This book is terribly miss-marketed. But I enjoyed it anyway. Lauren Willig’s The Secret History of the Pink Carnation falls into the ‘guilty pleasure’ category: not something you’d brag about in a literature seminar (or even at a party for that matter)! You see, after loving Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel years ago, I jumped at the fact that there was another historical spy romance of the kind out there, which I thought this was, but not quite.
This novel is chick lit. All the way. There are two stories: One about an American grad student working on her dissertation about three famous spies (the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Purple Gentian and the Pink Carnation) and her power/crush struggle with the man who has the vital manuscripts that she needs, and the other about a young girl and her compatriot who are both searching for the identity of the Purple Gentian as he had not yet been unmasked.
The plot is okay and the writing reminds me of my own in ways (sometimes fluid, sometimes jarring and lacking). The up point of this one is that it’s pretty funny. Not in a laugh-out-loud sort of way but more like “hah, that was clever.” There is romance. I didn’t expect it either. There are two and a half small scenes of light romance novel material (I say light because I’ve thumbed through a romance novel or two and I know how… descriptive they can be). I don’t care for romance so I skimmed over those parts in pure disinterest. Other than that, I found this book to be delightful, although I don’t know anyone who a recommendation would suit…
This is the first in a series. I would read the rest, but I don’t think that my favorite character gets mentioned again! Therefore, if I continue, I shall utilize the library for a test run.
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