I believe this is the fourth (or is it fifth) installment in Lauren Willig's series on regency mysteries. Think of her books as kind of a cross between Meg Cabot and the Scarlet Pimpernel, and you'd get the idea.I picked up her first book, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation several years ago while killing time on Whyte Ave in Edmonton, and I enjoyed it for a) it took place in on of my favourite eras, the Regency; b) it was entertaining; and c) it was a bit sexy.
The further volumes more or less follow the same standard - going between the present day story of an American grad student and her dissertation topic of Regency-era spies, and the actual spies she studies, young ladies of a certain class gadding about the British Isles solving mysteries. Kind of like Scooby Doo, but with more corsets and less mystery machine.
This most recent incarnation does not disappoint, although it doesn't exactly blow your mind either. It's better than a couple previous volumes, but doesn't quite capture the charm of the first. My biggest complaint - not sexy enough. Now, it's not like I am some sort of maniac, but a girl likes a bit of gratuitous sex once in a while - why put that in your first volume and then back away in further efforts? Talk about frustrating.
Anyway, for delivering what it should, but no more, I give this book two and a half hidden stilettos out of five, and a big fat chastity belt thrown in sexual frustration. I like a little blush with my plucky and historically inaccurate, mystery-solving heroines thank you very much.
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