Bøger af Lauren Willig

New York, 1945. Da den alvorligt sårede kaptajn Cooper Ravenal bliver bragt til et privathospital på Manhattans Upper East Side, bliver den unge dr. Kate Schuyler involveret i et kompliceret mysterium, der viser sig at forbinde tre generationer af kvinder i hendes familie til ét enkelt ekstraordinært værelse i et historisk palæ i New York.Hvem er kvinden på det miniatureportræt, kaptajn Ravenal altid har med sig, og som til forveksling ligner Kate? Og hvorfor bærer hun det rubinvedhæng, Kate har arvet efter sin mor? I sit forsøg på at finde svar, støder Kate på historien om Olive Van Alens fald fra et liv i luksus til fattigdom i slutningen af det 19. århundrede, hvor hun hyres som tjenestepige i selve det hus, hendes far var med til at tegne. Men gåden lader også til at være forbundet med Lucy Young, der i de brølende 20’ere drager fra Brooklyn til Manhattan for at opstøve den far, hun aldrig har mødt. Og i sidste ende peger alle tråde i retning af et ganske særligt værelse, som har været glemt af generationer. Spørgsmålet er, om Kate og Cooper er i stand til at håndtere de hemmeligheder, Det Glemte Værelse rummer?Det glemte værelse er en farverig roman om tre generationer af kvinder og deres liv med kærlighed, chancer og tab på tværs af et halvt århundrede.

Frankrig, 1914. Da den tyske besættelsesmagt rykker ind på Aurelie de Courcelles familiegods for at bruge det som hovedkvarter, opdager hun, at hun kender den tyske kommandants højre hånd, Maximilan von Sternburg, fra sine debutantdage i Paris. Til trods for deres modstridende loyaliteter udvikler Aurelie og Max’ venskab sig snart til kærlighed. Men et utilgiveligt forræderi skiller dem ad, og Aurelie vender hjem til Paris, Hotel Ritz og sin fremmedgjorte mor.Frankrig, 1942. Marguerite ”Daisy” Villon er vokset op hos sin frisindede amerikanske bedstemor på det glamourøse Hotel Ritz i Paris , og da tyske tropper besætter Frankrig, bliver hun i hovdstaden med sin datter og sin mand, som samarbejder med nazisterne. Til at begynde med tøver Daisy med at hjælpe sin bedstemor i modstandskampen og dermed udsætte sig selv og sin familie for fare. Men hun indvilliger alligevel i at agere kurer for den enigmatiske Legrand, som forfalsker identitetspapirer til modstandsfolk og jødiske flygtninge. Efterhånden som Daisy suges længere ind i Legrands underjordiske netværk, kommer hun stadigt tættere på en ødelæggende hemmelighed fra hendes egen slægts dunkle fortid.Frankrig, 1964. For Barbara Langford var ægtemanden Kit hendes livs kærlighed, men deres ægteskab var hjemsøgt af en mystisk kvinde kendt som La Fleur. Efter Kits død dukker den amerikanske advokat Andrew ”Drew” Bowdoin op på hendes dørtrin, hyret til at opspore en forræderisk modstandskæmper kendt under navnet ”La Fleur”. Nysgerrig efter at vide mere om den gådefulde La Fleur slutter Barbara sig til Drew, og deres søgen leder dem til Paris og Hotel Ritz – og til uventede afkroge af deres hjerter.Hver gang vi tog afsked er en gribende roman, der strækker sig fra de mørke dage i skyggerne af to verdenskrige til de turbulente 1960’ere i selskab med tre kvinder fra hver sin generation, der alle søger tilflugt for deres sårede hjerter på Paris’ legendariske Hotel Ritz.

