Curties And Conspiracies (Finishing School #2), by Gail Carriger

Synopsis: 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.

Thoughts: After reading the first two books of this series, I am terribly disappointed. The Parasol Protectorate series was incredibly fun and always a great read. This prequel series has been boring and slow, almost painful to get through. So now I wait a year till The Custard Protocol series, a sequel to the Parasol Protectorate, comes out.

Etiquette & Espionage (Finishing School, Book The First), by Gail Carriger

Synopsis:  It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners--and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but the also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage--in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.

Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail's legions of fans have come to adore. 

Thoughts: What a fun read! Not only is it a good story line, but for those of us who have read the Parasol Protectorate series, it provides back story for many of the characters we met there. It also introduces new characters to flesh out the plot. Victorian era clothing, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, spies, airships, mechanical dogs.....what more can you ask for?  :)