Wednesday, 29 July 2020

A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin

Strictly speaking the 'Stranje House' series is pitched at a YA (Young Adult) audience, but some of the best books I've read recently have been YA, so don't let that phase you. The first book in the series, A School for Unusual Girls, catapults us into a unique premise - a touch of the superhuman wrapped within regency period espionage, mystery and romance. A little bit Marvel meets Pride & Prejudice.

Stranje House presents as a finishing school for wayward young ladies - those who have exasperated their families, defied their governesses or been the cause of public scandal. Unbeknownst to aristocratic Lord & Lady parents, the school is actually a front. Forget etiquette lessons, these young ladies are being trained as unofficial Foreign Office agents in the arts of diplomacy, spying and kicking butt.

Each young lady is chosen for the unique gift they possess, gifts previously misunderstood and manifest only by scandalous behaviour. The first of these ladies we meet, Georgiana, has unfortunately burnt half her father's manor to the ground after a chemistry experiment gone awry. But hiding behind this beautiful seventeen year old is an astonishing mind. Desperate not to be banished to the foreboding Stranje House, Georgiana argues, "What if Sir Isaac Newton's parents had packed him off to a school to reform his manners?" But her parents, appalled by her brain, send her away, unknowingly into a dangerous plan to outmaneuver Napoleon. You see the Foreign Office have heard whispers about a remarkable ink she has been developing, which will allow their agents, hidden within Napoleon's ranks, to double-code communications. But all does not go according to plan, and we find the Stranje girls in France rescuing the very agents meant to protect them.

A fast-paced entertaining series, with just the right mix of intrigue, witty dialogue, action and romance (who can resist a dashing spy). And being YA fiction you can confidently introduce this regency-girl-power series to your daughters, nieces, or granddaughters too.     

In Books Two and Three, the Napoleonic war continues, first through the eyes of Tess the prophetic dreamer and then Jane, the strategic mastermind. Books Four and Five, releasing soon, round out the series.

Link to Stranje House Novel eBooks

Posted by Jaime

     

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