Maj, 2013: Bestsellerforfatteren Sarah Blake er i økonomiske vanskeligheder og kæmper med inspirationen til sin næste bog. I ren desperation bryder hun det løfte, hun ellers har givet sin Alzheimersramte mor, og åbner en gammel trækiste, der engang tilhørte hendes oldefar, som døde, da RMS Lusitania blev sænket af en tysk ubåd i 1915. Kisten viser sig at gemme på information, der potentielt kan ændre historien – og Sarah må rejse til England for at søge hjælp hos John Langford, et nyligt vanæret medlem af det britiske parlament, hvis familiearkiver muligvis rummer nøglen til den historiske katastrofe.April, 1915: Sydstatsskønheden Caroline Telfair Hochstetters ægteskab er i krise. Hendes tidligere så hengivne ægtemand Gilbert er blevet fjern, optaget af sine industrivirksomheder … og noget andet og mere, som hun ikke kan sætte fingeren på. Hun håber, at en rejse til London på Lusitanias overdådige 1. klasse vil hjælpe dem til at finde hinanden igen – men hun kan ikke ignorere de følelser, der flakker i hendes indre for vennen Robert Langford, som også er ombord. Rastløs og fyldt op af længsel efter en anden tilværelse sætter Caroline sig for at tage styringen i sit eget liv.Tessa Fairweather er ombord på Lusitanias 2. klasse og på vej hjem til Devon. Eller, det er i hvert fald hendes dækhistorie. Tessa har aldrig været uden for USA, og hendes britiske er en falsk accent, hun har lært sig i stor hast. I virkeligheden hedder hun Tennessee Schaff, er datter af en omrejsende svindler og i stand til at stjæle og forfalske stort set hvad som helst. Men hun har fået nok af intriger og konspirationer. Hendes partner har lovet, at hvis de succesfuldt kan gennemføre et sidste kup ombord på Lusitania, kan de endegyldigt lægge fupnumrene bag sig. Tess ønsker desperat at tro på, at det er sandt, men hun har en ubehagelig fornemmelse af, at der er noget ved dette komplot, der ikke er, hvad det giver sig ud for ...Mens Lusitania styrer mod sin skæbne, kæmper tre kvinder mod uret for at optrevle en plan, der vil ændre kursen på deres egne liv … og på selve historien.

In this novella (a sequel to "The Secret History of the Pink Carnation"), the newly married spy, the Purple Gentian, and his bride find more than mince pie when they head home for the holidays.

Something is rotten at Harvard Law. As the frat boys take over the Law Review and the law school sorority, the Veritarts, bring hems to a new high and grades to a new low, the Dean is very strangely gone, leaving in charge one Arthur Agnelli, a scholar of unimpeachable reputation. When a popular lecturer is accused of having an affair with one of his students, 2L Megan Milner reluctantly agrees to try to intercede with Agnelli. But is Agnelli really what he seems? And will the Dean return before the free coffee runs out? In this tongue in cheek satire, the plot of "Measure for Measure" is transposed to Harvard Law.

?Filled with vivid details, shocking truths, and two sly, strong women who bring panache and humor to every scene. I'm simply in awe of the masterful, magical way Lauren Willig makes history come alive.? ? Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Magnolia PlaceFrom New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig: a dramatic coming-of-age story with a dual timeline and a single heroine?a bold and adventuring young woman who finds herself caught up in two very different wars on both sides of the Atlantic.September 1896: An aspiring archaeologist, Smith College graduate Betsy Hayes travels to Athens, desperate to break into the male-dominated field of excavation. In the midst of the heat and dust of Greece she finds an unlikely ally in Charles, Baron de Robecourt, one of the few men who takes her academic passion seriously. But when a simmering conflict between Greece and Turkey erupts into open warfare, Betsy throws herself into the conflict as a nurse, not knowing that the decision will change her life forever?and cause a deep and painful rift with her oldest friend, Ava.June 1898: Betsy has sworn off war nursing?but when she gets the word that her estranged friend Ava is headed to Cuba with Clara Barton and the Red Cross to patch up the wounded in the Spanish-American War, Betsy determines to stop her the only way she knows how: by joining in her place. Battling heat, disease, and her own demons, Betsy follows Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders straight to the heart of the fighting, where she is forced to confront her greatest fears to save both old friends and new....Set during an electrifying era of nation-building, idealism, and upheaval, Two Wars and a Wedding is the tale of two remarkable women striving to make their place in a man's world?an unforgettable saga of friendship, love, and fighting for what is right.

