Defy or Defend

A Delightfully Deadly Novel

By: Gail Carriger

Narrated by: Emma Newman

Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best-selling author Gail Carriger brings you a charming story of love, espionage, and Gothic makeovers set in her popular Parasolverse.

Narrated by the wonderful Emma Newman.

Spy...

Dimity Plumleigh-Teignmott, code name Honey Bee, is the War Office's best and most decorative fixer. She's sweet and chipper, but oddly stealthy, and surprisingly effective given the right incentives.

Versus knight...

Sir Crispin Bontwee was knighted for his military service, but instead of retiring, he secretly went to work for the War Office. Mostly he enjoys his job, except when he must safeguard the Honey Bee. Neither of them are vampire experts, but when Nottingham Hive goes badly Goth, only Dimity can stop their darkness from turning bloody. And only Crispin can stop an enthusiastic Dimity from death by vampire.

In a battle for survival (and wallpaper), Dimity must learn that not all that sparkles is good, while Cris discovers he likes honey a lot more than he thought.

Spinning off from the Finishing School series, featuring deadly ladies of quality, this story stands alone but chronologically follows Poison or Protect. It's Cold Comfort Farm meets Queer Eye meets What We Do In the Shadows from the author of the Parasol Protectorate books, perfect for fans of Julia Quinn, Jodi Taylor, or Meljean Brook.

Delicate sensibilities? Contains fraternizing vampires and one very curious young lady, who asks about it, sometimes in detail, but mostly in retrospect. May also involve excessive use of velvet, melodramatic poetry, and the strategic application of interpretive ballet.

©2020 Gail Carriger LLC (P)2020 Gail Carriger LLC

Delightful indeed!

The first Carriger books I actually read were the Finishing School series, and Dimity was my favorite character, so I was very excited to see that hers was the second Delightfully Deadly novella! And it really is as delightful as I would expect from a novella with Dimity as the heroine! It's nice to see her as an adult and how she's grown and changed, and stayed the same as well. I also adore her moniker- it suits her so well! Crispin is very sweet and so very repressed, and I for one spent the novel supporting Dimity's determination to climb him like a tree.
I also really loved the way Justice was handled as a character, and of course seeing little cameos of Lord Maccon and Pillover, and mentions of Sophronia and Soap, Sidheag, and Agatha!
The narrator did very well, but sometimes her voice changes were a little subtle for me to catch which character was speaking, and there were a few places where she said the wrong character's name in a scene or seemed to stumble over a word, but nothing major and it didn't really pull me out of the story.

so much fun!

I love getting a chance to find out what happened to all of the Finishing School characters. As Gail says, it's always fun to spot characters from other stories in the background. It's a wonderful universe she has made, and I enjoy spending time in it.

All the best parts of all the best things

I believe that Gail Carriger's books are for everyone and this one is no exception. I laughed out loud, I got a little teary eyed, I gasped, I sat on the edge of my seat. This book is thoroughly enjoyable. Its like if you took the best parts of Queer Eye, the best parts of HGTV and the very best parts of fanfiction and you put them all together in a wonderful book. Then you took that book and added a few drops of your favorite tea and a few crumbs of the very best food. Don't be put off by it being a part of a series and a part of an even greater universe, you can most definitely read this on its own if you are so inclined. But if you want to explore the entire parasolverse you will find lovely little connections for you to enjoy.

A sweet and satisfying romance

Another great novella in the series, this has lots of sweetness and joy with a a few satisfying nods to the other books.

Amazing as always

A warm cup of tea for the soul, served in a sparkly cup and with a nice side of vampires “gone to goth”. The satire and the love story both thrill.

Good communication between the lead characters.

I love when the love match is communicating with each other. There's still drama, I do hate when people don't speak frankly.

so enjoy these characters

great fun. enjoyed the storyline and characters ....happy to know Dimity found her knight, but was able to use her"Intelligencer" skills

Soothing and sweet

A wonderful story set in the Parasolverse. This one has less personal angst than her other novellas and is just a soothing and sweet story that after finishing I have used to fall asleep over and over.

nice follow up book to a favorite series

I love the finishing school series, so it was fun to have an epilogue for the characters. however I was disappointed by the reader not getting the names correct... other than that it was a fun listen

DELIGHTFUL DRONES

Always love Gail's novellas and this one is especially enjoyable with excellent narration and interesting characters and familiar cameos of other friends. Thank you for your gifts in your works.