And now, for this week’s Wishlist Wednesday…

The concept is to post about one book from our wish lists that we can’t wait to read. Want to play? Here’s how:

• Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
• Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
• Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get to put on your shelves.
• Do a post telling your readers about the book and why it’s on your wishlist.
• Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of the post at Pen to Paper.
• Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
• Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Wishlist Wednesday book is:

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger
(to be published February 2013)

From Amazon:

It’s one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It’s quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners–and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine’s, young ladies learn to finish…everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but the also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage–in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year’s education.

Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail’s legions of fans have come to adore.

Why do I want to read this?

I am a huge fan of The Parasol Protectorate, Gail Carriger’s brilliant steampunk series in which supernatural beings are a mainstay of Victorian society, proper manners matter, and having the appropriate attire for dirigible travel is but one of many considerations a respectable young lady must keep in mind.

Etiquette & Espionage, book one in Ms. Carriger’s new Finishing School series, is set in the same world as The Parasol Protectorate, although several decades earlier. It is also the author’s first foray into young adult fiction, and I’ll be very curious to see what she does in this genre. (I suppose that means she’ll be toning down the sexy, steamy quotient, alas).

Gail Carriger’s writing is a delight, no matter the subject, and never fails to entertain and move (and give me lots of deliciously quotable lines). As a final note, I’d just add that Ms. Carriger is truly lovely in person. I’ve attended a few of her book signings, and she is consistently warm, funny, friendly, open to questions, and impeccably dressed.

Etiquette & Espionage is one Wishlist Wednesday pick that I know I’ll be reading the second it lands in my hands. My pre-order has been placed. Now I just have to wait for February.

Quick note to Wishlist Wednesday bloggers: Come on back to Bookshelf Fantasies for Flashback Friday! Join me in celebrating the older gems hidden away on our bookshelves. See the introductory post for more details, and come back this Friday to add your flashback favorites!