Review: Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

Book Review

Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger
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Synopsis
Does one need four fully grown foxgloves for decorating a dinner table for six guests? Or is it six foxgloves to kill four fully grown guests?

Sophronia’s first year at Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality has certainly been rousing! For one thing, finishing school is training her to be a spy (won’t Mumsy be surprised?). Furthermore, Sophronia got mixed up in an intrigue over a stolen device and had a cheese pie thrown at her in a most horrid display of poor manners.

Now, as she sneaks around the dirigible school, eavesdropping on the teachers’ quarters and making clandestine climbs to the ship’s boiler room, she learns that there may be more to a field trip to London than is apparent at first. A conspiracy is afoot–one with dire implications for both supernaturals and humans. Sophronia must rely on her training to discover who is behind the dangerous plot-and survive the London Season with a full dance card.

In this bestselling sequel to New York Times bestselling Etiquette & Espionage, class is back in session with more petticoats and poison, tea trays and treason. Gail’s distinctive voice, signature humor, and lush steampunk setting are sure to be the height of fashion this season.

What I thought
This was a re-read for me, the first time I consumed this book was as an audiobook from my local library. Anyone out there looking for audio books and can’t afford a subscription I would check out the apps Overdrive and Libby and connect up with your local Library. Anyway at some point this year I decided that I wanted to read the books from Gail Carriger’s Parasolverse in chronological order. This leads me to start the journey of the Parasolverse Read-Along in August 2018. If you would like more information about the read-along please visit my post about it here. At the beginning of each month, I will have a brief read-along post go up letting you know what the book for that month is. Now on to why you are really reading this post.

Curtsies and Conspiracies is the second book in the Finishing School Series. This world is a blend of paranormal, steampunk, and some romance. I love this world so much! It’s like someone sat down and took everything that I love and put it all together. Sophronia has now been at Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing School for Girls of Quality for sit months and it is now time for a review.

Does one need four fully grown foxgloves for decorating a dinner table for six guests? Or is it six foxgloves to kill four fully grown guests?

In this installment, the Season is upon us and the dirigible is leaving the moors and heading to London. Why is a covert school going to announce its self in London? Something is afoot.

Just thought I would share the below quote:)

One woman’s Petunia is another one’s poison.

I loved watching these characters grow and learn real lessons. They deal with real emotions and lean that there are real consequences for their actions. As a parent of a teenager, I love to see this in media, too many times characters do not have to deal with the consequences of their actions and that does not do justice to younger readers. When your child gets to a certain age there is only so much that they listen too because they think they know better. It is just a result of them being that age not a child and not yet an adult. (yes I know have the Brittney Spears song going through my head).

One thing that I really like about these books is that each book wraps up nicely and there is not a huge cliffhanger. You can feel satisfied with the ending yes you are left wanting more but not to the point of wanting to scream NOOOOOO when you get to that last page. Gail make you feel so invested in these characters that you feel like you need to see what happens next. No matter which character you are rooting for they all have an arc and you see them grow in some way. It takes a truly talented person to not just improve your main characters but tries to improve all of your side characters at the same time so that no one is just singled out.

The budding romance in this story I love. From the outside, they do not belong however everyone sees it and I love how some of the other characters encourage it for the happiness of those involved. I am also for a sucker when one of the characters is quite blind to it.

My Rating: /5 5 Stars