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The Garden Intrigue
Unavailable
The Garden Intrigue
Unavailable
The Garden Intrigue
Audiobook14 hours

The Garden Intrigue

Written by Lauren Willig

Narrated by Kate Reading

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

In the ninth installment of Lauren Willig's bestselling Pink Carnation series, an atrocious poet teams up with an American widow to prevent Napoleon's invasion of England.

Secret agent Augustus Whittlesby has spent a decade undercover in France, posing as an insufferably bad poet. The French surveillance officers can't bear to read his work closely enough to recognize the information drowned in a sea of verbiage.

New York-born Emma Morris Delagardie is a thorn in Augustus's side. An old school friend of Napoleon's stepdaughter, she came to France with her uncle, the American envoy; eloped with a Frenchman; and has been rattling around the salons of Paris ever since. Widowed for four years, she entertains herself by drinking too much champagne, holding a weekly salon, and loudly critiquing Augustus's poetry.

As Napoleon pursues his plans for the invasion of England, Whittlesby hears of a top-secret device to be demonstrated at a house party at Malmaison. The catch? The only way in is with Emma, who has been asked to write a masque for the weekend's entertainment.

Emma is at a crossroads: Should she return to the States or remain in France? She'll do anything to postpone the decision -- even if it means teaming up with that silly poet Whittlesby to write a masque for Bonaparte's house party. But each soon learns that surface appearances are misleading. In this complicated masque within a masque, nothing goes quite as scripted -- especially Augustus's feelings for Emma.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 16, 2012
ISBN9781101538449
Unavailable
The Garden Intrigue
Author

Lauren Willig

Lauren Willig is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Band of Sisters and Two Wars and a Wedding, plus four popular historical novels cowritten with Beatriz Williams and Karen White. An alumna of Yale University, she has a graduate degree in history from Harvard and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She lives in New York City with her husband, two young children, and lots and lots of coffee.

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Reviews for The Garden Intrigue

