Spies and sword fights and masks do make me a happy girl! The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig was a quick and enthralling read. The book takes place in Paris in 1803. Napoleon is at the height of his power and casting a greedy eye on England. The Scarlet Pimpernel has long retired, leaving the spy-game to his protegee, the Purple Gentian. Little does he know, he is about to get company in the form of Amy and Jane who are also angling to enter the world of espionage. Good times! I would say that the cover and format of the book misled me. I was expecting more adventure and less romance. Instead, I would call this one step above Regency Romance. Barely. Only because the issues the book deals with are not limited to the private sphere of feelings and personal conflict (although that is the bulk, and most of it a bit unoriginal). The main characters are out to save England. That said, the ratio of romance to adventure reminds me of the romance to fantasy ratio in Robin D. Owens's Exotique series.

The pacing and ploting of the book are deft. It is helpful that Willig bounces between Richard's and Amy's POV, at times alternating paragraphs. There was one scene that had me so excited! The reader knows something via Amy's POV and then in the next chapter, Richard finds out, but it's like watching the countdown on a bomb and you simply cannot wait for it to go off. One part of Willig's style, however, was that she insisted on using the character's name at the start of every paragraph, even when the reader is in no doubt of who is doing the action. A personal grievance, that is all.

With this one done, I am anxious to read the next in the series The Black Tulip.