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Ivy And Intrigue: A Very Selwick Christmas (2000)

by Lauren Willig(Favorite Author)

3.78 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

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review 1: After falling in love with Amy Balcourt (in the Secret History of the Pink Carnation), Lord Richard Selwick was forced to give up his identity as the Purple Gentian and settle for life as a headmaster of a school for spies. Amy, wracked with guilt for her part in his unmasking and jealous over her cousin Jane’s continued involvement in the world of espionage as the Pink Carnation, is finding it hard to be “full of Christmas cheer.” Her depression deepens when Richard’s former flame, the newly widowed Baroness Jerard, wrangles an invitation to the Uppington family Christmas party and becomes an unexpected overnight guest. When Richard suggests alternate living arrangements to allow her to pursue a career as a spy, Amy is at a loss for words. Would her new husban... mored truly enjoy a life apart from her? Does he want to pursue his former mistress? Luckily, Amy’s saved from these morose musings by a plot that unfolds late after the Christmas Eve party. Once again, she’s embroiled in the intrigue that has evaded her for so long and is able to join with her husband once more to defeat a cunning enemy and to re-awaken the sense of adventure and romance that first brought them together. This novella was a nice addition to the Pink Carnation series, as it refreshes the readers’ memory of characters from the earliest novels and provides a nice introduction to the Mischief of the Mistletoe! Though the plot isn’t that complex, the glimpse into Amy and Richard’s relationship is nice, answering the questions of “what happened next?” that are left at the end of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation. And, I read it all for free (along with the fun and racy additional chapter to the Mischief of the Mistletoe, “Away in a Manger,”) on the author’s website, which was a great perk!
review 2: Lauren Willig wrote this brief holiday installment of the Pink Carnation series with her tongue firmly in cheek. Returning to her original couple, Amy Balcourt and Richard Selwick (the former spy known as the Purple Gentian) have been married for about a year. As family and friends gather for the holidays, each is thinking the other is privately unhappy about the fact they had to end their spying days in France when their romance outed them to Bonaparte's men. Enter one of Richard's former loves and you have the recipe for marital misunderstanding. There's hardly a paragraph that doesn't have an aside in it, and if you've listened to the audio versions of the Pink Carnation books, it's almost impossible not to the hear the voice of Kate Reading in your head. There's also a little of the modern-day romance between Eloise and Colin Selwick, but not enough to damage the rest of the story. less

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