One for All

Sixteen-year-old Tania de Batz has always longed to emulate her dazzling Papa, an ex-musketeer who once served the king of France. Though he’s taught her to fence, others' reactions to her chronic illness, which involves frequent bouts of dizziness, have her thinking of herself as "a sick girl." After her Papa is murdered, his final wish sends her to L’Académie des Mariées, an exclusive finishing school that purports to help young women secure husbands. Tania’s sense of betrayal soon gives way to joy when she learns that the Académie is in fact a school for young women trained to seduce and sword fight for their country, creating a new, subtler kind of Musketeer. Her first assignment is charming and handsome, potentially bound up in smuggling—and, she learns, may know what truly befell her father. Though occasionally thin descriptions weaken the novel’s 17th-century France setting, Lainoff’s debut features an engagingly determined protagonist navigating competing loyalties. A hurried romance undercuts the presence of strong female connections, including a queer secondary relationship, among the largely white cast. An author’s note discusses the author’s experience with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jennifer Wills, Seymour Agency. (Mar.)

The text of this review has been updated for clarity.