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

Title: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

Author: Mackenzi Lee

Cover:I'm not sure that the cover properly represents the book, but the guy on the cover does look attractive and arrogant enough to be the main character.

Review: This book takes place some time in the 1700s, when a young respectable man is expected to take over his father's estate, and words such as homosexuality and bisexual were not in use. Monty is bisexual, has found himself in possession of strong feelings for him best friend, and his father is not accepting of this at all. Monty, his best friend Percy, and Monty's sister Felicity, are ready to set off on a Grand Tour across France and such, but Monty's father makes it clear that this will not be the party Monty thought it would be. And so they set off, with Monty's arrogance and ego in tow, and those cause trouble at each stop. At least, Monty does. They find adventure, danger, mystery, pirates...but will they find love?

This was a fun, fast read. At first, I didn't care for Monty, but as I got to know him better, he was much more likeable. All of the different aspects of the book (the adventure, the danger, the mystery, a little science fiction, the pirates) make the book quite enjoyable. The book also fills the diversity gap - not only for LGBTQ, but also, Percy is biracial and has to deal with some disrespect because of that, as do some other characters. There is also a little bit of a strong female characters in Felicity, but she could have been built on more. Women were not afforded many rights back then, and she was being sent to finishing school, which in a somewhat cliche character traits, she did not want to go there. But she proved her worth throughout the book.

Comments

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