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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What an absolutely joy of a book.
I recommend the audio version, the narrator is an absolute dream.
I recommend the audio version, the narrator is an absolute dream.
WE NEED MORE HISTORICAL FANFICTION
THIS WAS AMAZING
MONTY AND PERCY ARE BEAUTIFUL
FELICITY IS HARDCORE
YESSSSS
this reminded me a lot of Alex & Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz
THIS WAS AMAZING
MONTY AND PERCY ARE BEAUTIFUL
FELICITY IS HARDCORE
YESSSSS
this reminded me a lot of Alex & Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz
It's currently 2:30 in the morning and I'm forgoing sleep in order to write this. This is a record of how much I adore this book.
I was a bit skeptical picking this book up because YA novels are either hit or miss. The start of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue was rough. I realized immediately that Monty was meant to be a sort of anti-hero but I couldn't like him despite my realization. I hated him actually. I experienced so much secondhand embarrassment during the first 20% of the book that it will last me half a lifetime. I forced my way through sheer willpower and, boy, am I glad I did.
The book was..amazing. I thought that all of the characters were well rounded. Nothing seemed to be forced. I've read many YA novels depicting its characters as minorities in a superficial gesture to be relatable and their struggles as minorities play no part in the actual story. However, Monty, Percy and Felicity's struggle to accept and deal with their minority status added depth to the novel. They weren't amazing superheroes without flaws that I tend to see in many books nowadays. They had their flaws and their deficiencies. I believed these flaws made the characters BETTER, not worse.
Also Mackenzi Lee did an amazing job in writing strong female characters. Both Felicity and Helena were strong in their own way but not so amazing to be impossible to believe. I want to see more strong female characters like Felicity and Helena in books: women who are real and not perfect dolls that are beautiful, smart, nice, sweet, kickass, sassy, sexy, cute, shy, daring and thousand other adjectives all at once. Women are not perfect, and creating female characters like that sets up impossible standards for women like me to live up to. I truly believe that well-rounded female characters like Felicity and Helena add more value to female empowerment than a perfect superwomen will.
Lastly, I loved the end facts included in the book. The short snippets about the grandtour, racial tension and sexuality in the 1700s were so interesting! Highly interesting and it greatly piqued my interest in reading more about them!
Overall, the book was slow to start but very well worth the set-up. The action was fast-paced and the sprinkling of a romantic subplot made this book both exciting and cavity-inducingly sweet.
P.S I adore Percy and Monty together! And Felicity was kick ass.
I was a bit skeptical picking this book up because YA novels are either hit or miss. The start of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue was rough. I realized immediately that Monty was meant to be a sort of anti-hero but I couldn't like him despite my realization. I hated him actually. I experienced so much secondhand embarrassment during the first 20% of the book that it will last me half a lifetime. I forced my way through sheer willpower and, boy, am I glad I did.
The book was..amazing. I thought that all of the characters were well rounded. Nothing seemed to be forced. I've read many YA novels depicting its characters as minorities in a superficial gesture to be relatable and their struggles as minorities play no part in the actual story. However, Monty, Percy and Felicity's struggle to accept and deal with their minority status added depth to the novel. They weren't amazing superheroes without flaws that I tend to see in many books nowadays. They had their flaws and their deficiencies. I believed these flaws made the characters BETTER, not worse.
Also Mackenzi Lee did an amazing job in writing strong female characters. Both Felicity and Helena were strong in their own way but not so amazing to be impossible to believe. I want to see more strong female characters like Felicity and Helena in books: women who are real and not perfect dolls that are beautiful, smart, nice, sweet, kickass, sassy, sexy, cute, shy, daring and thousand other adjectives all at once. Women are not perfect, and creating female characters like that sets up impossible standards for women like me to live up to. I truly believe that well-rounded female characters like Felicity and Helena add more value to female empowerment than a perfect superwomen will.
Lastly, I loved the end facts included in the book. The short snippets about the grandtour, racial tension and sexuality in the 1700s were so interesting! Highly interesting and it greatly piqued my interest in reading more about them!
Overall, the book was slow to start but very well worth the set-up. The action was fast-paced and the sprinkling of a romantic subplot made this book both exciting and cavity-inducingly sweet.
