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The Deception of the Emerald Ring

(Pink Carnation #3)

Lauren Willig (Goodreads Author)

3.9 · Rating details · 8,986 Ratings · 555 Reviews

A dangerous ring of spies, a game of mistaken identities, and a heartwarming romance of unlikely pairs come together in Lauren Willig's engaging and exciting third novel THE DECPTION OF THE EMERALD RING. Praised for the "cheerfully postmodern and energetic . . .romance-adventure hybrids [that] have escaped the clutches of niche fiction." (The Onion A.V. Club), her Pink Car A dangerous ring of spies, a game of mistaken identities, and a heartwarming romance of unlikely pairs come together in Lauren Willig's engaging and exciting third novel THE DECPTION OF THE EMERALD RING. Praised for the "cheerfully postmodern and energetic . . .romance-adventure hybrids [that] have escaped the clutches of niche fiction." (The Onion A.V. Club), her Pink Carnation series is garnering her critical acclaim and a loyal fan base.

Lauren Willig's debut The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, appeared on retailer bestseller lists in hardcover and made a big splash in sales in trade paperback. Her second book, The Masque of the Black Tulip, was selected as a BookSense Pick for January 2006, and continue to rack up incredible reviews. Lauren Willig's passion for authentic historical detail coupled with her talent for enthralling love stories make her series the perfect read for lovers of romance, history and adventure.

The year is 1803 and England and France remain at odds. Hoping to break the English once and for all, Napoleon backs a ring of Irish rebels in uprisings against England and sends the Black Tulip, France's most deadly spy, to the Emerald Isle to help. What they don't know is that also in Ireland is England's top spy, the Pink Carnation, who is working to shut the rebels down. Meanwhile, back in England, Letty Alsworthy intercepts a note indicating that her sister, Mary, is about to make the very grave mistake of eloping with Geoffrey Pinchingdale-Snipe (second in command of the League of the Purple Gentian). In an attempt to save the family name, Letty tries to stop the elopement, but instead finds herself swept away in the midnight carriage meant for her sister and is accidentally compromised. Geoff and Letty, to each other's horror, find themselves forced into matrimony. Then, Geoff receives word that he is to travel to Ireland to help the Pink Carnation and disappears immediately after their wedding ceremony. Letty learns of Geoff's disappearance and, not to be outdone by her husband, steals away on a ship bound for Ireland, armed and ready to fight for her husbandand to learn a thing or two about spying for England.

As in her previous tales, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation and The Masque Of the Black tulip, our modern-day heroine and hero, Eloise Kelly and Colin Selwick, continue their budding romance in this captivating third novel in the series.

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Hardcover, 400 pages

Published December 1st 2006 by Dutton Books (first published November 16th 2006)

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Jun 13, 2013 Navessa rated it really liked it

*spoilers*

Greetings ladies and gentlemen! If you missed my review for the last book in this series, The Masque of the Black Tulip, I’ll give you a slight refresher. Our hero’s name is Shoulders because you can bet your sweet ass the width of them will be mentioned more than his actual name. Our heroine is Chemise as all our hero seems to think about is getting her out of hers. Also, spies. Now on with the show!

Dramatization:

Shoulders: I must run away with her! I love her and I’ll have her any ...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Lisa Kay rated it it was amazing

Shelves: setting-england, setting-ireland, genre-romance-historical, genre-romance-w-mystery, genre-chick-lit-ish, timewarp-parallel-past-present, character-woman-in-pants, theme-masquerade, married-couple-all-or-most-of-book, theme-marriage-of-convenience

Regency Period & Ireland
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★★★★★ (This is a review of the audiobook.) Oh! This parallel time warp series just keeps getting better and better. Luckily, it looks like the fabulous, talented and versatile Kate Reading narrates the whole of this series. She does a wonderful job on the male and female voices – of all ages. (Eloise’s grandmother sounds a little like an elderly Katherine Hepburn.) She’s good at differentiating the voices within the same sex also. Regardless ...more

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Sep 13, 2007 Chris rated it it was ok

Shelves: popculture

Old TT review:

So, I read The Deception of the Emerald Ring, the third book in the Pink Carnation series, and I have to say, I'm not pleased with the direction the series is taking. Instead of being French Revolution spy adventures with a dash of romance, they are turning into romance novels with a dash of French Revolution spy adventure. Me, I got nothin' against romance novels, but I'm picky about them and Lauren Willig is not making the cut here. Also, the framing device of the PhD candidate d ...more

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May 04, 2013 TL rated it really liked it

Recommended to TL by: random purchases in the Book Rack:)

Shelves: favorites

Love this series:-) Romance and spies, humor/drama *happy sigh* Kate Reading did a brilliant job narrating the story, giving everyone a distinctive voice, past or present.

Letty is one of my favorite characters of the series, I think we'd be great friends:-)

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May 24, 2010 Beth Eff rated it it was ok

Shelves: chick-lit, historical-romance, 2010, src-fall-2010

The magic was missing from this one. And I’m not sure I can elaborate further and identify what piece was lacking except to say that something was just off. It took me a week of off and on reading to finish this which is inexcusable for a book that qualifies as light reading.

There is an author’s note in the front of the book where she admits that this book was more of a struggle to write than the first two and unfortunately, I think I picked up on that because I kept putting this book down to g ...more

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Aug 17, 2014 Ian rated it liked it

Shelves: g-historical

After trying to thwart her sister's elopement, Letty finds herself compromised and married to Geoffrey Pinchingdale-Snipe. Feeling he has been trapped into a marriage to the less attractive sister, Geoffrey abandons Letty on their wedding night and sets sail for Ireland.

Feeling humiliated Letty sets off in pursuit but what she doesn't realise is Geoffrey is a spy in the League of the Purple Gentian and he is traveling to Ireland to thwart a French invasion. Letty lands right in the middle of a ...more

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Aug 26, 2013 Kate rated it liked it

I quite enjoyed this book. It's predictable, but sometimes predictable is nice. Geoff accidentally marries the wrong sister, Letty, but somehow they fall in love in the midst of spying and intrigue in Ireland. Also, we learn more about the Black Tulip.

I've continued reading this series because it is like potato chips. Not particularly good, and you know that there is much better substance out there, but still you find it enjoyable and a little addictive. I was rolling my eyes a bit to (once agai ...more

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Sep 26, 2011 Pamela(AllHoney) rated it really liked it

Shelves: forced-or-arranged-marriage, spies-hr, married-couple, hr-georgian-regency, british-boys, family-secrets, loc-ireland, library-book

The third book in the Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig and a satisfying addition for me. This one takes place mostly in Ireland. Fast paced but not too fast that you blink and miss something. I wasn't really liking the hero and heroine at first but after awhile I started warming up to them. I thought the romance was a little stiff and not totally convincing but it worked out in the end. I'm not a great fan of plot-lines that continue in several books but I'm enjoying the series anyway.

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Aug 30, 2017 Lynn Spencer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-romance

4.5 stars I've been catching up on the Pink Carnation books, and this was my last reread. From here on out, I get to experience them for the first time!

I remembered liking this book, and I enjoyed it quite a bit the second time around as well. The modern day relationship keeps my attention and I'm always wanting to know what will happen next. And the historical story! I really liked Letty in this book as she's sensible and intelligent. I got a little frustrated at Pinchingdale-Snipe because it t ...more

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Jun 11, 2011 Stephanie rated it liked it

Shelves: 2011reads, audio, fiction, historical, romance

This is the third book in a series that takes place in England during the regency period. It focuses on the leagues of English Spies ala the Scarlet Pimpernel (aristocrats who spy!) who are busy doing their part to foil Napolean. This was the first in this series that I read (the pink carnation series)and while I think reading the earlier books would have fleshed out some of the characters in this book a bit more, it wasn't a big problem. I wasn't sure going into this if this was going to be str This is the third book in a series that takes place in England during the regency period. It focuses on the leagues of English Spies ala the Scarlet Pimpernel (aristocrats who spy!) who are busy doing their part to foil Napolean. This was the first in this series that I read (the pink carnation series)and while I think reading the earlier books would have fleshed out some of the characters in this book a bit more, it wasn't a big problem. I wasn't sure going into this if this was going to be straight historical fiction or a historical romance. Note: it is decidely a romance so if that's not your cup of tea beware.

I liked this book. It was a nice, light romp of a read - I liked all the historical characters and feel like the relationship set-up was interesting with a low level of annoying contrivances. I mean there is the fact that once the heroine realizes the nature of the misunderstanding with Geoff, she doesn't make a point to try and explain - in fact she never really does which seems more of a "let's see how long we can draw this conflict out" rather than actual human nature/behavior. But you get some of that in most romance novels else many of them would be about 100 pages long.

My one big beef with the whole series is the author's use of a parallel modern story. I can see how when she was coming up with the idea that it seemed like such a brilliant and interesting device but it did not work for me at all. I hated the modern day "heroine" Eloise who is supposedly working on her phD at Harvard but is so silly, shallow, and just plain ridiculous I found it hard to swallow or take her as a serious academic. Eloise is the quintessential heroine of a chick-lit novel and while I like a romance or two I cannot stand chick-lit so its likely just a personal thing for me. I wanted to completely skip these sections of the book but was afraid I'd miss something. I was always annoyed when they popped up.

