#Lauren Willig

[therefugeofbooks]

Old books exert a strange fascination for me — their smell, their feel, their history; wondering who might have owned them, how they lived, what they felt. — Lauren Willig

#booklr #books #book photography #bookstores #used bookstores #quotes #lauren willig #the refuge of books

[wideeyedreader]

Recently Read: The Glass Ocean by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White

4.5 stars!

#the glass ocean #beatriz williams #lauren willig #karen white #books #just finished #bookblr #book blog #book photography #bookblogger #booklr

[asfaltics]

putterings, 411-407

  but not in the way you may think are really different from and some already   went about seeking more tools — commerçant itinérant en quincaillerie — geiger counter, lobe antenna, la radiesthésie,   stockpiles; file cabinets an appendix of dubious facts, a gooey stew.   An Inquiry into Idleness, painful and troublesome Nobody’s ever read it   without branching into the hinterlands. But that was a different kind of curiosity... who does not fuss not to lose it.   If nothing else, If I were sensible, I would give the whole idea a miss at the bench, getting the work done.  

puutterings     |     their index     |     these derivations     |     20240310  

#derivation2 #Tara Rodden Robinson #Michèle Burdet #Alfred Bovis #James Kennedy #Lauren Willig #Calvin N. Mooers

[diaryoftruequotes]

Patience is only a virtue when there is something worth waiting for. Lauren Willig, The Masque of the Black Tulip

#Lauren Willig #The Masque of the Black Tulip #quotes #book quotes

[kamreadsandrecs]

Title: The Seduction of the Crimson Rose (Pink Carnation #4) Author: Lauren Willig Genres: romance, historical, Regency romance, adventure Content/Trigger Warnings: period-accurate misogyny, attempted murder, bloody injuries Summary (from author’s website): Determined to secure another London season without assistance from her new brother-in-law, Mary Alsworthy accepts a secret assignment from Lord Vaughn on behalf of the Pink Carnation. She must infiltrate the ranks of the dreaded French spy, the Black Tulip, before he and his master can stage their planned invasion of England. Every spy has a weakness and for the Black Tulip that weakness is beautiful black-haired women-his 'petals' of the Tulip. A natural at the art of seduction, Mary easily catches the attention of the French spy, but Lord Vaughn never anticipated that his own heart would be caught as well. Fighting their growing attraction, impediments from their past, and, of course, the French, Mary and Vaughn find themselves lost in a treacherous garden of lies. And as our modern-day heroine, Eloise Kelly, digs deeper into England's Napoleonic-era espionage, she becomes even more entwined with Colin Selwick, the descendant of her spy subjects. Buy Here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-seduction-of-the-crimson-rose-lauren-willig/11092454 Spoiler-Free Review: So after the disappointment of Deception of the Emerald Ring, I went into this book hoping it’d hold up to my memories of it better than the book that preceded it, and I’m glad to say that: it actually did! Well, sort of. As expected, it was the romance between Mary and Lord Vaughn that actually carried this book for me. I know I said I liked Letty and Geoffrey as a couple, and that I empathized a lot with Letty, but I think I like Mary and Vaughn’s romance more than Letty and Geoffrey’s. A lot of that has to do with what Mary and Vaughn are like as characters: they’re both jaded and cynical, and both have an edge of arrogance handfasted to cruelty. Would I want them as friends IRL? No, because I strongly suspect that if they were real they wouldn’t be very good people. But as characters? They are VERY interesting to read about - especially their dynamic when they’re around each other. Speaking of Mary, there’s a thread here about the general misogyny of the era that was really put in the forefront in this book. The misogyny’s an undercurrent that runs throughout the books thus far, but in this book Mary has this conversation with Vaughn that lays the whole thing out in the open. She basically says that a man like Vaughn can make whatever choices he wants in life because his future is, for the most part, secure. A woman, on the other hand, has to marry well in order to ensure her future is stable. This is something Mary has known most of her life, and basically defined most of her actions - including her attempt to elope with Geoffrey in the previous novel, that was foiled by her sister Letty. She’s not HAPPY with it of course (she’d much rather have the freedoms of a man than be restricted by marriage), but she knows how society works and how the game is played, and her goal has been to play that game in such a way that she manages to gain some power over herself, instead of constantly being in the power of someone else. There’s also a passing reference to Mary Wollstonecraft - yes, Mary Shelley’s mother, whose work A Vindication on the Rights of Women is considered one of the earliest works of feminist politics and philosophy in the West. Mary observes that she agrees with the ideas put forward by Wollstonecraft and other feminists (though she doesn’t call them that; she calls them bluestockings instead), but doesn’t align with them in public because of the damage it would do to her desirability as a potential bride - plus, they’re not very fashionable. Speaking of romance, Eloise and Colin’s romance actually moves forward in this novel! Unlike the last two books where I was only peripherally interested in what was going on with them, in THIS go round they actually go on a date! Other things happen around that date too that I won’t get into because of spoilers, but it’s nice to see them finally moving their relationship into “officially seeing each other” territory. I’m sure their romance will continue in the other books, so I’m looking forward to reading about how they get along with each other. So overall, this was a read that held up to the time since I last read it, at least for the most part. Mary and Vaughn are an intriguing couple who stand in almost direct contrast to the other couples in the previous novels, and they make for a very refreshing read - more along the lines of a Bronte couple than an Austen one, in a way. The only spots of tarnish on the overall shiny package of this book occur in the latter part of the novel. Won’t say much more on that because of spoilers, but: Outlander fans may find something to pique their interest in that regard. Rating: four roses

