Grimm Curiosities by Sharon Lynn Fisher – Review

Published: November 5, 2024

Publisher: 47North

Series: N/A

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Pages: 297 (Kindle)

My Rating: 4 Stars

Synopsis:
In Victorian England, a young woman inherits her father’s curiosity shop and all its ghostly secrets in a bewitching novel by the author of Salt & Broom.

It’s 1851 in old York. Lizzy Grimm struggles to save her late father’s charmingly creepy yet floundering antique shop, Grimm Curiosities. Then, during a particularly snowy December in this most haunted city in England, things turn…curiouser.

Lizzy meets Antony Carlisle, whose sister suffers from the same perplexing affliction as Lizzy’s mother—both stricken silent and unresponsive after speaking with ghosts. Working closely together to fathom what power has transformed their loved ones and why, Lizzy and Antony discover an important her father’s treasured set of rare books on ancient folktales, enchantments, and yuletide myths. Books that a persistent collector is awfully keen to purchase. Books Lizzy can’t bear to sell.

Every bewitching passage and illustration opens a doorway to something ancient and dangerously inviting. Keys to a mystery Lizzy and Antony are compelled to solve—even if doing so means unleashing one of this bright holiday’s darkest myths.

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I’m fast becoming a fan of Sharon Lynn Fisher’s fantastical stories set in Victorian England. Grimm Curiosities follows Lizzy Grimm, proprietress of her late father’s antique and curiosity shop. Lizzy is struggling to make ends meet now that her mother has been struck by a strange malady that prevents her from speaking and therefore, from practicing her skills as a medium. Things are looking, well, grim when Antony Carlisle, son of the local lord, stumbles into Lizzy’s shop in search of her mother’s skills at speaking to the dead. Antony’s sister was afflicted by a similar malady soon after their mother died and soon the two are working together to find a cure.

As with all of this author’s works that I’ve read, there is both an engaging plot with a bit of mystery and a delightful slow burn romance that keeps the pages swiftly turning. Lizzy and Antony, though of differing social status, are immediately drawn to one another and the two seem to find every occasion to be in one another’s company. There is a somewhat suspicious third party that keeps showing up hoping to purchase a collection of rare books on mythology, lore, and magic that Lizzy’s father had in storage. This same man seems to have his eye on Lizzy as well, and while his interest doesn’t seem entirely benign it may be that Lizzy has to sell these rare and beloved books in order to save the shop.

I liked Lizzy, Antony, and the side characters that appeared throughout the story. Lizzy is a determined young woman doing her best in a society where single young women are limited in the freedoms they have. Antony might be of noble birth, but thanks to his mother’s good influence he’s a charitable sort and comes off as a genuinely good person. Grimm Curiosities also has a delightful dash of the paranormal – there are ghostly appearances and as Lizzy peruses the collection of books she rediscovers, she learns of magical gates, beings like the Krampus, and even fae glamours. 

I ended up really enjoying this story and how it wrapped up. It seems you can always expect a happy ending from Sharon Lynn Fisher, which to me is comforting and makes me more inclined to read her books. I pick up romantic fantasy stories for both entertainment and the simple fact that they’re likely to end happily and therefore they make me happy. This is the perfect sort of book for someone looking for a nice standalone with an atmospheric setting and a slow burn historical romance.