"A crackling portrayal of everyday American heroines...A triumph." ? Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue A group of young women from Smith College risk their lives in France at the height of World War I in this sweeping novel based on a true story?a skillful blend of Call the Midwife and The Alice Network?from New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig.A scholarship girl from Brooklyn, Kate Moran thought she found a place among Smith's Mayflower descendants, only to have her illusions dashed the summer after graduation. When charismatic alumna Betsy Rutherford delivers a rousing speech at the Smith College Club in April of 1917, looking for volunteers to help French civilians decimated by the German war machine, Kate is too busy earning her living to even think of taking up the call. But when her former best friend Emmeline Van Alden reaches out and begs her to take the place of a girl who had to drop out, Kate reluctantly agrees to join the new Smith College Relief Unit.Four months later, Kate and seventeen other Smithies, including two trailblazing female doctors, set sail for France. The volunteers are armed with money, supplies, and good intentions?all of which immediately go astray. The chateau that was to be their headquarters is a half-burnt ruin. The villagers they meet are in desperate straits: women and children huddling in damp cellars, their crops destroyed and their wells poisoned. Despite constant shelling from the Germans, French bureaucracy, and the threat of being ousted by the British army, the Smith volunteers bring welcome aid?and hope?to the region. But can they survive their own differences? As they cope with the hardships and terrors of the war, Kate and her colleagues find themselves navigating old rivalries and new betrayals which threaten the very existence of the Unit.With the Germans threatening to break through the lines, can the Smith Unit pull together and be truly a band of sisters?

The New York Times bestselling historical novelist delivers her biggest, boldest, and most ambitious novel yet?a sweeping, dramatic Victorian epic of lost love, lies, jealousy, and rebellion set in colonial BarbadosBarbados, 1954: Emily Dawson has always been the poor cousin in a prosperous English merchant clan?merely a vicar's daughter, and a reform-minded vicar's daughter at that. Everyone knows that the family's lucrative shipping business will go to her cousin, Adam, one day. But when her grandfather dies, Emily receives an unexpected inheritance: Peverills, a sugar plantation in Barbados?a plantation her grandfather never told anyone he owned.When Emily accompanies her cousin and his new wife to Barbados, she finds Peverills a burnt-out shell, destroyed in 1816, when a rising of enslaved people sent the island up in flames. Rumors swirl around the derelict plantation; people whisper of ghosts.Why would her practical-minded grand-father leave her a property in ruins? Why are the neighboring plantation owners, the Davenants, so eager to acquire Peverills? The answer lies in the past?a tangled history of deception, greed, clandestine love, heartbreaking betrayal, and a bold bid for freedom.A brilliant, multigenerational saga that begins in the years of slavery and riches and ends in a time of industry and new beginnings, The Summer Country boldly unravels the legacy of two powerful families, and the secret ties that bind them.

From Lauren Willig, author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Ashford Affair, comes The Other Daughter, a page-turner full of deceit, passion, and revenge. 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 months before. He's an earl, respected and influential, and he is standing with another daughter -- his legitimate daughter. Which makes Rachel...not legitimate. Everything she thought she knew about herself and her past -- even her very name -- is a lie.Still reeling from the death of her mother, and furious at this betrayal, Rachel sets herself up in London under a new identity. There she insinuates herself into the party-going crowd of Bright Young Things, with a steely determination to unveil her father's perfidy and bring his -- and her half-sister's -- charmed world crashing down. Very soon, however, Rachel faces two unexpected snags: she finds that she genuinely likes her half-sister, Olivia, whose situation isn't as simple it appears; and that she might just be falling for her sister's fiancé...

