The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

2.75/5 stars

“God bless the book people for their boundless knowledge absorbed from having words instead of friends.”

“But Emi, you gave this three stars? How is it a disappointment?”

suppose

suppose

suppose

Like I understand why you'd assume Monty stole this thing, but it was stolen at a party. Literally, anyone could have snuck into that room and taken it???? But France just assumed he took it and pursued him. They were right and stuff, but literally, anyone could have taken that box. Also, what the hell was that box? The explanation was vague af. I still don't get what the importance was? Something about eating hearts? Idk.

and by innocent I mean like kissing people and not stealing from some lord of France

Monty.

Percy.

Felicity.

The piratespirvateers happened and I pretty much had to hold myself back from throwing this book into the closest fireplace I could find. What was the point? They added nothing to the story? They weren't funny? In fact, they made this book just become unrealistic to me. I hated the pirates so much. I'd stab this book if I could.

I was really hesitant about this book when I got it initially. But I went to a signing with MacKenzi Lee and the more she talked about the book and her writing process the more intrigued I became. The idea of reading about two friends and a sister on a journey around Europe in the 18th century is not at all appealing to me. But this book is so much more than that.

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue is about two best friends coming to terms with their feelings for each other, a sister figuring out how she is going to live her life, throw in a bunch of drunken endeavors, some streaking, and pirates and you have this fantastic book.

I was never bored reading this book, between Monty's antics and the adventure of the tour there was always something moving the plot along. Mackenzi Lee did a fantastic job adding her own spin to the Grand Tours of the 18th century. From the signing, I know she spent a lot of time researching and reading journals from English adolescents during their Tours and she used this information to augment the adventure Monty, Percy, and Felicity embark on.

Our trio of characters are fantastically well written and each are so unique but also work so well together even when they are fighting. While this is definitely Monty's story, Percy and Felicity still play a large role throughout the book and it was so easy to fall in love with these characters and want them happy at the end. There were times when I wanted to slap Percy or Monty across the head for some of the stupid choices they were making, and let me be honest, I'm mostly talking about Monty because that boy can be absolutely ridiculous sometimes. I also appreciated how his character grew throughout the book, but he was still very much him at the end too.

I'm sure the genre of Historical Fiction will turn many away from this book, but hopefully the cover and the summary will help reluctant readers pick it up and fall in love with this characters like I did. I cannot wait to read Felicity's story next in The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy. Hopefully we see more Percy and Monty in there too, but also more pirates!

After reading so many good things about this book for months now, my expectations were quite high and I am happy to say it didn't disappoint. I had a lot of fun and there were quite a few laugh out loud moments which is such a refreshing change from all the intense fantasy books that I usually read.

Monty maybe a self-absorbed, slightly narcissistic rake, but he is so full of charm that I couldn't help but like him. Being in his head the whole time, we get to know all his insecurities and uncertainties and get to see a vulnerable side to him that he doesn't really show to others. There were times when I wanted to shake him and make him see some sense, but then I also felt bad for him. Percy is his best friend whom he has secretly been in love with for quite awhile. Percy is the one person in his life who is calm and composed and keeps him grounded. Their relationship is so wonderful with their quiet understanding, meaningful silences and just so much love for each other even if they are unable to express it properly.

Felicity is a fiery feminist in the 18th century who has strong opinions, is very smart and wants to pursue medicine, but is not allowed due to the restrictions on women. At the beginning, they don't really have a warm sibling relationship but as they travel together, it was great to see them get to know each other in a different light, away from the judgmental eye of their father. The scene where Monty tries to explain his sexuality to Felicity and she tries to understand him but can't really accept it as natural is very poignant.

The whole journey includes some very unrealistic (borderline fantastical) encounters with highwaymen, pirates, alchemists and sinking islands but this book is about what they learn about themselves and each other through the journey. The love story is absolutely adorable and I really wish there was an epilogue about their later life. The dialogue is part cheesy part sassy but extremely entertaining, however, the author uses this same light tone to touch on difficult topics like homophobia, racism, privilege, sexism, mental health stigma and abuse. But ultimately this is a coming of age story of Monty – him growing up and learning to understand and care for others, realizing what is most important in his life and gaining the confidence to go for it. And find his true happiness!!!!

New favorite book? New favorite book. Review to come!

FULL REVIEW:

I don't read a whole lot of historical (that is to say, I pretty near never read historical), so I'll admit when I first heard about The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue I was really intrigued but also hesitant because...I don't usually like historical.

But in the end, the premise was just too fantastic to pass up, and every snippet I peeked at made me want it more. And I'm so glad I gave Gentleman's Guide a shot because it immediately jumped onto my favorites list.

Firstly, this book was hilarious. Monty's voice is so captivating and fun from the first page to the last—I found myself smiling instantly and I pretty much didn't stop until the end (you know, minus some emotional parts). I loved Monty's reckless view of the world and all the situations he put himself in—then the way he handled them and thought about them had me literally laughing out loud in places.

I also loved the representative aspects involved. While I can't speak to most of them from personal experience, it was really cool to see not only a queer protagonist (Monty is bisexual), but his best friend is biracial and there's some really in-depth discussion about chronic illness that I could relate to and really appreciated. I have zero complaints about how Lee handled the chronic illness discussion, which becomes a pretty big part of the book, and there were moments that I certainly found myself nodding along to.

Honestly, this is the first time I've seen a chronically ill character in YA in a book that wasn't specifically about illness, and it was really, really awesome to see, even while the illness was vastly different from my own.

So between the representative stuff, the kick-ass plot, and Monty's pitch-perfect voice, I absolutely loved every page of this book, and I can't recommend it enough to others. It really just made me so ridiculously happy to read and I'm delighted to see how successful it's been.

Diversity note: The protagonist, Monty, is bisexual, and his best friend is biracial. There's also a pretty intensive discussion of chronic illness throughout.

Ah, boys. No wonder they drive us all crazy. Maybe I've gotten too used to wise-beyond-her-years leading ladies, because I was utterly thrown by this complete mess of a boy that is Henry Montague. Rake, scoundrel, and hopelessly in love. How do they even function?

From the beginning of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, Henry Montague's Grand Tour does not go as planned. Instead of a raucous year of drinking and seducing his way across the continent with his best friend and love of his life, Percy, they're saddled by his father's strict rules and a bear-leader keen on exposing them to culture rather than, ya know, “culture” wink wink nudge nudge. Thankfully, things get out of hand quickly when in Paris, Monty spitefully steals a trinket from the Duke of Bourbon that turns out to have untold value, and they end up on the run from highwaymen, captured by pirates, and seeking out a master of alchemy in pursuit of a magical cure for all ills.

Yeah, I definitely didn't expect the touch of fantasy that this book has. I still feel fairly confident categorizing it as historical fiction, and the fantasy aspect is period appropriate. I don't want to say it felt unneeded - because what is when it comes to fiction? - but it isn't exactly what I came here for. What I did come for was flirting, petticoats and lots of silliness. And there was plenty of that. There was even some very sexy make-out scenes. That said, despite the adult-leaning content level, this feels like its on the younger end of the YA spectrum. The narrative devices, the mishaps and misunderstandings, are on the goofier side, but somehow not goofy enough for me. This book is very much sincere, therefore its not going for camp, but what it nails emotionally it doesn't quite capture narratively.

The emotional weight was absolutely there. Our three central characters - Henry, his sister, Felicity, and Percy - all represent different sides of a some of the more oppressive parts of their society. Felicity is a woman who wants nothing more than to study and learn when she's only expected to look pretty and make babies; Percy is a biracial black boy raised in a white aristocratic society who turns out has an illness that ostracizes him from that society even further; and Henry, the most privileged of the three, is a young queer man dealing with the endless physical and emotional abuse of his father that has left him depressed and traumatized. As the the three of them run for their lives, they also confront the secrets they've been keeping from one another and figure out how to accept and live with those secrets.

This book is difficult to rate for me, at least by Goodreads typical star ratings. For me, it's a solid 3.5, but rounding up makes more sense than rounding down. I giggled, swooned, and overall found it incredibly easy and fun to read. That said, the plot meanders in some unnecessary ways. Personally, I think the pirates should have showed up way sooner. And Monty and Percy's constant waffling between passionate lovers and frustrated friends was both delightful and infuriating. Boys! What will we do with you? Monty plays just about every role in this adventure story - the dead weight, the hero, then the damsel in distress - and his growth, while frustrating when he stumbles, is actually very satisfying by the end. This book is exciting, sweet and light-hearted (except when it when it decides to get a little heavy), it's aim just wobbles from time to time.

“I've always been of the mind that subtlety is a waste of time. Fortune favors the flirtatious.”

This book was pure gold. I loved every second of it. From the writing to the characters to the dialogues to all the issues this book highlighted. I usually know that a book is gonna be my favorite when I can't control my laughter reading it while I'm in office (oops). But I did have enough control to not laugh out loud there and make it home before bursting into full blown laughs.

Some of my favourite lines were:

- “I survive the rest of the conversation by imagining taking my empty coupe and shoving it either down his throat or up his arse.”- “I'm caught between wanting to smack the pox patches off this woman's face and to smack Percy because I'm still angry about our kiss. Perhaps I could get them both with a wide swing.” ( Oh God, Monty! :'D)- “The ambassador looks as though he's about to scold me, but he's distracted when his wig catches on a passing woman's and they're both nearly uncoiffed.” (OMG)- “We're not courting trouble,” I say. “Flirting with it, at most.”- “Just thinking about all that blood.” I nearly shudder. “Doesn't it make you a bit squeamish?”“Ladies haven't the luxury of being squeamish about blood,” she replies, and Percy and I go fantastically red in unison.” (Damn right, we don't!)- “It's beginning to feel like he's shuffling his way through the seven deadly sins, in ascending order of my favourites.”- “If the Good Lord didn't want men to play with themselves, we'd have hooks for hands.”- “We are not broken things, neither of us. We are cracked pottery mended with laquer and flakes of gold, whole as we are, complete unto each other. Complete and worthy and so very loved.”

And the award for the best line goes to,
“I am Sisyphus's damned boulder rolling down the damned mountain and I intend to flatten the rouge Dante beneath me.”
Yep, completely lost it at that!

The story was never dull for even a moment. Monty was a bit of a condescending arse in the beginning, but he goes through a lot of character development, and the way he was so hopelessly in love with Percy was very endearing.

The story ended up being a lot more serious than the first impression I had of it. It talked about diversity, social stigma, disability, backward thinking about mental illnesses, homophobia, patriarchy. All these issues were addressed without it seeming like they were being forced down your throat.

Pros:
• Lovesick Monty
• The amount of times Monty trips over the loose floorcloth in the study!! And Percy follows :P
• Pirates / Privateers
• Monty making obnoxious tea (which had something swimming in it)
• Percy hefting a sword :D (Riptide, baby!)
• Felicity being a badass.
• You've not broken your hand
• You've not been shot :))
• Percy and Monty being adorable!

Cons:
• Another father figure to exile to the depths of Tartarus
• Said father beating up and berating his son so much that he ends up believing he is useless
• Every time Monty flinched because of physical contact in the latter part of the book because of his godforsaken father!

Beware:
• Abusive families
• Alchemical potions
• Equivalent exchange (I had FMA flashbacks)
• Guns o_o

This was excellent! First, all the diversity here - between the bisexual main character, his best friend, who is biracial, has an “invisible” disability, and also likes men (or at least likes Monty!) and his seemingly asexual sister - the book covers so many facets, it's great.

Given that it's historical fiction, set in Victorian Europe, Percy's biracial heritage has him just seen as black to most people they encounter. Monty doesn't seem to understand what that means, most of the time, and is a little blinded by his rich white boy privilege. He gets talked to a couple of times about how he's being blind to the problems his friend is facing.

I liked that we got to peek under Monty's playboy facade a few times, when being punched has him flashing back to being beaten by his father for being a “disappointment.” An interaction between him and a pirate captain was particularly sweet, teaching him to fight back because he's worth defending.

