I enjoyed this book from the very beginning until the final pages. Sophia and Jeremy make for good POV characters because their stories are interesting and they are very likable characters. Sophia's desire to break into a male-dominated field will be appealing to young readers. Having Sophia's father and Jeremy support her in her pursuits is also a good message for both young male and female readers. I did figure out who the killer was about half way through the book and was a little disappointed that Sophia and Jeremy did not actually solve the case and instead fell into the killer's trap. I would have liked to have more information the trial rather than having that story wrapped up with the arrest.

I was not sure if I would like the romance part of the story, but I thought it was well-developed and worked within the story. It wasn't really necessary - the story could have worked just fine without it - but it didn't weigh the story down or take anything away from the characters.

Overall, a really great story that is well written with interesting characters and some good plot twists.

Big meh.

Tragically, my renowned ability to not notice things is still at work. If I had realized this was by the same person as <i>Suitors and Sabotage</i>, I would have known better than to read it, but here we are yet again.

First of all, the characters. Sophia is an eighteen-year-old girl determined to make police work her career and join the detectives of the Bow Street Runners. (Which are, to my surprise, a real thing!) She's fine, as a main character, and I appreciate her refusal to be pushed aside. But often, she does come off as very naive and not terribly brilliant. Her desire to join the Runners sounds more like a child's desire to be an astronaut, half the time, than anything really feasible.

The romance wasn't amazing either. Sofia and Jeremy came rapidly to care for each other before I was able to care for either of them. Really, though, these things aren't vital. The PLOT is what's important, and a murder mystery with an interesting and satisfying puzzle can be forgiven lackluster characters and connection. Unfortunately, that is not the case here.

I called that it was Charlotte from the first time they said she was adopted. Again, not terrible. What's interesting is the motive and how the detectives unravel it all. Unfortunately, Jeremy and Sophia fail to unravel anything. From the moment the body in the ditch was discovered, they had all the information they needed. The murders were clearly connected. They knew it was someone at the house. They knew it had to be someone who was there twenty years ago. Boom. Solved.

Strangely, days later, they are still waffling around seemingly no closer to figuring out anything. The case ended up never being solved at all. No one ever put the pieces together. Instead, the killer just kept dropping body after body in an almost <i>Criminal Minds</i>-esque frenzy, and the mystery unraveled itself with an extremely convenient attempt on Jeremy's life where an old woman with a knife tried to somehow take down a twenty-three year old policeman.

Sheer dumb luck is a cheap, unsatisfying conclusion to a murder mystery. If the murderer hadn't continued to escalate, they may never have solved the case, judging by the glacially slow way they were moving. This book is a mediocre read, neither particularly offensive nor particularly praiseworthy, and I expect within a month I'll have forgotten that I ever read it.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole story! I loved the twist and turns because I never new what was going to happen next. I loved the main character and all that she did throughout the book. I will be purchasing this book for our libraries YA collection.

#DeadlyCurious #SwoonReads
I love mysteries!!! Deadly Curious is a wonderful young adult historical read! I love the dab of romance with the full on mystery.

This book was received as an ARC from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group - Swoon Reads in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Usually murder mysteries for me are somewhat predictable and on the boring side for me where I crave the big twist so unexpected that it completely changes the story. Deadly Curious at first was leading down the path of predictability but the setting and plot was very compelling that it grabbed my attention. Sophia aspires to be a detective but a woman in a man's job back in 1822, that was unheard of and of course created a negative toxic working environment. Sophia gets the chance to prove her worth when her cousin Daphne writes her a letter to come and look and the suspicious death of her brother. As Daphne digs around she discovers that every family has secrets, especially hers. Now with the help of a charming policeman, she is determined to solve not only the murder case but her family secrets once and for all. I could not get enough of the family drama and the revealing secrets Sophia discovered along the case. I know our community will be fascinated by the plot and setting back in the Victorian era. I also know our teen book club will have very entertaining discussions as well.

We will consider adding this title to our YA collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

It has been one year since Andrew Waverly's murder in the woods on his family's estate. No suspects have turned up any leads, no clues have been found, and no motive has been determined. Now two brilliant minds converge on the scene, each desperate to solve the case. But will their curiosity prove to be deadly?

Sophia Thompson is destined for spinsterhood following scandal involving an uncle being transported to Australia. However, Sophia refuses to simply be at her mother's beck and call, chained to embroidery and other ladylike pursuits. No, Sophia is going to find employment, and she has only one occupation on her mind: Bow Street Runner. When her cousin, Daphne, begs Sophia to come to her estate to solve the year-old murder of Daphne's older brother, especially with strange accidents beginning to occur, Sophia can hardly object. After all, this is her opportunity to help her family and prove her worth as a detective.

The fourth son of a minor baron, Jeremy Fraser is determined to make a name for himself when he is assigned his third case as a Bow Street Runner. It's his first murder and he is, admittedly, much more excited about the case than propriety allows. But his enthusiasm is only slightly dampened when he arrives to learn that the murder happened a year previously. He has a lot of work ahead of him to solve this cold case, and an even frostier reception from the townspeople isn't helping. But, fortunately, he seems to have found an ally in the victim's family's visiting cousin, a Miss Sophia Thompson.

Working together, Sophia and Jeremy utilize their positions in society to examine crime scenes, question suspects, search for clues, all with body counts rising, unexplained accidents occurring, more questions than answers.... and sparks flying between the two detectives.

Cindy Anstey continues to delight readers with her historical romantic YA cozy-style mysteries set in the Regency Era. Equal parts intense crime-solving and fluffy romance, Anstey's novels are perfect for lovers of mysteries and Jane Austen. While this is, admittedly, the first time that I have had a fairly solid idea of "who done it?" in one of Anstey's novels roughly halfway through, I was still impressed with the ending and big reveal, as there aspects--and other suspects--that I hadn't taken into consideration before.