Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Book: Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School #1) by Gail Carriger

Summary (from GoodReads): 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.
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.

Thoughts: First, the main characters name is Sophronia and she is 14. I'm usually okay with weird names, but this one was a little too far out there, even for me, and the entire story felt a lot younger than I expected. More than that, I wasn't totally sure where the story was going for most of the book. Sophronia was inquisitive and always in trouble, which I found charming, but it isn't until she meets Genevieve Lefoux (yes, a 9 year old Madame Lefoux) that things get interesting.  From there, the pace of the book sped up considerably.

I don't actually have too much more to say about this one. I enjoyed the characters, especially Soap and those I had met in the Parasol Protectorate series. I found a boarding school set on a dirigible the perfect setting for a YA novel in a world I already loved. Honestly, I probably like this book as a residual effect of loving The Parasol Protectorate series. I'm not sure it truly stands on its own. I plan to read book two, but if this wasn't a spin off series, I would probably skip it.

Moments I Loved: Any time Sophronia did something unladylike... like break the dumbwaiter or stage a rescue mission.

WTF Moments: There were some fun moments, but I honestly can't think of any true WTF moments.


Overall: It was more charming than captivating and I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if I didn't already love the Parasol Protectorate series.

Etiquette & Espionage gets a FakeSteph rating of...

This is more of a 3 1/2...