Review: The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy

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The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by [Lee, Mackenzi]Author: Mackenzi Lee
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Pub Date: October 2, 2018
Genre: YA, LGBT, historical fiction
Rating: 5 stars
Amazon | GoodReads

Summary: A year after an accidentally whirlwind grand tour with her brother Monty, Felicity Montague has returned to England with two goals in mind—avoid the marriage proposal of a lovestruck suitor from Edinburgh and enroll in medical school. However, her intellect and passion will never be enough in the eyes of the administrators, who see men as the sole guardians of science.

But then a window of opportunity opens—a doctor she idolizes is marrying an old friend of hers in Germany. Felicity believes if she could meet this man he could change her future, but she has no money of her own to make the trip. Luckily, a mysterious young woman is willing to pay Felicity’s way, so long as she’s allowed to travel with Felicity disguised as her maid.

In spite of her suspicions, Felicity agrees, but once the girl’s true motives are revealed, Felicity becomes part of a perilous quest that leads them from the German countryside to the promenades of Zurich to secrets lurking beneath the Atlantic.
 Review: Let me list you the good and bad of this book.
-The Good:
-THAT COVER. I love everything about it from the sassy, give-no-fucks look the model is giving us to the drawings, lettering, and coloration.
-The narrator was EXCELLENT. She did a good job with voices, she had good inflection, and good pacing.
-Platonic hand holding. Not enough of this done in the world.
-Science girl gang! Women with various science loves team up with an equally badass lady pirate to save the day.
-LGBTQA+ representation. Monty and Percy are back and adorable, our MC Felicity is ace, Sim is queer, it's fantastic. This was my first ace main character read, and I thought it was portrayed beautifully.


The Bad:
Literally nothing. Nothing about this book was bad. It was all great.

I really want more, but there are no more Montague siblings left. This book gets five lovely, shiny stars for excellent representation, excellent characters, and piracy. If you haven't read A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (book one) , definitely give it a read first. The duo doesn't necessarily have to be read in order, but it will help clarify a few things. Lee does a good job of catching people up though.

Since I am SUPER about the romance in books, I was worried I wouldn't get into it because of the ace MC. (I have since learned that being ace doesn't necessarily mean you are aromantic as well.) But I actually super loved it! Do I want there to be a sequel where she and Sim become wives and continuing on their science girl gang antics? Yes. I super do.

In summary: more queer representation, more people of all relationships holding hands, more girl gangs involving science, and more books in this series, please!!



Comments

  1. Elley OtterDecember 19, 2018 at 10:49 AM

    I struggle to remember that ace doesn't necessary = aro, and that you can have a romance with ace characters! And I 100% agree with you on THAT COVER. Love. I totally need to read this one!

    ReplyDelete

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