ARC Review: One for All by Lillie Lainoff
10:00
One for All
Series: None
Author: Lillie Lainoff
Published March 8th 2022 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux/February 7th 2023 by Titan Books
Goodreads Synopsis
An OwnVoices, gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, in which a girl with a chronic illness trains as a Musketeer and uncovers secrets, sisterhood, and self-love.
Tania de Batz is most herself with a sword in her hand. Everyone in town thinks her near-constant dizziness makes her weak, nothing but “a sick girl”; even her mother is desperate to marry her off for security. But Tania wants to be strong, independent, a fencer like her father—a former Musketeer and her greatest champion.
Then Papa is brutally, mysteriously murdered. His dying wish? For Tania to attend finishing school. But L’Académie des Mariées, Tania realizes, is no finishing school. It’s a secret training ground for a new kind of Musketeer: women who are socialites on the surface, but strap daggers under their skirts, seduce men into giving up dangerous secrets, and protect France from downfall. And they don’t shy away from a swordfight.
With her newfound sisters at her side, Tania feels for the first time like she has a purpose, like she belongs. But then she meets Étienne, her first target in uncovering a potential assassination plot. He’s kind, charming, and breathlessly attractive—and he might have information about what really happened to her father. Torn between duty and dizzying emotion, Tania will have to lean on her friends, listen to her own body, and decide where her loyalties lie…or risk losing everything she’s ever wanted.
This debut novel is a fierce, whirlwind adventure about the depth of found family, the strength that goes beyond the body, and the determination it takes to fight for what you love.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
Tania de Batz' life changed when she developed a constant dizziness which impacted her every action. Only working with her former Musketeer father on fencing helped to alleviate the pain, but she knows that the rest of her village pity her, and her mother. Her father believes in her though, but when he is brutally murdered, and Tania is sent to Paris to a finishing school, she feels betrayed. However, when she arrives and meets her fellow 'students', Aria, Théa and Portia, she soon learns that the school is more of a academy, and that she will join the girls into becoming a new era of Musketeers, protecting the king from the threats of the nobles, but potentially opening themselves up to risk.
I'm going to hold my hands up first, and say I know barely nothing about the Three Musketeers, so I was going into One for All pretty blindly. I also don't know much about POTS, the disability which Tania has, but the author has POTS herself, and from what I've seen from other reviews, Tania was the perfect portrayal. Tania as a character was someone who had the whole world against her, and she really had to fight, but literally and figuratively, to prove her worth. She's someone who had a lot of self doubt, partially because of her mother (really don't like her), but also because of her own feelings over her dizziness. Meeting the other girls, and becoming part of a team as this, really was a case of found family, and she flourished so much over the course of the book. She was always a fantastic swordswoman, but her development as a fighter, and becoming comfortable in herself, was done expertly. There's a hint of romance, and even of a love triangle (sort of), but neither were large parts to the story, and didn't take away from the sisterhood element. A really great debut, I'm looking forward to Lillie's next one!
Dates Read:
February 22-24, 2022
Rating
4 Stars
Series: None
Author: Lillie Lainoff
Published March 8th 2022 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux/February 7th 2023 by Titan Books
Goodreads Synopsis
An OwnVoices, gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, in which a girl with a chronic illness trains as a Musketeer and uncovers secrets, sisterhood, and self-love.
Tania de Batz is most herself with a sword in her hand. Everyone in town thinks her near-constant dizziness makes her weak, nothing but “a sick girl”; even her mother is desperate to marry her off for security. But Tania wants to be strong, independent, a fencer like her father—a former Musketeer and her greatest champion.
Then Papa is brutally, mysteriously murdered. His dying wish? For Tania to attend finishing school. But L’Académie des Mariées, Tania realizes, is no finishing school. It’s a secret training ground for a new kind of Musketeer: women who are socialites on the surface, but strap daggers under their skirts, seduce men into giving up dangerous secrets, and protect France from downfall. And they don’t shy away from a swordfight.
With her newfound sisters at her side, Tania feels for the first time like she has a purpose, like she belongs. But then she meets Étienne, her first target in uncovering a potential assassination plot. He’s kind, charming, and breathlessly attractive—and he might have information about what really happened to her father. Torn between duty and dizzying emotion, Tania will have to lean on her friends, listen to her own body, and decide where her loyalties lie…or risk losing everything she’s ever wanted.
This debut novel is a fierce, whirlwind adventure about the depth of found family, the strength that goes beyond the body, and the determination it takes to fight for what you love.
Goodreads
Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.
Tania de Batz' life changed when she developed a constant dizziness which impacted her every action. Only working with her former Musketeer father on fencing helped to alleviate the pain, but she knows that the rest of her village pity her, and her mother. Her father believes in her though, but when he is brutally murdered, and Tania is sent to Paris to a finishing school, she feels betrayed. However, when she arrives and meets her fellow 'students', Aria, Théa and Portia, she soon learns that the school is more of a academy, and that she will join the girls into becoming a new era of Musketeers, protecting the king from the threats of the nobles, but potentially opening themselves up to risk.
I'm going to hold my hands up first, and say I know barely nothing about the Three Musketeers, so I was going into One for All pretty blindly. I also don't know much about POTS, the disability which Tania has, but the author has POTS herself, and from what I've seen from other reviews, Tania was the perfect portrayal. Tania as a character was someone who had the whole world against her, and she really had to fight, but literally and figuratively, to prove her worth. She's someone who had a lot of self doubt, partially because of her mother (really don't like her), but also because of her own feelings over her dizziness. Meeting the other girls, and becoming part of a team as this, really was a case of found family, and she flourished so much over the course of the book. She was always a fantastic swordswoman, but her development as a fighter, and becoming comfortable in herself, was done expertly. There's a hint of romance, and even of a love triangle (sort of), but neither were large parts to the story, and didn't take away from the sisterhood element. A really great debut, I'm looking forward to Lillie's next one!
Dates Read:
February 22-24, 2022
Rating
4 Stars
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