archives and has been lightly edited and updated by us. Since 2021, The Silver Petticoat Review has been exclusively written by Amber & Autumn Topping. See About Us.

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