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A review by lezreadalot
A Curious Woman by Jess Lea
3.0
Could her touch melt the hardness there, the armour that had grown up around Margaret during those years of isolation and cruelty? Through their layers of clothing, Bess felt the rough rise and fall of Margaret’s chest, the gripping strength of her hands. And everywhere, the smell of the sea, the taste of salt.
3.5 stars. A really sweet and funny f/f cosy mystery, set in a small Australian town. I love mysteries, though I haven't done too well with the cosy ones. While I really liked this, it didn't quuuite do it for me? But I still thought both the mystery and the romance were really good.
Bess is a recent transplant to this small town, having escaped city life and a tragic incident to live simply, and enjoy her job working at a quirky, kitschy museum. Margaret is the ice queen owner of the far more traditional museum in town, cold and rigid and very unpopular with the townspeople. Their first meeting is laden with animosity, but they soon find themselves working together after Bess's boss is killed, and suspicion is cast on them both. This is written with a certain amount of light-heartedness and whimsy, and there's a lot of humorous bits. But tougher subjects are still treated with delicacy and care, and both our heroines are on journeys of healing, to some degree, and I really like how the narrative delves into it. The mystery behind the murder was pretty well-developed, and even though it wasn't as fair play as I would have liked, the reader still got most of the information to be able to chew on and try to solve it. This was one of those mysteries where I didn't really have many predictions; I just went along for the ride and I was pretty surprised by the reveal at the end. But then again, in the best cases scenarios, I WANT to be really involved and have predictions, so the fact that this didn't inspire me to do so is a bit disappointing.
The romance doesn't get a whole lot of page time, but enough that I'm still comfortable in labelling this a romance. I really loved Margaret and her brand of grumpy iciness, and the ways she thaws for Bess were soooo cute. She can get mean, but not so mean that it didn't work for me, and tbh, I really sympathised with a lot of her resentment. Together, they have a bunch of really good banter, while also being sensual and sweet. Bess is such a fun, resilient, take-no-shit character that you couldn't help but fall for. She's the principal amateur sleuth in the duo, and following her was pretty fun. There were some side characters who really stood out. I LOVED the hags; protect them at all cost.
Listened to the audiobook as read by Cat Gould, which was enjoyable as always. I love her accent, and even though her narration style isn't my very favourite, I really adored all the different voices. Especially Margaret. This worked really well, both as a mystery and a romance; it's just missing a little something I can't name. But I still wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.
Content warnings: