A young English servant named Eleanor is in service to Lady Sophie, a sanguinocrat in England. When some visiting friends can't help but point out the girl's striking resemblance to a certain French, cake-eating queen currently languishing in prison and possibly awaiting the guillotine, a plan is hatched and Eleanor is loaned out to the estate of Sir Percy Blakeney and his wife, Lady Marguerite, supposedly to do some embroidery, in which she is quite skilled.
Before long, it's quite clear she isn't there to sew, and Percy and Marguerite, formerly a skilled actress, paint the broad strokes of what Eleanor is to do - pretend to be a noblewoman as a distraction so that the actual prisoner can be rescued, along with her son and daughter. Eleanor is taught how to properly speak and carry herself, but she is merely a pawn of The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, and she's never really told the actual plan, only what she needs to know at the moment. Young Lord Charles Bathurst, a scholarly member of the League, takes a special interest in her and does his best to teach her enough current events and politics that she can pass off as the lady she is going to impersonate, but over and over, it is made clear to her that she is below her station among these League members. Maybe these revolutionaries have the right idea after all?
Naturally, nothing goes according to plan, and before long, she and Charles find themselves separated from Sir Percy, Andrew and Anthony, other League members on this mission, following an ambush by some locals hoping to win favor by capturing troublemakers. It seems Armand Chauvelin, a lead member of the Committee of Public Safety, suspects that counterrevolutionaries will attempt to rescue Marie Antoinette and her children, and the guards in and around Paris are on high alert.
In an attempt to protect Eleanor, Charles secrets her away to an estate owned by a Marquis vampire who supposedly fled to Austria, but who is really hiding in the bowels of his mansion with a few trusted servants, while steadily bribing a few local officials so his presence remains a secret. She should be safe there while Charles reunites with the rest of the League, but she is anything but safe. When the Marquis decides to hunt her throughout his home and feast upon her, adding her to the "cemetery of bones" currently beneath his gardens, all hell breaks loose and Eleanor does whatever she can to stay alive, even if it means running into a dark and gloomy basement. It is there that she crashes into a crate of books, and while scrabbling for anything resembling a stake for self-preservation, she unwittingly releases the spirit of a 500-year-old sorcerer calling herself Anima who then enters her body and takes care of business in a hail of lightning. So now Eleanor has a very opinionated "traveling companion" who despises vampires and was really hoping to be released by a highly educated person who could help her wage war on all vampires, which are her mortal enemies. Instead, she got Eleanor, and in return, Eleanor got someone with a real attitude who can be helpful at times, but not without a serious dose of condescension.
Eleanor soon finds herself captured, thinking the worst for the rest of her team, even though they don't think enough of her to actually make her a part of their team. She must use her wits and Anima's occasional weather-controlling assistance if she hopes to escape, even as she finds herself in the home of Chauvelin himself, trying her best to prove that she is a true citizen of the revolution. At least his kind and innocent daughter, Fleurette, might be of some help. Or hindrance, depending on the moment. If Eleanor can only escape Chauvelin's grasp, perhaps she can finish the mission and save the Queen. Or she just might end up in a sewer filled with vampires. It could go either way.
Scarlet is my first experience with Genevieve Cogman, and it is quite the romp. I must admit that while I love history, the French Revolution is not a time period with which I have much previous experience. That said, Cogman does a lovely job of catching the reader up to date with a few pages giving the rundown on it in quite a jaunty way. Watching Eleanor evolve as a person is certainly entertaining, and despite Sir Percy and his crew being a bit snobbish, as is to be expected, they are a loveable collection of wealthy rogues as well. If you have even the slightest interest in the French Revolution, and the thought of throwing vampires into the mix seems exciting, check this book out. It's a great mashup of themes and I quite enjoyed it. It'll be interesting to see where Cogman takes the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel next.
