Nocturnal Book Reviews

4.5/5
What a riot this book was! So fun and lively. It's short, bright and a very fast read. After tired ending of Timeless this feels invigorating, light and humorous, and I hope Gail will continue writing in the same manner.

Etiquette and Espionage is a YA book on younger side of the genre as the main character, Saphronia, is only fourteen. That's the other thing in this book - the names are hilarious: Sophronia Temminnick, Dimity Plumleigh-Teignmott, Mrs. Barnaclegoose, Bandersnoot...

There are few names we are familiar with, but this book is happening before Parasol Protectorate series so Niall and Mademoiselle Lefoux are very different from how we used to know them.

Sophronia is a delightful, adventurous and fearless young tomboy and spy in training. She is the only covert recruit in the finishing school who doesn't realise where she is going until she gets there. The rest of the girls have generations of family ties to the school. However, she has a talent to be in the right place in the right time and gets right in the middle of spy intrigue with flywaymen, secret technologies and an older student who hid a very important prototype and refuses to tell the teachers where it is, putting the whole school under the threat.

Etiquette and Espionage is charming and lovely, and I think it's suitable for all ages starting from middle grade, especially if you want to introduce your child to steampunk, - I can't find a better way to do it! Recommended.