A CURIOUS BEGINNING by Deanna Raybourn

 

Publisher:    NAL

Published:   September 1, 2015

ISBN:      978-0451476012

Genre:    Historical Fiction, Mystery

Format:  Ebook    

Obtained via:  Edelweiss – Above the Tree Line

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Gina@loveromancesandmorereviews.com

TWO-1/2 HEARTS

Sad, but not particularly aggrieved, Veronica Speedwell has buried her spinster aunt.  Veronica has been a bit of an oddity in her family and for her times because her great passion is to travel the work pursuing scientific inquiry particularly butterflies.  Her duty to family done she heads off to London in anticipation of her newest adventure. But she ends up with a bit more of an adventure than even she could have anticipated beginning with thwarting her own abduction.  Along the way she encounters an intriguing German baron who introduces her to his friend Stoker.  Stoker captures Veronica’s eye because of his profession—he himself is a natural historian.  She finally has someone she can speak with about her own interests if only he will set aside his pre-conceived notions about women’s role in society.  Before they can cross that bridge another attempt to abduct Veronica is made and the two set off to escape those pursuing Veronica. 

I became a Deanna Raybourn fan with her Lady Julia series.  She has such a great writing voice.  You can so easily imagine sitting down to tea with her and being told a marvellous tale or two.  She brings the Victorian era to vivid life in the pages of her books.  Sadly, something has gone awry since she ceased writing the Lady Julia books and turned to other avenues.  While her recent books take place in or around the same era and there are ties in some fashion or other to Lady Julia, something is missing.  The few Lady Julia novellas fall far short of the wonderful books that introduced me to Ms. Raybourn.

I never connected with Veronica Speedwell.  Her ego came across as overdone and she just did not seem like someone I’d like if I met her in person.  Intelligent, yes, but not very likable. This isn’t the first of Ms. Raybourn’s latest endeavours that left me with a shrug and feeling like I wouldn’t have missed anything if I hadn’t read it.  I’m almost to the point where I’m thinking rather than continue to disappoint myself to simply stop reading her books, at least for a time.

I did like where the story went -- but it wasn't unique in terms of speculative historical fiction.  It didn't leave me excited enough to continue with the series.

This is an objective review and an endorsement of this book.

NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STARS by Deanna Raybourn

Publisher:  Mira  

Published:   September 30, 2014

ISBN:  978-0778317753

Genre:   Historical Mystery, Suspense

Format:  Ebook

Obtained via:  Publisher  

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Gina@loveromancesandmorereviews.com

THREE-1/2 HEARTS

It is Poppy Hammond’s wedding day.  As she stands on the precipice of as the wife of aristocrat, Gerald Madderly she realizes this is not the life she wants for herself.  No, she wants more, much more.  She wants some of the drama and excitement experience by her aunt Julia Gray and other family members.  Gerald is a nice man.  She would have a nice life.  She would have nice friends.  She does not want nice; she wants passion and days filled with life.  She wants a life that Gerald cannot give her so rather than wed Gerald, moments before her walk down the aisle, Poppy heads out a window at the church and off to the unknown.  Before she can make her secret, although grand exist, a young curate named Sebastian comes upon her.  She beseeches him to help her and he quickly steps in to help her escape.  Together they head to her father’s estate where, after a few days Sebastian inexplicably disappears.  Piecing together bits and pieces of news Poppy quickly deduces that Sebastian is in need of his own rescue.  With her maid, Masterman, they track down just where Sebastian has gone and soon find themselves enroute to the Holy Land. 

As luck would have it an elderly Colonel is looking for an assistant to help him write his memoirs and Poppy quickly finds herself with the job.  Since an assistant would not be traveling with a maid Masterman comes up with a plan to follow Poppy and together then plot to share information on just what has happened to Sebastian.  Once they arrive in the Damascus the Colonel meets up with an old friend, the Comtesse and her very charming son, Armand.  Pursued romantically by both Armand and the Colonel’s valet, Hugh Poppy still cannot put Sebastian from her mind.  As each day passes she is certain that he is in danger and that he may be in danger because he knows the whereabouts of the missing Gabriel Stark.  When she finally does find the missing curate he turns out not to be the man she thought he was nor are things as pat as she expected.  Has she taken the first step on the grand adventure she craves?  Or has she made a most deadly error?  And just who is Sebastian Fox?