#book review #book reviews #the seduction of the crimson rose #pink carnation series #lauren willig #historical #romance #regency romance #adventure #books

[puutterings]

without branching into the hinterlands. But / that

        If I were sensible, I would give the whole idea a miss. I would stick to the dissertation outline I had already submitted to my advisor, focusing entirely on the spies’ European operations, without branching into the hinterlands.       But I was curious. Let’s be honest, I was also looking for excuses to avoid writing up what I already had. Needing more research is always a brilliant reason to postpone actually writing your dissertation. After all, no one can accuse you of being lazy when you’re working. There’s a reason why you meet fifteenth-year grad students still diligently puttering away in the archives, amassing huge stockpiles of entirely undigested information. I knew one guy who spent nine years filling five file cabinets with notes without ever writing a single page of his dissertation.       Of course, there was no way I could justify my incursions into the Selwick photo albums as work. That was a different type of curiosity entirely.  

ex Lauren Willig, The Betrayal of the Blood Lily : A Pink Carnation Novel (2010; NAL pb 2011) : 200-201 short excerpt at google books : link

—

Lauren Willig at wikipedia : link author’s website (opens to about) : link

(some) more at 408  

#2010 #Lauren Willig #file cabinets #stockpiles

[readingwithwrin]

The English Wife by Lauren Willig | Book Review

Title: The English Wife Author: Lauren Willig Publisher: MacMillan Audio Published Date: January 9th, 2018 Genre: Historical Fiction, Adult fiction, mystery Source: Library Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ Goodreads Summary: From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig comes this scandalous audiobook set in the Gilded Age, full of family secrets, affairs, and murder.Annabelle and Bayard Van Duyvil…

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#4 star #adult fiction #book review #historical fiction #lauren willig #library reads #macmillan audio #mystery #the english wife

[bookdivareads]

Bookish Ramblings: Bookstore Romance Day 2022

Love is in the air with #BookstoreRomanceDay. Suggested #romanceauthors include: @authorMsBev, @LyssaKayAdams, @thebestjasmine, @UzmaWrites, and more. #fiction #romance #recommendedreads #indiebookstores @BkstoreRomance @BookTendersWV @WordPlayWV

