A Brazen Curiosity: A Regency Cozy

Beatrice Hyde-Clare Mysteries, Book 1

By: Lynn Messina

Narrated by: Jill Smith

Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Twenty-six-year-old Beatrice Hyde-Clare is far too shy to investigate the suspicious death of a fellow guest in the Lake District. A spinster who lives on the sufferance of her relatives, she would certainly not presume to search the rooms of her host's son and his friend looking for evidence. Reared in the twin virtues of deference and docility, she would absolutely never think to question the imperious Duke of Kesgrave about anything, let alone how he chose to represent the incident to the local constable.

And yet when she stumbles upon the bludgeoned corpse of poor Mr. Otley in the deserted library of the Skeffingtons' country house, that's exactly what she does.

©2018 Lynn Messina (P)2018 Lynn Messina

Well-written

Great insight into the class system in England. Liked the proper sexual tension in the main characters.

Jill Smith gave a good narration. Great diction.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Charmingly written and narrated

This was a well done mystery with a hint of romance. It stays true to the period it's set in while allowing the heroine to grow into herself. It was fun, well written and narrated, and I'm really looking forward to the next book!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A great heroine

I love this allegedly mousy timorous spinster who is able to shed her shyness and investigate a murder. I love the thoughts and humor hiding inside that she finally lets out despite her circumstances as a poor relative. And the description of the times in England is well done. Intricate plot, interesting characters. Good narrator.

Humorous conversation

I especially enjoyed the dialogue in A Brazen Curiosity. I also appreciated not being able to surmise "whodunnit" until the very end!

Truly enjoyable!

Loved the attention to detail about the time period and station. Admired the heroine 's character.

What a great start to a new series!

Miss Hyde-Clare is definitely an original! I love the witty bantering between the hero and heroine. I own every book and its Audible companion. I can't wait for the next book in the series, because they keep getting better and better. I would like to see more of the dynamics of the main characters' relationship, especially from his POV, because that's the draw of the entire series. Keep writing and I will definitely keep reading!

I ought to have loved this...but I didn't

At first glance, this looked like just the sort of thing I should have loved: Regency! Romance! Mystery! Yes, please!

So, what went wrong? I'm sorry to say I just couldn't like the characters. The hero is the type of fellow who corrects others' conversation at the dinner table (yeah, we all love to sit near that guy. Not.), and I heard way too many times about how Beatrice was a poor orphan, dependent on the whims of her aunt and uncle. I could almost forgive her for fantasizing about throwing food at the duke during dinner--if I had to sit near him, I'd probably be thinking the same thing--but while this was mildly amusing the first time it was mentioned, the joke dragged on l-o-n-g past the point where it was funny. To make it worse, at the end of the book Beatrice finds that she no longer dreams of throwing food at him (yes, she's still harping on it), because his correcting others isn't boorish behavior at all; it's just proof of his exacting attention to detail! So it's an admirable trait, really! No, Beatrice. No, it's not.

Clearly, many people enjoy this series, so I'm apparently the outlier here. Maybe it gets better as it goes along, but I doubt I'll follow the series long enough to find out. There are too many other books/series I'd rather spend my credits on.

I received this audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review.

Loved it

go for book 2 right now. Has the banter of Jane Austin with a mystery. Yes it is simple but truly enjoyable.

Regency Era Clean Mystery!

This is a fun cozy regency era mystery with a wonderful main character and a fun love interest for her! Beatrice is constantly belittled by her aunt and other relatives, so she's pretty demure most of the time, but when she finds a dead body and the duke standing over him something in her changes. She sticks up for herself and wants to find out who would do this horrible crime.
Beatrice is an interesting character, she has a lot going on in her mind and doesn't say much because this is regency England and women having any sort of thoughts is unheard of. She wants justice for the victim and she decides she needs to stick her nose into it and solve it with the reluctant assistant of the Duke of Kesgraves.
I liked getting to know Beatrice and she's a bright character who is constantly belittled and demeaned by her aunt. I honestly don't like her aunt. She's really quite awful and I definitely would not have handled her with Bea's tactfulness, The mystery is a fun one that kept me guessing and I liked the idea of unwanted assistance in solving a crime. Bea gets put through the wringer as she's solving this and she comes out stronger. This is a fun, fairly clean mystery (there is talk of blood because the victim is hit on the head during the murder, so that isn't pleasant) with some minor non-explicit violence and some light gaslighting of the main character (because it's regency England and thinking well of an unwanted relation is I guess not a thing people wanted to do at this time) by her family members (constantly calling her wan).
It's a fun mystery and I look forward to the next ones in the series!

I really liked the narrator! I thought she did a good job with bringing Beatrice to life and fully embodying her personality. I did have a little trouble with the voices for the male characters, some of them sounded a little too similar, but overall she did a great job and I'd definitely listen to her narrate the rest of the series! I listened at 1.3x speed.

So very clever

Loved it. I will listen to this book again and again. It is written so very clever.