Monday, August 26, 2024

Waistcoats and Weaponry
Written by Gail Carriger
Narrated by Moira Quirk

In the third year at Madame Geraldine’s Finishing School for Young Ladies of Quality, many things are happening. Sephronia’s least favorite person, Monique, is no longer at the school, so you might think this year would be much more pleasant. However, the Kingaire wolfpack had staged a mutiny against the crown, and Sidheag feels that she must rejoin them as they are now without an Alpha Wolf. She feels that she is desperately needed there and is determined to find her way there, no matter what. So clearly Sephronia  and Dimity are determined to help her. And not wanting them to face the dangers of the journey alone, their friend Soap, the head Sootie, won’t let them go without him, and Lord Felix Mersey is also determined to help. Naturally, Soap and Felix don’t see eye to eye on much, as both are falling in love with Sephronia, though she doubts the suitability of either as a potential future husband, though she is extremely fond of them both, and possibly even a little in love with each of them as well. With the girls disguised as young men, they hide aboard on a suspiciously empty train headed in the right direction, and soon find themselves involved in another adventure that requires all of the girls' espionage skills to survive.


I listened to the audiobook version of this story, and enjoyed it just as much as I did the previous books in the series. The narration was well done with each voice quite distinct from each other, leaving no difficulty in determining who was speaking at any point in the story. This book forces each of the characters to face significant changes in their lives, and ones that they may not have been quite ready for. It is a difficult journey for each of them, and not all of them reach the ending unscathed. I cannot tell you exactly what happened without including massive spoilers, which I don’t want to do. You’ll enjoy the story more if you discover what happens for yourself. But I can tell you that near the end of this one, my heart was nearly breaking for several of them. This one is a bit of an emotional story at the end, and will very likely have a significant impact on other books from this author that take place in this world.


What I can say is that I have been greatly enjoying listening to this series, and am looking forward to seeing what happens in the next book. I think anyone who has enjoyed any of Ms. Carrigers other steampunk novels will enjoy this book, though I highly recommend having read the previous books in the Finishing School series before this one. It will help everything to make much more sense if you do. Those who enjoy reading Steampunk or any of Ms. Carriger’s series will also enjoy this one, as while it takes place slightly before some of her other series, many of the same characters do make appearances in this book as well.


https://amzn.to/4dCrzsX(Amazon link)


https://books2read.com/u/bPGv9A (Books2Read link to other vendors)


Amazon requires me to state that I have an Amazon Associates account that I use to generate the links to the books on their website. Purchasing something after following those links will earn a few pennies for me off the sale, though as of yet I have not earned anything from my Amazon Associate links.


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