GALAXY BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Sophronia Temminnick is a 14 year old girl much more interested in disassembling clockwork devices to find out how they work and climbing trees and dumbwaiters than fashion and gossip, much to the despair of her mother. At her wits' end, she sends Sophronia to Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.
Sophronia soon discovers that her escort is not in fact Mademoiselle Geraldine, but an older student who is more involved than she will admit in the enemy's attempt to find the missing prototype of some mysterious device and Sophronia is determined to get to the bottom of it.
As the title suggests, Carriger smoothly blends engaging manners with hidden agendas, making the dirty work of information-gathering light-hearted fun. Sophronia is a practical, smart and resourceful heroine surrounded by likeable secondary characters who (with the possible exception of Sophronia's best friend Dimity who faints at the most inopportune times) succeed in belonging to the Victorian England setting without being overly missish. While they seem a bit standard issue now, there is room for them to become more fleshed out as their studies and the series progress.
While Carriger's existing fans are sure to enjoy Etiquette and Espionage, it is also accessible to new (and younger) fans who don't need to read the Parasol Protectorate series to be able to enjoy the young adult Finishing School series. The references that Parasol Protectorate readers would pick up on are woven in so seamlessly that new readers wouldn't feel like they are missing anything.
Etiquette & Espionage is light and amusing, with humorous prose delivered in a narrative voice well-suited to the story's Victorian era and sure to appeal to steampunk fans. ~ Allison
Readers will love the well-developed characters and the quirky charm imbued into every page, and will eagerly await the sequel! * Romantic Times * Carriger deploys laugh-out-loud bon mots on nearly every page . . . in a sparkling start to the Finishing School series. * Publishers Weekly, starred review * This genre-blender will introduce fans of Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls and Jennifer Lynn Barnes The Squad to a world of mechanical maids and flying machines, while bringing a spy-school romp to readers of the weightier worlds of Cassandra Clare and Scott Westerfeld. * Kirkus, starred review * . . . cleverly Victorian methods of espionage, witty banter, lighthearted silliness, and a ship full of intriguingly quirky people. * Booklist, starred review *
