Happy Tuesday and welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ONE FOR ALL by Lillie Lainoff! I’m so excited because I have SO MUCH to share with you today! First, there’s my review, AND my aesthetic board, THEN there’s new posts on #booktok and #bookstagram, PLUS more information about the author and tour! And now without any further ado, let’s get to the review!
I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
One for All by Lillie Lainoff Published on March 8, 2022 by Farrar Straus and Giroux
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Retellings, Steampunk, Thriller, YA
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram
An OwnVoices, gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, in which a girl with a chronic illness trains as a Musketeer and uncovers secrets, sisterhood, and self-love.
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.
This debut novel is a fierce, whirlwind adventure about the depth of found family, the strength that goes beyond the body, and the determination it takes to fight for what you love.
tl;dr
- OH MY STARS I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH!!!!!!
- someone call the CW and make this into a tv show RIGHT NOW PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!
- #ownvoices chronically ill rep is just *chef’s kiss*!!!
- VERDICT: read this as soon as you possibly can!
what i loved
I LOVE ALL OF THIS SO SO SO MUCH!!!! but yeah, my FAVORITE part was definitely the exploration of Tania’s POTS. I don’t have POTS myself, but I am chronically ill, and all the descriptions of what Tania felt and experienced felt so familiar. Several of the quotes below are about being a “sick girl” and wow, I just really appreciated that. I also love love love the sisterhood element of this book! The worldbuilding was fantastic, the characters were amazing, and I absolutely love this book so so so much!!!
what i didn’t
okay, I actually have one tiny thing that I didn’t super love about this, and that’s the random French in the book. Most of it comes with a translation right after, but not all of it, and I wish the entire book was just in one language. But that’s it! Everything else, I absolutely LOVED!
favorite character?
90% Tania, 10% Aria!!!
Why did i read it?
someone said “retelling with #ownvoices chronic illness” and I came RUNNING!
will i re-read it?
YES DEFINITELY I ALREADY CAN’T WAIT!!!
three words to describe the book
sisterhood, betrayal, intersectionality
other thoughts
I really really want a CW show about this book! I think if whoever was in charge of Reign was allowed to adapt this, it would be PERFECTION!!! so… someone who knows how tv contracts work, get to work on this PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!
- A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
- Belle Révolte by Linsey Miller
- Gallagher Girls by Ally Carter
- A Sisterhood of Secret Ambitions by Sheena Boekweg
- #the three musketeers retelling you never knew you needed!
- #but dizzy spells suck
- #reader main character and author are all ownvoices chronically ill
I was NOT EXPECTING View Spoiler » to be the leader! I totally thought it was View Spoiler »Or someone else entirely!
and ALSO View Spoiler »are super super cute together and I’m so happy they View Spoiler »
I have like three different aesthetic boards started in canva for One For All, but none of them look right. So instead, I’m linking you to my pinterest board! Here’s my aesthetic board for One For All!
About Lillie Lainoff
Lillie Lainoff (author of forthcoming ONE FOR ALL) received her B.A. in English with a concentration in creative writing and distinction within the major from Yale University. She currently lives in Norwich, and is getting her MA in Creative Writing Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia.
Her fiction, non-fiction, and poetry has been featured in The LA Review, The Washington Post Outlook, Today’s Parent, via the Disability Visibility Project, Washington City Paper, and The Yale Daily News, amongst other places. She’s received recognition from Glimmer Train and The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and won the 2019 LA Review Literary Award for Short Fiction. She was a featured Rooted in Rights disability activist, and is the founder of Disabled Kidlit Writers (FB).
As an undergraduate, Lillie was a member of Yale’s Varsity Fencing team. As a senior, she was one of the first physically disabled athletes to individually qualify for any NCAA Championship event, and helped her team to an end-of-season 10th place ranking by the National Coaches Poll. She still fences competitively and coaches. In 2017, she was named a recipient of the inaugural Spirit of Sport award by the US Fencing Association.
What do you think about One For All? Have you added it to your tbr yet? Let me know in the comments and have a splendiferous day!
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I have been looking forward to reading this book for a long time. I need to get my hands on it soon!