Hello readers, David here. For this week’s Must Have Monday I have chosen to go for some steampunk. ETIQUETTE & ESPIONAGE is Gail Carriger’s first YA novel and is a spin off from her hugely popular Parasol Protectorate series for adults. If you are in the mood for a quirky adventure then I am told that this is the author to pick up. Here is a bit more about it:

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 the bane of her mother’s existence. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper etiquette at tea–and god forbid anyone see her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. She enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But little do Sophronia or her mother know that this is a school where ingenious young girls learn to finish, all right–but it’s a different kind of finishing. Mademoiselle Geraldine’s certainly trains young ladies in the finer arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also in the other kinds of finishing: the fine arts of death, diversion, deceit, espionage, and the modern weaponries. Sophronia and her friends are going to have a rousing first year at school.

First in a four book YA series set 25 years before the Parasol Protectorate but in the same universe.

The book is due for release on February 5th 2013, so not a huge wait for this one. For more information about the book or the author, check out Gail’s website www.gailcarriger.com.