While I usually hate starting "in the middle"of a series I was glad I started with this one. It was all right and I have since gone back and read the first book in the series and I really disliked it. So I'm gonna try a few of the others in the series and hope they are more like this then the first book and also hope that I work up the courage to skip the modern day chapters. ...more

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Apr 02, 2015 Pandora Black rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook

Je partais avec un ou deux a priori sur ce tome, en plus du fait qu'il arrive juste après Henrietta et Miles qui sont absolument fabuleux ♥, et au final je l'ai absolument adoré ♥♥♥ autant que le précédent.
Comme j'avais dû le dire pour le tome 2, je ne suis pas fan des histoires où les héros sont obligés de se marier précipitamment pour x ou y raison, parce que souvent au fond, c'est un GROS MALENTENDU et je déteste un peu la ficelle du GROS MALENTENDU (bon sang parlez un peu les gens) (bref). Q ...more

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May 30, 2008 Mabeo rated it liked it

Shelves: mysteries-and-other-things

The problem here is the bitter single woman syndrome. This book is the third book in a series about a Harvard grad student who is researching spies in England during the Napoleonic wars. A totally fascinating topic that is ruined by the modern day researcher who is just a mess. This is no Jennifer Weiner description of a modern woman, this is just pure insecure woman with no life but her research. In short, there's nothing to respect about her, she rarely holds her own, she's miserable without h ...more

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Jun 06, 2008 Michelle rated it did not like it

The plot was fairly interesting, but Willig's writing style leaves a lot to be desired. I didn't like how she switched between the present and the past; it felt disjointed and I didn't really care for the characters in the present. I can see where she tried to make some parallels, but I didn't enjoy them. Also, her use of language makes the sections set in the early 1800s implausible; I felt like she tried to antiquate modern language, but she didn't really succeed, so a lot of what the characte ...more

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Oct 23, 2008 Michelle rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2008

Eloise continues her search for more information (using only primary sources of course) regarding the adventures of various spies during the Napoleonic Wars.

This book revolves around Geoff and Letty -- who were caught in a 'compromising' situation and were forced to wed basically as strangers. I did find it interesting but I felt like this relationship was a little forced. I mean Geoff suddenly realizes Letty is this honest and wonderful girl after what, like a couple of weeks?! Of course they ...more

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Sep 06, 2010 Rebecca Huston rated it really liked it

Shelves: 19th-century, england, historical-romance

Book #3 in the Pink Carnation series.

More of a historical romp than anything else. I still had fun with it though, and it's clever at least. Calls a lot on the classic Scarlet Pimpernel series.

For the complete review, please go here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_40056...

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Dec 23, 2008 Jessica rated it it was ok

Shelves: sorta-trashy-historical-romance-adv

This was my least favorite of the series. It was kind of boring and the main characters were extremely irritating, and those are the worst sins an author can commit.

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May 05, 2018 Stephanie rated it it was amazing

After only getting about 130 pages in, I exclaimed 'oh no' at least a dozen times. So far my favorite of the Pink Carnation series. I finished this book in a day.

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Apr 11, 2010 Becky R. rated it really liked it

As with each of the novels in this series so far, there is a level of tension, and in this case, I actually really enjoyed the distance and frustration introduced so early on in the story. Rather than a shallow, "I love you and feel passionate towards you" from the get-go, we have two characters who have to learn more about one another. Honestly, Letty is a sweet character, and one that I felt got blamed for too much of Lord Pinchingdale's frustrations. Although Letty is not described as the bea As with each of the novels in this series so far, there is a level of tension, and in this case, I actually really enjoyed the distance and frustration introduced so early on in the story. Rather than a shallow, "I love you and feel passionate towards you" from the get-go, we have two characters who have to learn more about one another. Honestly, Letty is a sweet character, and one that I felt got blamed for too much of Lord Pinchingdale's frustrations. Although Letty is not described as the beauty that her sister Mary is, we get the sense that Letty has a keen mind and strength that gives her strength. Lord Pinchingdale, however, is also someone we learn to see as a man dealing with the job he is expected to carry out in the midst of the chaos of marrying the sister of the woman he originally meant to marry. Yes, he comes off as the scoundrel, but the misunderstandings the couple must overcome help to create a story that you believe a little more than the two previous to it.

In my opinion, this was my favorite installment of the three in the series. Because of Letty's confidence and personality, and the work that the couple has to go through to actually learn to love one another, they make this mystery/spy romance pretty charming. There is something vulnerable, yet strong, about Letty that I really liked, and I appreciated that she could stand on her own two feet.

