Book: Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

Published November 2013 by Little Brown Books For Young Readers|223 pages

Where I Got It: the Nook store

Series: Finishing School #2

Genre: YA Steampunk

You can find Curtsies & Conspiracies on goodreads & Gail Carriger on twitter and her website

Goodreads Summary: 

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:

I really liked Curtsies & Conspiracies!  It really is a Gail Carriger book, and it was a fun book to read!

Sophronia has quite a few adventures in this book, mostly because the school goes to London!  We see quite a few characters from her Parasol Protectorate series, and I really liked seeing them well before the start of that series.  I really do like Sophronia, who is such a great, adventurous person.  She has a lot to deal with, like being ignored by her friends, and realizing that she really does need them around her in order to do well as an intelligencer.

I have to say that I loved seeing an appearance from Lord Akeldama- he is the Lord Akeldama that I know and love from the Parasol Protectorate, and I’m glad he (so far) hasn’t changed much.  I really hope we start to see more of a connection to that series in some way.

I’m not completely in love with the characters, even though I really like them, especially the relationships that Sophronia has with Vieve and with Soap.  I already know where Vieve’s story is headed, but I still like seeing her before she becomes the Vieve that we see in the Parasol Protectorate.  And I really want to see where Soap’s story is headed, because I find him so interesting!

I really do love the combination of steampunk and paranormal, and Carriger does it so well.  Especially in this book, where we get more about this world- all of the inventions, and things that all of these different groups want.  I also love that we see fashion and etiquette, and it gives the book a very historical feel.

Let’s Rate It:

I really liked Curtsies & Conspiracies!  I have no idea where this series is going, but I am glad to be along for the ride, because this is such a fun series to read.  Curtsies & Conspiracies gets 4 stars.