Book Review: Ambush or Adore

Ambush or Adore by Gail Carriger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I highly recommend that you read Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series before reading the three stories that make up the Delightfully Deadly series. Having said that, the Delightfully Deadly series can be read in any order.

Ambush or Adore is the third, and at the time of this review, the last book in the series. It focuses on Agatha Woosmoss, one of the students at Mademoiselle Geraldine’s finishing school. Her story unfolds through a contemplative review of her life, from childhood to present.

But, since this is a romance novel, there must be someone after her heart. That someone might be Pillover Plumleigh-Teignmott, a professor of ancient languages at Oxford University. Though they’ve known each other for decades, their professions prevent them from being together except for those rare times when Agatha manages to find her way home.

She’s a deft spy, with an expertise in vanishing in plain sight. Pillover has trained himself to spot her where no one else can, but most of the time she’s beyond even his reach. How can this possibly be a story of their romance? Well, as the popular saying goes, ‘it’s complicated’.

While I enjoyed the entire book, I have to say that in the last three chapters Gail Carriger pulled out all the stops, immersing me in absolutely beautiful wordsmithery, perfectly conveyed heartache, wistfulness, longing, acceptance… I really could go on with blathering about it but I’ll just add she left me in tears and be done with it.

PS: As a bonus, I very much enjoyed learning more about the backstory of my favorite Parasolverse character, the owner of a certain hat shop!

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