This was a fun little who-dun-it mystery set in England in the 1800s. The characters and story are all over the place in the best way possible. I will admit, I’m not good at solving mysteries to begin with, but this one completely threw me for a loop because EVERYONE looked so freaking guilty and insane that you could have said that any one of them had done it without an explanation and I would have just accepted it.
I have to hand it to the author, all of the little rhymes scattered throughout to explain good manners and etiquette were amazing. There are so many throughout the book, and the brain power to come up with all of those is impressive. Plus, it’s just funny when the outsider is faced with a never ending stream of them.
I really liked seeing Beatrice come into her own. She was so unsure of herself at the start of the book, but by the end, she was so confident and knew exactly who she was and that she had worth as an individual. This definitely isn’t like a Jane Austen book where the woman needs a man. This is a book where the woman finds out that she has strength all her own, and in Beatrice’s case, sometimes the man needs her.
The Furious Reader 