Book Review: One for All by Lillie Lainoff – Mystery, Musketeers, and Sisterhood Coalesce in this Affirming Gender-Bent The Three Musketeers Retelling

Blurb:

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 received a digital advanced readers copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

In this remarkable historical retelling of The Three Musketeers, Lillie Lainoff’s debut One for All promises mystery, action, stabby girls, and a phenomenal story with a disabled protagonist who proves that strength comes in many forms. Set in 1650’s France, One for All follows Tania de Batz, a chronically ill girl and daughter of a former Musketeer. When her father is mysteriously and brutally murdered, Tania is whisked off to Paris at his bequest – but what everyone believes to be a finishing school is actually a secret training ground for girl Musketeers.

Our Friend is Here! A List with Lillie Lainoff, Author of One For All; On Sword-Wielding Girls in Fiction and History!

Our Friend is Here! is a guest feature at The Quiet Pond, where authors, creatives, and fellow readers, are invited to ‘visit’ the Pond! In Our Friend is Here! guest posts, our visitors (as their very own unique character!) have a friendly conversation about anything related to books or being a reader — and become friends with Xiaolong and friends.

When I think about representation in literature, especially young adult fiction, disability representation springs to mind as one of the areas that is significant underrepresented. Delving deeper, there may books where disability is represented, but less frequent is the representation accurate and even less so do we see these books written by authors who are disabled themselves. I would love to see more disability representation in young adult literature, and it’s important that we support and uplift disabled authors who write these stories.