Rating: 3.8649634700729925 out of 5 stars
4/5

137 ratings16 reviews

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This was a Goodreads first read giveaway. It was an interesting story but far too long. I believe it could have been told just as well in about half of the pages. I would have expected to feel very attached to the characters. Unfortunately, this was not the case.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Not quite as good for me as some of the others in the series, but not bad.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Garden Intrigue is the ninth installment in Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series. Modern day grad student Eloise Kelly is living in England while working on her dissertation on Aristocratic espionage during the Napoleonic wars. Eloise is researching a spy from that historic time known as the Pink Carnation. Eloise is from America but has fallen in love with what she refers to 'the land of Mr.Darcy' and she plans on staying in England. Her love interest is Colin Selwick, whose ancestors happen to have ties with the Pink Carnation. Colin has access to the spies historical papers and notes, this is how the two met. Backtrack to Paris in 1804 where the Pink Carnation a.k.a. Jane Wooliston works her magic amidst the socialites and Napoleon Bonaparte's closest family.Her best friend is Paris socialite and young widow Emma Morris Delgardie. Added to the mix is a spy named Augustus Whittlesby who is in love with Jane and who writes bad poetry laced with secret clues. The poet has been asked by Jane to compose a nautical-themed masque, and to involve Emma with writing it so he can get closer to finding Napoleon's next move. However, things are not always what they seem to be and people have ulterior motives and hidden desires. Not before long, Augustus thinks he is close to finding out about a secret weapon from a note he sees Emma in possession of.------------------------The Garden Intrigue was so much fun to read! Spies, romance, historical Paris, modern day England, poetry, charming characters and some humor, what more can you want in a book? Yes, I'm gushing. I know.The storyline took right off, the writing was well done and the characters jumped off the pages.I liked seeing Emma and Augustus work together and I wanted these two to end up together so badly. You really get a feel as to how frustrated the two of them really are. I especially liked Augustus, he thinks and feels as a poet does. I liked Jane's character as well. She's the cool, calm and collected type. I could easily envision her mingling in Paris in the 1800's putting the pieces of a puzzle together to figure out what is behind Napoleon's latest plan. Author Lauren Willig has a knack for the written word, she tells a great story and does it beautifully. The dialogue in this novel was superb. The story alternates from current day England to 1800's Paris and it is all woven together seamlessly.I liked that some of the chapters begin with a snippet of Augustus Whittlesby's poetry or a piece of verse from the masque he and Emma are writing. I found that to be a nice touch. "If words you doubt and vows despise,How win I favor in your eyes?My actions shall unspeaking speak,Proclaim my love from peak to peak."-Emma Morris Delgardie and Augustus WhittlesbyAmericanus: A Masque in Three Partsp.112, The Garden IntrigueI haven't read any of the other books in this series and this one can be read as a stand alone novel. I do want to get my hands on some of the previous books. Last but not least, I enjoyed the floral theme throughout the story, secret chats in the garden and a spy named the Pink Carnation. The cover is very pretty as is the author's website.I recommend this one to fans of historical fiction and romance!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Story and relationship between hero and heroine are weaker than in other titles in series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was an entertaining novel set during the Napoleonic wars about spies and intrigue. It is a light read, but very enjoyable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Eloise Kelly is continuing her research into the Pink Carnation. While at Selwick Hall a film crew is keeping she and Colin Selwick on their toes. As for the Pink Carnation timeline an American heiress is tussling with an undercover agent posing as a poet. Robert Fulton plays an interesting foil supposedly inventing a submarine for Napoleon's fleet. Both story-lines blend well together.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Our favorite bad poet, spy Augustus Whittlesby, needs to get to Malmaison to find out what top-secret machine is being demonstrated there. His ticket in is Emma Morris Delagardie who is New York born but an old school friend of Josephine's daughter Hortense. Emma has been quite a vocal critic of Augustus's poetry but she definitely likes the way he wears his pantaloons. She agrees to collaborate with him on a masque to be performed during the house party.Emma is convinced the Augustus is in love with Jane who is the Pink Carnation. Augustus is pretty sure that he loves her too. Jane isn't interested which leads to some heartbreak for both Augustus and Emma who is sure that he will never see her as anything but a friend. There are all kinds of fun hijinks at the house party as they prepare for the play, discover and steal Fulton's plans for a submarine, and fall in love. There are all kinds of misunderstandings until both Augustus and Emma decide what they really want and decide to take a chance on each other.In the present timeline, a movie is being shot a Selwick Hall which has Colin upset. It doesn't help that his cousin/stepfather is hanging around the crew as is the man who dated and dumped Colin's sister just to get a chance to look at the Selwick papers. Eloise is coming to the end of her Fellowship year in England and has to decide whether to go back to Cambridge for a teaching position as she works on her thesis.This is a fun series. I like the way it weaves a historical romance with a contemporary one.