Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger

Etiquette and Espionage (Finishing School, #1)

by Gail Carriger

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.

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.

Reviewed by mrs_mander_reads on

3 of 5 stars

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This is really more of a 3.5 for me. I thought the story was good, and I liked the characters. However, the rising action TOOK. FREAKING. FOREVER. I thought that the same story could have been told in half the time. That's just my personal opinion. I am going to read book #2.

The audio version was good, the narrator has a very pleasant voice and style of reading that moves at a good pace.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 20 April, 2017: Finished reading
  • 20 April, 2017: Reviewed