Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Garriger

Waistcoats and Weaponry
Finishing School Book the Third
by Gail Carriger

Published:  Little Brown and Company, Hachette Book Group
Format: Hardback
Copyright: 2014
Pages: 298
Genre: Fiction - Steampunkish
Source: own book

From the cover:

Class is back in session. Sophronia continues finishing school in style – with a steel-bladed fan secreted in the folds of her ball gown, of course. Such a fashionable choice of weapon comes in handy when Sophronia, her best friend Dimity, sweet sootie Soup, and the charming Lord Felix Mersey hijack a suspiciously empty train to return their chum Sidheag to her werewolf pack in Scotland. But when Sophronia discovers they are being trailed by a dirigible of Picklemen and flywaymen, she unearths a plot that threatens to throw all of London into chaos. With her friends in mortal danger, Sophronia must sacrifice what she holds most dear – [Oh good grief what a pack of drivel! I didn't read this before I read the book and I am sorry to have now.]

Obviously if you haven't read the first two books, you can't start with this one. And if you have been reading these books, and enjoying them, you don't need the silly description on the cover to want to pick it up. I loved the first book, liked the second, and was really, really looking forward to reading this installment. I snapped up a copy as soon as I saw it in the bookstore. 

Now that I have finished the book, I am not quite sure what to say. For this most part, I found this installment pretty disappointing. The complaint that I had about the last book Curtsies & Conspiracies concerning the developing love triangle - well that stuff was amped up to ten this time. I was bored out of my skull by 'relationship drama' stuff when I was in high school and I find it pretty darn boring now too. Especially as it was not handled in a way that felt real or interesting. However, I can live with it, as long as there is something else going on plot-wise, but in this book the plot took forever to get going. Things didn't really get into swing until the last quarter of the book. The overarching plot didn't actually develop much more from the state of things in the previous book (we see where the whole prototypes and how they could be used thing spelled out in capital letters this time). The questions I had about how vampires work in the world from the last book didn't get answered. In fact, for the most part, there was very little world building going on. 

As for the ending. Well - it was unexpected. I will give it that. I don't know - I was kind of, hum, that was kind of out of the blue. Plus - I am not one of those people who think vampires or werewolves are sexy. Sorry.

I am not nearly as excited about the next book. Sigh.