As a side note to this story, this was the book in the series that finally made me a frustrated and left wanting more with the secondary story being told in the present, from the researcher Eloise Kelly. Through her work on her thesis, her research has taken her deeper and deeper into the female spy ring, thanks to the letters and journals owned by Colin Selwick. In the other installments, the present-day research plays a major backseat, but in this novel we really grow to care about Eloise getting her research, and maybe getting a handsome, rich Colin on the side?!? I don't know why, but the Eloise & Colin storyline reminded me of an earlier Bridget Jones and Mark Darcy twist. It's only a shady reminder, but still there to taunt a bit! ...more

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Jan 18, 2008 MJ rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, really-liked

The Deception of the Emerald Ring by Lauren Willig

After her weekend at Colin Selwicks country estate ends rather quickly (that’s what happens when you almost kiss and are interrupted by a phone call) Eloise Kelly is back in London looking for more information on the Pink Carnations activities. Only she keeps getting distracted by the fact that her cell phone is not ringing and Colin is not calling. That is until she stumbles upon a possible link to the Pink Carnations activities in Ireland.

Geoff ...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Kelli rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

I really like to think of this one as Georgette Heyer fan fiction. This one's plot has elements of Heyer's 'Devils Club'. Which is an excellently good novel.

This one starts out better than the first book in Willig's series (I skipped the 2nd one, for now). I think the voice of the main girl character is fascinating and sweet. The writing is pretty good when it stays on her. However, again Willig makes her men characters emotional and wimpy by writing in all their thoughts and feelings. Saps!! B ...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Susan (susayq ~) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2012books, historical-romance, ebooks, mystery

I fall a little more in love with this series with each book I read. The humor is what gets me...and Lauren Willig has me cackling with some of the stuff she writes.

The premise of this book is that the Pink Carnation is in Ireland to help foil the plans of another attempted Irish Rebellion, while the Irish are seeking help from the French and the Black Tulip. Well, lets' just say, the Pink Carnation does what she's supposed to and stops the Irish with a little help from her friends. Geoff and hi ...more

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Aug 24, 2015 Nanou rated it really liked it

Shelves: espion

Eloise et Colin m'ont donné des palpitations xD ♥ #TeamColin ... #TeamPammy&Martin aussi ^^

parcontre si j'ai bien aimé Letty, Geoff m'a moins plus ici que dans les tomes précédent :/ il passe un peu vite du "ah merdre je me suis peut-être trompé sur elle" à "je la met dans mon lit à la première occasion" si j'avais été Letty je l'aurais fait un peu plus ramper par terre le Geoff xD

Vaughn toujours avec son aura de mystère mystérieux ^^ et alors c'est horrible mais chaque fois qu'on décrit com ...more

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Mar 31, 2010 Celeste rated it really liked it

I love these books---as romance novels...I don't think that they will win any awards anytime soon---but that having been said...I love these books. The authors humor is just like my own (I would like to think that if I wrote a novel I would be as witty as this) If you read too fast you might just miss something rather funny. If I were to give the author any advice it would be this---find a friend with some "glamour shots" experience and a friend who has a camera slightly nicer then a disposable. ...more

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Aug 13, 2008 Christy B rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mystery, historical-romance, historical-fiction, georgian

Not as good as The Masque Of the Black Tulip , but still a delightful book. Nobody can beat Miles and Henrietta - and I was very sad of the absence of them in this book - but Geoff and Letty, while a different sort of pair, were just as funny and cute together, although in a different way. Lord Vaughn continues to peek my interest. And excuse my French, but Miss Gwen kicks ass!!

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Nov 17, 2011 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, 2011

These stories are FUN! While it reads more like a historical chick lit book than anything else it is still a great escape. Many humorous lines and situations, interesting characters, strong heroines, mysterious hero make for reading time well spent.

My only negative thought about this story was that while I enjoy the modern narratives, they didn't have much depth to them. Nothing seemed to happen, or if it did, it was very little.

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Jul 14, 2015 Lauran Vetuschi rated it really liked it

I would have rated this book a 4.5, but there are so many more in the series--I need to leave room :) By far, this is my favorite so far!! I really appreciate that Ms. Willig takes the time to summarize and sort out the actual history versus what she had to change to fit the story. Looking forward to #4! Hoping to finish the entire series before year end, but we shall see :)

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Dec 08, 2011 Dawnn somerset rated it it was amazing

i didnt like the start of this one as much as the others, it didnt really suck me in right away like the others in the series

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Feb 21, 2011 Jeananna rated it really liked it

waiting for the library to call me and say book 4 is waiting!!!

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Sep 11, 2013 Pamela rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014

I really liked Letty and Geofrey but the modern day Eloise was a bit annoying. Cute story.

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Jun 10, 2007 Schmerica rated it liked it

Shelves: historical, romance

I adored the first two books in this series -- complete fluff, but immense -- but this one was weirdly unsatisfying. Alas.

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About Lauren Willig

Lauren Willig

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Lauren Willig is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen works of historical fiction. Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages, awarded the RITA, Booksellers Best and Golden Leaf awards, and chosen for the American Library Association's annual list of the best genre fiction. After graduating from Yale University, she embarked on a PhD in English History at Harvard before ...more