A Curious Beginning - Wyrmsign.org

Paperback, 368 pages

Published July 12, 2016 by Berkley.

ISBN:: 978-0-451-47602-9

"London, 1887. As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria's golden jubilee, Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own. After burying her spinster aunt, the orphaned Veronica is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry--and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as she is fending off admirers, Veronica wields her butterfly net and a sharpened hatpin with equal aplomb, and with her last connection to England now gone, she intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime. But fate has other plans, as Veronica discovers when she thwarts her own abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron with ties to her mysterious past. Promising to reveal in time what he knows of the plot against her, the baron offers her temporary sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker--a reclusive natural historian as intriguing as he is bad-tempered. …

"London, 1887. As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria's golden jubilee, Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own. After burying her spinster aunt, the orphaned Veronica is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry--and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as she is fending off admirers, Veronica wields her butterfly net and a sharpened hatpin with equal aplomb, and with her last connection to England now gone, she intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime. But fate has other plans, as Veronica discovers when she thwarts her own abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron with ties to her mysterious past. Promising to reveal in time what he knows of the plot against her, the baron offers her temporary sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker--a reclusive natural historian as intriguing as he is bad-tempered. But before the baron can deliver on his tantalizing vow to reveal the secrets he has concealed for decades, he is found murdered. Suddenly Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive assailant, wary partners in search of the villainous truth" --

2 editions

D. Harrigon reviewed A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn

None

2 stars

This was a DNF for me. The book opens well with a chapter establishing the character doesn't fit into the typical mould of Victorian women, after the death of their aunt. Not really anything we haven't read in dozens of books before. Some excitement grabs our attention with a burglary, a baron and a nice kick off of the plot.

Then, oh, wow, seriously. We are introduced to a gruff man who will probably be the love interest. And the two talk at each other for an entire chapter without advancing the story much at all. And THEN CONTINUE TO DO THIS FOR FOUR MORE CHAPTERS. WTF? Not even a B-plot. Not other character apart from a messenger boy who appears for a paragraph and never returns. After four chapters of the heroine demonstrating that she's not like typical Victorian women and the male lead being a gruff man who …

This was a DNF for me. The book opens well with a chapter establishing the character doesn't fit into the typical mould of Victorian women, after the death of their aunt. Not really anything we haven't read in dozens of books before. Some excitement grabs our attention with a burglary, a baron and a nice kick off of the plot.

Then, oh, wow, seriously. We are introduced to a gruff man who will probably be the love interest. And the two talk at each other for an entire chapter without advancing the story much at all. And THEN CONTINUE TO DO THIS FOR FOUR MORE CHAPTERS. WTF? Not even a B-plot. Not other character apart from a messenger boy who appears for a paragraph and never returns. After four chapters of the heroine demonstrating that she's not like typical Victorian women and the male lead being a gruff man who hates women we get to the part where she tidies up his workshop a bit and he's annoyed but impressed yet again, and no. I crashed out at this point. This is just terrible, indulgent, unoriginal, badly edited and maybe something interesting happens just after this but I flicked ahead and it was mostly just page after page of these two talking at each other and doing nothing.

Terrible book.