Review ~ Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School #1) by Gail Carriger

ebook received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Release Date: February 5th 2013

Publisher: Little Brown Books

Description:
Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is the bane of her mother's existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea--and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right--but it's a different kind of finishing. Mademoiselle Geraldine's certainly trains young ladies in the finer arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also in the other kinds of finishing: the fine arts of death, diversion, deceit, espionage, and the modern weaponries. Sophronia and her friends are going to have a rousing first year at school.

My Opinion

DNF at 45%


I tried to push on with this book and give it a chance, but I'm just not enjoying it. I'm finding myself more and more bored as the story goes on. I really wanted to like this as it had an intriguing concept, but I didn't like the execution. For me, there wasn't enough action and the lessons weren't very interesting. I'm not sure if it's because I've read other spy school books so expected more, but I wasn't sure what this book was. It was like a mixture of paranormal, historical spy, steampunk and I just didn't think it worked. It sounded good, but it's not for me unfortunately.