13 April 2015

Etiquette and Espionage (Finishing School #1)

Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger is the first book in her Finishing School series - an alternate history, steampunk tale about a finishing school that teaches dance, dress and etiquette along with death, diversion and espionage.

Sophronia Temminnick is the youngest child in a London household. Her sisters are all about dressing and following social rules while Sophronia is more interested in how things work. She is always getting into trouble and while trying to eavesdrop on a conversation between her mother and a friend, she tumbles out of the dumbwaiter and splatters food all over her mother's friend.

This is the same day she learns that she is being sent to a finishing school - Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. She will be traveling to the school with an academy representative and two other students.

Even before she can arrive at the school, the action begins. And the longer Sophronia is at school the better suited she thinks she is to be there - in spite of the fact that she regularly breaks the rules.

Carriger has created a wonderful steampunk world. The Finishing School series takes place in the same world as her adult series, the Parasol Protectorate. This first book in the series is a delight and I cannot wait until I can start the second book.

Carriger, Gail. (2013). Etiquette and Espionage. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

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