The Betrayal of the Blood Lily is the latest entry in the Pink Carnation series by Lauren Willig. Penelope Deveraux has been pushing the strictures of society for some time, knowing that someday she might push too far. But she never thought it would land her in India, wife to Lord Frederick Staines. Penelope may be married, but she still won't be limited by expectations of what a "lady" should and shouldn't do. Captain Alex Reid expected that escort duty for Lord Staines and his new wife would consist of playing nursemaid to spoiled and useless namby-pampys. But he finds himself constantly surprised by Penelope, with her ability to shoot, ride, and swim surpassing her husband, and Alex is soon fighting an unexpected attraction to Penelope. When intrigue in the guise of French spy Marigold arises, Alex and Penelope find themselves unlikely allies, until a tragedy threatens to tear them apart forever.

Penelope is my favorite character in the Pink Carnation series to date, she is irreverent, headstrong, sarcastic, covers feelings of inferiority and doubt with a disregard for society's rules, and is just fun to read about. She is not your normal shrinking violet, this venus flytrap has a bite to her beauty. With the plot weaving between India in the 1800s and England today, the reader gets to watch two romances unfold. Lauren Willig's novels are filled with witty dialogue, breathless romance, intrigue, lords and ladies, flowered spies; basically Jane Austen meets James Bond.

Everyone warned Miss Penelope Deveraux that her unruly behavior would land her in disgrace someday.  She never imagined she'd be whisked off to India to give the scandal of her hasty marriage time to die down. As Lady Frederick Staines, Penelope plunges into the treacherous waters of the court of the Nizam of Hyderabad, where no one is quite what they seem—even her own husband.  In a strange country where elaborate court dress masks even more elaborate intrigues and a spy called the Marigold leaves cobras as his calling card, there is only one person Penelope can trust.... 

Captain Alex Reid has better things to do than play nursemaid to a pair of aristocrats.  He knows what their kind is like.  Or so he thinks-- until Lady Frederick Staines out-shoots, out-rides, and out-swims every man in the camp.  She also has an uncanny ability to draw out the deadly plans of the Marigold and put herself in harm's way.  With danger looming from local warlords, treacherous court officials, and French spies, Alex realizes that an alliance with Lady Frederick just might be the only thing standing in the way of a plot designed to rock the very foundations of the British Empire.