Monday, August 19, 2013

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger Review


"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. Temminick 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.

Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail Carriger's legions of fans have come to adore."

OMG! I love reading this book as I wait for Ally Carter's United We Spy's release date. (So, so soon. It will be September 17 soon.) Etiquette & Espionage is a spy book, obviously. (Anyone know any other good spy books? There's a lot of time for me to kill. I'm a fast reader and I need a book a day. I can't wait for United We Spy. Did you read the first chapter? It was awesome!) 

Etiquette & Espionage is an exciting debut from the ever awesome author Gail Carriger. It is an amazing to read this book! I'm so lost in the pages and words. I love this book that I was practically begging for it to be a little longer. (It's about three hundred pages, so...I know, I'm crazy for wanting a book to be longer than a whopping three hundred pages.)

Etiquette & Espionage's plot is a twisted game of lies and deception. Ha! In the beginning I was so lost like a little sheep among the wolves. Sophronia (what a strange and beautiful name) is on her newfound adventure. She is trying to uncover lies from truth. I don't know how she does it, but she does it. Gail Carriger's writing is addicting! I swear I can't stop reading Etiquette & Espionage from the very beginning, because of how intriguing and surprising the book is. I love the characters, no matter how evil or odd or gross or dirty they are whenever they are finishing a job. 

Whaa! What a good ending! I'm left wondering if this is the end or not. (I checked Goodreads. They say it isn't, so readers who haven't read Etiquette & Espionage should wait.) The ending is the most humorous and delight ending ever craft by a debut author.

Characters:

There's Sophronia with no love interest. (Come on, she's fourteen.) She is clever, ingenious, witty, and outrageously hilarious. She's adventuress and always looking for something in her life. She is not interested in being 'normal.' She doesn't want to go to the ball, unless a dangerous weapon may appear again at the ball. She doesn't want to go to parties, unless she has to stalk someone dangerous. She doesn't want to do normal activities, unless she has to spy on someone. 

The girls at the Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality are quite mischievous  not in the bad way. Some of them are bored and simply shallow. Others are skilled in the arts of deception. 

Rating: Four out of Five

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