Review: A Curious Beginning

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn

I'm a little bit behind on the times, y'all.

When I saw that the author of one of my favorite murder mystery series (Lady Julia Grey) was publishing book three of a series I hadn't even heard of, I scrambled to get the first in the series at my local library.

I knew from the premise that it would be slightly different than her Victorian-era murder mystery series I had previously read, but I was excited for a change of pace.

A Curious Beginning is a fast-paced, mostly enjoyable, novel which features a brutally honest, stunningly intelligent main character whose is faced with a plot so preposterous is borders on silly. The books starts with some major cloak and dagger-- which I am perfectly fine with. However, the cloak and dagger extends way too far until things just magically happen because mysterious reasonnsss and everything feels very deus ex machina.

That being said, I was charmed by the Victoria Speedwell, who unabashedly called herself a scientist, and who is part natural disaster and part army general. (see previous post where I talk about how, even after two degrees in physics, I still hesitate to label myself as a scientist) I loved her interactions with the other main character, loved how they played off of each other, and loved the complex pasts hinted at for both of them. I just wish they had been given a better plot.

When I was 81% of the way through the book, things finally stopped feeling silly and actions were given (mostly) logical backing. For me, that is far too late in the game, but I admit that is a personal preference. There are some adventures thrown into the book in a hodgepodge manner, side quests that add nothing to the overall plot, but are cool, so why not? (PSA: just because something is cool doesn't mean it belongs in your novel)

Overall, this was an easy to read mystery novel with a bold, unabashed feminist character who was interesting enough for me to look past the qualms I had regarding the plot. I will be picking up book number two at my library (here's to hoping for a slightly improved plot).

What about you? Have you ever read A Curious Beginning? If so, what did you think? Did you love the cloak and dagger plot?

Top Ten Tuesday: Fall TBR List

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week for Top Ten Tuesday, I have four books that I'm looking forward to reading this fall. Of course I could have listed like a hundred books here (have you seen my rapidly growing TBR list??) but I wanted to create a more realistic goal for myself. With my plunge into the ARC world, I haven't been reading as many published books as before.

Without further ado, here are four books that I hope to get to this fall.

Reawakened by Colleen Houck

This YA novel caught my eye with its promises of blending Egyptian mythology with a fast paced plot.















My Life in France by Julia Child

How have I not read this yet?? I loved the movie Julia and Julie (the book? not so much) and I'm excited to learn more about Julia Child's life.












Abundant Beauty by Marianne North

I actually heard about this author while reading a different book (A Curious Beginning, review to come!). She was mentioned in the same breath as Isabella Bird, a female author who traveled solo through the American West in the late 1800s. I had just finished Bird's book, thoroughly loving it, and was looking for other amazing female trailblazers both metaphorically and literally. I'm looking forward to checking out this novel about Marianne North, who traveled the world studying botany in the late 1800s.





A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas

This book, inspired quite heavily by the Sherlock Holmes series, features a female Sherlock Holmes and really could go one of two ways. It could be super interesting and well done, or an awkward imitation of a great novel. Either way, I'm excited to give it a go.










And that's it! What about you? What are you fall must-reads??

Top Ten Tuesday: 5 Novels set in Boarding School

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's theme is, surprise surprise, a back to school free-for-all. I interpreted this prompt as novels set in schools, actually now that I look at my list, all of them are set in boarding schools! Read on for five books set in boarding schools that I highly recommend.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman 

Why: This is like a grungy adult version of the Harry Potter series, where finding out that magic exists doesn't make all of your other problems just disappear. It's the first in a trilogy and definitely one of my favorite books of all time.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have To Kill You by Ally Carter

Why: So I read this one years ago, but I remember it being a fun, YA read. It's set in a secret agent boarding school, so how could it not be fun?

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs 

Why: It took me ages to actually read this novel, but when I did, I wondered why I had waited so long. It's interesting, odd, and all together an enjoyable read.

The Secret Place by Tana French

Why: You have probably heard me fangirl about Tana French before-- she is, hands down, my favorite murder mystery author of all times. This novel, which is technically part of a really loosely defined series, centers on a group of friends who go to a boarding school where a murder takes place.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 

Why: Okay, I admit, this one is a little bit of a stretch as the entire book is not set in school. However, this dystopian memoir does spend time talking about growing up in school, so I thought I would add it to the list. It is my friend's absolute most favorite novel-- my feelings were a bit more tangled than that. However, it is a hauntingly beautiful book and well worth the read.

What about you? Have you read any of these novels? If so, what did you think??

Review: I'll Eat when I'm Dead

I'll Eat When I'm Dead by Barbara Bourland

Rating: 6/10

When fashion magazine editor Hillary Whitney dies alone in a locked room at work everyone assumes it was the pressures of her job. Even if the coroner's report says that the rich woman who lived a ten minute drive away from the nearest Whole Foods died...of starvation. Her death is mourned and forgotten, until one day when a cop shows up at her coworker and friend Kat's office claiming that new cryptic evidence has appeared and that maybe her strange death wasn't caused by her high pressure job after all, that maybe something more sinister was at play. 

The best way I can describe this novel is that the poor thing is genre-confused. One some pages it feels like a cozy mystery story that wants to be taken seriously and so it throws in elements from a more gritty murder mystery but it doesn't quite dovetail. 

