#Agatha Woosmoss

[quoteablebooks]

"A man of many motives," suggested Agatha darkly. "Or, worse, none at all," replied Sophronia

Agatha Woosmoss and Sophronia Temminnick Manner & Mutiny by Gail Carriger

[ayzrules]

finishing school girls + runway details! og pics from my lovely friend @bebemoon

[pdalicedraws]

Drew the Finishing School girls as an exercise in differentiating faces. I had a big fight with myself over whether to put them in ankle skirts for the teenagers they are or floor length skirts for the ladies they’re learning to be... went with the former and immediately regretted it because shoes are an eternal bafflement to me.

I happily devoured this delightful series and am now on to Custard Protocol! I’m having a wonderful time~

[rainytuesdayart]

Sophronia, Dimity, Sidheag and Agatha form the Finishing School series, reblog if you like them :)

Check out my parasolverse tag for more fan art!

[cicatrixtwigs]

So it struck me while reading Reticence that i feel the same way about the Finishing School ladies as i do about The Maurauders in Harry Potter. Only we’ve actually have a bunch of books about the Finishing School ladies. And they are a lot less... well... deceased.

I really love the choices Gail has made in setting her various works across different generations and timezones. We get to see the mortal characters at various life stages, and the immortals continuing their long games throughout the series.

Now... give me that book about the trio in Egypt please Miss Carriger. *grabby hands*

[ofkingair]

His Dark Materials/Finishing School mash-up. Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Academy for Young Ladies of Quality, still floating, still serving its purpose, only now there’s also classes for the pros and cons for daemon who settle from all over the animal kingdom.

Sidheag getting disapproving looks for her daemon constantly being a large, supernatural-inspired wolf. Sophronia scaling the sides of the great balloon with a quick and nimble sparrow. Dimity and her outrageous collars for her frequently-feline daemon. Agatha gently holding a teeny, tiny mouse.

Werewolves and vampires making everyone uncomfortable and terrified with their lack of daemons upon turning (or their link being stretched, like a witch’s daemon?). Young ladies artfully using unobtrusive, but beautiful forms for their daemon at high-class parties.

Just. The Finishing School in the heart of daemon-filled London.

[janersm]

And I saw him being nice to a kitten, once.

Agatha Woosmoss, Curtsies & Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

[quoteablebooks]

Is that a compliment?" Agatha shook her red curls. "You should take it as on, Sophronia. Remember what Lady Linette says about compliments?" "They are better than jewelry when hung about a girl." Dimity was suspicious. 'Which I've never quite believed, but if it's what you've got take it."

Sophronia Temminnick, Agatha Woosmoss, and Dimity Plumleigh-Teignmott Manners & Mutiny by Gail Carriger

[vassalady]

After Sidheag becomes a werewolf, she invites Agatha to visit.

Oh, but hey, I actually wrote something for the first time in forever! Finishing School/Parasol Protectorate work, takes place after Changeless, rated M, 2k, Sidheag/Agatha

[jeneelestrange]

I told you this was going to drive me to actually draw and upload things. *draws pentagram on the floor* Finishing School Fandom, I summon thee! Arise!

[rainytuesdayart]

Agatha Woosmoss is my last drawing in the Finishing School fanart series. Hope you enjoyed them!

Check out my other Parasolverse drawings

[quoteablebooks]

Genre: Adult, Historical Fiction, Romance

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Summary:

London’s best and most covert spy tries to escape the man who has always adored her. INTELLIGENCER Agatha Woosmoss, the Wallflower, is the greatest intelligencer of her generation. And no one knows she exists. She has been invisible, capable, and cunning for well over four decades. Her greatest skill is in her ability to go forever unnoticed. Except by one man. VERSUS INTELLECTUAL Pillover Plumleigh-Teignmott is a professor of ancient languages at Oxford University. He’s tried to ignore his training as an Evil Genius and live a quiet life away from politics and intrigue. When an assignment goes horribly wrong, Agatha must hide and heal. So she goes to ground with the only person who’s always kept her safe, Pillover. Can Pillover hold onto the deadly woman who specializes in getting away? Will Agatha realize that patience is indeed a virtue, and that perhaps it is good to be noticed by the one who waits? Spinning off from the Finishing School series, this story stands on its own and spans decades but was written after Defy or Defend. May contain vampires, old injuries, lost love, and the reappearance of many favorite characters.

