The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation Series #6) »

There s nothing quaint about the bodice ripping romances that Lauren Willig pens in her popular Pink Carnation books. She infuses her historical love story/espionage mysteries with so much modern wit and character complexity that they transcend worn-out clichés about heaving bosoms.

The heroines of Lauren Willig's bestselling Pink Carnation series have engaged in espionage all over nineteenth-century Europe. In the sixth stand-alone volume, our fair English heroine travels to India, where she finds freedom-and risk-more exciting than she ever imagined.Everyone warned Miss Penelope Deveraux that her unruly behavior would land her in disgrace someday. She never imagined she's be whisked off to India to give the scandal of her hasty marriage time to die down. 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 husband. In a strange country, where elaborate court dress masks even more elaborate intrigues and a dangerous spy called the Marigold leaves venomous 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. Or so he thinks-until Lady Frederick...

Publishers Weekly

Harvard grad student Eloise Kelly continues her dissertation research on 18th-century British spies among the treasure trove of Colin Selwick's family archives and finds an unexpected offshoot of the Pink Carnation's spy network foiling French conspiracies. The documents reveal that Penelope Devereaux is forced into a loveless marriage with Lord Frederick Stains, and they are both sent off to a British enclave in India. As Freddie pursues drinking, gambling, and womanizing, the headstrong Penelope is left to the care and protection of Capt. Alex Reid, who fears a spy hidden in their midst. Slipping easily between the contemporary world and the Napoleonic era, Kate Reading delivers a superb performance in this sixth book of the romantic mystery series as she gives unpolished Eloise her broad mid-America accent and brings her mildly clumsy persona to life. Her Penelope, on the other hand, is suitably aristocratic, and the multitude of supporting vocal characterizations is equally precise and entertaining. A Dutton hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 5). (Feb.)