Grimm Curiosities
Lizzie Grimm understands loneliness. With her father dead and her mother no longer communicating or engaging, she toils alone in their antiques and curiosities shop in York. After Papa passed, Mama supplemented their income by offering her services as a medium, but since she went into some kind of permanent trance, Lizzie carries the burdens of the household alone.
Then two very different men appear in her life, setting Lizzie to ponder marriage and whether she’s willing to risk the possibility that it might answer her financial difficulties. Antony Carlisle, first-born son of a local baron, visits the shop looking for a gift. It turns out his sister Sophie is suffering the same affliction as Mama. This shared tragedy brings the two close, as they try to solve the mystery. Ambrose Stoke is interested in purchasing a set of fairytale books, for which Lizzie desperately needs the money, but the books were set aside by papa, not to be sold. When Lizzie finds some of the books in odd places, seemingly having moved with minds of their own, she wonders if Papa is sending her messages from the grave? Perhaps he wants to help her help Mama?
Set at Christmas in 1851, Grimm Curiosities is a charming mystery with an interwoven romance. The otherworldly goings-on keep the story moving, making it believable, even as it stretches credulity. A fantasy gives the author plenty of scope to follow some strange plot threads, but she keeps it all within the bounds of a polite Victorian tale, with timely descriptive details and genteel dialogue. I might have preferred Antony’s scenes to be told in third person rather than first, but that’s a small thing, and this is otherwise a fast, straightforward read which carries off the term “historical romantasy” quite satisfactorily.
