The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
This is another book that I've seen floating around for a while and I expected it to be good since it's been pretty popular. I finally picked it up at my local Barnes and Noble and just finished it this afternoon.
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee details the journey of a young Lord Henry "Monty" Montague and his best friend AND secret crush, Percy. They are scheduled to travel across the European continent for a Grand Tour before Monty must return home to help his father in the business of their estate and Percy heads off to law school in Holland. They are accompanied by Monty's younger sister, Felicity, who can't seem to take her nose out of romance novels as they take her off to finishing school. But this historical fiction novel wouldn't be complete without adventure, a manhunt, and even pirates. Obviously, their trip doesn't quite go as planned!
This was a book that I had a hard time putting down. The characters are fun, relatable, and well written. Obviously the drunken carousing of an 18-year-old boy doesn't make for a great role model necessarily but I know that many teenagers would be able to relate to Monty's desire to understand what he wants from life, how he can avoid disappointing his family, and developing relationships.
Monty's bisexuality comes into play a lot throughout the story and obviously as he is dealing with his feelings for his his lifelong best friend. Mackenzi Lee puts an author's note at the end of her book and I love what she expresses...
"Would a long-term romantic relationship between two upper-class English men during the eighteenth century have been a real possibility? I don't know. They likely would not have been able to be open about it. But the optimist in me likes to believe that the twenty-first century is not the first time in history that queer people have been able to live full romantic and sexual lives with the people they love. And if that makes me anachronistic, so be it."
There is a lot of action and adventure in this book in addition to some romance and it makes for a fast paced read. Besides Monty and Percy being excellent characters (I love their back and forth banter), Felicity is a strong female character as well. She thinks much quicker on her feet and is more well-read than her brother and this puts her at a strong advantage when they get in over their heads. She is the protagonist of the second book in Lee's series, The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy which sounds just as amazing as the first book.
I'd recommend this book for upper YA readers as well as adults, who love reading historical fiction, adventures, LGBTQ books, and romance!
This was a book that I had a hard time putting down. The characters are fun, relatable, and well written. Obviously the drunken carousing of an 18-year-old boy doesn't make for a great role model necessarily but I know that many teenagers would be able to relate to Monty's desire to understand what he wants from life, how he can avoid disappointing his family, and developing relationships.
Monty's bisexuality comes into play a lot throughout the story and obviously as he is dealing with his feelings for his his lifelong best friend. Mackenzi Lee puts an author's note at the end of her book and I love what she expresses...
"Would a long-term romantic relationship between two upper-class English men during the eighteenth century have been a real possibility? I don't know. They likely would not have been able to be open about it. But the optimist in me likes to believe that the twenty-first century is not the first time in history that queer people have been able to live full romantic and sexual lives with the people they love. And if that makes me anachronistic, so be it."
There is a lot of action and adventure in this book in addition to some romance and it makes for a fast paced read. Besides Monty and Percy being excellent characters (I love their back and forth banter), Felicity is a strong female character as well. She thinks much quicker on her feet and is more well-read than her brother and this puts her at a strong advantage when they get in over their heads. She is the protagonist of the second book in Lee's series, The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy which sounds just as amazing as the first book.
I'd recommend this book for upper YA readers as well as adults, who love reading historical fiction, adventures, LGBTQ books, and romance!
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