Love is In the Air – 2022 It’s time to celebrate love, all shades of love. August 20, 20221, is officially Bookstore Romance Day. This is the fourth year of celebrating romance in fiction. According to the website: “Bookstore Romance Day is a day designed to give independent bookstores an opportunity to celebrate Romance fiction—its books, readers, and writers—and to strengthen the relationships…

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#Alexa Martin #Alyssa Cole #Beverly Jenkins #Book Recommendations #Bookish Ramblings #Bookstore Romance Day #fiction #Historical Romance #J.D. Robb #Jasmine Guillory #Juno Rushdan #Lauren Willig #Linda Howard #Lyssa Kay Adams #Nora Roberts #romance #Romantic Comedy #romantic suspense #Sandra Brown #Sandra Kitt #Sarah Jio #Sarah Title #Sharon Sala #Susanna Kearsley #Uzma Jalaluddin #Vanessa Riley

[badmovieihave]

Bad movie I have Dexter: The Second Season 2007

#Dexter: The Second Season #Dexter #Michael C. Hall #Julie Benz #Jennifer Carpenter #Erik King #C.S. Lee #Luna Lauren Velez #David Zayas #James Remar #Judith Scott #Mark Pellegrino #Glenn Plummer #Devon Graye #Max Gail #Christina Robinson #Preston Bailey #Matthew Willig #Claude Shires #Anna Maganini #Jillian Bruno #Ron Roggé #Craig Patton #Maxwell Huckabee #Brandon Killham #George Tovar #Julia Vera #Marco De Luca

[andypantsx3]

Hi my sweet cake love, I can ask if you are reading any books lately. Or a recommendation your favorite books? ily

Hi my lil Honney Bee!!! I am still sort of in a reading slump!! I think I need work to wind down because I have been mostly just rotting and scrolling through tiktok after work, brain-fried these past couple weeks instead of finishing anything!! I am still on N K Jemisin's Fifth Season, and I also started Aiden Thomas's Cemetery Boys and have been liking both so far!!!

In terms of favorite books though, my absolute fave as I cannot say enough times is The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison!! For silly & fun romances I love the Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig, and for sci-fi it's Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell!!

What about you?? What have you been reading lately???

#ask andie

[rockislandadultreads]

Read-Alike Friday: The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton

The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton

My real name, no one remembers. The truth about that summer, no one else knows.

In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe descends upon Birchwood Manor on the banks of the Upper Thames. Their plan: to spend a secluded summer month in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time their stay is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared; a priceless heirloom is missing; and Edward Radcliffe's life is in ruins.

Over one hundred and fifty years later, Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers a leather satchel containing two seemingly unrelated items: a sepia photograph of an arresting-looking woman in Victorian clothing, and an artist's sketchbook containing the drawing of a twin-gabled house on the bend of a river.

Why does Birchwood Manor feel so familiar to Elodie? And who is the beautiful woman in the photograph? Will she ever give up her secrets?

Told by multiple voices across time, The Clockmaker's Daughter is a story of murder, mystery and thievery, of art, love and loss. And flowing through its pages like a river, is the voice of a woman who stands outside time, whose name has been forgotten by history, but who has watched it all unfold: Birdie Bell, the clockmaker's daughter.

That Summer by Lauren Willig

2009: 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. And then she discovers a pre-Raphaelite painting, hidden behind the false back of an old wardrobe, and a window onto the house's shrouded history begins to open...

1849: Imogen Grantham has spent nearly a decade trapped in a loveless marriage to a much older man, Arthur. The one bright spot in her life is her step-daughter, Evie, a high-spirited sixteen year old who is the closest thing to a child Imogen hopes to have. But everything changes when three young painters come to see Arthur's collection of medieval artifacts, including Gavin Thorne, a quiet man with the unsettling ability to read Imogen better than anyone ever has. When Arthur hires Gavin to paint her portrait, none of them can guess what the hands of fate have set in motion.

