One for All
A Novel
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“There are no limits to the will—and the strength—of this unique female hero.” —Tamora Pierce, writer of the Song of the Lioness and the Protector of the Small quartets
One for All is a 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 thinks her near-constant dizziness makes her weak, nothing but “a sick girl.” 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 new Musketeers: 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 sword fight.
With her newfound sisters at her side, Tania feels that she has a purpose, that she belongs. But then she meets Étienne, her target in uncovering a potential assassination plot. He’s kind, charming—and might have information about what really happened to her father. Torn between duty and dizzying emotion, Tania will have to decide where her loyalties lie…or risk losing everything she’s ever wanted.
Lillie Lainoff's 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. Includes an author's note about her personal experience with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sixteen-year-old Tania de Batz has always longed to emulate her dazzling Papa, an ex-musketeer who once served the king of France. Though he's taught her to fence, chronic illness involving frequent bouts of dizziness leaves her feeling "broken." After her Papa is murdered, his final wish sends her to L'Académie des Mariées, an exclusive finishing school that purports to help young women secure husbands. Tania's sense of betrayal soon gives way to joy when she learns that the Académie is in fact a school for young women trained to seduce and sword fight for their country, creating a new, subtler kind of Musketeer. Her first assignment is charming and handsome, potentially bound up in smuggling—and, she learns, may know what truly befell her father. Though occasionally thin descriptions weaken the novel's 17th-century France setting, Lainoff's debut features an engagingly determined protagonist navigating competing loyalties. A hurried romance undercuts the presence of strong female connections, including a queer secondary relationship, among the largely white cast. An author's note discusses the author's experience with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. Ages 12–up.
