This is the first book in the new series by Ms Raybourn, introducing intrepid adventuress and lepidopterist Veronica Speedwell. As per the book blurb: 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. Veronica Speedwell is one of those heroines who seems to be ahead of her time […]
Ladies and Phalluses and Killers and Artists
Ellepkay won a A Perilous Undertaking as a set of CDs, but discovered that she already had a copy. She offered the CDs, and I gladly took her up on her offer. The audio version was about 12 1/2 hours, and I listened to it over two days. It was an entertaining listen. The narrator, Angele Masters, did a good job of portraying the energy of the book. If it’s set in Victorian London, there must be a salacious sex subplot. We assume, don’t we, […]
You are the Most Dangerous Person in the British Empire
A few weeks ago in the Facebook group (Cannonball Read Book Chat), Ellepkay offered an audio copy of Deanna Raybourn’s A Perilous Undertaking. I said, “yes, please.” A Perilous Undertaking is the second of Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell Mysteries. Naturally, I had to read the first book first. A curious Beginning is only $2.99 on Amazon Kindle. I highly recommend it. I spent the first third of this book alternately delighted and annoyed by Miss Veronica Speedwell. Eventually I settled into delight. I was initially annoyed that Veronica […]
“One may be elegant or enthusiastic, but seldom both.”
I had somehow forgotten how much I love Deanna Raybourn’s prose. I will not forget again. I think I highlighted more passages in this book than I have for any other before. I will try not to bog down this review with all of them, and to leave you some tidbits of joy to discover for yourself should you chose to read it. In 1887 Veronica Speedwell is a young woman (mid 20s) who was raised by her ‘aunts’, two women who adopted her as […]
“He held my hand and it was the hand of the man I had married, lost and found again.”.”
In the novella Whisper of Jasmine, dashing explorer and archaeologist Gabriel Starke meets quiet dreamer Evangeline Merriweather at a New Year’s party thrown by their socialite friend Delilah Drummond. While Delilah most certainly intended to matchmake at the party, she had picked out completely different partners for both of them. Instead, Gabriel and Evie are instantly smitten with each other, and over the course of an evening, fall hard enough for each other that they decide to elope to Scotland. There are quite a few […]
“I would kiss the ground where your shadow fell just to be near you.”
4.5 stars Penelope “Poppy” Hammond flees her high society wedding with the aid of a charming curate calling himself Sebastian Cantrip and persuades him to drive her to the little village in Devon where her estranged father lives. Poppy’s mother, wealthy American stepfather and a large amount of the wedding guests, including Poppy’s jilted fiancee follow, up in arms about the scandal she’s caused. Poppy’s mind is not to be changed, however, she knows she and Gerald are a poor match and that life as […]
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