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Definitely not her best work.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A worthy installment in the Pink Carnation series. It would be nice to actually get back to the Pink Carnation, but this story at least included her! The character of Augustus had been introduced previously so it wasn't a complete surprise to get his story here. Surprisingly, the modern story is bugging me less--perhaps the introduction of the treasure hunt helped!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Well, that wasn't worth the money I paid - download in haste, repent at leisure. I still think Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series is sharper and funnier than most reviews would give the books credit for (bar the first eponymous adventure), but the ninth in the run has hit that formulaic, slapdash level that occurs during most lengthy projects, whether in print or on screen. Even the writing is getting repetitive, with familiar gestures (why do the love scenes always involve fingers caught in hair?) and cliched phrases.The hero and heroine were similarly lacklustre. Pretend poet Augustus Whittlesby, the Pink Carnation's stalker, comes across like Sir Percy Blakeney in the guise of Fabio, and I couldn't help but picture his American poppet, Emma Delagardie, as looking like Meg Ryan. Not the most inspiring of fantasy casting, but then Augustus was flat, Emma insipid, and both lacked chemistry. The faux historical plot about Napoleon and secret plans was unfortunately lost amidst pages of introspection and angst. Only the less than subtle mirroring of 1804 and 2004, with Eloise having to decide between Mr Darcy - sorry, Colin - and a career back in the States, rescued the novel from turning into little more than a bog standard Regency romance: 'Two New Yorkers, two Englishmen, two centuries apart. The parallels were hard to ignore', in Eloise's words.A sorry flop in a series of cute characters and cleverly concealed historical research.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I just can't get enough of Willig's carnation series lately. Her books are fun and refreshing, with sweet couples and witty dialogue and happy endings; they are excellent escape reads. I also met the author recently (while I was reading this book) and she was such a charming and friendly person that I now like her books even more. Yet on to the review.Garden Intrigue follows the espionage and romantic woes of Augustus Whittlesby, atrocious poet, brilliant spy. Actually, the bad poet bit is all part of his cover, allowing him to send messages from France back to England in verse just bad enough that the French police won't read it, but not bad enough to raise suspicion. Whittlesby is so good at his job that he has been stationed in France for a long time. Quite long enough to begin to detest his role, which started out as a fun lark and now drives him mad. To make matters worse, he has to pretend to be in love with the Pink Carnation as part of his cover as French poet, when in actuality he is in love with Jane, and doesn't know how to tell her that it is more than an act.Jane, however, is not the heroine of this book. That honor is bestowed on Emma Delgardie, an American widow living in France. She's new to the series, with a teaser appearance in the last book, but we've seen Augustus
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Garden Intrigue takes place in France and centers around the relatable Emma Delagardie and the poet/spy Augustus Whittlesby. Emma is a flirtatious widow who knows a lot more than she lets on; even possibly about the secret machine Bonaparte is waiting for to use against England. Augustus, on the other hand, is a seemingly superfluous spy ;) whose feelings about Emma may lead him astray from the task at hand; discovering out about Bonaparte's secret machine. Overall, the characters are wonderful and funny and the plot races along so fast you can't put the book down. I recommend this series to people all the time and will continue to with this book
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    People are not always the way the seem, and Augustus Whittlesby and Emma Delagardie are perfect examples of this fact. Augustus has spent ten years in France as a agent for Britain. He's been undercover all that time posing as a poet, a very bad poet at that. The last years have been spent writing and reciting his ode to Jane Wooliston entitled "The Perils of the Pulchritudinous Princess with the Azure Toes." To most of French society, Augustus is considered harmless and this is fortunate as it provides him the opportunities to obtain the information needed to thwart France. Regrettably, Augustus has spent so much of his time pretending to be in love with Jane Wooliston, that he now believes himself to actually be in love with her. That is until he begins to spend time with another woman, Emma Delagardie.Emma is an outcast to her family because of her elopement with her husband. She then behaved liked a spoiled brat and left her husband to participate in French society. Fortunately she grew up, reunited with her husband and actually came to know him, respect him as well as love him before his untimely death. She is friends with Bonaparte's wife and stepdaughter and spends a lot of time entertaining. In her efforts to please, she has been volunteered to put on a small play for the Emporer Napolean, his family and courtiers. Emma, in turns, volunteers Augustus to assist in writing the play.The close proximity provides an opportunity for both Emma and Augustus to realize that neither is as bad as they seem. It also provides a great opportunity for Augustus to observe and report on what is happening with the Emporer