Etiquette & Espionage - Gail Carriger

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

 

Earlier this year I'd seen this cover pop up a number of times on my Dashboard, but I never really liked it. For some reason it screamed 'romance!' to me, so I stayed clear of it. But then someone who's been reading the series told how this wasn't a romance, and was overall positive about it. Not two days later, the book is on Netgalley. I felt I just had to read it, and as soon as possible (even though I had a nice stack of books waiting; so I apologize to those books, but your time will come, I promise).

 

Sophronia has been nothing but trouble for her mother. At fourteen she's still not behaving like a proper lady, so she gets sent away to Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality, to learn some proper manners and the importance of eyelash-fluttering. But the school has a hidden agenda and Finishing a different meaning...

 

I'd not expected I would like it as much as I did. I liked the Victorian setting, I always do, but it was a surprise when there turned out to be vampires and werewolves with a top hat. I'd not seen that coming. The school might just be the coolest fictional school since Hogwarts, with multiple professors who have an unconventional background. And it's on a steampunk airship!

 

There was a great mix between the etiquette and the espionage, I never felt like one was forgotten because of the other. I had a very hard time putting this book away to do other things, and now I really need to get myself the second book, because Sophronia and her friends have still quite some time to spend on Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality and I want to read about it.