From modern-day England to the early days of the Preraphaelite movement, Lauren Willig's That Summer takes readers on an un-put-downable journey through a mysterious old house, a hidden love affair, and one woman's search for the truth about her past—and herself.

The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi

Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. He was a scholar of myths. She was heiress to a fortune. They exchanged gifts and stories and believed they would live happily ever after—and in exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past.

But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage . . . or their lives.

Combining the lush, haunting atmosphere of Mexican Gothic with the dreamy enchantment of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is a spellbinding and darkly romantic page-turner about love and lies, secrets and betrayal, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

Atonement by Ian McEwan

On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching her is Robbie Turner, son of the Tallis’s cleaning lady, whose education has been subsidized by Cecilia’s and Briony’s father, and who, like Cecilia, has recently come down from Cambridge. By day's end, their lives will be changed – irrevocably. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had not imagined at its start. And Briony will have witnessed mysteries, seen an unspeakable word, and committed a crime for which she will spend the rest of her life trying to atone…

Brilliant and utterly enthralling in its depiction of love and war and class and childhood and England, Atonement is a profound – and profoundly moving – exploration of shame and forgiveness, of atonement and of the possibility of absolution.

Love & Treasure by Ayelet Waldman

A fugitive train loaded with the plunder of a doomed people. A dazzling jewelled pendant in the form of a stylized peacock. And three men - an American infantry captain in World War II, an Israeli-born dealer in art stolen by the Nazis, and a pioneering psychiatrist in fin-de-siècle Budapest - who find their carefully-wrought lives turned upside-down by three fierce women, each locked in a struggle against her own history and the history of our times. And at the centre of Love and Treasure, nested like a photograph hidden in a locket, a mystery: where does the worth of a people and its treasures truly lie? What is the value of a gift, when giver and recipient have been lost - of a love offering when the beloved is no more?

In an intricately constructed narrative that is by turns funny and tragic, thrilling and harrowing, with all the expertise and narrative drive that readers have come to expect from her work, Waldman traces the unlikely journey, from 1914 Budapest to post-war Salzburg to present-day New York, of the peacock pendant whose significance changes - token of friendship, love-offering, unlucky talisman with the changes of fortune undergone by her characters as they find themselves caught up in the ebb and flow of modern European history.

#historical fiction #fiction #fiction books #mystery #readalikes #kate morton #reading recommendations #reading recs #book recommendations #book recs #library books #tbr #tbrpile #to read #booklr #book tumblr #book blog #library blog

[thebookwormslair]

If you enjoyed the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, here are some book recommendations that you might enjoy:

"The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger: This novel tells the story of a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel and his wife who must navigate their complicated relationship. Like Outlander, it features a time-traveling love story that spans multiple eras.

"The Bronze Horseman" by Paullina Simons: This historical romance is set in World War II-era Russia and tells the story of a young woman who falls in love with a soldier. Like Outlander, it features a passionate romance set against the backdrop of war.

"Dragonfly in Amber" by Diana Gabaldon: This is the second book in the Outlander series and continues the story of Claire and Jamie. If you enjoyed the first book, you will likely enjoy this one as well.

"The Winter Sea" by Susanna Kearsley: This novel tells the story of a woman who is writing a novel set in 18th-century Scotland and discovers that the events in her book may have actually happened. Like Outlander, it features a romance that transcends time and historical elements.

"The Secret History of the Pink Carnation" by Lauren Willig: This historical romance is set in Napoleonic-era England and France and tells the story of a young woman who is researching the identity of the Pink Carnation, a spy who helped bring down Napoleon. Like Outlander, it features a strong female lead and a historical backdrop.

These are just a few suggestions, but they all share a similar theme of romance, time travel, and historical elements!