I am a huge Deanna Raybourn fan.  From her very first Julie Gray story, SILENT IN THE GRAVE, I have waited, at times not all that patiently, for the next story in the series.  Each story just got better and better.  And then Ms. Raybourn went in a different direction.  I do not begrudge her exploring her own creativity—and she is one of the most amazing and creative writers.  She has a unique voice and can turn a phrase that will stay with you long after you have read the last page.  Amazing and talented simply do not describe what a fabulous author she is but they are a start. 

Even though I’m not a fan of the era, I did enjoy CITY OF JASMINE simply because I love Raybourn’s writing.  When her latest, NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STARS became available for review I snapped it up and dug right in…and find myself at a cross-roads. 

She is at the top of her game in her writing.  Those wonderful quips and turns of phrases that drew me to the Julia Gray books are there for your reading enjoyment in NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STARS.  And she provides a wonderful mystery, liberally sprinkled with a unique combination of humor and suspense.  I really liked Poppy’s story. 

What I didn’t like, and what brought down my enjoyment of the book was the connections between the Starke’s from the Jasmine series and the family connecitons to the Julia Gray series.  I get it that I’m not the only fan who missed the Julia and Brisbane mysteries.  They were (are?) so elegantly told and they are such a dramatic couple.  Many fans have clamoured for more of their sleuthing.  The three novellas following THE DARK ENQUIRY just didn’t cut it for many of us including me.  They may have kept Raybourn’s hand in that series but they just weren’t satisfying.  The connections to Lady Julia and that series were at first kind of charming, then they became cheesy and ultimately made the NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STARS a caricature of the earlier books.  In the author’s notes at the end of the book Raybourn says it was her chance to bridge the divide between the Gray and Jasmine stories.  For me it failed.  It was just too, as I said, cheesy.  Is that why the characters we’re reading now have read Julia’s memoirs?  What happened to them?  Are Brisbane and Julia dead? For me the book did not bridge the two worlds but made for a bad joke. 

I will read on…and will read anything Ms. Raybourn writes simply because I enjoy her voice.  And I will continue to hope for a real Julia and Brisbane story.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

TWELFTH NIGHT by Deanna Raybourn

Publisher:  Mira  

Published:   June 1, 2014

ISBN:  B00JD7TX4A

Genre:   Historical Romance

Format:  Ebook
Obtained via:  Netgalley  

Reviewed by name and email address:  Gina Gina@loveromancesandmorereviews.com

THREE HEARTS

 

Gathered for the once a decade, Twelfth Night revels the March family has gathered at the family home of Bellmont Abbey.  While the community celebrates each year, once every ten years the Marches step up to take their place in the festivities.  Joining them this year are Lady Julia and her oh so handsome and still somewhat mysterious husband Brisbane. But nothing that involves the March family proceeds with all the decorum one might imagine in a proper English family.  In fact this year there is talk of ghosts and other worldly happenings in the yard outside the family home.  What Julia and Brisbane find may well forever change the direction of their lives.

I’m not a fan of novellas or short stories.  I feel short changed by them—that there are pieces missing and that characters just don’t have a chance to full develop.  With Lady Julie and Brisbane we know who they are as earlier, full length books grew them into fully formed characters.  Still, Deanna Raybourn’s latest, TWELFTH NIGHT, just didn’t make it for me.  It had fun elements and it was good to catch up with the March family, but the story wasn’t as good as the full length reads.  The resolution to the supposed mystery seemed more an attempt to fill in a gap or to make up for Julia’s loss of her child in an earlier book than truly solving a mystery.  It wasn’t even really a romance but more a fill in type read until the next mystery Julia and Brisbane embark on.

I’ll continue to read the full length Lady Julia books – if any more re written, but the novellas….they just aren’t for me.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

 

THE DARK ROAD TO DARJEELING by Deanna Raybourn

Publisher: Mira
Date published: October 2010
ISBN: 9780778328209
Suspense, Historical Fiction
Ebook, Adobe Digital
Reviewed by Gina
Obtained via publisher


After months of enjoying each other while on their grand honeymoon, Nicholas Brisbane and spouse, Lady Julia, are tracked down by her sister Portia and brother, Plum. Portia’s long lost love, Jane, is not only about to give birth. Her husband of a rather short duration has met with an early death. Portia has never stopped loving Jane and despite Jane leaving her for Freddie Cavendish, she will do anything to be with the mother-to-be. Of note, Portia suspects Freddie had been murdered.

