Book Review: The Agency

“It's terrifying to be on the verge of finally getting what you want.” 

I came onto my blog intending to write a post about my feelings in regards to my recent change of location.  However, I decided that I should hold off all evaluation until I actually have a bed.  I do like Cincinnati, but I think it will be a more accurate representation of my full feelings when I'm not getting cricks in my neck anymore.

That's right.  I don't have a bed.  The moving people said that they were going to be here on the 11th.  They technically only guaranteed the 19th, but that's what they told me.  Just saying.  Well, they're still not here.  But...they should be here on the 18th.  Only two more nights sleeping on my window seat.

So, I have a book review instead.

This is a series that kept on coming up on my Goodreads recommendations.  So, I gave it a read. 

Mary Quinn is a street orphan who is offered something valuable in Victorian London: an education at Miss Scrimshaw's Academy for Girls.  But what she finds out once she has graduated is that it is also a cover for The Agency, a private, all-female investigative firm.  Using their stereotype in Victorian Society of being unintelligent and of no consequence, the women of The Agency take on undercover roles to solve crimes.  You can talk freely, she's only the maid, right?  Don't worry about her coming out of that room, that's just the governess. Mary's first assignment, however, goes a little off the plan.  Throughout the series, Mary confronts different aspects of Victorian society, and even finds a little romance of her own.

The first of this series was a bit of a toss-up.  The idea was intriguing, and in a world where so much historical fiction just flat-out misses the mark, Y.S. Lee's take on Victorian London was so fascinating and gritty and flawlessly transporting (she does have a PhD in Victorian literature and culture...fyi).  The romance was without reproach, and the characters so extremely likeable.  However, the first came off just a smidge too "girl power! Let's go!" 

Then, as the series progressed, she found her stride, balancing tasteful feminism, with balance of the sexes.  In fact, by the end of the series, it mixes ideas of equality until it even starts to take bit of a counter-feminism flavor that I thought was fantastic. It was still feminist. Obviously, with the premise.  But it starts to approach the idea of the synergy when both sexes combine.  By the end of the series, the over-the-top "you go girl" was traded for a tasteful and graceful feminism of women are valuable, men are valuable, and 2+2=6.

It also channeled some Dickens in class analysis, especially in the second, and that was pretty cool.

I am basically in love with the male love interest.  I really enjoyed the chemistry of that relationship, and that neither the male nor the female was too flawed or too perfect. They were both baby-bear perfect. 

Lee has a gift for entertaining and believable dialogue, which by the third book she had learned to perfectly weave with gorgeous prose to match.  The first was a little rocky with the prose, and the second was just passable. 

All in all, a four series, that would have been a five star series if the first book had realized its full potential.  Definitely recommend this one.