from closer quarters. Can Emma and Augustus see beyond the public masks/personas they both wear? There's also more revealed about the modern romance between Eloise and Colin. THE GARDEN INTRIGUE is the ninth volume in the "Pink Carnation series" from Ms. Willig. As with previous volumes, the international intrigue is a main part of the story line but the romance is also front-and-center. Although the "pink carnation" isn't an authentic historical figure, the historical aspects included of the ongoing intrigues between France and Britain are entertaining. The ongoing romantic story of Eloise and Colin provides a great launching point for each of the historical romances. The question that seems to loom after reading each book in this series is what will happen once Eloise completes her educational research and returns to the States? Fortunately, Ms. Willig hasn't provided an answer to that question just yet, and hopefully more can be expected in the future.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I'm strongly addicted to Lauren Willig's work. She's super talented and each of her Pink Carnation books holds something new and excited that will keep the reader hooked from start to finish. Having read all her other Pink Carnation books, I totally could not wait for this book to release. So, when the chance came up to read it, WOW! I was definitely NOT disappointed and swept away once again to the land of Lauren Willig's fantabulous characters and plot lines. This is most definitely one of the BEST historical novels that is blended with the PERFECT amount of spies and adventure! I loved Emma's character. She's a widow living in France, and her friends are Jane and Hortense (oh the poor dear! LoL!). Hortense's father, rather step-father-none other than the famed Napolean Bonaparte, enlists Emma in a job.....a job of writing a masque for Napolean's party. So, Emma's on a hunt for help, and she crosses paths with none of the fabulous Augustus Whittlesby. Now, Augustus Whittlesby has a teensie little problem....he's the world's WORST poet! Oy vay! The indignity of it! The poor man should NOT be allowed to construct poems! But, you see, he has an ulterior motive. He's a spy....a secret spy with the Pink Carnations, and he's out to catch what Napolean Bonaparte is TRULY up to with this party. And what a wonderful spy he is! Watching Emma and Augustus's growing attraction for each other was awesome! There were laugh out loud moments and few, "are you kidding me?!" moments that will not be forgotten! The wonderful characters from the Pink Carnation series are back in this wonderful new installment I loved seeing Jane Wooliston again (poor Augustus has pined for her-until Ms. Emma Delgardie enters his life!) and Gwen Meadows. I definitely recommend this newest installment with the highest of 5 Books ratings! It's worthy, of course, of more, however. Ms. Willig created this novel with wit, charm, and suspense, leaving the reader a little breathless at the end, as another Pink Carnation case comes to an end. Like her others, however, she leaves the reader hanging just enough to know that the Carnations WILL be back with yet another fabulous story and I absolutely can NOT wait!!! If you're new to this series, do despair! This can be read as a stand alone as Ms. Willig does a greatastic job at keeping the reader up to date on the past points of the series. And, if you're familiar with the Pink Carnations, well, don't just sit there! GRAB YOUR COPY NOW!!! Well done, Ms. Willig! This review originated at Reviews By Molly in part with a blog tour.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Emma Delagardie, an widowed American in Napoleon's Paris, becomes involved with a very bad poet who is actually a spy, an associate of the Pink Carnation. Complications ensue.Fun, as always.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Emma Delagardie is an American living in France during the Napoleonic era. She is a longtime friend of the emperor’s stepdaughter, Hortense and has entrée to the court. Augustus Whittlesby is an excruciatingly bad poet who is also an agent in the Pink Carnation’s network. He and the Pink Carnation have a mission to discover what the newest plot of Napoleon’s is to attack Britain. It apparently involves some sort of new mechanical weaponry and it is essential that they find out. Whittlesby must ingratiate himself into Emma’s circle so he can have access to the right people. Emma is not happy about having to work with Augustus when she becomes responsible for a masque to celebrate Napoleon’s rumored ascension from First Consul to Emperor. Gradually the two discover that they have more than the masque in common and feelings change. There is added stress to the relationship from Emma’s American relatives trying to pressure her to come back home and a French rogue who is pressuring her to marry him. Augustus has his work cut out for him both in the spy game and in his budding romance.One of the interesting plot devices that Ms. Willig uses in this series is the going back and forth from the time of the Pink Carnation to modern day England. By having American researcher Eloise Kelly doing research on the fabled Pink Carnation and having access to the historical papers of the Selwick family, you get to see another perspective on the main couple of the story. I enjoy the story between Eloise and Colin Selwick which has worked its way through all nine books. While the main story has a resolution, the relationship between Eloise and Colin remains in flux.I enjoyed the introduction of some American history in this book with Fulton’s steam engine making an appearance. Emma and Augustus have a view of the turmoil that was going on during this particular time in French history and as always Ms. Willig weaves accurate historical facts into a wonderful romance with a hint of mystery. When I finish each book in the series I can’t wait for the next one to come out!