The courses offered at Madame Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality are wide and varied, everything from the proper way to serve tea to the best way to administer poison. Manners and Mutiny finds them in their final year. Sophronia and her friends have little time to finish polishing their skills and find patrons for them in their unique line of work. Sophronia is also determined to figure out just what the Picklemen have been working toward; she has thwarted them several times over the last few years, but they clearly still have something in mind. And, there is the lingering personal question of what to do about Soap, former Sootie and now werewolf, who is clearly an unsuitable match, but who figures in her plans and thoughts far more than he should.
Manners and Mutiny has all the mystery, the spy work, and humor of the previous entries in the series. As things are drawing to a close, the book is somewhat darker: the stakes are higher, and now that they are all older, hearts are more easily broken, but there are still plenty of moments where I laughed out loud, and clever turns of phrase that I read out loud. In this book, Sophronia is learning more about herself, her friends, and her foes, and finding that life is more complicated than even a student of the Finishing School had ever thought, and some things are not as permanent as she assumed. It is a tale of growing up, with the good, the bad, and the funny all in view.
Manners and Mutiny is recommended for fans of historical romance, mystery, humor, fashion, and tea.
The Finishing School Series is now complete and available:
Etiquette & Espionage
The Finishing School Series is set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate (Aimed at an adult audience) and the Custard Protocol series (Young Adult and still in progress). Adult readers who enjoy one are likely to enjoy all of them.
