A School For Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin

Title: A School for Unusual Girls
Author: Kathleen Baldwin
Series: #1 in the Stanje House series
Genre: Historical Romance YA
Publisher: Tor Teen (May 19, 2015)
Source: Library Find
Rating: ☕☕☕

Synopsis: It’s 1814. Napoleon is exiled on Elba. Europe is in shambles. Britain is at war on four fronts. And Stranje House, a School for Unusual Girls, has become one of Regency England’s dark little secrets. The daughters of the beau monde who don’t fit high society’s constrictive mold are banished to Stranje House to be reformed into marriageable young ladies. Or so their parents think. In truth, Headmistress Emma Stranje, the original unusual girl, has plans for the young ladies—plans that entangle the girls in the dangerous world of spies, diplomacy, and war.

After accidentally setting her father’s stables on fire while performing a scientific experiment, Miss Georgiana Fitzwilliam is sent to Stranje House. But Georgie has no intention of being turned into a simpering, pudding-headed, marriageable miss. She plans to escape as soon as possible—until she meets Lord Sebastian Wyatt. Thrust together in a desperate mission to invent a new invisible ink for the English war effort, Georgie and Sebastian must find a way to work together without losing their heads—or their hearts . . .

My Thoughts: While I enjoyed the first half of this book I thought the last half was a little long and drawn out.

The Good: I really liked the idea of a YA historical romance and for the most part this book was a winner. I liked Georgie and felt she was very real. She was self conscious about her looks because red hair and freckles were not considered beautiful and her parents continued to remind of that often. Her only option she had as a young woman was to learn to be a proper lady and marry well. This was not what Georgie was all about. She had a scientific mind and liked to do experiments. This was also a contention between her and her parents. I liked her logical mind. I liked how she thought through issues. I also liked the other girls in the Stranje house.

I thought Georgie's reactions to Sebastian were all in agreement with a teenage girl. I thought maybe she would be more scientific about it but she is first and foremost a girl so even though I don't care much for teenage angst this did ring true as well.

The Bad: I thought the book would be more about Emma Stranje's teaching of the girls. She was teaching them lock picking, how to remove themselves from being tied to a chair, how to be a spy, etc. Unfortunately, between the longish introduction to Georgie and the girls in Stranje House then the entire second half trying to rescue Georgie's love interest, there wasn't a whole lot of learning. I also struggled with the history aspect a bit. The author takes some liberties with history and called it "alternate history". I would rather a book with so much (and there was a lot) history have that history accurate.

In a Nutshell: Although I did like this book, I only liked it to a point. Since I found the last half of the book a bit tedious and the spying aspect of the book was not my cuppa I probably will not continue with this series.