Unable to keep herself for a perspective investigation Julia is more than ready to venture to India with her brother and sister. No stranger to the darker side of human nature and unraveling mysteries, Nicholas is more than ready to accompany his bride and her family. Enroute, however, Julia and Nicholas’ marital bliss begins to fray a bit about the edges. He wants only to keep his wife safe. Intelligent and inquisitive, Julia refuses to become a pretty porcelain doll on a shelf. Upon their arrival they go their separate ways for a time. When Julia, Plum and Portia arrive at Jane’s new home, the Peacocks, they find more than an expectant mother.

With colorful characters at every turn, almost every one of them a possible suspect, Julia is determined to prove to Nicholas once and for all she is truly equal to being his partner in all aspects of his life. But is Nicholas ready to reveal all his secrets to her?

I enjoyed THE DARK ROAD TO DARJEELING simply because I enjoy reading anything Deanna Raybourn writes, even her venture into Transylvania in THE DEAD TRAVEL FAST even though I’m not a vampire fan. She has a unique voice and can a turn a phrase like no one else I’ve ever read. When the first pages of SILENT IN THE GRAVE first appeared I had the image of Robert Downey, Jr. easily playing Nicholas Brisbane. There is something so compelling about that character. I love the way Ms. Raybourn has him unravel the puzzles each new crime creates and Julia is such a delightfully perfect foil for him.

THE DARK ROAD TO DARJEELING has some marvelously colorful characters with Ms. Raybourn outdoing even herself. Her descriptions of the various locales the Brisbane/March family journey to make the reader feel as if he or she is traveling along with them.

As much as I enjoyed this latest addition of the Julie Grey Mysteries, I felt like something was missing. At times I felt like something stunning was just around the corner and was left feeling let down. I wasn’t sure what to make of Brisbane’s revelation regarding a certain gentleman who disappeared, hopefully to return in a later book. At first I was disappointed in the turn Jane’s life took, but Ms. Raybourn turned it around brilliantly. I mulled over different aspects of the story, trying to figure out why it didn't read as wonderfully as Ms. Raybourn’s earlier books. It seemed to boil down to the discord between Nicholas and Julia and their lack of connection to each other. Hopefully this was intentional with the plan to use this as part of the intrigue in a future book. That said, obviously by my 4 hearts I enjoyed this book and heartily encourage readers to pick up their copy as soon as possible. It is a do-not-miss for your reading enjoyment.

This is an objective review and not an endorsement of this book.

SILENT IN THE SANCTUARY by Deanna Raybourn

Publisher: Mira
Date Published: January 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7783-2492-8
Victorian Mystery
Paperback
Reviewed by Gina


Recuperating from nearly dying in the horrific house fire caused by her husband, Edward’s murderer, Lady Julia Grey has gone to Italy. There with her brothers, Plum and Lysander she has recovered and begun to enjoy life again. Tempestuous Violante, Lysander’s bride is an interesting diversion as is her friend Alessandro. When a summons arrives from their father insisting they return home post haste, the March siblings, with bride and friend in tow, head for England. Arriving at the family home at Bellmont Abbey Julia encounters the one person she never thought to see again. Even more numbing is that Nicholas Brisbane has arrived with his finance, a flighty girl named Charlotte King.

Julia cannot help herself—she dislikes Charlotte on sight. No, Julia knows that Brisbane is the last man she could and should want. He is arrogant, enigmatic and too in charge, especially with her new found freedom and sense of self. Charlotte is giddy, flighty and too Dresden doll perfect for Julia’s peace of mind. Unable to help herself she watches Nicholas with his fiancé and shortly tells him Charlotte is most certainly not the woman for him.

