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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
4.5 , Wonderful, especially on audio
By Kat Hooper
Originally posted at Fantasy Literature:Such games we play…. As if I didn’t have to hedge and speak in code most of the time, I must now do it as part of regular social interactions. No wonder Mademoiselle Geraldine’s has such success training the female aristocracy to be intelligencers. It’s most of our life already. ~Miss Sophronia TemminnickThe intrepid girls of Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality have returned in another completely charming YA adventure! After having possibly saved the world quite recently, the girls are back in school learning how to dance, do household accounting, speak demurely, faint properly, flutter their eyelashes, and assassinate people at the dinner table. Sophronia, our protagonist, isn’t quite sure why she’s learning these things or who she’ll be working for — all she knows is that she’s having fun and she does not want to be sent home.That is, until she makes the highest grade on the exam and invokes the jealousy of her classmates. Now she’s being ostracized, even by her best friend Dimity. What makes it worse is that Sophronia suspects there are evil plots and conspiracies afoot — they involve the werewolves and vampires and the first transcontinental airship flight through the ether. Oh, and of course, the mysterious “prototype.” While her friends aren’t talking to her, it seems that Sophronia will have to save the world without their aid. Fortunately, she has an arsenal of new skills, and she can always get some help from the sooties in the boiler room.As was its predecessor (Etiquette & Espionage), this second book in Gail Carriger’s FINISHING SCHOOL series is a fun blend of steampunk, mannerpunk, and paranormal fantasy aimed at young adults but certain to be enjoyed by any age. The characters are endearing, the setting is delightfully fantastical (a series of connected airships), and the premise is hilarious (young ladies at a finishing school training to be assassins!). The fast-moving plot eventually becomes just absurd enough to be slightly madcap without going over the top — Carriger hits this balance perfectly. There’s a very minor style issue with Carriger’s occasional inconsistency with the narrative voice, but this is easily dismissed, especially since there’s an underlying sense of “isn’t this silly?” to the whole thing. These stories are adorable (I hate to use that word in a review, but it’s really what I think) and probably the most purely entertaining books I’ve read all year.If you haven’t yet read Etiquette & Espionage, I highly recommend that you do before moving on to Curtsies & Conspiracies. If you’re an audio reader, you simply MUST MUST MUST try the audio versions (Hachette Audio) narrated by the brilliant British actress Moira Quirk. Her wonderful character voices and perfect interpretation of Carriger’s subtle humor makes Curtsies & Conspiracies even more entertaining than it is in print. It’s an audio treat, and one of the few audiobooks that I know I’ll listen to again. If you’re not an audio reader yet, this is a very good place to become converted.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.A Fun-Filled Steampunk Adventure!
By Believer
"Curtsies & Conspiracies" is the second book in Gail Carriger's young adult "Finishing School " series that weaves the fashion and etiquette of Victorian England into mystery and adventure aboard a dirigible school for young ladies learning the art of espionage.In this story Sophronia Temminnick has just completed her first six months of training and is being ostracized by her schoolmates because of her exceptionally high marks. Undaunted, she prowls the airship at night, listening in on teachers' conversations and spending time with Vieve, Soap and the sooties in the boiler room. What she learns is that a trip is being planned to London and that boys from Bunson and Lacroix's Boys Polytechnique will be travelling with them. Her curiosity aroused she uncovers clues to a plot to kidnap two of the students, and a conspiracy that involves supernaturals and humans. In this comedy of manners and espionage Sophronia begins to hone her skills as a rooky intelligencer, and finds herself lured into a love triangle.The well-written plot set in a steampunk setting is filled with twists and turns as Sophronia grapples with a plan to stop a conspiracy that endangers not only her best friend and her brother, but the welfare of her country. As events progress our heroine is not only troubled by the paranormals and humans that invade her life with all their idiosyncrasies , but she's mesmerized by technology and inventions ; the guidance valve, hurlie, obstructor and sputter-skates that fascinate the reader as well. As the tension mounts and the action escalates Sophronia struggles not only with the forces that endanger her life but with her heart as it drifts between two boys from different classes and an unwelcome attraction to a vampire.Like Gail Carriger's first novel "Etiquette & Espionage" the characters are well-developed and complex with all their weaknesses and strengths. In this story over- confident, curious, resilient, and authoritative Sophronia returns with her friends; the stubborn, chatty, faint-hearted Dimity Plumleigh-Teignmott, the indifferent and sometimes crass Sidheag Maccon, and the shy,soft-spoken, and timid Agatha Woosmoss. Their school adversaries, Monique de Pelouse and Preshea Buss, are still just as proud, manipulative, and haughty.But it is the Pistons from the evil genius training academy and many of the teachers that begin to show their true natures. Pillover, Dimity's brother is still incredibly smart, but insecure, Felix Colborne, Viscount Mersey is arrogant, charming and very persistent and Lord Dingleproops seems shallow, foolish and biddable. Of the teachers, Professor Braithwope is easy-going, friendly and dedicated while Professor Beatrice Lefoux is stiff, intractable and austere.Of all the memorable characters in this novel whether human, werewolf or vampire I loved Phineas B. Crow (Soap) the sootie who seems to know far more than he should about the upper class and Vieve Lefoux, the cheeky scamp who dreams of being an evil genius.Although the climax left more questions than answers and was a little disappointing, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will look for the next in the series.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.Intrigue and Hints of Romance
By Tiana Smith
I enjoyed reading this one, but like the first, I was still mildly confused at times. I don't know if it would help were I to read her adult books that take place in this world, but I'm going off what I've got. There's just a lot to keep track of. For example, you have werewolves, vampires, picklemen, the government, the shadow council, the boys school for evil geniuses and the girl's schools for espionage. Those are all the groups or factions involved. Plus, you have steampunk world building, paranormal, and an altered historical type setting. Every group has their own agenda and history, so I got a bit lost.That said, these books are fast and fun to read. I think Soap is my favorite character and I can't wait to know his full story and background. He's obviously more than he makes himself seem, so I'm surprised Sophronia hasn't figured that out yet.While inappropriate for younger readers, the description of male genitalia made me laugh - the rest of the book is clean for younger readers though. It's really just that one paragraph that made it obvious she's more used to writing for adults.I'm excited to pick up the next one to see where she takes this series. Though, I wish I had read this on Kindle rather than hardback - she has a wide vocabulary and I didn't know some of the words - which is definitely unusual for me!