*Opinions*

Ambush or Adore is the latest Delightfully Deadly novel that follows Agatha Woosmoss, The Wallflower, and Pillover Plumleigh-Teignmott through their decades of loving and losing each other. Their story is interwoven between the events of all the Parasolverse books, each one of them pulling gently on strings that have a ripple effect on the world. While I am sure that this can be read as a stand-alone novel and the relationship would still pull at the heartstrings, there was something truly special after reading all the novels to seeing how these two characters who thought so little of themselves changed this universe so profoundly. However, that is kind of the point of Agatha and Pillover’s story, one does not have to be bright, flashy, and loud to make a profound difference. 

If you are the type of reader who is more interested in a cohesive plot instead of characters and their relationships, you may not enjoy this book. Especially if you haven’t read other entries into the Parasolverse series. However, I love character-focused stories, and Ambush or Adore is definitely a character-driven slow-burn romance and I couldn’t stop reading it. Agatha and Pillover constantly orbiting one another, seeing one another, for forty years, and never being able to be with one another, was the perfect among of devotion and angst for me. Carringer uses her characteristic witty banter, understanding of deep emotion, and eloquent writing to make you truly care about these characters who had just been on the periphery of other stories. I teared up at multiple points during the story, which is something I don’t usually do while reading. I feel as if this is not only Agatha and Pillover’s story but also a love letter to the fans of the Parasolverse. I am not sure the amount of enjoyment someone new to the series would get out of it, but it is an extremely fast read and probably would pique someone’s interest in the rest of the series. 

I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Agatha as I relate to her more than the rest of the protagonists in Carringer’s novels. While I enjoyed reading about her outspoken, brave, and sometimes brass heroines, there is something about a woman that nobody notices or cares about changing the world through the fact that no one notices her. Carringer never changes who Agatha is, she never becomes beautiful or becomes extroverted, yet she still has a loyal group of friends and someone who loves her for who she is, even if it also breaks his heart. As someone who considers themselves a bit plain herself, it was refreshing to see that Agatha never got some makeover to make the world see her, and Pillover, who was considered handsome, didn’t care about that at all because he saw her when no one else did. To be in her head, to see how little Agatha thought of herself, I wanted her to get her happily ever after, probably because I related to her so much. 

Pillover has always been one of my favorite secondary characters, starting as a grumpy little boy who refuses to admit he had ever had a positive feeling about anything but a book and growing into a man who did the same. He never took himself too seriously and even understood that his area of academia was obscure and while good at it, he was open to admitting when he didn’t know something or was good at something. Pillover never needed to be in the spotlight or even world-renowned like some of the other academics and Carragher’s novels. Pillover just wanted books, a fireplace, and the woman he love and that is something I can respect. There is also something so sweet and so heartbreaking about a man who knows that he is in love with someone at 13 and can’t do anything about it because of the type of woman he loves. While Pillover was human, he was almost never selfish and never asked Agatha to give him more than she could, meeting that with constant devotion and affection in his mild-mannered way. While Pillover would have survived as a confirmed bachelor, pining for his Agatha, I was happy that he was finally able to get his happy ending in the most Pilloverian way possible. 

Overall I absolutely adored the story it’s definitely my favorite Delightfully Deadly novel and one of my favorite in the whole Parasolverse. I think this story holds one of the sweetest and most heartfelt romances that Carriger has written in this universe. After reading through the whole series over the last year, I’m a bit sad that I don’t have any books left. That being said, if Carriger writes in this world again, I will be one of the first to read it.

[quoteablebooks]

Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis:

If one must flirt...flirt with danger. Lessons in the art of espionage aboard Mademoiselle Geraldine's floating dirigible have become tedious without Sophronia's sootie Soap nearby. She would rather thwart dastardly Picklemen, yet her concerns about their wicked intentions are ignored. Who can she trust? Royal werewolf dewan? Stylish vampire Lord Akeldama? Only one thing is certain: a large-scale plot is under way. Sophronia must be ready to save her friends, her school, and all of London from disaster.

