There is no romance in Etiquette & Espionage, just hints of one that could develop uite beautifully in the future. Of all the crossover characters, I enjoyed meeting a nine-year-old Genevieve Lefoux the most and was delighted to learn that she preferred boys’ clothes even as a little girl. It wasn’t just the world that was the same, some of the characters showed up too, albeit as much younger versions of themselves. But in the end, the most interesting parts were those links to the Parasol Protectorate series. This is the part I’m most conflicted about, but it’s also one I would have been glad to overlook had the rest been interesting enough.

It has been tried before, and as far as I’m concerned, it never, ever worked.Īs a fan, I loved revisiting Alexia’s universe, but at the same time, seeing it reused left me with the impression that Gail Carriger took the lazy way out. A good sense of humor is not a band aid you can just slap over a pile of problems and hope your readers forget they’re there. What started out as entertaining, promising read, ended up almost suffocating me with repetitiveness and lack of an actual plot. Not for our main character, Miss Sophronia Angelina Temminnick, and certainly not for me. “No one said learning etiquette and espionage would be easy, my dear.”Īnd it wasn’t easy, my dears. “But I have advanced eyelash fluttering to practice, and a mathematics problem concerning how to order strychnine and a lamb dinner on a limited budget, and three chapters on court etiquette to read, and my handkerchief to starch, and the quadrille to memorize!” Etiquette and Espionage had neither, I’m afraid. In Parasol Protectorate, Carriger’s trademark sense of humor was what made the series stand out, but there was also some substance underneath, and the plots kept me engaged and interested. It took me a while to put my thoughts in order and figure out exactly what went wrong, at least for me, and even now I can only explain a part of it. However, I don’t think Etiquette and Espionage was up to her usual standards, and it makes me very sad that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped I would. The Parasol Protectorate series is a favorite of mine, despite losing some steam in the later installments. 2.5 stars, rounded up because I'm feeling particularly generous today.īefore any of you start plotting my painful and untimely death, I should point out that I’m a big fan of Ms.

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger