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The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

When I first started this blog, my guidelines for the books I would read were that they would be by and about women. Hopefully, I would maximize the amount that the books I read would include and focus on characters who are also otherwise marginalized. Recently I've been thinking about how this limits me, but I'm still not really interested in writing about a bunch of straight, white guys. Luckily, Henry Montague (Monty) is only two of those things and Percy is only one.

I've also been thinking about changing the name of my blog, but I have no idea what I would change it to. So if you have any ideas let me know.

You can order it from Amazon here.

This book follows Henry Montague and his best friend Percy and Monty's younger sister Felicity as they embark on a Grand Tour of Europe. Along their way, they're supposed to drop Felicity off at finishing school in Marseilles. Their tour is turned on its head when Monty steals something he thinks is just a useless trinket and causes his party to be chased by some very important people in French politics chase after them and might even be willing to kill him for it.

One of my favorite things about this book was the wonderful turns of phrase and banter between Monty and the other characters. He's the sort of person who will mouth off to anyone, whether it's a good idea or not and even if it gets him into international trouble. At face value, Monty does seem like a spoiled brat, but the love he has for his best friend Percy is a big part of what makes him still a likable character. Monty is bisexual and in love with his best friend Percy, who is a biracial man who has been raised in an upper-class family. This book doesn't ignore the ways that these marginalized identities would have made some things more difficult for both of them, but there are also people in both of their lives who love and accept them because of who they are and not just in spite of it.

A key example of this is Felicity Montague, who is honestly my hero. And luckily for me (and all of you) the sequel to this book focuses on her and all of her adventures and I couldn't be looking forward to it more. Something about Felicity that's mentioned in the first book as she's first realizing it is the fact that she's asexual. This is something that much more heavily features in the second book, which is great because it's so rare to find asexual characters and I have high hopes.

When I first entered into this book, I was definitely expecting it to be more light hearted than it was, but that's mostly because I started reading it knowing very little about it. Having said that, the novel perfectly balances the banter and expected fun of the Grand Tour with the danger they face on their way and the ways in which society rejects them and makes things more difficult for the three of them because of who they are. Some of the prejudice they face can be difficult to read, but it's always called out on the page.

I've been in such a reading slump for so long and I finished this book in less than two days. This book ultimately made me so happy while I was reading it and I immediately wanted more of it and now I'm upset that the The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy isn't published until October.

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