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2013 Book Review #114: The Passion of the Purple Plumeria
Title: The Passion of the Purple Plumeria
Author: Lauren Willig
Genre: Historical romance (Napoleonic era; part of ongoing series)
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: In the past, chaperone and part time spy Miss Gwen goes looking for her spymistress' missing sister and finds a dashing retired colonel and a mystery. In the future, a historian searches for the same mysterious jewels Miss Gwen is looking for.
Thoughts: The title of this installment may be awful, but I think that's deliberate. The heroine spends much of the book writing her own, truly dreadful gothic novel. It's impressively purple prose.
One of the weaknesses of this series has been the framing story of a historian discovering the adventures of the spies while slowly falling into her own romance. The last several books have had lackluster present-day adventures, as the author kind of ran out of will-they/won't-they material. Fortunately, in this book, she comes up with a new mystery to solve, which evens out some of the balance issues.
The bulk of the story, though, is that of the fearsome chaperone who has glowered her way through the previous books. Willig does a nice job of humanizing a caricature so that she can have a convincing emotional arc. Witty dialogue and breathless action pair nicely with a sweet romance that allows some of the older supporting cast their own moment in the sun.
Author: Lauren Willig
Genre: Historical romance (Napoleonic era; part of ongoing series)
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: In the past, chaperone and part time spy Miss Gwen goes looking for her spymistress' missing sister and finds a dashing retired colonel and a mystery. In the future, a historian searches for the same mysterious jewels Miss Gwen is looking for.
Thoughts: The title of this installment may be awful, but I think that's deliberate. The heroine spends much of the book writing her own, truly dreadful gothic novel. It's impressively purple prose.
One of the weaknesses of this series has been the framing story of a historian discovering the adventures of the spies while slowly falling into her own romance. The last several books have had lackluster present-day adventures, as the author kind of ran out of will-they/won't-they material. Fortunately, in this book, she comes up with a new mystery to solve, which evens out some of the balance issues.
The bulk of the story, though, is that of the fearsome chaperone who has glowered her way through the previous books. Willig does a nice job of humanizing a caricature so that she can have a convincing emotional arc. Witty dialogue and breathless action pair nicely with a sweet romance that allows some of the older supporting cast their own moment in the sun.