Rating: 2.5 hoots out of 5 hoots
Published: May 3 2020
Number of pages: 240
Format: electronic advanced reading copy
Publisher: Gail Carriger LLC
Genre: espionage, romantic comedy, supernatural
Audience: adult
Get it at: Chapters Indigo
Shelve it at: Goodreads
Summary:
A vampire hive descending into madness. A beautiful spy with a sparkly plan. A handsome bodyguard who must keep both vampires and the spy from killing each other. A charming story of espionage, love, and makeovers set in the Parasol Protectorate universe.
My Review:
An electronic advanced reading copy was received from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Minor spoilers below!
I just want to say a big thank you to Gail Carriger for reaching out to me about her next new book in the Delightfully Deadly series. This series is the spin off from the Finishing School books and follows after Poison or Protect.
Dimity Plumleigh-Teignmott is back! For those who don’t know or haven’t read The Finishing Schools series, Dimity is Sophronia’s best friend and sidekick with a love for all things sparkly, hence her codename Sparkles in this story. After graduating, Dimity has earned her place in the Honey Bee where she takes on espionage missions for the War Office. A fitting position for a Finishing School graduate who has a knack for flirting while gaining many marriage proposals from her unsuspecting targets, and keeping dangerous yet, fashionable weapons hidden in her purse.
In her latest mission, she is accompanied with a handsome gentleman named Sir Crispin assigned to assist Dimity of infiltrating the vampire hive and save their queen. A few other Finishing School characters make an appearance including Lord Akeldama and Lord Maccon. As much as I love seeing these characters from Parasol Protectorate again, what I didn’t love as much was the story development.
It’s really hard for me to pay attention to the story when most of the time, my attention span was dwindling. It’s even harder for me to explain why my attention span was dwindling without spoiling the story a little so here it goes: part of their plan for the vampire hive was to redecorate the whole place. So most of the time I was reading about Dimity’s colour schemes, new wallpapers, new frills and lace, and all the rest of her interior design plans to make the vampire hive more habitable (and fashionable). This is where my attention span drifted off, I have little interest reading about someone else’s plans for new curtains and all the latest trends in interior decorating. But I can understand why it was written in here because this is Dimity inside her element.
There is no one else from Finishing School who has more eye for fashion and decorating then Dimity, and if you’ve read the series, Dimity mentions again in this story how she always wanted to settle down with a nice gentleman and live a normal happy life hosting stylish parties. So if you look at it in that perspective, this is Dimity being Dimity and I respect that. I was just expecting a more action thrilling espionage adventure like in the Finishing School series. But rest assured there were other thrilling moments like the romantic tension between Sir Crispin and Dimity who knew their own feelings before the mission and it started building up as they were undercover. There were some steamy moments but they didn’t last too long, not when they are inside a vampire hive!
All in all this was a satisfying story but it wasn’t up my alley. The reason why I love Finishing School was because of the thrilling adventures, the unsuspecting enemies, and young ladies running around in their petticoats with hidden steel fans and weapons you can never imagine could hide underneath a ladies dress. There wasn’t a lot of that in this story but it was still nice to see Dimity again and in her element, and the events in the epilogue was a lovely way to finish Dimity’s story all wrapped up in a nice bow.
Note to the reader: This story is read as a standalone so you don’t have to read Poison or Protect before picking up Defy or Defend. I still don’t know how many more titles Gail Carriger is adding into this series but if there is a next story coming out, it will be focused on another alumni from Finishing School. It would be nice to see Sophronia again as I love to read what she’s been up to!
Hoot Reads Books 