The Passion of the Purple Plumeria by Lauren Willig

Narrated by Kate Reading

This is the tenth installment in the wonderful Pink Carnation books, a Regency era series based on a league of spies with floral pseudonyms which started with the Scarlet Pimpernel. Ok, The Scarlet Pimpernel wasn’t the first book, but the inspiration for the league – well, you just have to start with the first book to really understand! All of the books work as stand-alone, giving you enough background to keep up, but they’re a lot more fun to read in order.

There are always two story lines in Pink Carnation books – a contemporary story which is currently in 2004, and the Napoleonic-era story featuring the League, with the main protagonist being one of the spies. In the contemporary line, Eloise is an American doctoral candidate studying in Great Britain. Her thesis is based on the League of the Pink Carnation, setting out to prove that the league was real and had a significant impact on the outcome of the war. Over the course of the books, she meets Colin, a descendant of one – and maybe more! – of the spies. Their relationship arc goes from acrimonious to amorous over time, and in Plumeria, they have to face the end of Eloise’s semester abroad. However, in order to wrap up her research, she needs to find the mysterious jewels of Berar – and she needs to do it before Colin’s cousin Jeremy does!

Her search mirrors the story of the jewels in the 19th century. Miss Gwendolyn Meadows is the stiff and starchy chaperone who accompanied Jane Wooliston to France to become a founding member of the League. (SPOILER – if you haven’t read the series, look away: Jane is the Pink Carnation!) Miss Gwen sports a mean parasol – often with a lethal blade hidden inside, but even without the blade, all of the characters find themselves dodging it. She is completely no-nonsense – when Jane’s sister, Agnes, turns up missing from school, she leads Jane back to England and heads the search, right after performing a Cat Woman-worthy spy maneuver in France.

Missing along with Agnes is Lizzy Reid, half-Indian daughter of Colonel William Reid. Colonel Reid sent Lizzy and her elder sister Kat back to England from India 10 years before, to live with Kat’s grandmother. The Reid family was featured in an earlier installment (The Betrayal of the Blood Lily), where we learned that William’s son Jack, also half-Indian, is a spy for the French because by law he cannot serve in the English army. Jack has been sending his sisters Lizzy and Kat packages from India – and Jane and Miss Gwen suspect these packages from a notorious spy might be behind the girls’ disappearance.

Once again, Willig’s witty words (filled with alliteration) make for a delightful, humorous and warm story, with Miss Gwen and William finding the jewels of Berar – and of course, love – while Miss Gwen writes a horrid novel. The novel leads Eloise to the the jewels in 2004, where finding the jewels is a bittersweet ending for Eloise’s year abroad. But will absence make Colin’s heart grow fonder?

Also once again, Kate Reading is brilliant with her narration. She juggles the two story lines with ease; her characters are consistent even from book to book; her accents, her pacing, even her ability to read the zany dialogue without breaking into guffaws are all amazing. She brings out the humanity in Miss Gwen, a creature so starchy that you wonder if she can ever let her guard down. This series is a definite must-read for those who love humor in their romance, and Kate Reading brings it all to life.

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Melinda

AUDIOBOOK INFORMATION

TITLE: The Passion of the Purple Plumeria

AUTHOR: Lauren Willig

NARRATED BY: Kate Reading

GENRE: Historical Romance

STEAM FACTOR: Glad I had my earbuds in, but at the tame end

REVIEWER: Melinda [button type=’link’ link=’http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ECDTB6U/?tag=audiogalsnet-20′ size=’btn-lg’ variation=’btn-default’ target=’blank’]Buy The Passion of the Purple Plumeria by Lauren Willig on Amazon[/button]