It All Falls Down (52 Weeks of Books Week Twenty-Eight)

From weaponry to mutiny, friends. Welcome to week 28.

Manners & Mutiny (Finishing School #4)

Gail Carriger, 2015, Little, Brown and Company

Summary:

Manners & Mutiny is the final installment in the Finishing School series, following Sophronia Temminnick's four years in a finishing and espionage training school. In Sophronia's final year, all of her training is put to the test when the full scale of the Picklemen's plotting with mechanicals is revealed.

Why I Read It:

It is the last book in the series, and was a fabulous gift to receive from my sisters for my birthday last year.

Side note: Now that we are out of borrowed territory, I feel like maybe this section can be eliminated? Let me know.

Opinion:

It was a series end fit for the Parasol Protectorate universe, that is for sure. The twists and turns made this one difficult to put down for even a few seconds before the afterword. If Sophronia was coming into her own in Waistcoats & Weaponry, she thoroughly proved herself as a master of espionage by the end. Getting caught in her attempt (with best friend Dimity) to break into the Records room in the first half of the novel is a reminder that even the best spy can't always stay out of trouble, and that their teachers do have experience with what they are teaching their students.

Also a fitting end? The fate of the dirigible home to Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. The Picklemen intended to use it as part of their dastardly plot, instead it crashes and burns in the middle of London.

As if the students and staff of a finishing and espionage training school would allow its campus to be used in such a way.

The love triangle I mentioned in my Waistcoats & Weaponry review? Over and done with. While Lord Mersey has a role to play in this installment, his appearance kills any lingering romantic notions. And Soap? Now that he is a werewolf pup in training under one of the most powerful werewolves in the country, he has swagger, and is not afraid to let Sophronia how he feels (a development I love). In the end, the two are in a perfectly unconventional relationship with love and espionage at the center.

Conclusion:

Beware Picklemen and mechanicals.

52 Weeks of Books Challenge? What is that? What book is Cat reviewing next week?

Read up here! Link: http://www.catpollockwrites.com/p/blog-page_30.html

Metaphors: Candles

I've recently fallen in love with candles. Since coming home from the World Race , I've bought at least one a month. My favorite candles are the ones that come in glass jars - because when they burn out, I can clean the remaining wax out and put the jars to other uses. Right now, that means they get cleaned out and packed away in anticipation of my move to Flagstaff. But as I was lighting one tonight (vanilla spice... Thanksgiving smells? Yes, please!), I saw a metaphor for writing flickering away in the flame licking at the wick and melting the wax. I suppose it could be a metaphor for life in general, but since the theme of this blog is writing... Well, you do the math.

Book Review: The Excalibur Alternative

Happy Thursday, everyone. Here is July's book review for general consumption. Since the book I am reviewing is the third in a series, a potential SPOILER WARNING is in effect if you have not read the Ranks of Bronze series. The Excalibur Alternative (Ranks of Bronze #3) David Weber, 2002, Baen Books Summary: It's just another day at war for Sir George Wincaster and the group of 14th-century English soldiers he leads until they are abducted by aliens who are part of the Galactic Federation. Stuck in outer space and used as mercenaries to conquer the populations of low-tech planets, they wonder if they will ever make their way home. An unexpected opportunity comes their way when a member of another alien race, who is also being subjugated by the Galactic Federation, approaches Sir George with a proposition to take over the ship and win back their freedom. Will he take them up on it, and what will the consequences be? Opinion: I confess, I did i...

[Five Minute Friday] Purpose

Fiber bars, strewn along the side of the road. There had to be at least a dozen of them, still in their wrappers and completely unopened. No box in sight. Really? That's about the reaction my younger sister and I had when we stumbled on them on our early morning run. Really? along with disgusted sighs about the wastefulness of it. These were the expensive ones, not a generic store brand that kind of tastes and kind of looks the same sometimes. So, when we weren't keeping an eye out for their box, we speculated about what had happened. And wondered how many more we were going to see before the end of our run. "Maybe they took one bite and thought they were gross," my sister said. "So they threw them out because they didn't want them anymore." I let out one of those disgusted sighs and nodded along with her theory. "Yeah, or they got in a huge fight, and threw them out in a fit of rage." "That's a possibility." And...

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