Upon her arrival at Bellmont Abbey she learns the true reason for the summons home. Her cousin is about to be married, at the Abbey, and her father wishes all the family there for the celebration. Well, at least it’s the true meaning her father will tell Julia, Lysander and Plum. When a guest is found murdered in the sanctuary, reasons upon reasons for the call home unfold, not the least of which was an attempt on her father’s life. With someone posing as a ghost, liberally poisoning guests and pets, Julia and Nicholas must once again join together to solve the crime before someone else meets their demise.

I had no sooner finished SILENT IN THE GRAVE for the second time before I was eagerly reaching for SILENT IN THE SANCTUARY, the second of Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia Grey mysteries. I had already picked up SILENT ON THE MOOR, the third in the series and had hungrily perused Ms. Raybourn’s website to see when a fourth book would be available. Sad to say there’s not a word about it and while re-reading the first three will be fine, I want more. The push and pull between Nicholas and Julia is that breath holding, toe curling, keep you awake at night kind of romance. Ms. Raybourn certainly knows how to build tension! She is not an author to pick up and start reading the night before you have to go to work—one more chapter turns into ten or eleven more chapters and before you know it you have read the night away. Such was my plight when I started reading SILENT IN THE SANCTUARY on a Wednesday night and had completed my “one more chapter” at the same time Nicholas introduced his fiancé. I was incensed! How could Ms. Raybourn give him a fiancé? A proper Victorian lady, Julia of course would not engage in an illicit affair with him, but oh the dance they do! Just as I caught my breath and was ready to turn out the light murder was done. With a tempting host of suspects—those who you think it might be and those you want it to be, I finally succumbed to sleep only to grab up the book every spare moment throughout the next day.

Ms. Raybourn gifts readers with a family you would like to know and maybe be a part of. Bellmont Abbey is the kind of place you would have loved to run and play in as a child and savor as an adult. Ms. Raybourn doesn’t miss the tiniest detail in depicting the society of the time and knows how to build emotion in the reader while including you in solving the mystery.

Ms. Raybourn has reset the benchmark for me in just what a 5 rating book is. Her Lady Julia mysteries are not simply books to keep, they are ones to re-read over and over because with each telling you see something more to enjoy.

SILENT ON THE MOOR *Lady Julia Grey series, book 3* by Deanna Raybourn

Publisher: Mira
Date published: March 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7783-2614-4
Victorian Mystery
Paperback
Reviewed by Gina


The third installment of the Lady Julia Grey mystery series opens with Julia on the eve of leaving for Yorkshire to be with Brisbane. Not that he has invited her. In fact, when he invited Julia’s sister Portia to come help him set his new home to order, he explicitly directed her to leave Julia behind. Well Julia is having none of that. Aside from coming into her own after exposing her husband’s murderer and coming to terms with the man he was, she has finally admitted to herself, sort of, that she is in love with Brisbane. Determined to find out once and for all if he shares her feelings, Julie departs London with Portia, her maid Morag, pet raven, Grim and her dog Florence. At her father’s insistence younger brother Val accompanies the sisters. Upon their arrival Brisbane barely disguises his displeasure at Julia returning to his life, yet he does not argue with her about staying. Instead, the next morning, he departs for Scotland on an investigation.

Much to Julia’s surprise, rather than accept the title offered to him in SILENT IN THE SANCTUARY, Brisbane requested the lands of Grimsgrave. What was once an impressive estate has rotted and crumbled to a heap of stones sitting on the moor. The moldering house is inhabited by the Allenby women, Lady Allenby, Ailith and Hilda, each with their own deadly secrets. When Julia hears their story, at least the one she pieces together, she is determined to help them re-establish themselves in some fashion. Yet the women do not want her help. Rather, like Brisbane they want her to leave, but Julia will not until she and the man she loves have it out. As she settles in to live at Grimsgrave Julia meets a nearby neighbor, Rosalie Smith, a gypsy woman with a charming cottage on the crossroads. She also occupies her time by digging through Egyptian artifacts left by the Allenbys’ brother, believing she is helping the women. What she uncovers though shakes her world in ways she never imagined, not the least of which is the attempted murder of her beloved Brisbane.

