Polite Paradise

I am reading "Etiquette and Espionage," by Gail Carriger. It's set in a steampunk Victorian world where a teen girl is sent to "finishing school" but it seems like they will actually be teaching her how to be a secret agent and assassin, or something like that. It's pretty good so far, although the one graduate of the school we have seen is not exactly a sterling example of the program, as she's whiny and useless in a crisis.

I recently finished "Daughter of Smoke & Bone," by Laini Taylor. The first third was so good! Then the second third was dull and angsty, and the final third was a giant flashback to a totally different story. There's obviously been a lot of thought put into this world, but by the end I wasn't interested in reading more about it.

I also recently finished "The Mortal Instruments Book 1: City of Bones," by Cassandra Clare. I enjoyed it. It seems like a lot of people thought it was bad or derivative of other things (or maybe that was just the movie version?) but I liked it enough to add Book 2 to my list. As I am going back over it the main problem seems to be a lack of in-depth characterization. Also, people in the story keep criticizing the main character for rushing into dangerous situations, but the book literally would not exist if she hadn't, and she seems to be acting well within the parameters of this kind of story, so I'm not sure why people complain.