Thursday, April 19, 2018

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn (thoughts)

Summary from Goodreads:

"London, 1887. After burying her spinster aunt, orphaned Veronica Speedwell is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as with fending off admirers, Veronica intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.

But fate has other plans when Veronica thwarts her own attempted abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron, who offers her sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker, a reclusive and bad-tempered natural historian. But before the baron can reveal what he knows of the plot against her, he is found murdered—leaving Veronica and Stoker on the run from an elusive assailant as wary partners in search of the villainous truth."


My Thoughts:

I started reading this one and just instantly adored it!  Really I was mentally kicking myself for waiting so long to read it because it was just so fun!  I kind of had it in my head that I was going to move on to the second book in the Lady Julia Grey series before I started this one.  I kept hearing this series mentioned though in podcasts I love so I decided that I just couldn't wait any longer to read this book.  I can officially say that it was the right choice for me and I absolutely loved this one!  I feel like I read this book with a smile on my face.  Veronica is just such a great main character.  She doesn't ever apologize for the woman that she is but instead embraces her "eccentricities".  She isn't afraid to say what she thinks and I just absolutely adored her as a main character!  She also was the perfect type of woman to stand up to Stoker at every other turn.  The chemistry between these two was absolutely perfect in every sort of way.  I really, really hope that in future books we get the chance to see their relationship develop into something more but the banter between them was just priceless.  I found myself laughing out loud at different times throughout the entire book.  I just loved every minute of my time with this book!  I was actually sad to see this one end because I just enjoyed my time with these characters so much!  Thankfully I have two more books to look forward to and I won't be waiting long to read those!

Overall I really enjoyed my time with this book and found it to be a five star read for me!  I really loved it that much!  It was the perfect mix of genres and just sucked me into the pages with such ease.  I couldn't stop reading this book and really didn't want to.  The characters were great and I'm so thankful that I have more books to look forward to whenever I'm ready to pick them up.  Books like this make me want to read more historical mysteries and find new authors to follow.  Because this book was just so good and made me want to read more books just like it!  I don't know what else to say other than read this book!  Fans of mysteries and suspense should give this book a try!  I also think romance readers who particularly like historical romances will like this one.  To be clear - there isn't yet a romance between Stoker and Veronica (I don't think it is too much of a spoiler to share that) but it is definitely building in the most delicious of ways!  I cannot wait to pick up the next book!  Highly recommended!

Bottom Line:  I loved this one so much!  Enough said!

Disclosure:  I received a copy of this book thanks to the publisher and NetGalley. These are my honest thoughts on this book.

3 comments:

  1. I've read several of the Lady Julia books and intend to try this series as well. My daughter, who doesn't read an awful lot (not sure how I did that!) has been reading it or rather, listening to it. Anyway, after reading the Lady Sherlock books, I think I'll try this one soon. And I will admit that it makes me want to go back and reread the Lady Julia books. Sigh. Never enough time. Ha!

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  2. Me too. This is one I have been putting off. I think partly because I think I already know I will love it.

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  3. I was the exact same way on this one! I loved the mystery and I loved the character and I don't know why it took so long for me to finally get around to reading it. Now I just have to get around to reading the 2nd book.

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