On other pages it picks up feminism, which felt like wearing a dress to a party that doesn't quite fit but it's your favorite dress so you thought you would try but instead you spend the evening getting pinched by small seams. It's not that the points it made weren't valid or important but they didn't flow well within the story. 

That's not to say it was a bad book-- parts of it were interesting, the world felt expansive, like there the characters existed in a wider world than you could glimpse through the pages of the book. I love when novels can achieve this feel. 

However other parts left me feeling let-down-- some of the interesting questions posed at the beginning of the book turned out to have super mundane answers that could've been found on page two if the cop bothered to ask them. The author tried to weave this feeling of mystery but that's not where she excelled at. She created interesting complex characters that could have had an interesting and complex book, had it not been muddled by the murder mystery plot. 

I hate being critical on these reviews because I don't want anyone to give up on this book simply because I thought the waters were muddied by too many genre-attempts. If you like a murder mystery which isn't as soft as a cozy murder mystery, but not so gritty as to be depressing, then give this book a try! Also if you are looking for a book with feminist themes and feminist characters then you might enjoy this novel. 

Let me know-- have you read I'll Eat when I'm Dead? If so, what did you think? Did you think it feel into a conventional murder mystery genre or did you think it tried to do too much? 

Review: Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor

Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor by Stephanie Barron

Rating: 8/10

When I first came across this book, I was quite skeptical. After all, it was a murder mystery with Jane Austen as the main character. Could I really expect good writing and a well-crafted plot with the author so busy with writing from the perspective of a famous author?

Luckily my suspicions were unfounded. The novel turned out to be an interesting read-- the author did her best to write in Jane Austen's style. As I am not an expert I can't tell you how well she achieved that goal but I can say that it read more like a Jane Austen novel than your typical murder mystery series. The style was formal without the impersonal feel that historical novels have for me.

The premise was cute-- the novel is portrayed as a lost diary of Jane Austen, and there are editor notes to help you keep up with things such as titles (literally the most confusing thing ever) and land ownership and inheritances. What I didn't like what that the editor notes also extended to characters-- they drew parallels between certain characters in this novel and characters that Jane Austen created. The problem with this is that it completely colored the way I saw them. By calling someone a Darcy, for example, I know that while they might seem gruff/mean/cruel, they actually have good intentions-- and therefore ruins the suspense of 'are they one of the good guys'.

You can read the synopsis if you want on Goodreads, but I have an odd preference to read as little as possible about a book before I read it. I love being surprised by the plot-- sometimes a synopsis will give away all sorts of cool things that I would rather discover by reading. So, if you are like me here's what you need to know: it's a fun premise, well paced, and overall, a unique murder mystery novel.

Let me know: have you heard of this series before? How do you feel about novels that use historical people? Do they make you wary?

Top Ten Tuesday: Mystery Additions

This post is part of a series hosted by the Broke and the Bookish. 

I never thought I would fulfill the age old tradition of turning into my mother. 

Well not that the tradition is for all daughters to turn into my mother--that would be weird. 

But here I am, the older I get, the more mystery books I read until one day I'll look into the mirror and see my mother. You see, her favorite book to curl up with is a paperback mystery. I've become entangled with a few mystery series and when not reading those, I've attempted to branch out into new mystery/mystery series. Below are five ((I know, I know, why even bother calling these Top Ten Tuesdays?)) murder mystery books that I've added to my TBR list. 

The Girl who Knew Too Much by Amanda Quick

I mentioned this one in my first Stacking the Shelves post but I thought I would throw it in here too. It's a murder mystery set in 1930s California. 

A Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys

If this tells you anything, the Goodreads synopsis starts with about three paragraphs of brilliant praise for this novel by everybody and their mother. It's set in 1939 just before the war and sounds really interesting-- but to be honest I just fell in love with the cover first. Like all y'all famous people can ramble all you want about how great it is but I was swayed by that cover. 

A Most Extraordinary Pursuit by Juliana Gray
This murder mystery involves exotic locations and archaeology-- sign me up! Some of the Goodreads reviews are a bit...unenthused, but I'll give it a go (someday, let's me honest, my TBR is a bit out of hand). 

Murder with Puffins ((Meg Langslow #2)) by Donna Andrews
This is a murder mystery series my friend introduced me to a couple months ago. The main character is a blacksmith-- how cool??-- and her large rambunctious impossible family factors heavily into the stories. 

Jane and the Man of the Cloth ((Jane Autsen Mystery #2)) by Stephanie Barron

Check out my review of the first book on Thursday!
When I first heard about this series I was skeptical. It kind of sounded like Jane Austen fan fic and while that stuff can be amazing (Lizzie Bennet Diaries anyone??) it can also be a bit...odd. Luckily I really enjoyed the first book, it's about time to check out the second.

And that wraps it up! I'm trying to keep my to read list a manageable list-- difficult to do with all the amazing books I'm hearing about through other blogs! But anyway, thus the five books instead of ten. Heaven help me, I don't need to go out and seek even more murder mysteries to add to my list! I need to make my way through these first :) 

What about you? What genres have you been getting into recently? Have you watched the Lizzie Bennet diaries? (do yourself a favor and watch all 100 episodes right now)