Spoiler-Free Review
If you’re looking a romantic mystery with witty and clever characters who defy social norms, then you’ll like A Curious Beginning.
What’s A Curious Beginning about?
London, 1887. After a close call with an intruder, Veronica Speedwell is deposited with a curmudgeonly but handsome fellow scientist for safekeeping, where she must unravel the secrets of her lineage and find out who is out to get her.
This one is just a fun time.
Veronica Speedwell makes an excellent main character to follow. It may be 1887 in this story, but she’s wholly modern in her thinking and attitudes. She’s used to doing things her own way – travelling the world on scientific adventures with the occasional romantic dalliance along the way. Whether or not this would be realistic for the time period is beside the point. It makes the story entertaining.
This is one of those stories that rarely ever gets too serious. It’s mostly just about being a fun time from beginning to end, with a smart main character, romantic intrigue, and interesting settings. This one has it all: circuses (with a knife throwing act), a mysterious love interest, daring confrontations, fake engagements, and plenty of scientific appreciation.
I listened to this one as an audiobook, which I think was the perfect medium for this story. The narrator did an excellent job conveying Veronica’s confidence and tone, and was altogether more immersive than I think reading it with my eyes would have been. It leans on the expository side, which also made it more suitable to audio.
Should you read A Curious Beginning?
I should say that this mainly felt like a romance with a side of mystery as opposed to a mystery with a side of romance. I think you’ll like this if you’re mostly a romance reader. This one is for cozy mystery readers. I also think you’ll like it if you enjoyed Stalking Jack the Ripper.
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One response to “A Curious Beginning: A romantic mystery”
Great review!