Review for Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Etiquette & Espionage is the first installment of the Finishing School series written by Gail Carriger. It is a prequel series, set 25 years earlier to the Parasol Protectorate books. The next book in this series is titled Curtsies & Conspiracies .


what happened? where did the awesomeness from the Parasol Protectorate series go? i was expecting to be pulled into the plot and the characters but i stayed firmly on the surface with this book.

Sophronia is a young girl who is sent to finishing school by her mother. she is always in trouble and has the worst curtsy known to man. so this school could solve all Sophronia's unladylike problems. but on the way there with three other students, there is an attack and she learns what the "finish" in finishing school actually means.

since this book was set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate series, i was already familiar with the paranormal theme, which i enjoyed the most. the werewolf and vampire teacher are entertaining to say the least, even though they're not really in the book. there was also Soap, a "colored" boy who worked in the boiler room. i really liked every scene when he was involved. there's no romance between him and Sophronia but i could see one growing in future novels.

now i think it's very telling that i talked about background characters before i talked about the main ones. and the reason for that is they were kind of boring. Sophronia, as the main character, was somewhat dull. she just felt like a carbon copy of Alexia from the Parasol Protectorate books. her best friend, Dimity, was a washed up version of Alexia's scatterbrained friend. every thing just felt recycled. it was total deja vu. i had already read this before; i don't need it repackaged into a young adult book.

i will not being continuing this series. the ending to this wrapped things up nicely and i don't care enough about any of these characters to see what happens to them next. now if i see from other readers that the second book is extremely better, then i might consider reading it. but until then, this is a closed book on this series.

1.5 STAR RATING