Eh... Etiquette and Espionage

I'm not sure about all of you, but when I read a book I love, I cannot help but shout it from the rooftops. Likewise if I feel that a book has not been worth my time or the pages it was written on. You will find examples of both here in my blog, but I hardly ever find myself talking about the books that fill the cracks in between. Those books that you read,, semi-enjoy, and only remember when you look back on your reading challenge on Goodreads to marvel at your own reading prowess.

Etiquette and Espionage was one of those books for me.

I am a huge fan of steam-punk, when it is done right. This book (and the following books in the series) do not fail when it comes to the fascinating concepts that accompany the genre, but rather fall into a realm of the expected. Creative and cute, it did nothing more than entertain me.

If pure and simple entertainment is what you are looking for, please pick this book up. It has everything that a middle school girl would want out of a book: the mean older girl who the main character somehow upstages despite years of difference in experience, an exaggerated Victorian England where marriage is on the forefront of girl's mind, and a little bit of spy-girl action mixed in with a handsome werewolf and a vampire for a teacher.

The best way I can describe how I felt about this story is to compare to modern day movies. You know the kind where the bright colors are a bit too bright, the main character a bit too quirky, and everything is in your face about being different or experimental? This is that style in novel form. Unbelievable characters, settings, and caricatures of an era that most readers are too familiar with to feel comfortable with the distortions that occur.

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