Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger

Summary (from Goodreads):

Sophronia continues second year finishing school in style -- with a steel-bladed fan secreted in the folds of her ball gown. She, best friend Dimity, sweet sootie Soap, and charming Lord Felix Mersey stow away on train to return classmate Sidheag to her werewolf pack in Scotland. No one suspects what or who would be aboard the suspiciously empty train.

Review:

So few books have the ability to make me laugh out loud. These books do it to me every time. The adventure, the steam punk atmosphere, the characters, the romance, and the amazing humor really make this whole series stand out! This was a book I quickly deemed unreadable while in public. I literally found myself laughing hysterically at certain moments.

I love, love, love these books. There is so very little not to love in them. The characters are phenomenal! I wish I was as smart and cool as Sophronia. Her clever, loyal friends are all so real and fascinating. The boys are interesting too! I love the love triangle that had developed by the start of this book (and the three were stuck in one train car for so very long too), and I super loved the conclusion Sophronia had reached about where her love truly lies in this one too.

There was never a dull moment. Between the seduction lessons, the bladed fan battling, the werewolf politics, the covering for one’s friends, the parties, the dancing, the disguising, the problem solving, train-stealing, gun shots, steam punk science, and battles with Picklemen, there wasn’t ever really a good moment to put this down. I read it in one day (2 sittings). And reading it kind of felt like I was indulging myself in one giant box of chocolates that I didn’t have to share with anyone. That’s how good this book is; it’s chocolate you don’t have to share.

I found this installment to be a bit more suspenseful as well. The stakes were higher. Sophronia has to pick a side, pick a future. The injuries and sacrifices were more serious too. So, even though there was this delectable layer of hilariousness throughout everything, there was also a more serious –things must be decided layer, too.

I want to go back and re-read all of these books. They are that good and that entertaining. If you haven’t tried these yet, what are you waiting for? It gets a 10/10 from me.