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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.
Annabelle and Bayard Van Duyvil live a charmed life in New York: He's the scion of an old Knickerbocker family, she grew up in a Tudor house in England, they had a fairy-tale romance in London, and he's recreated her family home on the banks of the Hudson. Yes, there are rumors that she's having an affair with the architect, but rumors are rumors. But then Bayard is found dead with a knife in his chest on the night of their Twelfth Night Ball; Annabelle goes missing, presumed drowned; and the papers go mad.
As a lawyer in a large Manhattan firm, just shy of making partner, Clementine Evans has finally achieved almost everything she’s been working towards - but now she’s not sure it’s enough. Her long hours have led to a broken engagement and, suddenly single at 34, she feels her messy life crumbling around her. But when the family gathers for her grandmother Addie’s 99th birthday, a relative lets slip hints about a long-buried family secret, leading Clemmie on a journey into the past that could change everything.
Raised in a poor yet genteel household, Rachel Woodley is working in France as a governess when she receives news that her mother has died suddenly. Grief stricken, she returns to the small town in England where she was raised to clear out the cottage...and finds a cutting from a London society magazine, with a photograph of her supposedly deceased father dated all of three month before. He's an earl, respected and influential, and he is standing with another daughter - his legitimate daughter.
When Julia Conley hears that she has inherited a house outside London from an unknown great-aunt, she assumes it’s a joke. She hasn't been back to England since the car crash that killed her mother when she was six, an event she remembers only in her nightmares. But when she arrives at Herne Hill to sort through the house - with the help of her cousin Natasha and sexy antiques dealer Nicholas - bits of memory start coming back.
As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria's golden jubilee, Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own. After burying her spinster aunt, the orphaned Veronica is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry - and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as she is fending off admirers, Veronica wields her butterfly net and a hatpin with equal aplomb, and with her last connection to England gone, she intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.
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.
Annabelle and Bayard Van Duyvil live a charmed life in New York: He's the scion of an old Knickerbocker family, she grew up in a Tudor house in England, they had a fairy-tale romance in London, and he's recreated her family home on the banks of the Hudson. Yes, there are rumors that she's having an affair with the architect, but rumors are rumors. But then Bayard is found dead with a knife in his chest on the night of their Twelfth Night Ball; Annabelle goes missing, presumed drowned; and the papers go mad.
As a lawyer in a large Manhattan firm, just shy of making partner, Clementine Evans has finally achieved almost everything she’s been working towards - but now she’s not sure it’s enough. Her long hours have led to a broken engagement and, suddenly single at 34, she feels her messy life crumbling around her. But when the family gathers for her grandmother Addie’s 99th birthday, a relative lets slip hints about a long-buried family secret, leading Clemmie on a journey into the past that could change everything.
Raised in a poor yet genteel household, Rachel Woodley is working in France as a governess when she receives news that her mother has died suddenly. Grief stricken, she returns to the small town in England where she was raised to clear out the cottage...and finds a cutting from a London society magazine, with a photograph of her supposedly deceased father dated all of three month before. He's an earl, respected and influential, and he is standing with another daughter - his legitimate daughter.
When Julia Conley hears that she has inherited a house outside London from an unknown great-aunt, she assumes it’s a joke. She hasn't been back to England since the car crash that killed her mother when she was six, an event she remembers only in her nightmares. But when she arrives at Herne Hill to sort through the house - with the help of her cousin Natasha and sexy antiques dealer Nicholas - bits of memory start coming back.
As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria's golden jubilee, Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own. After burying her spinster aunt, the orphaned Veronica is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry - and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as she is fending off admirers, Veronica wields her butterfly net and a hatpin with equal aplomb, and with her last connection to England gone, she intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.
India Steele is desperate. Her father is dead, her fiancé took her inheritance, and no one will employ her, despite years working for her watchmaker father. Indeed, the other London watchmakers seem frightened of her. Alone, poor, and at the end of her tether, India takes employment with the only person who'll accept her - an enigmatic and mysterious man from America, a man who possesses a strange watch that rejuvenates him when he's ill.
