A Curious Beginning

Because I really love 18th to 19th century time-tested novels, contemporary historical fiction is one of those genres which I naturally and strongly gravitate towards, but I rarely enjoy what I pick up.

I'm happy to note that A Curious Beginning was one of those rare instances. I thoroughly enjoyed myself from beginning to end, and I was already busy figuring out how to get my hands on the next book before I had even finished this one.

Victoria Speedwell is a 24 year old spinster who, having just nursed and buried her two aunts, thought she was now free from any strings holding her to England. Things get nasty when her house is broken into by a burly henchman, but with the help of a mysterious German baron, she escapes unscathed. From there begins her rollercoaster adventure through Victorian London and beyond, as the baron throws her lot together with his “protege” of sorts, the faux-ruffian Stoker.

I won't pretend to say that this novel does a 100% flawless job at blending in with the 19th century backdrop. It doesn't. Victoria Speedwell is remarkably progressive and independent for a woman of her time, and she is certainly something of an anachronism. I typically don't like anachronistic characters in historical fiction, but I liked that Victoria was consistent. Unlike many novels out there, she wasn't a female character who simply flared up randomly about how downtrodden Victorian women there but then cowered at the first sign of danger or got herself captured so the hero could come in and save her. She means to have her way, and she defies anyone who stands between her and her goals, damn the consequences. And the book really means, damn the consequences.

At Stoker's introduction, I was bracing myself for your typical undermined hero, with all his rippling muscles and ruffian-like exterior hiding the soul of an aristocrat. In many ways, he does fall into all those tropes, as does Victoria into the anachronistically independent Victorian spinster stereotype. What I liked, however, was the way the tropes played off each other: to explosive fireworks and some truly hilarious conversations. Stoker has an apparently dark past and I still don't know the whole of it, since nothing much is explained by the end of this book but he doesn't sit brooding on it all the damn time as tormented heroes are wont to do. He does get up and live his life, especially when Veronica (metaphorically) slaps him out of it.

Another thing I really enjoyed is that sexual/romantic tension so masterfully built up between the two characters but never quite consummated. We're given deliciously brief brushes with that palpable connection between the two, but they don't quite fall into each other's arms and decide to commit themselves to each other by the end of the book. At the rate I have rolled my eyes and given up on so many romantic plots from historical fiction novels, you might think I've lost my romantic soul, but this book has proved that I haven't. I do enjoy reading romance, but I like to see it built up realistically, with a solid foundation as is happening here with Veronica and Stoker. Heck, I can't even be 100% sure if they end up together in the subsequent books, and it's fun to have that ambiguity hanging.They also don't display that annoyingly overdone trope of tortured forbidden love, where one or both parties pretend nothing is happening between them for some reason or other, if only to increase the angst and torment. Veronica and Stoker, I think, without actually saying it out loud, have acknowledged an attraction between themselves, but at least during the duration of the book, they were too busy with more pressing, life-and-death matters to really go into that, and I could respect that plot decision. It's a far cry from some historical fiction I've read where they had the main couple having sex in a jail cell when both were in apparently mortal danger, just because they couldn't keep it in their pants. Not Veronica and Stoker.

I'm off to start on the second book now and I'm pleased to note that the Goodreads ratings of subsequent installments of the Victoria Speedwell series are only increasing. “Excelsior!”