*Opinions*

Manners and Mutiny is the fourth and final installment in the Finishing School Series by Gail Carriger and the stakes have never been higher for Sophronia Angelina Temminnick and the rest of the girls attending Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. The holiday season is upon them, which means that the girls are going to see their family before returning to the school for New Year’s Eve to have a tea party with the Bunson and Lacroix's Boys' Polytechnique. However, even with life being as normal as possible for a woman who is training to be an intelligencer, it doesn’t take long for Sophronia to be caught up in events that will have far-reaching effects all across England, and this time it isn’t even completely her fault. As the final novel in the series, a good bit of the pages are taken up with action as Sophronia must attempt to save not only her school but also possibly the entire English Government from the Picklemen’s plot. I personally don’t mind that the whole last half of the book is Sophronia putting all her training to good use and properly “finishing” because the last three books had all been setting up this moment. This novel is also far more ruthless and bloody than the previous installments, but that makes the stakes even higher and keeps the reader at the edge of their seat as well as shapes Sophronia to the true nature of her work. This isn’t just one man with a gun that fires at some supernaturals and hitting someone who was not, people are brutally murdered so that the Picklemen can complete their plan for world domination. I am thoroughly satisfied not only with the pacing of this novel but also the conclusion of Sophronia’s documented adventures. It is what I like best in my stories, a happy ending that was earned by those involved. One thing that I didn’t understand in this novel is why Lady Linette, after everything that Sophronia has done to this point, didn’t believe her when she told her about Picklemen crawling around the dirigible at night. While the explanation in the novel makes a bit of sense, an intelligencer teacher could never truly trust her students, why would Sophronia make up such a ridiculous lie about why she was out of bed after curfew? Surely there was a better and more plausible lie she could come up with instead. While maybe Lady Linette did believe her and didn’t want to admit it because she was attempting to keep everything under wraps, it just seemed very out of place given what had happened in the past three books. After everything that Sophronia has gotten into, you’d think they would give her a little bit of leeway when she says that someone is attempting to infiltrate their top-secret finishing school. While plot-wise it had to happen, it just was a bit jarring to me. Something that I have loved about these novels from the beginning was the characters and how each one of them is loveable and unique. Carriger has also let each character grow and change across the series in a way that is believable without completely changing their character for narrative purposes. Sophronia continued to be rebellious and stubborn but learned that she couldn’t do everything alone and that her strength was in her friends. Dimity Plumleigh-Teignmott continues to be fascinated in the sparkly and concerned with the mundane parts of the finishing curriculum, she is a good intelligencer who excels in social situations to get what she needs. Agatha Woosmoss even learns to use her wallflower nature to her advantage and that of her patron, much to her friend’s surprise. The return on Monique de Pelouse was also a good way to round out the series as she had started as Sophronia’s nemesis, but in the end, were far too alike than either was comfortable admitting. Even Vivie learns to think of people other than herself, though she is still a rather selfish character, it is part of her charm. I am a bit sad that Professor Braithwope never recovered from the tether snap as I enjoyed his character, but I also appreciate that actions have consequences in this universe and they can be deadly or worse. We can’t talk about characters without at least touching upon Soap and his change since the change. I have to say that while romance was not the central factor in these novels, I do enjoy how this one concluded. Carringer did not ignore the barriers that their relationship would face, even in a world with supernatural and a women’s school for spies. However, Soap with his new confidence and belief that he was closer to Sophronia’s equal showed a far different side to him, which was just as charming as when he was a sootie. The dynamic between Soap and Sophronia, especially as she refuses to acknowledge her feelings for him, is my favorite type of romance so I thoroughly enjoyed their relationship throughout the series. While the solution to their predicament was not a happily ever after, it was a solution that both Soap and Sophronia could work with, which made it seem all the more believable. Overall a very enjoyable novel and series. The writing was witty and charming and the plots were fast-paced and intriguing. I look forward to continuing exploring this universe in the other series and novella that Carriger has written