#fantasy #literature quotes #book quotes #book quotations #books and literature #library #writeblr #quotes #writing #booknerd #outlander #romance #fiction

[ryebecca]

Tag Game About You

Thank you for the tag @a-reader-and-a-writer! ❤️

💜 nickname: Becca, Becs

💜 star sign: Leo

💜 height: 5’7 3/4″

💜 last thing i googled: "lewis pullman tuxedo” (here’s why)

💜 song stuck in my head: “CUFF IT” - Beyoncé

💜 # of followers: 167 (I’m smol)

💜 amount of sleep: 6-7 hours a night

💜 dream job: art museum curator

💜 wearing: sweatshirt and sweatpants because I’m cold af

💜 movie/book that summarizes you: Jane Austen’s Persuasion

💜 fav song currently: “I Wanna Be Yours” - Arctic Monkeys

💜 aesthetic: a mix of dark and light academia with a splash of cottagecore and mid-century modern.

💜 fav authors: Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Emily Henry, Susanna Kearsley, Lisa Kleypas, Julia Quinn, Tessa Dare, Eloisa James, Lauren Willig, etc etc etc (I swear, far too many to name!)

💜 random fun fact: I’m two degrees separated from Ryan Gosling and three degrees separated from Chris Evans. Thanks, cuz!

No pressure tags: @writercole @wildbornsiren @antiquitea @fuckyeahhangman @blue-aconite @imjess-themess @rhettabbotts @fanboygarcia @mothdruid @lorecraft @princessmisery666 @bradshawsbaby @aimmyarrowshigh @starlight-and-seafire @cartoon-heart @hederasgarden

#tag game #about me #text post

[darcylightninglewis]

Hi! May I ask Demeter, Apollo, Centaur, Agamemnon, Lightning Bolt and Aegis? Thank you!!

Of course darling! :D

Demeter: Do you have any pets?

Yes! I have a short white haired himbo kitty named Bagel. He is my heart.

Apollo: What kind of music are you into?

Omg, so much. Folk, Alt/Indie, Folk Pop, Indie Pop, Indie/Alt Rock, Pop, Folk rock, a little bit of Ska, Electropop, some Country, some R&B, Musicals....so much.

Centaur: Last book you read?

Not gonna lie, been mostly reading fic & articles. Waiting on a book from a friend atm.

Agamemnon: What is an achievement you’re proud of?

Getting my master's degree abroad. I didn't think I'd even graduate from high school when I was young. I was told I was stupid so often I believed it. Also, moving to another country by myself was scary. I didn't know anyone and originally, my mom was going to come over with me.

Lightning Bolt: What are your top three favorite movies?

Strictly Ballroom, Ever After, Anything Mel Brooks.

Aegis: What is your favorite book or series?

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. SO so good. Also The Pink Carnation Series by Lauren Willig is delightful.

#ask meme

[kamreadsandrecs]

