One for All by Lillie Lainoff

One for All by Lillie Lainoff
ISBN: 9780374314620
on March 8, 2022
Genres: Historical Fiction, Retelling, Young Adult
Pages: 336
Format: eBook
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“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.

Characters: 8, while Tania’s disability has center stage throughout the story, there is an adventure story outside of it. The secondary characters were distinguishable from each other, though a bit slippery in trying to understand their motivations and weaknesses. Of all of them, I identified most strongly with Portia (and only after I finished the book did I realize she’s probably the Porthos character, so that makes sense). Tania herself undergoes an internal journey of learning to trust (others and herself), discovering a cause greater than herself to take inspiration from, and learning to accept people as multi-faceted. It’s a journey that rang true, given her disability was around since she was a child, and the story is set in the 1700s, before POTS was a believed diagnosis. The author herself has POTS and was a fencer, so she clearly attempted to stay true to her experience, as well as stick as close as she could to the source material. There were a few times that Tania made a leap to some revelation, or acted in a way that was revelatory to other characters, but we didn’t see the starting point and so it had less impact than it was meant to.

Atmosphere: 7, for the most part, the tension was consistent and threaded throughout the narrative. But I couldn’t really picture the physical setting, outside of the fencing room, the carriage interior, and the pulley to the second floor. I could picture the clothing a bit, but not the characters themselves- features were described, but not mannerisms in a way that stuck in my head- the exception being Henri.

Writing: 6, I’m unlikely to pick up another book by the author, unless the concept intrigues me. Some aspects of her writing style I vibed with, but some (like scene changes that felt sudden or mid-conversation) threw me. On a side note, this seems to be something I notice and am bothered by more and more, so it may be less that this book did it often, and more that I’ve gotten overly sensitive to it for some reason.

Plot: 9, of all historical fiction retellings, picking the Three Musketeers and gender bending it was already charming me. And it felt plausible enough- Cardinal Mazarin is a brilliant strategist, and as such I imagine he would entertain the idea of secretly trying something radical and new. Finding young women who could fence is also plausible (some of the best fencers in history have been female). The MC having POTS is realistic (from historical documents, the disease has existed for a long time). But this is the first time I’ve seen all those elements come together. And also for them to straddle the necessary balance between feeling plausible and still being a swashbuckling adventure story with sorority at its heart.

Intrigue: 7, I did see the twist coming a mile away, but the MC didn’t and that mattered more in the story. Also, the thrust of this tale isn’t the whodunit, but the character growth and the gelling of the Musketeers themselves as a sisterhood. The final showdown was well executed and allowed each character to shine for a moment, which was awesome. And I admit that one red herring did have me convinced for awhile.

Logic: 10, both the logic within the story and the logic of the history overlaying it held true. The MC is careful to say things that didn’t undermine the effect of POTS on her (so her struggle wasn’t made any less and readers with POTS weren’t suddenly invalidated). The logic of the executed spycraft also holds true, which was nice.

Enjoyment: 8, I don’t know that anything about the story will remain in my head, except for the fact that a woman with POTS was able to fence (both in the story, and the existence of the author). I don’t just have POTS, and my POTS is pretty mild, but my chronic illnesses have nixed all sustained physical activity, so the idea of a fencer with chronic illness kindles a little spark of joy within me. Here’s hoping we see more MCs with disabilities whose stories aren’t about overcoming or embracing them, but are essentially the same character growth arcs non-disabled MCs have, just a bit bent.

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