One for All by Lillie Lainoff
Published by Farrar Straus and Giroux
Age Group: Young Adult
Format: Fiction
Genres and Categories: 1700s, Historical Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Black Characters, OwnVoices Representation, Sapphic Characters, Chronic Illness, Trauma, Coming of Age, Eugenics, Found Family, Disabled and Neurodivergent Authors, Diverse Representation, France, LGBTQIA+ Romance, Three Musketeers
My Rating:
Published on: 7th March 2023
Pages: 400
Disability Representation: Chronic Pain, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia (PoTS), Trauma
Buy this Book! Amazon UK / Amazon US / Barnes & Noble / Blackwells / Forbidden Planet / Bookshop.org US / Bookshop.org UK / Waterstones / BookBeat Audio
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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.

This book was provided for free by Colored Pages Book Tours, Fierce Reads and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

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I am excited to join Coloured Page Tours today for my spot on the Book Tour for One for All by Lillie Lainoff! I have been desperate to read this book since I heard about it ten months ago, and I am thrilled to be able to share my thoughts with you today.

One for All is my most anticipated book of this year, and probably will keep that title for a few years, to be honest. I found out about it last year during a CYMERA panel when I mentioned my dream of one day writing a story with a disabled protagonist, and some kindly soul told me about Lillie’s book. I was so excited to hear about One for All, not just because it was a book about a disabled heroine with a chronic illness (and that’s important, I’ll explain why in a moment), BY a disabled author, but because I am a huge fan of The Three Musketeers.

There had been various cartoon versions throughout my childhood, notable Dogtanian and Albert the Fifth Musketeer on CBBC. In 1993, Disney’s The Three Musketeers came out, and I fell even further in love with the story. When The Man in the Iron Mask came out in 1998, it sparked my interest again, and at thirteen years of age, I was finally old enough to seek out and read the original book by Alexander Dumas. I had intended to follow up with the rest of The D’Artagnan Romances, but back then, we didn’t have the Internet, let alone Amazon, so getting hold of them was not that easy. They’re still on my to-read list (what can I say? I get distracted by more books… a lot :D).

I was a tomboy growing up, and naturally, I was enthralled with the sword fighting in The Three Musketeers; however, it was the strong female character of Milady de Winter that always drew my attention. She was my first experience with a villain that I had morally grey feelings about, and I was mesmerised by what she represented: a powerful woman who could bring a powerful country like France to its knees with subterfuge.

One for All takes the positives that I saw in Milady de Winter and spins them into a mission for Tania and the other young ladies of L’Académie des Mariées. They are not at a finishing school to find them a husband; rather, they are female Musketeers using their feminine wiles and gender as a shroud to fool men into letting slip valuable intelligence. While they learn how to laugh just so, to turn their lips into a smile that gives just the right amount of attention, they are training to be Musketeers, learning spy craft and to duel.

Tania, being a disabled protagonist, is important, especially since just the other day, a non-disabled author used the excuse that writing about disabled characters was always going to be “high risk” when faced with criticism of her book about a disabled character. I won’t get into whether that criticism was rightly deserved or not; this isn’t a review of that book, however, that attitude is prevalent not just through literature, but through the whole of pop culture.

I held back on interviewing Lillie for my spot on the One for All book tour because I had the honour of doing so last September for GeekDis, a discussion about disability representation in pop culture. You can read it here, and we talked in detail about this topic, especially how there is a readership for disabled stories.

Often, when a disabled character appears in a book or film, their disability is physical. It’s visible, they use mobility aids. Tania has a chronic illness, which is known as an invisible illness, and there is a scene in the book where her illness is discovered by a potential suitor, when she is revealed not to be as normal as she appears. It is heartbreaking, it is painful, and it is absolutely real.

One for All shows the negativity that disabled people have to deal with every single day, and while this is a historical novel, the attitudes are NOT historical. People still believe that we are contagious (I myself have had someone yell that I was “diseased” at me in public), they believe that we should be left to die in the back alleys of a city (just look at the pandemic), and many (thankfully not all – there are good people out there, I swear) turn their noses up at the thought of dating us. Even worse, we are mentally, physically and emotionally abused, and that’s not including those of us who are women, LGBTQA+ or those whose skin is a different colour or who practise another religion. 

There will be some who read One for All and confine it to the works of fiction, that the idea of a disabled woman being able to do all the things Tania does is mere fantasy. Or that even if it may be a one-off, Lillie, who has achieved what Tania manages and more in her athletic career, was a one-off. That is one of the best things about One for All; it doesn’t magically erase Tania’s POTS (Postural tachycardia syndrome). It’s there all the time. Every time she moves, every time she wants to do something, she has to think about how to do it within the limits of her dizziness. I loved the little trick with her toes! That is the authentic experience of a disabled writer versus a non-disabled writer.

