The Seduction of the Crimson Rose

Summary: Determined to secure another London Season without assistance from her new brother-in-law, beautiful Mary Alsworthy 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 easil 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 on lies ... (source: book cover)


Comments: So Mary Alsworthy loses her lover to his sister in the last book (The Deception of the Emerald Ring), and instead gets her own book and to my great pleasure Lord Vaughn. Mary, beautiful, intriguing, poor, and still pretty ticked at her sister and brother-in-law. To get away from them is most important and to have a season to find another man willing to marry a beautiful, but penniless woman. So she agrees to help the Pink Carnation via Lord Vaughn, whom no one, not even me, trust is truly what he says he is. Mary turns from spoiled girl into a calculating woman. And Vaughn, well, he's just Vaughn, as black and silver as he's ever been and as he always will be. Enigma. One of the things I like about the series is there is very little real time between them in both the worlds. Eloise and Colin are still circling around each other as she studies into his family history and hopes to get into his future. The story was well written. Ms. Willig has done another solid job of keeping up with this series.