THE MISCHIEF OF THE MISTLETOE - Lauren Willig
A Pink Carnation Christmas
New American Library
ISBN: 978-0-451-23477-3
November 2011
Regency Romance/Mystery

England - 1803

Arabella Dempsey has taken a position as a teacher at Miss Climpson's Select Seminary for Young Ladies despite warnings from her friend, Jane Austen. Still, Arabella has little choice as she is obviously not going to be her aunt's heir now that Aunt Osborne has married the much younger, and despicable, Captain Musgrave. Jane isn't convinced that teaching is right for Arabella; it certainly isn't going to be easy dealing with young girls who are only at the school because they've driven their parents crazy. Arabella is determined to make it work—there is no alternative. And then she literally runs into a young man who really complicates her life.

Mr. Reginald Fitzhugh, known as Turnip to one and all, is at Miss Climpson's to visit his sister, who has just given him a neatly wrapped Christmas pudding. On his way out the door, he slams into a smaller, softer body, and the pudding and the body go flying. It's Miss Dempsey, someone he has met before, and suddenly there's a man trying to grab the pudding from Miss Dempsey! The man explains he was paid to get the pudding. Curious. But then Arabella discovers that there is writing on the inside of the muslin wrapper—in French. With Napoleon sending spies all over, and the fact that Turnip has been mistaken for the Pink Carnation, an English spy, this could mean something. But what?

And so starts another Pink Carnation caper as the bumbling, brightly dressed, and kindly Turnip and the more sober, practical Arabella team up to find out just what is going on at Miss Climpson's, and who is trying to get the pudding, not to mention a certain list that neither Arabella nor Turnip has a clue about. There are several very “spy-like” individuals to choose from, and one in particular who physically tries to get the mysterious list from Arabella. Only after the second attempt does Turnip realize how much Arabella means to him. But just who has the list?

There aren't any novels that I can recall where the hero is a vegetable! Turnip is delightfully eccentric, but his fellow spies know of his worth, and Arabella realizes that fairly early, too. She is saddened by the fact that as a poor commoner, someone like Turnip, despite his reputation of being silly, is too good for her. But she enjoys the time she has with him.

The mystery is well drawn and there is a surprise conclusion. Several of the main characters from previous books appear. All in all, another wickedly enjoyable, sometimes laugh out loud story from Lauren Willig. Readers of this series should know that THE MISCHIEF OF THE MISTLETOE story begins after THE SEDUCTION OF THE CRIMSON ROSE, but before THE TEMPTATION OF THE NIGHT JASMINE.

Start your holiday season off with a cracking good mystery and loads of giggles! Don't miss THE MISCHIEF OF THE MISTLETOE.

Jani Brooks