Title: The Lure of the Moonflower (Pink Carnation #12) Author: Lauren Willig Genre/s: romance, historical, Regency romance Content/Trigger Warning/s: period-accurate misogyny, period-accurate racism, one use of the N-word in a period context, mention of a parent’s suicide (in a character’s past) Summary (from the author’s website): Portugal, December 1807. Jack Reid, the British agent known as the Moonflower (formerly the French agent known as the Moonflower), has been stationed in Portugal and is awaiting his new contact. He does not expect to be paired with a woman—especially not the legendary Pink Carnation. All of Portugal believes that the royal family departed for Brazil just before the French troops marched into Lisbon. Only the English government knows that mad seventy-three-year-old Queen Maria was spirited away by a group of loyalists determined to rally a resistance. But as the French garrison scours the countryside, it's only a matter of time before she's found and taken. It's up to Jane to find her first and ensure her safety. But she has no knowledge of Portugal or the language. Though she is loath to admit it, she needs the Moonflower. Operating alone has taught her to respect her own limitations. But she knows better than to show weakness around the Moonflower—an agent with a reputation for brilliance, a tendency toward insubordination, and a history of going rogue. Buy Here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-lure-of-the-moonflower-lauren-willig/11145744 Spoiler-Free Review: Now I’ll admit: one of the reasons it took be so very long to pick this up is because of the pairing. I wanted to know what happened to Jane, of course, given the events of Purple Plumeria, but I wasn’t feeling very kindly towards Jack, who had caused everyone a world of trouble in Blood Lily and again in Purple Plumeria. And since I wasn’t all that into the pairing, I decided to pass on it until I was in the mood...which basically took me almost a decade to get over. But hey, that was the point of this massive reread: to finally just get on with it. Plus, my feelings regarding Jack had softened over time (and the fact that I’d forgotten most of what he’d done haha), so I decided to just get on with it and read it to finally finish the series. And I’ll admit, I was pleasantly surprised by how the pairing worked! My dislike of Jack came back over the course of the reread, albeit in a milder form than when I first read the series, and the way he acted in the first few chapters of this book certainly didn’t help. He struck me as an unnecessarily edgy SOB, whose past was certainly tragic but: come on. To be fair though, I thought that Jane was rather unlikable as well in the first chapters - something I didn’t notice in my previous read but which I finally noticed in the reread leading up to this book. Jane is, frankly speaking, a bit of a bitch: high-handed, snooty, and a know-it-all on a level that’s pretty annoying. There’s glimpses of it in Garden Intrigue, and then again in Purple Plumeria, but you really get a front-row seat for it in this book and BOY is it annoying. So you’d think these two wouldn’t have any sort of chemistry, and for the first couple of chapters, that is very true. I was skeptical of the pairing initially, wondering how the author would make it work. But I am glad to say that the author DID make it work - mostly by having these two abrasive personalities rub up against each other (metaphorically speaking - though, okay, also a bit literally in certain scenes) until their prickliness smoothed out and they, finally, became honest with each other about their past experience and emotions. Willig also used this as an opportunity to explore how the racism that Jack experienced as someone of half-British, half-Indian descent meant that he could not truly belong anywhere and engage with society as he wished to, unable to put his immense talents to good use in a legitimate way, In a similar fashion, the constant overwhelming misogyny and chauvinism of British society at the time meant Jane could not serve her country in the traditional way. Both Jack and Jane have been denied the traditional/legitimate paths to service and glory because society has denied them the opportunity to do more - Jack for being mixed race, and Jane for being a woman. And it is this connection that draws them together, and then as the novel progresses, becomes the foundation on which their romantic relationship is built. While the love story is certainly something I enjoyed, I will say that the fate of the Gardener is...something I kind of predicted. I guess it comes from the intense familiarity I have with the series because of the reread, but suffice to say that I already knew how a certain scene was going to turn out, which means the tension of the scene itself was entirely lost on me. Speaking of things I saw coming from a mile away: Eloise and Colin get a happy ending, though there’s a bit of family drama that rears its head up in this novel that, like the aforementioned scene involving the Gardener, loses all its tension - not just because I already knew how it would turn out, but because it just seemed a bit...silly? Anyway: I AM FINALLY DONE WITH THIS SERIES AND CAN PUT IT TO BED BABYEEEEE~! And now I think to cleanse my brain with something a bit harder-edged. Rating: four moonflowers

#book review #book reviews #historical #romance #regency #the lure of the moonflower #pink carnation series #lauren willig #books

[meret118]

Nothing ever goes right for Eloise. The day she wears her new suede boots, it rains. When the subway stops short, she's the one thrown into some stranger's lap. And she's had her share of misfortune in the way of love. So, after deciding that romantic heroes must be a thing of the past, Eloise is ready for a fresh start.

Setting off for England, Eloise is determined to finish her dissertation on two spies, the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian. But what she discovers is something historians have missed: the secret history of the Pink Carnation-the most elusive spy of all time. As she works to unmask this obscure spy, Eloise has more and more questions. Like, how did the Pink Carnation save England from Napoleon? What became of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian? And will Eloise Kelly escape her bad luck and find a living, breathing hero of her own?

#Books