With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper-class society. But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London. When the city is struck by a trio of unexpected deaths and suspicion falls on her sister and her father, Charlotte is desperate to find the true culprits and clear the family name.
It's 1945: When the critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought to a private hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side, young Dr. Kate Schuyler is drawn into a complex mystery that connects three generations of women in her family to a single extraordinary room in a Gilded Age mansion. Who is the woman in Captain Ravenel's portrait miniature who looks so much like Kate? And why is she wearing the ruby pendant handed down to Kate by her mother?
Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. These ominous words, slashed from the pages of a book of Psalms, are the last threat that the darling of London society, Sir Edward Grey, receives from his killer. Before he can show them to Nicholas Brisbane, the private inquiry agent he has retained for his protection, Sir Edward collapses and dies at his London home, in the presence of his wife, Julia, and a roomful of dinner guests.
Hugh Philemon Ancaster, seventh Duke of Ripley, will never win prizes for virtue. But even he draws the line at running off with his best friend's bride. All he's trying to do is recapture the slightly inebriated Lady Olympia Hightower and return her to her intended bridegroom. For reasons that elude her, bookish, bespectacled Olympia is supposed to marry a gorgeous rake of a duke. The ton is flabbergasted. Her family's ecstatic. And Olympia? She's climbing out of a window, bent on a getaway.
In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal. Nearly 30 years later, Hugo's estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father's funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.
It's 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III's England. Then a beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol found at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man - Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experience in the Napoleonic Wars.
At the end of her first unsuccessful season out in society, Lady Georgiana has all but given up on attracting a suitable man - until she receives an invitation to a masked Halloween ball at Broxley Manor. Georgie is uncertain why she was invited, until she learns that the royal family intends to marry her off to a foreign prince, one reputed to be mad.
For Emily, accepting the proposal of Philip, the viscount Ashton, was an easy way to escape her overbearing mother, who was set on a grand society match. So when Emily's dashing husband died on safari soon after their wedding, she felt little grief. After all, she barely knew him. Now, nearly two years later, she discovers that Philip was a far different man from the one she had married so cavalierly.
Simon Basset, the irresistible Duke of Hastings, has hatched a plan to keep himself free from the town's marriage-minded society mothers. He pretends to be engaged to the lovely Daphne Bridgerton. After all, it isn't as if the brooding rogue has any real plans to marry - though there is something about the alluring Miss Bridgerton that sets Simon's heart beating a bit faster. And as for Daphne, surely the clever debutante will attract some very worthy suitors now that it seems a duke has declared her desirable.
As the sole survivor of the car crash that killed her parents, grief-stricken paramedic Kit MacKlenna is stunned to learn her life is built on lies. A legacy from her father includes a faded letter and a well-worn journal. The journal reveals she was abandoned as a baby 160 years ago. The only clues to her identity are a blood-splattered shawl, a locket with the portrait of a 19th century man, and a Celtic brooch with magical powers.
This breathtaking novel travels more than a century between two love stories set in the Australian seaside town of Lighthouse Bay. In 1901, a ship sinks off the coast of Lighthouse Bay in Australia. The only survivor is Isabella Winterbourne - escaping her loveless marriage and the devastating loss of her son - who clutches a priceless gift meant for the Australian Parliament. Suddenly, this gift could be her ticket to a new life, free from the bonds of her husband and his overbearing family.
Never before published!
Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation novels have been hailed as "sheer fun" and "charming". Now she takes listeners on an adventure filled with hidden treasure and a devilishly handsome English colonel....
Colonel William Reid has returned home from India to retire near his children, who are safely stowed at an academy in Bath. Upon his return to the Isles, however, he finds that one of his daughters has vanished, along with one of her classmates.
Because she served as second-in-command to the Pink Carnation, one of England’s most intrepid spies, it would be impossible for Gwendolyn Meadows to give up the intrigue of Paris for a quiet life in the English countryside - especially when she’s just overheard news of an alliance forming between Napoleon and an Ottoman Sultan. But, when the Pink Carnation’s little sister goes missing from her English boarding school, Gwen reluctantly returns home to investigate the girl’s disappearance.
