The Review Project pt. 1

I follow the blogs of a few of my favorite authors. One of them is Gail Carriger. Sometimes they host contests, and right now she's having a review contest to win an advance copy of her next book.

I really want one, so here's my first review of Etiquette and Espionage, the first book in the Finishing School series: 

This book is awesome. The heroine, Sophronia, is brave, impulsive, and flawed, which makes her more believable. As a less-than-ideally behaved young lady of good family, she is sent away to Madame Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. But to her surprise, this school doesn't just teach young ladies to curtsy and make polite conversation with nobles. Finishing School teaches the young ladies to finish...everything, from secret missions to their enemies. Set in a steampunk world with a backdrop of vampire and werewolf society, this book was quite enjoyable.

91 words. Yay. (The minimum is 60.)
Now about the contest...
See, it's not actually being judged on the quality of the reviews. 20 reviews are being randomly selected. And yes, you can enter multiple times...which is why I'm going to be putting up lots of Finishing School reviews until June 10th. Sorry. This is the only blog I have and I'm not on Goodreads.

But to make it fun, I'll include a review of whatever else I'm reading too!

Which right would be...uh...well, I'll just review something I finished a while ago, because I actually remember the author's name.

Review of Jump by Ginger Rue:

I had my doubts when I started this book. It's from the point of view of Brinkley, a self-obsessed snobby teenager, who is put in therapy because her behavior has caused four other girls to leave her private school. This is her last chance: if she doesn't improve, she'll be expelled. The only reason she hasn't been expelled is that her parents paid for an auditorium. She is a total brat and I wasn't sure if I would like reading about her. But I did. As she starts her counseling sessions, Brinkley begins to have strange experiences wherein she enters another person's body for a few hours--thus literally walking in their shoes. These experiences teach her what it's like not to be her, and her character undergoes a profound change over the course of the novel.
I thought that the author worked in the change in Brinkley's character really well. It was gradual and satisfying.
The premise was a little weird, but I liked it. And while some things are never really explained, I think that allows the reader a little freedom to form their own theories. So yeah, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.

Okay, gotta go now.