I'm usually a terribly serial reader. I don't like to read more books from the same series back to back. I don't even know exactly why. But when I finished Curtsies & Conspiracies I had no choice. I just had to continue reading. Luckily, I already had gotten a copy of Waistcoats & Weaponry for Christmas.
It will not be a surprise to hear that I still mostly like the whole training idea. Even though it doesn't really play a large role in this book unfortunately. However, they use the skills they've learned at Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. That's almost as good.
I was a little bit less pleased with the romance that became increasingly important (and annoying) during this book. I wasn't taken in with it at all. Some of the tricks that were performed to get all the characters together at the important moments felt forced and I couldn't help but sigh at some of them. Sophronia also has grown to be the heroine more and more, even so much so that everyone looks at her to solve any problem. Only at her. Always. (Even though the other girls also follow these lessons and should know some things). I'm always a bit worried authors start to like their character so much that they want to make them special in every possible way (Ayla from The Clan of The Cave Bear being the most striking example). Now I just hope Sophronia isn't heading that way.
It's a shame the next book isn't yet published!
Waistcoats & Weaponry is the third book in the Finishing School series. The first books are Etiquette & Espionage and Curtsies & Conspiracies.
Matters & Mutiny (November 2015) will be the fourth instalment. The Finishing School series is a spin-off series from the Parasol Protectorate series.
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