Thrown together by circumstance, Gwen and William must cooperate to track down the young ladies before others with nefarious intent get their hands on them. But Gwen’s partnership with quick-tongued, roguish William may prove to be even more of an adventure for her than finding the lost girls….
If you could sum up The Passion of the Purple Plumeria in three words, what would they be?
Entertaining, Clever, Original
What does Kate Reading bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Excellent narration. Her accents and character differentiation are fantastic. She is one of the best.
If you could take any character from The Passion of the Purple Plumeria out to dinner, who would it be and why?
Miss Gwen without a doubt. I like how she always tells it like it is!
Any additional comments?
I was so sad when the book ended. I can't decide if I want to listen to this book again or start from the first book in the series and work my way through them all again. I thought Ms. Willig wrote a wonderful love story for Miss Gwen.
I didn't think that Eloise's story was as strong as it was in some of the previous books, but I was so happy with Gwen's story that I didn't mind the weakness or real lack of a strong storyline for Eloise.
If you've not listened to or read the other books in the series then Miss Gwen's attitude and seemingly harsh manner may not be understood. Beneath her gruff exterior lies a soft-hearted woman.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful
The previous book in the Pink Carnation series was kind of forgettable (I don't even remember which one it was), but since I have thoroughly enjoyed most of them, I was very excited to get The Passion of the Purple Plumeria. Am I glad I did! It's right back up there with her first books in humour, intrigue, and soppiness, so I had my fill of a terrific romance, lots of spy stuff, and plenty of laughter. I didn't want it to end--and it sounded as if this may be the end of the series, so I was a little sad at the end of the book...well, ok, a lot sad, but I was glad that it was so enjoyable.
The narration...for the first hour or so of the book I had issues with the narration--it seemed shrill and slow; and very enunciated (which can be annoying)--but by the next night I had grown used to it and by the end of the book I felt that Kate Reading did a wonderful job, all in all.
If you have EVER enjoyed Lauren Willig's books, don't miss out on this one! It was a rollicking good time! And so scandalous!
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
I found this one of the best in the series. I found some of the other flowers a bit tedious, but this character is well defined and the humor really shines through.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Really enjoyed the insight into the Gwen Meadows character and the humorous way it is handled. I found myself smiling more that once. Lauren Willing is one of my favorite authors. Lots of interesting twists and turns within the outrageous story line.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It was back to the exciting plots of the first several books in the series. The narrator is fabulous!
All of her books in this series have been wonderful! Very diverting. I highly recommend it.
Wonderful story. Kate Reading is a fabulous narrator. I have loved all of the books in this series, but must admit the last few were not my overall favorites. This once again got back into the lively humour and wit you expect and (finally) had a much stronger storyline. I did enjoy the last 2 stories in this series but this one was in my opinion much better. I felt like it has a lot in it that ties the characters together. Can't wait for the next book.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Passion of the Purple Plumeria?
There were so many but one of my favorite is when Gwen lets her passion go with William.
What about Kate Reading’s performance did you like?
Kate Reading is one of the top female narrators I believe that her involvement in this series just made it better
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I almost did Saturday into Sunday I didn't want it to end
Any additional comments?
This was a wonderful story about one of my favorite characters in this series Gwen is a spitfire and she is finally getting the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,
Miss Gwen has been one of my favorite characters in this series. It was so good to see someone finally recognize her beauty and strength.
I laughed out loud more than once while listening to this book. It is well written. I am not usually a fan of the dual timeline idea, but Lauren Willig makes it work.
Also, Kate Reading is my favorite narrator. She is able to jump from the modern to the historical seamlessly. She always makes each character distinct, and she is amazing with accents!
I have all of Lauren Willigs books so far and I must say I was not disappointed in this listen at all. This was not as fast paced as some of the others in this series yet I found it fun and entertaining yet I am hoping Lauren will have more story lines like the pink carnation were I could not put my eye pod down.
Happy listening,