Review - Curtsies and Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

Series: Finishing School #2

Genre: Paranormal Historical Fiction

Age Group: Young Adult

Paperback: 310 pages

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Rating: 4/5

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.

Carriger has a wonderful talent for writing stories that are amusing, charming and delightful. The first two books in this series have been as fun as the Parasol Protectorate Series. However, this second book felt like a holding pattern. Though I enjoyed seeing how the girls had matured, the supernatural parts of the story seemed to stall until very late in the book. Then we rushed to the finished.

I do quite enjoy how boys are a part of this story, but they do not distract our heroine from her mission or her friends. The girls are focused on their studies and each other more than they are worried about the boys except when they can be used as practice and to discover the enemy agenda. I could go on and on about how this is amazing and clever, but I will retrain myself.

Once again Carriger has integrated her paranormal series into the historical setting seamlessly. I love the way this series sits in historical London like it actually happened that way. As a prequel this series is very interesting and I've already moved on to the next book because I cannot wait to find out where these girls end up.

My Last Review ----> The Three Musketeers