While a non-disabled writer can research how POTS affects a person, what the symptoms are, and they can talk to people who have POTS, they can’t simulate what it is like to live with it, to find ways to steady yourself and to adapt, so you can manage in a world that isn’t designed for your body. I have very different disabilities from POTS; however, the feeling of being unstable on my feet, of my body suddenly betraying me, was instantly recognisable. I was much the same age as Tania was when my ankles suddenly decided that being stable and upright was no longer the plan, and twisting this way and that was much more fun. I could just be walking along, and oft, there goes the world. My worst injury occurred just stepping off the school bus (if you’d like to know more, you can read my disability story here).

There are no words to say how much it meant to read in a book where a father put up a fence, especially so that his daughter had support for walking. Where Tania’s sisterhood just automatically stepped in to support her, and (historically accurate) accessibility was designed and installed for her without her having to ask. For all the awful attitudes that are portrayed in One for All, Lillie does the one thing that I find missing in many books about disabled characters: she shows the support network we have.

In Tania’s time, chronically ill people are shunned, so they don’t tend to hang out in groups, as we do in real life. Instead, Tania’s sisterhood is girls who all understand what it is like to be made to feel weak in some way. Each one of them has their own storyline, which we learn over the course of the book. There’s chatting and creative Théa, quiet and calculative Aria, and loud and warm Portia.

Like Tania, they have all fallen down and picked themselves back up, sometimes alone and sometimes with someone to help them. By the time Tania joins them, they have become the type of people who do not let people fall alone, and it is just what Tania needs in her life. There is a moment when Tania has a bad day after having multiple good ones, and Portia tries to understand, to place herself in Tania’s shoes, not out of malice but to try to help. When she asks Tania what she would like to do, Tania finds herself snapping, “It’s not what I want to do, it’s what I can do”. She immediately apologises, fearing that Portia will react as others have with anger and disgust. Instead, Portia admits that she “deserved that”.

It’s just a small scene, but as someone who has been both the snapper and on the receiving end of the snap, it was so wonderfully familiar. Like Tania, I have feared how people would react, and have had both the bad and the good reactions. It has taken me time to let people in, to accept that people like Théa, Aria and Portia could and do exist without ulterior motives. Similarly, I’ve been Portia, who has sat helplessly trying to help someone I care about and said something without thought. It’s the small moments like this that tie all the bigger parts, the intrigue and adventure, together and make One for All into something truly special.

I have spent a lot of this review talking about disability representation, and that is because, as someone with seven chronic health conditions, this is a very personal book for me. You may be wondering whether One for All can offer anything to those who are non-disabled or have no interest in disabled topics. The answer is yes, most definitely.

This is a story of adventure, intrigue and overcoming adversity, and whether that comes in the form of illness or something else, every single person has had to overcome something in their life. One for All is about finding your sisterhood (or found family, whoever they may be), the people who help you become the person you want to become. The people who accept you for who you are, no matter what, who help you overcome your weaknesses and adapt them, so you can navigate the world on your terms. And of course, there is sword fighting. It wouldn’t be a musketeer book without it now, would it? 😉 And with Lillie’s background in fencing, each scene is written with the incredible clarity of real-life knowledge.

At the moment, One for All is a standalone novel, BUT Lillie has made it known that a sequel may happen if there is demand for it, and that demand depends on book sales. I can only hope that my review has helped nudge you in that direction; if not, believe me when I say that this is one book you need to read. It’s not just a fabulous story with engaging characters and brilliant prose; it is a book that is quite literally changing the publishing world.

If you have ever wanted to support the disabled community, to make a real dent in changing disability representation in pop culture, then please go buy this book and help change perceptions. Help us show that people want to read stories that include disabled characters, not just disabled readers, but people who want to read diverse stories because the world is diverse, and we love it that way.

About Lillie Lainoff

Lillie Lainoff received her B.A. in English with a concentration in creative writing and distinction within the major from Yale University. She currently is studying for her MA in Creative Writing Prose Fiction at 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 is the 2019 Winner of the 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.

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Thank you for reading my review for One for All by Lillie Lainoff! If you are interested in learning more about disability representation in pop culture and why accurate representation (like One for All) is vital, then I urge you to check out GeekDis, the event I ran last September.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of my reviews if you’re looking for some more book recommendations 🙂 You can also now sign up for my newsletter to get an email each month with a list of my new reviews!

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