Waiting on Wednesday: A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine. This meme spotlights upcoming releases that I'm eagerly anticipating. ---

A Curious Beginning 

Veronica Speedwell Mystery #1 Deanna Raybourn

Expected publication: September 1, 2015

Genre: Mystery

London, 1887. As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee, Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own. After burying her spinster aunt, the orphaned Veronica is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as she is fending off admirers, Veronica wields her butterfly net and a sharpened hatpin with equal aplomb, and with her last connection to England now gone, she intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.

But fate has other plans, as Veronica discovers when she thwarts her own abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron with ties to her mysterious past. Promising to reveal in time what he knows of the plot against her, the baron offers her temporary sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker—a reclusive natural historian as intriguing as he is bad-tempered. But before the baron can deliver on his tantalizing vow to reveal the secrets he has concealed for decades, he is found murdered. Suddenly Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive assailant, wary partners in search of the villainous truth.

Mention the Victorian Era and you'll capture my attention immediately. It is, perhaps, my favorite historical fiction time period. The beginnings of modernization, the silhouettes of the clothes, possibility of steampunk goodness, rise of the modern woman hear me roar, the politics of the royal houses of Europe, mysteries...