Saxton Reads! & Reviews

Orchid Affair~ Lauren Willig

"Another good showing for the Pink Carnation series. I've enjoyed these books quite a bit - the romance, the drama, the intrigue! This was probably the best offering in the last few. Perhaps that was because it departed slightly from the formula. It was set in Paris which was nice since it is a series about spies during the Napoleonic wars. The main character wasn't someone we were introduced to in the previous book (at least I don't remember her) and finally, neither of the main characters were young, silly, flighty, or any number of other adjectives you could come up with. The family aspect of a father and his young children was a refreshing difference from young debutantes and then the latter portion of the book that focused on traveling actors was interesting. There was also a fun element for me in the discussion of artists during this era that I remembered from my art history days. The modern story fell a little flat to me but it since it isn't the reason one reads the Pink Carnation books, I guess I won't hold it too much against the author. All in all enjoyable and looking forward to the next one which will probably be out next year since Willig seems to turn these out in rapid fashion. Good!