A review by fliplamkenyahoocom
Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

5.0

This book was an absolute delight from start to finish. My only regret is hesitating to buy it in hardback. It is fun, witty, and lively. The Steam punk elements are fun and vivid. Fourteen year old Sophronia is the despair of her mother. Her unladylike ways are not becoming. So what can a mother do, but send her daughter to finishing school. But Mrs. Temminnich has been sadly mislead about the nature of Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing School. Yes, there will be obligatory classes on the proper curtsy and how to flutter your eyelashes to the greatest effect but there will be also classes on poisons, knife wielding, and how to most effectively murder someone at the theater. This finishing school teaches young ladies how to be spies, assassins, and proper ladies. Sophronia finds herself enmeshed in the intrigue and plots. All the while struggling to learn how to curtsy properly, Sophronia learns to maneuver in the cutthroat world of proper young ladies.