A Curious Beginning by Deanna RaybournMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
If a book can make me fall asleep three times a day while reading it, then I have to say that this is a slightly boring book without the murder part, I guess I can say? Because I was looking for the murder part of this cozy mystery, and I felt like it never...came. When it did, I guess I missed it because it was all about her parents and who her father was and all that...which was fine, I guess, but at the same time....I was kinda shocked about it???
So this book introduces Veronica after she buries her Aunt, and she has lunch with the vicar and his wife, she tells them that she and her aunties are not related, stating that she is an orphan and she'll be fine living her best life studying fairies and also not getting married. Leaving them after a really good lunch, she returns home to find that the cottage she was about to sell is about to get robbed. Before she can smack the heck out of them with a German sword, a baron shows up to take her to London, telling her that she's in "grave danger".
Okay...why???
When she gets to London, she is put in the care of a man named Stoker, a naturalist, and a taxidermist. She spends a couple of days with him, helping him with the elephant for a lord and also making sure his collection and place are spot on, when news of the baron's death is in the newspapers. Next thing you know, they are gone on an adventure, not solving the mystery until like the last hundred or so pages, going to the circus and posing as a husband and wife, then having to leave after a fight once the freak show is done.
When we focused back on the mystery aspect of the book, it went back to Veronica and why people was after her. It turns out that people are after her because she is the legitimate daughter of Prince Albert, the son of Queen Victoria. There was something about her mama falling for the prince and them getting married, then nine days later once Victoria was born, that's when Prince Albert gets engaged by Princess Alexandra of Denmark, I believe, or something like that??
At first, Veronica didn't believe it, but the more she looked at the papers and birth certificate, that's when she realized that the children Prince Albert and Princess Alexandra had, including his marriage to her, was void and declared illegitimate, and she was the rightful heir to the throne. Well, she doesn't want the throne-she wants to be her own person, and she wants to live her own life as a naturalist.
Well with her and Stoker getting kidnapped and them meeting her uncle, breaking into the baron's home to find out why she was in grave danger, and also getting the people that want her on the throne or dead in one place so she can destroy the place, it was kinda fun to read and I enjoyed that part. But when she asked Moranday and Sir Hugo Montgomerie who wanted her gone, Moranday only said that it was a "she" not a "he", which makes me think that it's Queen Victoria who's watching over Victoria.
During the Queen's Jubilee, she came and watched her royal family go by, and she was giving a glimpse of them, and that felt like you're with her, watching them go by and actually thinking of the what ifs if the royal family actually accepted her as one of the family, what would her life be. Then one day at dinner, she talked to the Lord who owns the Belvedere if she could work for him getting his natural things together, and when he agreed, that's when she told Stoker (afterwards) and the two started talking about it, thus ending the book.
I have to say, even though this book put me to sleep and it bored me to death in certain parts, but other than that, I really liked it, enjoyed myself reading it, and I might wanna pick up the rest of the series.
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