As I write this, I have approximately 170 books on my "to read" list. I also have a desk job that allows me to listen to audiobooks to my hearts content while I work on the assigned tasks of the day. This seems like a wonderful match that should allow me to cut down considerably on my ever growing and mutating "to read" list that seems to increase exponentially every other day. That is, it would be the case if I wasn't going off and downloading completely new and unheard of books in place of any of the 170 on my list because I think it sounds fun and exciting. 
 Such is life, I guess. 
 As mentioned, I picked up Etiquette & Espionage on a whim. While perusing Overdrive to find a new audiobook, somehow this little YA gem caught my eye on the sides of one of the pages. Whoever wrote "don't judge a book by its cover" clearly never met a designer because that's pretty much all I do. Sure, if I hear about a book beforehand and it sounds interesting and later I discover that its cover is rainbow colored word art I will most likely still add it to the list, but shelf reading? You better hope your cover is at least presentable because otherwise I will not read the jacket summary. All of this is a roundabout way of saying I love Etiquette & Espionage's cover and it is what originally drew me to the book. 
 Sophronia is a 14 year old unruly girl whose Victorian parents have just about had enough of her unladylike antics and send her off to Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. Sophronia's mother desperately hopes that the Finishing School will return Sophronia to her a proper lady, learned in the ways of etiquette and civilized fair, but Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy is not solely meant to train young ladies into the proper ways of well mannered women, but also the secretive ways of espionage. Oh, and also one of the professors is a vampire. There's also a werewolf on staff. With mechanical steampunk maids and butlers and an adorable little mechanical animal (mechanimal) named Bumbersnoot. 
 This book came out in 2013 but I was immediately struck with an intense wave of nostalgia. Before Twilight started the vampire trend in YA novels, or Hunger Games begun the dystopian influx, there was a time when spies were the in thing. Books like Artemis Fowl and Alex Rider were immensely popular when I was in middle school, and I remember reading series after series of "teenagers as spies" novels in their wake. Etiqueete & Espionage is definitely along the same vein, with an overall lighthearted tone to the realistically dangerous and mentally challenging task of spy work, but still having moments of stress and danger for our heroine. Above all else, this book was simply FUN. WE HAVE A MECHANICAL STEAMPUNK DOGGIE NAMED BUMBERSNOOT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, HOW CAN YOU NOT ENJOY THAT?? Ladies are learning how to properly curtsy while also learning how to "faint" in order to cause a distraction while pickpocketing your target! There is an old governess named Mrs. Barnaclegoose who catches Sophronia dismantling a dumbwaiter for science! Did I mention Bumbersnoot the mechanical steam dog that at one point is disguised as a handbag? 
 That is not to say that the book did not have flaws. For certain, it is not the most eloquently written of novels, the plot is very simplistic, the tension is not overly present, but I wasn't particularly bothered by that. I don't NEED works of high literary fiction in my YA novel about Victorian ladies at spy finishing school that floats in the air (did I mention? The school is on an airship that floats from place to place). My only two main criticisms were in regards to how rushed the ending was (I would have liked to see more of the aftermath of Sophronia's schemes with her sister's coming out ball in regards to the school) and a somewhat uncomfortable subplot involving a soot cleaner named Soap. Soap is great. I love Soap. He's a lower class worker in the school's boiler room who the proper ladies are MOST CERTAINLY NOT supposed to acknowledge. He also is black. Given the time period, I feel like the author intended to remain true to history but the occasional asides and remarks towards his race came across as extremely awkward to me. Please do not take this to mean that the girls are outwardly racist towards him. Most disdain has to do with his social class not his skin tone, which is seen more as a curiosity than a determent. It just felt uncomfortable for me that the only non white character was a extreme lower class boy who is seen as the lowest of the low due to his simple upbringing (he can't read and write, for example). He is, however, set up to be ushered to love interest island and Sophronia clearly does think of him as close to an equal as one would give her high lady status and his... not. I am all for the Sophronia <3 Soap ship, let us set sail! However, given the existence of werewolves and vampires and floating mechanical ships with mechanical maids and dogs, it felt very disappointing that those can be more easily accepted than non white characters in a Victorian setting.