*Spoiler free*

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.

I’ve been excited for this book before it was even announced that it was going to be a book. I’ve followed Lillie on Twitter for a few years, so I saw her talk about her fencing book, and I was so eager to read it when it finally sold (because it had to sell, it sounded freaking amazing). A gender-bent retelling of the Three Musketeers, with a disabled main character and a sisterhood that likes to stab things. Yes, it sounded incredible. Trigger warnings: ableism, internalized ableism, implied sexual assault blood