Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger
Published: November 14th 2014 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Sophronia continues her second year at finishing school in style—with a steel-bladed fan secreted in the folds of her ball gown, of course. Such a fashionable choice of weapon comes in handy when Sophronia, her best friend Dimity, sweet sootie Soap, and the charming Lord Felix Mersey stowaway on a train to return their classmate Sidheag to her werewolf pack in Scotland.
No one suspected what—or who—they would find aboard that suspiciously empty train. Sophronia uncovers a plot that threatens to throw all of London into chaos and she must decide where her loyalties lie, once and for all.
I think this was my favourite instalment so far, purely because I feel like it was more plot based rather than character based. With the first two books in this series, I felt like everything happened too quickly at the end and it all wrapped up a little too nicely – I wanted it to be dragged out a little more and that is exactly what I got in this book!
Whilst the book was more plot based, there was still some character development going on. We got to see more of Felix sort of half way through the book and, where I quite liked him as a romantic interest in the previous book, I don’t really see him this way anymore. I was worried we weren’t going to see much of him in this book because there wasn’t much detail given on the letters they were sending back and forth, but I am glad that we were re – introduced later. I do feel like he showed his true colours in a sense and, whilst they could maybe be friends, I don’t think he would be a good fit for Sophronia in the end.
I liked the development of the plot in this book! I feel like things started much earlier and they were also dragged out to give us more information and action – which I felt was lacking in the first two books! I loved watching Sophronia solve the issues at hand and to get around the issues the group were having as a whole. It was definitely more action packed and I am looking forward to seeing how this plays out in the final instalment! I am a bit worried that it won’t wrap up nicely in the last book because I do feel like they have a lot to do before the issues will be solved. I guess we shall see!
I would have liked to have seen/heard more from Lord Akeldama. Aside from what we learnt in the previous book when we briefly saw him, we only really see him sending gifts to Sophronia. We do learn what he wants to a point, but I would have liked to have seen him at some point or maybe have more detail on the letters that were sent etc.
I was happy to see more of the dewan, though. I am definitely interested to see how Sophronia’s relationship with him will develop in the final instalment after that ending. I do like him as a character, despite the fact that he is a bit rough round the edges and I am definitely looking forward to getting to know him better!
All in all, I really enjoyed this book and I am definitely looking forward to the next one! I am glad that it decided to focus on plot development, rather than character and I’m interested to see how this is all going to wrap up in the end! I gave this 4/5 stars.
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