Mini-Contest #1
It’s time to celebrate five years of Pink Carnation! Yes, for almost five years the Pink Carnation has been foiling those dastardly French plots. Napoleon never had it so bad.
In honor of Pink’s fifth birthday on February 7th, I’m holding a five day countdown, with a mini-contest every day. Winners of the mini-contests will receive advance PDFs of the first three chapters of the next Pink book, The Mischief of the Mistletoe, starring that lovable vegetable, Turnip Fitzhugh (with guest appearances by none other than Miss Jane Austen).
Without further ado, let the games begin!
Today’s contest is inspired by Katie’s “fifth line” game. Here are the rules:
* Grab your copy of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation.
* Flip to any page. (It has to be at random, though!)
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Type it into the “comments” section here.
Five people will be chosen at random to receive a preview of The Mischief of the Mistletoe. Winners to be announced here tomorrow….
Amy fought down the sense of unease steadily rising like the fog around her.
“How in the hell could you think he and I were the same person?”
“Something to sip to wake me up so I could go on reading before Colin Selwick managed to convince his aunt never to let me darken their doorstep again.”
“Huzzah for the Purple Gentian!” his men would cheer.
Not only did Amy disagree heartily with the sentiment — she defied any future husband to try to claim a distribution of her objects movable or otherwise without her concurrence — but it was utterly useless to her investigation.
“Thank you for rescuing me, and thank you even more for everything else.”
“‘Some men have all the luck,’ hiccupped Murat, from somewhere just below the rim of the table.”
“What was he doing here, now, when she was so close to taking her well deserved revenge?”
“It wouldn’t be at all bad if it weren’t for the color,” commented Geoff wistfully.
Richard felt a great deal of sympathy for the Tower menagerie as he flung himself into a chair, which, of course, promptly skidded back a good six inches.
The young lady paid no attention.
Lord Richard greeted each girl with a deep bow as they fell in beside Miss Gwen.
Amy yawned broadly as the carriage drew up befre the Tuileries, decanting her and Edouard into the courtyard.
p. 196
I’d shaken my head, and thanked her politely, the words scarcely registering over the turmoil in my head.
“The nightingales stopped chirping.” p.264
“Aunt Prudence had snapped out of her reverie with what was nearly an audible click.”
Richard didn’t give her chance to make another sound. 🙂 pg. 219
Indeed, some said he was Sir Percy Blakeney, fooling the foolish French by returning under a different name.
Amy conveniently ignored the fact that revolutionary France had banished titles when they beheaded their nobility.
Maybe that’s why the revelation caught me quite so off guard.
“Of ancient curses?” page 214
Jane pondered this new information, doll dangling forgotten from one hand.
Richard hastily scraped his chair back as Murat was ill all over Mme Rochefort’s prized Persian rug.
A small and all-too-familiar figure was wriggling its way out from under the desk.
The whole idea was just too medieval, too melodramatic, too…Delaroche.
Her yellow skirts made a bright splotch of color in the rapidly darkening cabin as she crossed the room. (pg. 49)
Fingers tightening around the paper in her hands, she gazed rapturously at the sky.
“This is it Richard!” Miles’s eyes glowed with a sporting fervor like a hound on the trail of a fox. “THE assignment…”
“Well, he does.”
He had to end it with her.
Do we have to answer the sphinx’s riddle before we can go upstairs to bed. pg. 115
No era exactamente el tipo de puerta que podria dejarse entreabierta accidentalmente. (My english copy being on lone to a friend, I had to settle for spanish)
“I will refrain from comment on your reckless disregard for you reputation.” Miss Gwen’s voice scraped across Amy’s raw nreves like talons clawing flesh.
Colin shrugged, some of the amusement fading.
Richard hastily scraped his chair back as Murat was ill all over Mme Rochefort’s prized Persian rug.
pg.224
OOPS!! I meant loan:)Sorry!
He should have been the one in that antechamber.
damn, damn, damn. (really! that was the random sentence :))
Due to Richard’s habit as a beastly eight-year-old of spinning the globe as fast as he could make it go for the joy of seeing the countries blur into multicolored blobs, the Uppington Hall library globe was no more.