Despite her dear friend Jane Austen's warning against teaching, Arabella Dempsey accepts a position at a girls' school in Bath, just before Christmas. She hardly imagines coming face-to-face with French aristocrats and international spies.Reginald "Turnip" Fitzhugh-often mistaken for the elusive spy known as the Pink Carnation-has blundered into danger before. When Turnip and Arabella find their Christmas pudding yielding a cryptic message, they are launched on a Yuletide adventure. Will they find poinsettias-or peril?

A New York Times extended list bestseller in hardcover-the sensational sixth book in the national bestselling Pink Carnation series. Whisked away to nineteenth-century India, Penelope Deveraux plunges into the court intrigues of the Nizam of Hyderabad, where no one is quite what they seem. New to this strange and exotic country- where a dangerous spy called the Marigold leaves venomous cobras as his calling card-she can trust only one man: Captain Alex Reid. With danger looming from local warlords, treacherous court officials, and French spies, Alex and Penelope may be all that stand in the way of a plot designed to rock the very foundations of the British Empire...Watch a Video

A New York Times extended list bestseller and the exciting fifth book in the national bestselling Pink Carnation series. After years abroad, Robert, Duke of Dovedale, has returned to England to avenge the murder of his mentor. To uncover the murderer's identity, he must infiltrate the infamous, secret Hellfire Club. But the Duke has no idea that an even more difficult challenge awaits him-in a mistaken, romantic-minded young lady. Charlotte Lansdowne wistfully remembers the Robert of her childhood as a valiant hero among men. Too aware of his own flaws, Robert tries to dissuade Charlotte from her delusions, even as he finds himself drawn to her. When Charlotte takes up a bit of espionage-investigating a plot to kidnap the King-Robert soon realizes that she is more than the perfect partner in crime. Caught in a dangerous game full of deadly spies and secret rites, Robert and Charlotte must work together to reveal the villain...and confront their true love.

Now in paperback?a novel that ?handily fulfills its promise of intrigue and romance.?(Publishers Weekly)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.

New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig presents the third novel in her charming Pink Carnation series...Harvard grad student Eloise Kelly has gotten into quite a bit of trouble since she started spying on the Pink Carnation and the Black Tulip-two of the deadliest spies to saunter the streets of nineteenth-century England and France. Not only has she unearthed secrets that will rearrange history, she's dallied with Colin Selwick and sought out a romantic adventure all her own. Little does she know that she's about to uncover another fierce heroine running headlong into history...In June 1803, Letty Alsworthy attempts to prevent her sister's midnight elopement-only to be accidentally whisked away herself. The scandal forces her into a hasty marriage with Geoffrey Pinchingdale-Snipe, who then decamps immediately to help the Pink Carnation quash a ring of Irish rebels led by the Black Tulip. Not to be outdone, Letty steals away to the Emerald Isle herself, ready to learn a thing or two about espionage-and never imagining she might learn a few things about love along the way.

...But now she has a million questions about the Pink Carnation's deadly French nemesis, the Black Tulip. And she's pretty sure that her handsome onagain, off-again crush, Colin Selwick, has the answers somewhere in his archives. But what she discovers in an old codebook is something juicier than she ever imagined.

Nothing goes right for Eloise. The one day she wears her new suede boots, it rains cats and dogs. When the subway stops short, she's always the one thrown into some stranger's lap. Plus, she's had more than her share of misfortune in the way of love. In fact, ever since she realized romantic heroes are a thing of the past, she's decided it's time for a fresh start.Setting off for England, Eloise is determined to finish her dissertation on that dashing pair of spies, the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Purple Gentian. But what she discovers is something the finest 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 stumbles across answers to all kinds of 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 all her own?

