Review--A School for Unusual Girls (Stranje House, #1)

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A School for Unusual Girls (Stranje House, #1)A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting YA/Regency/Fantasy/Alternate History mash-up about a school for young women in Regency England, girls who don't fit in with society's expectations of how they should behave.

Georgianna Fitzwilliams is sent to Stranje House after nearly burning down her own family's home in a science experiment gone wrong. Her parents are fed up and want Georgie out of their lives. She's simply too much--her red hair, her curiosity, her outspoken nature, and her insistence on learning things no young lady needs to know.

When Georgie arrives at the mysterious house she fears a reformatory, but instead finds a gathering of girls who also are different, and for the first time she fits in. It doesn't hurt that she meets handsome young Lord Wyatt, and Georgie and Sebastian race against the clock to use their skills to help keep Europe and England from going up in flames after Napoleon abdicates and is sent to Elba.

This is an alternate English world, which helped me get over bumps in the narrative like a young Regency miss saying "OK" and Romania being a sovereign nation at a time when it wasn't. The story itself clipped along at a fast pace and science saves the day, which made the story even more enjoyable.

I look forward to the next installment in the Stranje House narrative.


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