BBAW: Unexpected Treasure

Well, I for one have had an absolute blast with this years Book Blogger Appreication Week so far. I've discovered so many new interesting blogs - especially the wonderful Amy of Amy Reads, who I swapped interviews with yesterday. In keeping with their 'treasure' theme, today the BBAW committee asked us all to:

We invite you to share with us a book or genre you tried due to the influence of another blogger.  What made you cave in to try something new and what was the experience like?

Now I'll admit that this topic was a bit of a hard one for me. As far as genre reading goes, I'm pretty dang predictable of late. Lots of fantasy with good amounts of YA thrown in for good measure. Sure, I read books all the time that were recommended to me by other bloggers, but they generally tend to always fall within those two genres. Then I remembered a very, very dear series of books that were fortuitously recommended to me by another blogger -- Angie of Angieville. Angie's picks are, of course, legendary and these were no exception. But it took me a little prodding to finally make my way to their goodness because of the simple genre labeling stumbling block -- mystery. Otherwise known as immediately-not-interested to Michelle.

Curious yet?

Well, the books were the Lady Julia Grey mysteries by Deanna Raybourn and the rest, they say, is history. I adore Julia and her crazy family and I am also deeply smitten with one Nicholas Brisbane. This entire series about an unconventional woman of means who can coolly solve mysteries is utter perfection. Mystery has never really been my 'thing' before, but after adoring every single one of Deanna Raybourn's books, I'm starting to rethink that status.

series reading order:
~ Silent in the Grave
~ Silent in the Sanctuary
~ Silent on the Moor - my review 
~ Dark Road to Darjeeling (my review will be up next week - trust me, it's good)

What unexpected treasure have you discovered thanks to a fellow blogger?