Review: Etiquette & Espionage

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

Sophronia is not up to times with how a proper lady is supposed to act. In fact, she is a complete embarrassment to her mother and family and the only thing that her mom is thinking about is to get the curious 14 year old out of her hair so she can plan for a ball for another daughter.

So against Sophronia's wishes, she is sent to Finishing School to learn proper etiquette and become the lady that her mother wants her to be. But from the very start, Sophronia realizes that the Finishing School is not quiet what she was told...

Instead, it is a finishing school for Etiquette, but also about how to kill people while being a proper lady about it. So the girls at this school (which is located in a blimp flying all over the world so no one can find their secret location) are being trained on the proper hankerchief to use, but also on which method works best on how to kill a vampire and a werewolf. And they are also being taught by a vampire and a werewolf.

Sophronia, who was hating the idea of coming to this school, is realizing how GOOD she is at this school. Well, for the espionage aspect anyway. She is a very good snoop, has a curious mind, and is very upfront on her questions - because she wants to get the answers.

And one of the older students is keeping a secret from the teachers, so now Sophronia has made it her mission to figure out where Monica is hiding the item in question, and how Sophronia can get to it before she does.

This has always been on my list of books to read, and I just happen to grab all 4 books in the series at once so I knew it was time to finally read it and see what all of the hype was about. And I loved it!

I really loved Sophronia! She is a spunky, curious, and such an odd girl that one can't help but admire her abilities that she's figuring out at this school.

And she has a lot to learn at the beginning, since she had no idea that this school even existed. Otherwise she would have tried to find a way inside of the school a long time ago!

It does take a few pages to get into the story of the book since it's set in an older time period and I don't really know what the proper etiquette is for them, but Sophronia doesn't really care about that nonsense too much. Well, not before she's had the proper training anyway!

Also, I loved how Sophronia doesn't judge people by who they are in society. I love it when she visits the sooties and they are just normal people to her instead of the hired help and the "colored" people (I hate that term...). Instead, she loves their enthusiasm and she is always bartering with them. She treats them like humans rather than servants.

The mechanical aspect of this novel is something else. Sometimes I can't quiet picture what is going on because it gets a bit too technical for my brain, but I know it's something fancy.

I also love Vieve as well! I can't wait until she is forced to go to the etiquette school and has to dress like a girl!

I'm very intrigued on what is going to happen in the rest of the series, and I'm so glad I finally got a chance to read this!

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