SILENT ON THE MOOR is the third in the Lady Julia Grey series and no less enjoyable than SILENT IN THE GRAVE or SILENT IN THE SANCTUARTY. What I particularly enjoyed was the Gothic overtone to the story. I am a huge fan of a well done gothic and it seems there are fewer and fewer available. It was a delightful surprise to see those elements in SILENT ON THE MOOR, that gloomy, shadowy tension, never knowing if the hero and heroine will find their way to each other. That feeling of something evil lurking behind every door, ready to slither out of each corner, knowing its tendrils are reaching out to the heroine.

The tension between Brisbane and Julia reaches to a taunt peak. Each time he turns away from her, each time he seems to mock her, each time he breaks her heart, yet again you want to reach into the pages and shake him. At the same time you want to reach out and hold him, comfort him and protect him from the world that has hurt him so. Julia finds her own well spring of wisdom and celebrates the man he became despite the emotional devastation that whipped through his life at an early age.

Yet there was something not quite satisfying in this installment. I had a sense that either the author was rushed or wanted to be done with the series. The first time I read that one of the sisters “pulled a face” I thought it descriptive and unique. The second time it was descriptive, when it happened another five or more times the phrase became tired. What did it look like? What did it feel like? The ending felt rushed, that someone said the story had to end and the author rushed to do so. Threads were tied too easily rather than entrancing the reader as the first two books in the series did.

Because I love this series and have recommended it to everyone I have met I admit I did read the last line and was happy to see Ms. Raybourn’s signature “that is a story for another time.” I hope the series continues and that there are more with the gothic elements to them. The ending though left me wondering if that was it, that the series has been concluded. I certainly hope not. There is so much depth to all of Ms. Raybourn’s characters that I want to see many more tales and travel the world with Julia and Brisbane.

SILENT IN THE GRAVE by Deanna Raybourn

Publisher: Mira
Date published: December 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7783-2524-6
Victorian Mystery
Paperback
Reviewed by Gina


Lady Julia Grey knew from childhood there was only one man she could love and marry and marry him she did. Edward Grey was all she ever wanted. Well, the heroes from her novels were tall, dark and brooding. Heathcliff could easily have won her heart had not slight, blond Edward captured it. It is devastating then, when in the midst of an evening’s entertainment, he collapses and dies. Despite a life-long state of ill health, Julia truly hoped for a longer time with her husband. It is at this death bed she meets Nicholas Brisbane for the first time. The total opposite of Edward, Nicholas is dark, heavily muscled and not at all charming to Julia. It is nothing personal. Indeed Edward had hired Nicholas to investigate threats on the blond lord’s life. Julia is appalled at Nicholas’ allegations and immediately disregards him. That is until her period of mourning is upon her. While going through Edwards possessions she comes across a note that clearly threatens her husband’s life. Julia hastens to Nicholas’ quarters and beseeches him to investigate what appears to be her husband’s murder. At first Nicholas tries to dissuade her yet dreams and visions keep him for walking away from the lady. In short order Julia and Nicholas embark on the investigation of Edward’s death. Step by step aspects of her husband she never dreamed existed are revealed, leaving Julia wondering if she ever knew the man she married.

SILENT IN THE GRAVE, Deanna Raybourn’s debut novel, is the first book in a long, long time I finished and then turned around and began reading again. In my teens when I first began reading romance I would read the books over and over until I knew each one by heart. As time passed my mantra became one of so many books, so little time with more and more talented authors coming to my attention. I have keeper books, ones that are truly the highest rating and I really do plan to read again—when I have read everything else already on my “to be read” list which grows daily. SILENT IN THE GRAVE, however, was so good, so compelling, so unique I not only had to order the next two books in the series, SILENT IN THE SANCTUARY and SILENT ON THE MOOR, I indulged myself and immediately began the book again. It was even better the second time.

Ms. Raybourn truly has a unique writing voice. Sparks of humor, threads of daring and a fabulous mystery keep the reader turning the pages. The author has given Julia an intriguing family with diverse personalities—a Tory member of parliament, a would-be doctor, a sister with a woman lover. Julia begins as a typical wife of her time and bit by bit unfolds into someone truly exceptional. SILENT IN THE GRAVE is thoroughly researched, but not at all dry. Rather it is an enthralling story that keeps the reader turning the pages and looking forward to the next book in the series. This truly is one author, readers across the board, should not miss.