One for All

Written by Lillie Lainoff

Narrated by Mara Wilson

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.” 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. t’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 and charming, and he 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.

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705051566

Lillie Lainoff

Lillie Lainoff received her BA in English from Yale University, where she was a varsity fencer and one of the first physically disabled athletes to individually qualify for any NCAA championship event, and her MA in Creative Writing Prose Fiction at the University of East Anglia. She has also won the 2019 Los Angeles Review Literary Award for Short Fiction, was a featured Rooted in Rights disability activist, and is the founder of Disabled Kidlit Writers on Facebook. She lives in Washington, DC.

Reviews for One for All

[acargile-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel is a 2023 Lone Star selection.Tania desires to be a Musketeer despite her disability. Tania's father was a Musketeer; he moved his family to the country (even though his wife would prefer the city) and trains Tania in the barn. She loves it, but she can't train like others. She feels weak a lot. She faints easily and often her legs won't hold her. No one knows what's wrong with her. When she's too weak, she fences from a chair; when she's really weak, she stays in bed for however long it takes. Her mother wants her married but believes no one will marry a sickly girl. When her father dies (is murdered), Tania's mother fails to be a strong mother. Thankfully, Tania's father requested that Tania attend a finishing school in Paris if he were to die. This school is perfect! Her mother is happy and Tania can become a more elegant female and catch a husband.When Tania arrives in Paris, she quickly discovers that the school is not a finishing school. It's a training school for girls to be female Musketeers. Tania feels so thankful to her father; he knew being a Musketeer has always been her desire. Of course, how can she perform what's needed with her illness? The other girls say they will always hold her up. They are trained in sword fighting and how to interpret the messages sent by how a fan held by a women as well as how to interest a man in order to get secrets and/or information out of him. No one would suspect young women because women aren't smart. Whenever Tania feels faint, there's always one of her fellow females to hold her up and get her to a chair or outside to fresh air. They can successfully hide her illness. Only one young man notices, but he is kind. She's used to be treated as inferior, but this young man sees her for herself and wants to help her. There is a plot to kill the King of France and the female Musketeers must find evidence to allow the other Musketeers to stop the assassins. Stopping this plot will also reveal who murdered her father; Tania is determined to find her father's killer and save the king. There's not much time left. The reader will be given several red herrings, so you may wonder who to trust. As the novel finishes, you'll discover all the secrets as the young ladies risk their lives to save their king. At the end of the novel, the author reveals that she suffers from the same disability. For years no one knew what the illness was and, still, it can takes years to get a proper diagnosis. As someone with a illness that can strike at any moment, the illness is a constant part of life. You'll feel that as you read the novel--you cannot forget--every decision has to consider your ability and what to do if your ability suddenly changes. Despite these issues, you can, with help, achieve as Tania does.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

teen fiction - school for female spies/musketeers; MC with disability (POTS, which the author has first-hand experience with) (PG-13 for kissing and adult conversation)Not as action-packed or suspenseful as you might expect from a teen novel, but makes up for it with thoughtfully developed characters.

[ladycato · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.One for All is a gender-bent retelling of The Three Musketeers, with Tania de Batz playing the part of D'Artagnan. The power in this story emerges through the OwnVoices aspect that the author brings from her own personal experience with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), a debilitating condition that causes people--young women especially--to experience vertigo, light-headedness, and other debilitating symptoms. Tania endures this same condition and struggles to do many day-to-day activities--even as she yearns to swordfight and be a musketeer like the father she adores. Her reality is that she's a teenage girl; her mother despairs that anyone will ever marry a girl such as her, and most everyone else in town pities and scorns her. When Tania's father is murdered, she's sent off to a finishing school that he had recommended--and is stunned to find it's truly a place for honing girls in the ways of the musketeers, to fight for the sake of France through subterfuge and swordfighting. But as she finds a sisterhood for the first time, she also finds love that threatens to derail her desire to find out who killed her father.The book is fantastic, an incredibly strong debut for the author. There is no magic in this book, and certainly no cure for Tania. She endures and adapts, and is supported by her new friends. Her condition feels grounded in reality and also plausible within this time period; really, the only thing that threw me off was that tomatoes were mentioned several times, and I'm uncertain if they were so available in France in that period. There are betrayals, grand parties, and swordfights aplenty. The book is strong on its own, but I could also see it as a fun start to a new series.