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"Fine tale"
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted January 2, 2005

Harvard graduate student Eloise Kelly is writing her thesis on the early nineteenth century dashingly romantic English spies the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Purple Gentian, and especially the Pink Carnation. The first two were unmasked by Napoleon's agents as Sir Percy Blakeney and Lord Richard Selwick, but the identity of Read more...

"An entertaiing Bridget Jones meets adventurous historical romance."
Reviewed by Suan Wilson
Posted January 14, 2005

American Eloise Kelly arrives in England to unmask the Pink Carnation, a contemporary of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian, for her Harvard dissertation. Contacting descendants of the Pimpernel and Gentian, Eloise receives a reply from relatives of the Gentian, who give her letters regarding the adventures of the Read more...

Summary

Deciding that true romantic heroes are a thing of the past, Eloise Kelly, an intelligent American who always manages to wear her Jimmy Choo suede boots on the day it rains, leaves Harvard's Widener Library bound for England to finish her dissertation on the dashing pair of spies the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian. What she discovers is something the finest historians have missed: a secret history that begins with a letter dated 1803. Eloise has found the secret history of the Pink Carnation—the most elusive spy of all time, the spy who single-handedly saved England from Napoleon's invasion. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, a wildly imaginative and highly adventurous debut, opens with the story of a modern-day heroine but soon becomes a book within a book. Eloise Kelly settles in to read the secret history hoping to unmask the Pink Carnation's identity, but before she can make this discovery, she uncovers a passionate romance within the pages of the secret history that almost threw off the course of world events. How did the Pink Carnation save England? What became of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian? And will Eloise Kelly find a hero of her own?