Etiquette and Espionage / Gail Carriger

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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Well, you couldn't get much different from Jane Eyre if you tried. Yes, Mademoiselle Geraldine's finishing school is a boarding school, its denizens are young women, and some of them (i.e. our heroine, Sophronia) have been sent by despairing mothers, but this is like no other finishing school. Yes, they learn table manners, but also how to fight with knives (and sew hiding spots for those knives in their skirts). The proper technique for the courtesy and how to somersault without mussing one's hair or disrupting one's dress. How to budget for a meal, including necessary poisons, and how to only poison particular people at your table.

Sophronia has never before been interested in etiquette or clothes, until they are presented as tools of espionage. She is unsure how her mother picked this school, as she is sure her mother is ignorant of how eminently suitable it is for her daughter. For Sophronia is a covert recruit, chosen by the school rather than deliberately sent by her family.

A wonderful first book in this series, I can hardly wait to continue with it. If you have read Carriger's previous Soulless series, you may be pleased to know that you will meet a very young Genevieve here, already cross-dressing, inventing, and dimpling delightfully. There are other links to the earlier series which also made me smile.

If you enjoy this book, I think you might also like Grave Mercy (and vice versa)



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