Als die New Yorker Anwältin Julia Conley erfährt, dass sie ein Haus in der Nähe von London geerbt hat, glaubt sie zunächst an einen Scherz. Schließlich war sie seit ihrem sechsten Lebensjahr nicht mehr in England. Alle Erinnerungen an ihre Kindheit hat sie verdrängt. In Herne Hill angekommen will Julia das Haus so schnell wie möglich verkaufen. Doch dann findet sie, verborgen hinter einer Schrankwand, ein altes Gemälde. Wer ist die porträtierte Frau? Und warum sieht sie so traurig aus? Gemeinsam mit dem wortkargen Antiquitätenhändler Nicholas kommt Julia einem 150 Jahre alten Geheimnis auf die Spur. Und ihr wird klar, dass der spektakuläre Fund mit ihrer eigenen Vergangenheit zu tun hat ...

"e;Tense, atmospheric, and gorgeously written, The Summer Country is a novel to savor!"e; Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice NetworkA brilliant, multigenerational saga in the tradition of The Thorn Birds and North and South, New York Times bestselling historical novelist Lauren Willig delivers her biggest, boldest, and most ambitious novel yeta sweeping Victorian epic of lost love, lies, jealousy, and rebellion set in colonial Barbados.Barbados, 1854: Emily Dawson has always been the poor cousin in a prosperous English merchant clan-- merely a vicars daughter, and a reform-minded vicars daughter, at that. Everyone knows that the familys lucrative shipping business will go to her cousin, Adam, one day.But when her grandfather dies, Emily receives an unexpected inheritance: Peverills, a sugar plantation in Barbadosa plantation her grandfather never told anyone he owned.When Emily accompanies her cousin and his new wife to Barbados,she finds Peverills a burnt-out shell, reduced to ruins in 1816, when a rising of enslaved people sent the island up in flames.Rumors swirl around the derelict plantation; people whisper of ghosts.Why would her practical-minded grandfather leave her a property in ruins? Why are the neighboring plantation owners, the Davenants, so eager to acquire Peverills? The answer lies in the past a tangled history of lies, greed, clandestine love, heartbreaking betrayal, and a bold bid for freedom.THE SUMMER COUNTRY will beguile readers with its rendering of families, heartbreak, and the endurance of hope against all odds.

From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig comes The Ashford Affair, a page-turning novel about two women in different eras, and on different continents, who are connected by one deeply buried secret.A New York Times best seller!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 thirty-four, she feels her messy life crumbling around her. But when the family gathers for her grandmother Addie's ninety-ninth birthday, a relative lets slip hints about a long-buried family secret, leading Clemmie on a journey into the past that could change everything. . . .Growing up at Ashford Park in the early twentieth century, Addie has never quite belonged. When her parents passed away, she was taken into the grand English house by her aristocratic aunt and uncle, and raised side-by-side with her beautiful and outgoing cousin, Bea. Though they are as different as night and day, Addie and Bea are closer than sisters, through relationships and challenges, and a war that changes the face of Europe irrevocably. But what happens when something finally comes along that can't be shared? When the love of sisterhood is tested by a bond that's even stronger?From the inner circles of British society to the skyscrapers of Manhattan and the red-dirt hills of Kenya, the never-told secrets of a woman and a family unfurl.

