Thursday, April 25, 2013

...in books



Review
Etiquette & Espionage
by Gail Carriger

First sentences:
Sophronia intended to pull the dumbwaiter up from the kitchen outside the front parlour on the ground floor, where Mrs. Barnaclegoose was taking tea.

Summary:
It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Sophronia Temminnick at 14 is a great trial more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Her poor mother, desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady, enrolls the lively tomboy in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education
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source: Goodreads
 
My opinion:
With Etiquette & Espionage Gail Carriger created another wonderful and highly addicting series for Steampunk lovers and those who are looking for a soft entry into this genre.
Sophronia’s story is set before the one of Alexia Tarabotti but we meet some already well known characters on our journey.

Sophronia is a clever and witty 14 year old who is eager to learn how things work, which leads to really funny situations. She is not your typical lady, waiting to get married but she is rebellious and interested in the world around her and waiting for her chance to prove to the people around her that she can be more than a typical girl of that time (which she really isn’t!).
When she gets the chance to go to Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality she is in for an adventure. The school is clearly not a regular finishing school but something way cooler and Sophronia will learn so much more than proper behavior.

Dimity, who quickly becomes Sophronia’s friend and roommate, is a wonderful character. She always tries to be a proper lady but with a friend like Sophronia it sometimes is hard to behave and solve mysteries.

The story is unique and I would say typically Gail Carriger. I enjoyed the ideas and wit that are present through the whole novel and she really pays attention to those little things, like introducing characters that fans of the Parasol Protectorate Series will know already. The setting, Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy, is described in such great detail that the whole story felt like a film to me and it was extremely hard to stop reading (I usually read while on public transport and yes, I missed my stop more than once.).

I am so looking forward to the next books in this wonderful series and until then I will dream of joining Finishing school too.


The books in the Finishing School series are:
  • Etiquette & Espionage
  • Curtsies & Conspiracies (expected publication: November 5th, 2013)
  • Waistcoats & Weaponry (expected publication: 2014)

For more information about Gail Carriger visit her Homepage, her Blog and her Facebook and Twitter page.

1 comment:

  1. Etiquette & Espionage sounds AWESOME! A school where girls learn which spoon to use first and how to kick someone's butt with a parasol, how great is that. Lovely review Karin, I can't wait to read this (:

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