I LOVE Felicity, Monty's sister, and I'm really eager to read her story in the sequel to this book, The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy. She is so badass, and incredibly intelligent.

The writing was fun, the action well-paced, and the dialogue clever. I was a little put off at first by the size of the book, but I flew through it quickly. I especially liked Monty's bisexuality - how he just cheerfully perved on practically everyone his age. It definitely reminded me of a few people I know!

Something that I noted, near the end of the book, was Percy not asking Monty to stop his perving. What he said was “if you ever go behind my back...” which implies as long as Percy knows, it's not an issue. Yay for non-monogamy being present in YA! It's nice to see alternative relationship structures being presented, though I wish it had been more than just implied.

This was an excellent read for Pride Month, and I loved the amount of diversity and intersectionality present in it. You can find all of my Pride Month reads listed here.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

I really enjoyed all the characters in this book and the plot was quite exciting. While some things seemed a bit historically inaccurate (besides the obvious magic/alchemical plot piece), the author did a good job of recreating a world of the 1700s upper-class and aristocracy but also the different types of people around the continent that they could encounter on The Tour. However, I wish the author kept it more in the realistic realm and didn't delve into the fantastical for a plot line. I think it would have been more interesting that instead of encountering an actual magical heart in an actual undead woman buried on a sinking island paved with bones, that they opened the tomb to find it wasn't what it was promised to be - that could have caused the same events to take place, but without any out-of-place fantasy elements. Overall, thoroughly enjoyed and I really hope to see more of Monty and Percy, especially since we don't actually know what happens to them once they get back to England or if they ever do.

3.5 stars. Fun and really easy read, I plowed through it in about 3 days. I enjoyed the characters, how racism and sexism was addressed and the romance was super sweet. Loved the first third or so, but couldn't bring myself to care a ton about the twist in the latter portion. Great beach or vacation read.

Ooo! A book got 5 whole stars! Usually, that means it did something extraordinary, and it did exactly that! I have never been so sure I wanted to buy a book in my life!

Beyond that, I suppose I should talk about the book. This book is utterly fascinating for a variety of reasons. For one, it's grounded in history but it's not bleak for the characters of color. Slavery is mentioned, as it somewhat has to be for a book set in the 18th century, it's not weighing heavily on the narrative. A second thing is that 

This book was a pleasant surprise! I didn't expect to like it as much as I did, yet here we are. I was surprised to find that this book deals with a lot of different, heavy themes such as race in the 18th century, diseases and mental illnesses, and of course LGBT. It's as though [b:The Picture of Dorian Gray 5297 The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546103428l/5297.SY75.jpg 1858012] and [b:Around the World in Eighty Days 54479 Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1308815551l/54479.SY75.jpg 4537271] had a meeting and produced [b:The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue 29283884 The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (Montague Siblings, #1) Mackenzi Lee https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1492601464l/29283884.SY75.jpg 49527118].Percy's position as a non-heteronormative, biracial man in a time where both of those labels could get you killed, was refreshing to read, and added depth to the story. On the other hand, Monty's slow but steady progression of 1) understanding his friend's position and 2) understanding his own place in this society was also wonderful to read about. I loved the slow burn between the two, despite the obviousness of their mutual attraction for one another. Percy was especially endearing, and an angel to deal with Monty's antics (however, saying that, I still really enjoyed Monty's personality).As for Felicity, her treatment in the novel was equally satisfying as she did not adhere to the typical social conventions afforded to women in those days. Naturally, everything in this novel is painted over with a rosy hue to allow for a fictional, almost alternate history and society to take place. Still, it was a nice change of pace to read a historical fiction novel that talked about more than just ballrooms and young lords and ladies, and instead focused on important, underdevelopped themes.

4.5 Stars
I really enjoyed this book! Monty is a hilarious character who often tends to overdramatize things which made his narrative fun to read.
I only gave it 4.5 and not a full 5 Stars because at some point in the middle of the book I found the plot to be a bit boring but it then picked up again ... like a lot!
Can't wait to read the sequel in fall!😆