The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, by Lauren Willig (Pink Carnation #4)

Lauren Willig continues the exciting Pink Carnation series with her fourth novel, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, featuring Lord Vaughn, the delightfully devilish spy from The Masque of the Black Tulip, and Mary Alsworthy, the raven-haired beauty whose sister accidentally stole her suitor in The Deception of the Emerald Ring. Determined to secure another London season without assistance from her new brother-in-law, Mary accepts a secret assignment from Lord Vaughn on behalf of the Pink Carnation: to infiltrate the ranks of the dreaded French spy, the Black Tulip, before he and his master can stage their planned invasion of England. Every spy has a weakness, and for the Black Tulip that weakness is black-haired women�his �petals� of the Tulip. A natural at the art of seduction, Mary easily catches the attention of the French spy, but Lord Vaughn never anticipates that his own heart will be caught as well. Fighting their growing attraction, impediments from their past, and, of course, the French, Mary and Vaughn find themselves lost in the shadows of a treacherous garden of lies.

As our modern-day heroine, Eloise Kelly, digs deeper into England�s Napoleonic- era espionage, she becomes even more entwined with Colin Selwick, the descendant of her spy subjects.

Mary Alsworthy fits the description of a petal of the Black Tulip, and after one (or two) of them wilted in Emerald Ring, the French spy is looking for a pale-skinned dark-haired beauty to replace them. Tired of living at her younger sister and new brother-in-law (who was supposed to be her husband)'s mercy, Mary jumps at the opportunity to gain some independence. Lord Vaughn offers her money in exchange for her help rooting out the dangerous, elusive, and slightly mad Tulip. Meanwhile, Mary and Vaughn find themselves falling for each other while Vaughn has to deal with one of his secrets which has come back to haunt him. Eloise, the Harvard scholar who finds the papers in this book and the previous ones in London, finds out more about the Selwick clan and spends some more time with her crush, the handsome Colin Selwick. Her story inches along at the snail's pace it's been going at since the beginning.

One of the most hilarious recurring themes, in my opinion, was Mary's and Vaughn's insistence that the lovey-dovey stuff between all the couples from the previous books was nauseating and that their love is not as gooey. Don't be fooled by them-their aloofness is just a shield they put up out of jealousy and have kept up out of stubbornness. Speaking of the previous couples, it was nice to get glimpses of their happy marital lives (and Richard's grudge towards Miles for marrying his sister, though I suppose after what he caught them doing, he'd be madder if Miles didn't marry Hen). It was also cool to see what Mary really thought of Letty and Geoff after they accidentally made a fool out of her in the previous book (even though she deserved it). And, at the end of Crimson Rose she ends up even better off than Letty so if you think about it, Letty and Geoff really did her a favor.

5 stars.