"Tense, atmospheric, and gorgeously written, The Summer Country is a novel to savor!" – Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice NetworkA brilliant, multigenerational saga in the tradition of The Thorn Birds and North and South, New York Times bestselling historical novelist Lauren Willig delivers her biggest, boldest, and most ambitious novel yet—a sweeping Victorian epic of lost love, lies, jealousy, and rebellion set in colonial Barbados.Barbados, 1854: Emily Dawson has always been the poor cousin in a prosperous English merchant clan-- merely a vicar’s daughter, and a reform-minded vicar’s daughter, at that. Everyone knows that the family’s lucrative shipping business will go to her cousin, Adam, one day.  But when her grandfather dies, Emily receives an unexpected inheritance: Peverills, a sugar plantation in Barbados—a plantation her grandfather never told anyone he owned. When Emily accompanies her cousin and his new wife to Barbados, she finds Peverills a burnt-out shell, reduced to ruins in 1816, when a rising of enslaved people sent the island up in flames. Rumors swirl around the derelict plantation; people whisper of ghosts.Why would her practical-minded grandfather leave her a property in ruins?  Why are the neighboring plantation owners, the Davenants, so eager to acquire Peverills? The answer lies in the past— a tangled history of lies, greed, clandestine love, heartbreaking betrayal, and a bold bid for freedom.THE SUMMER COUNTRY will beguile readers with its rendering of families, heartbreak, and the endurance of hope against all odds.  

Her formerly attentive industrialist husband, Gilbert, has become remote, pre-occupied with business . .As the Lusitania steams toward its fate, three women work against time to unravel a plot that will change the course of their own lives .

From New York Times bestselling author, Lauren Willig, comes this scandalous novel full of family secrets, affairs, and even murder.

New York Times bestselling authors Karen White, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig present a masterful collaboration-a rich, multigenerational novel of love and loss that spans half a century.... 1945: When critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenel 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 miniature portrait who looks so much like Kate? And why is she wearing the ruby pendant handed down to Kate by her mother? In their pursuit of answers, they find themselves drawn into the turbulent stories of Olive Van Alan, driven in the Gilded Age from riches to rags, who hired out as a servant in the very house her father designed, and Lucy Young, who in the Jazz Age came from Brooklyn to Manhattan seeking the father she had never known. But are Kate and Cooper ready for the secrets that will be revealed in the Forgotten Room? READERS GUIDE INCLUDED

In the final Pink Carnation novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Mark of the Midnight Manzanilla, Napoleon has occupied Lisbon, and Jane Wooliston, aka the Pink Carnation, teams up with a rogue agent to protect the escaped Queen of Portugal. 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.READERS GUIDE INCLUDED

Top voices in historical fiction deliver an unforgettable collection of short stories set in the aftermath of World War I?featuring bestselling authors such as Hazel Gaynor, Jennifer Robson, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig and edited by Heather Webb.On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month...November 11, 1918. After four long, dark years of fighting, the Great War ends at last, and the world is forever changed. For soldiers, loved ones, and survivors the years ahead stretch with new promise, even as their hearts are marked by all those who have been lost.As families come back together, lovers reunite, and strangers take solace in each other, everyone has a story to tell.In this moving anthology, nine authors share stories of love, strength, and renewal as hope takes root in a fall of poppies.Featuring:Jessica BrockmoleHazel GaynorEvangeline HollandMarci JeffersonKate KerriganJennifer RobsonBeatriz WilliamsLauren WilligHeather Webb

Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation novels have been called "fun [and] fresh" (Kirkus Reviews) and "clever and playful " (Detroit Free Press). Now she introduces readers to a mismatched pair who find passion in the most astonishing of places...Secret agent Augustus Whittlesby has spent a decade undercover in France, posing as an insufferably bad poet. The French surveillance officers can't bear to read his work closely enough to recognize the information drowned in a sea of verbiage. New York-born Emma Morris Delagardie is a thorn in Augustus's side. An old school friend of Napoleon's stepdaughter, she came to France with her uncle, eloped with a Frenchman, and has been rattling around the salons of Paris ever since. Now widowed, she entertains herself by holding a weekly salon, and loudly critiquing Augustus's poetry. As Napoleon pursues his plans for the invasion of England, Whittlesby hears of a top-secret device to be demonstrated at a house party. The catch? The only way in is with Emma, who has been asked to write a masque for the weekend's entertainment. In this complicated masque within a masque, nothing goes quite as scripted-especially Augustus's unexpected feelings for Emma.