Title: Etiquette & EspionageAuthor: Gail Carriger
Series: Finishing School #1
Genres: YA, Steampunk, Adventure
Publisher: Little Brown Books
Release: 2013
Source: Audiobook
Pages: 307
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BLURB:
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.
Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners--and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.
But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, 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.
I found out about this series from Cece on booktube and she absolutely adored all the books. So obviously it got me interested and the whole idea of little girls being assassin spies...yeah I was sold.
THE WORLD: Okay so this book is set somewhere in the past in times when corsets were mandatory and girls were to pleasure rather than think. But on the other hand this world also is paranormal because we have all these werewolves and what not and I think it is also a steampunk as there is some technology they are all fighting over. I mean this technology thing reminded me a lot of Andrius Tapinas book Hour of the Wold and that is steampunk so I think this also classifies as one.
CHARACTERS: So as any boarding school book this one also has many characters. Frankly none of them are that off from these stereotypes we are so familiar with but let's ignore that for a second. Our main character is named Sophronia and she is a teen who just wants to know things too much. She experiments at home creating all these explosions and what not and eventually her mother gets rid of her by sending her to this Finishing School. On paper Finishing Schools are pretty much boarding schools to make the girls pretty to look and good at pleasing men and well get out that interest in how things work out of them. But this Finishing School is not exactly as it seams, it does all the things I mentioned before but it does not aim to get rid of wanting to know part. Actually this school prepares these girls to becomes pretty assassins. So yeah our Sophronia is nicely surprised by this change of things and of course becomes an eager student. We also have some annoying character and bullies, it is a boarding school book after all but except for the main bully I didn't really have that many problems with the characters. it was stereotypical and if we accept this I think everybody can enjoy this book.
LOVE: Not the center of this book which made me really happy.
PLUS: I truly did not expect involvement of paranormal in this book. A werewolves captain and vampire teacher, this was awesome extra!
MINUS: Stereotypes. even tho I said I accepted them I cannot pretend they were not there.
MINUS: Stereotypes. even tho I said I accepted them I cannot pretend they were not there.
OVERALL: I enjoyed the story and I think it was pretty unique simply by addition of paranormal to it. Tho I must admit 15 years old me would have loved this book way more, I just feel like this time I am truly to old for it. So yeah I will not continue with this series but I do highly advise everybody to read at least first book to decide if it is your cup of tea of not.
What do you guys think about ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE?
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