The Betrayal of the Blood Lily (Pink Carnation Series #6) Book

The heroines of Lauren Willig's bestselling Pink Carnation series have engaged in espionage all over nineteenth-century Europe. In the sixth stand-alone volume, our fair English heroine travels to India, where she finds freedom-and risk-more exciting than she ever imagined.Everyone warned Miss Penelope Deveraux that her unruly behavior would land her in disgrace someday. She never imagined she's be whisked off to India to give the scandal of her hasty marriage time to die down. AS Lady Frederick Staines, Penelope plunges into the treacherous waters of the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad, where no one is quite what they seem-even her husband. In a strange country, where elaborate court dress masks even more elaborate intrigues and a dangerous spy called the Marigold leaves venomous cobras as his calling card, there is only one person Penelope can trust...Captain Alex Reid has better things to do than play nursemaid to a pair of aristocrats. Or so he thinks-until Lady Frederick...

Publishers Weekly

The latest sure-to-please installment to the popular Pink Carnation series transports the action to colonial India. Lady Frederick Staines, née Penelope Deveraux, averts a scandal in early 19th-century London with a hasty marriage and a posting for her louche husband as special envoy to the court of Hyderabad. In India, Penelope discovers dangerous intrigue having to do with the overthrow of British rule and a spy called the Marigold. After demonstrating considerable bravery uncharacteristic to ladies of her rank, she finds an ally in the honorable Capt. Alex Reid. Together they chase traitors, travel the countryside on horseback, dodge assassination attempts, challenge each other to duels, wrestle with long skirts and numerous buttonholes (crucial in the love scenes), battle cobras and unravel the mystery of Marigold. As in other books in the series, the story is presented by a contemporary narrator, another strong-willed woman involved with an English aristocrat. Willig hasn’t lost her touch; this outing has all the charm of the previous books in the series. (Jan.)