Page 166
Something in the Purple Gentian’s tone, an intense anger underlying the seeming calm, made Amy’s eyes fly to his face.
Page 250
” ‘You ‘ave?’ Obviosuly intrigued, Hortense looked up inquiringly at Richard from under her eyelashes.” pg. 152
Amy strained for a glimpse of his companion.
Should she simply tell him she knew him to be in league with the Purple Gentian and demand to be allowed to participate? page 109
p85: Underneath his sportsman’s tan, his face was turning a mottled red.
Eeek! I only have the audio book!!! Can’t see the pages. LOL! That’s okay. I’ll wait with great anticipation. I love the series. Thank you. And Happy Birthday to the Pink Carnation!
The Purple Gentian placed a hand under her bottom and boosted her over the windowsill, as unceremoniously as though he were heaving a sack of grain into a wagon. p. 266
“You may change your mind when you hear what I have to tell you.”
“I’m serious, Amy,” he said flatly.
Geoff grimaced.
Richard’s memory momentarily clicked back to that afternoon, to Amy, flustered, running intohim as she raced out of….Bonaparte’s study.
page 244
“How in the hell could you think he and I were the same person?â€
Richard felt a great deal of sympathy for the Tower menagerie as he flung himself into a chair, which, of course, promptly skidded back a good six inches.
“But you’ve all forgotten something.” Page 372
Damn, damn, damn. (haha 🙂 )
“I don’t know why you children always think you can distract me like that.”
What was he doing here, now, when she was so close to taking her well deserved revenge?
Lady Uppington smiled broadly in acknowledgment, revealing a mouthful of blackened teeth. 😉
“Idiot, Amy told herself, forcing a fixed smile onto her lips in the face of his quizzical gaze.” (Pg. 330, paperback)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that one only comes up with clever, cutting remarks long after the other party is happily slumbering away.
~lAUra
“Sorry,” Richard muttered. pg. 134
“English and French alike were united in their burning curiosity to learn the identity of the Purple Gentian.”
“Josephine, herself older than she liked to admit, had draped the candle sconces and mirrors in gauze, but even the gentle light betrayed cheeks layered with rouge.”
Amy conveniently ignored the fact that revolutionary France had banished titles when they started beheading their nobles.
The boat careened back and forth as though they were on the high seas in a midwinter tempest, rather than on the Seine on a clear spring night.
He wondered if she was as beset by memories of their kiss last night as he was.
“In this patchwork way, she reported that Augustus Whitlesby had spent the past day postrate at the feet of a minor statue of Pan, at the past evening pursuing his musie in the arms of one of the girls os Mme Pinpin’s house of pleasure.”
“How are we going to get Richard out of Paris?”
“He was jealous of his own bloody self.”
“no, only at croquet,” Miles put in sarcastically. “Or did that ball just move two wickets all by itself.”
had to include sentence 6 it was to wonderful
Due to Richard’s habit as a beastly eight-year-old of spinning the globe as fast as he could make it go for the joy of seeing the countries blur into multicolored blobs, the Uppington Hall library globe was no more – pg 166
London gossip named everyone from Beau Brummel (on the grounds that no one could genuinely be that interested in fashion) to the Prince of Wales’s dissolute brother the duke of York.
“If the black weren’t so bloody useful for blending into the night.”
If only it ever happened that way.
pg 224
“The strange packages in the ballroom that Amy had hoped might contain supplies for the Purple Gentian but hadn’t” p.293
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I like #9 : “It wouldn’t be at all bad if it weren’t for the colot….”
I vote for #25 – The whole idea was just too medieval, too melodramatic, too…Delaroche
oops – I forgot the why part. It makes me laugh, and though Delaroche wasn’t a spy he was a great, funny villain. You kind of feel sorry for him being thwarted all the time when he has such aspirations.
#38 Really Damn damn damn. It’s what he thought alot.
#57 Lady Uppington smiled broadly in acknowledgment, revealing a mouthful of blackened teeth.
Loved it! It sounds completely different out of context.