P.S I adore Percy and Monty together! And Felicity was kick ass.
2nd read, December 2021
I love Monty and this book with every fibre of my being, I think Monty might be my favourite 1st person protagonist of all time, and I love Felicity so much too. The plot is fun and fast-paced, and the book wouldn't be nearly as entertaining without it, but it's the characters and their personal journeys (especially Monty's) that really shine. Monty is the kind of character who's usually the friend of the protagonist that the reader finds more interesting and fun (or else irritating!), so as the protagonist and narrator he's written brilliantly. He should be unlikeable and irritating, but, I guess thanks to his self-deprecating nature and his desire to be better, and his adorable wholesome love for his best friend (and the respect he has at a basic level for his sister, despite appearances), as well as the fact that my younger self relates to some of his issues, I love him so damn much!!! Can't wait to reread Felicity's book again soon because she is just awesome too.
I listened to this on audiobook again, the narrator is great and perfect for Monty, to the extent that I don't think I'll ever bother reading it physically.
1st read, April 2019:
I loved this book so much!!! The narrator was perfect too.
I related more to Monty (the POV character) than I have to any other character in any book (not necessarily a good thing - Monty is not all that likeable! :D ). As well as the romantic story (oh, the feels!!), there is so much more to this book - the diversity (in terms of sexuality and skin colour, plus epilepsy too) in an 18th century setting, an exciting adventure and mystery plot, a feisty strong younger sister (how awesome was Felicity!!) ... I can think of hardly anything to criticise.
I love Monty and this book with every fibre of my being, I think Monty might be my favourite 1st person protagonist of all time, and I love Felicity so much too. The plot is fun and fast-paced, and the book wouldn't be nearly as entertaining without it, but it's the characters and their personal journeys (especially Monty's) that really shine. Monty is the kind of character who's usually the friend of the protagonist that the reader finds more interesting and fun (or else irritating!), so as the protagonist and narrator he's written brilliantly. He should be unlikeable and irritating, but, I guess thanks to his self-deprecating nature and his desire to be better, and his adorable wholesome love for his best friend (and the respect he has at a basic level for his sister, despite appearances), as well as the fact that my younger self relates to some of his issues, I love him so damn much!!! Can't wait to reread Felicity's book again soon because she is just awesome too.
I listened to this on audiobook again, the narrator is great and perfect for Monty, to the extent that I don't think I'll ever bother reading it physically.
1st read, April 2019:
I loved this book so much!!! The narrator was perfect too.
I related more to Monty (the POV character) than I have to any other character in any book (not necessarily a good thing - Monty is not all that likeable! :D ). As well as the romantic story (oh, the feels!!), there is so much more to this book - the diversity (in terms of sexuality and skin colour, plus epilepsy too) in an 18th century setting, an exciting adventure and mystery plot, a feisty strong younger sister (how awesome was Felicity!!) ... I can think of hardly anything to criticise.
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reading this book felt like reading fanfiction about characters I had never heard of before. Mackenzie Lee leaned hard on tropes to tell you who the characters are, which for me made for boring and flat characters, but again might work for fanfic lovers. If you love reading fanfiction, you will love this prose.
If you can't already tell, I don't love fanfiction. This book fell incredibly flat for me, which was disappointing considering I've had it on my tbr for at least 3 year now. Part of this is certainly due to the fact that I've grown out of most YA. However, I really wanted to like this book! Two eighteen year olds (only a year away from my age!) falling in gay love while traveling Europe? What's not to love!
Sadly, as before mentioned, Lee just didn't manage to give the main characters interesting depth. The plot was a series of happenstance events which individually could have been fun, but strung together were aggravating in their implausibility. I can think of so many ways that this book could have been great without the convoluted steal and return plot, but those would have required a depth of character and relationships that this book lacked.
With all this being said, the ending was cute. I can see why someone less overly-critical than me would love this.
If you can't already tell, I don't love fanfiction. This book fell incredibly flat for me, which was disappointing considering I've had it on my tbr for at least 3 year now. Part of this is certainly due to the fact that I've grown out of most YA. However, I really wanted to like this book! Two eighteen year olds (only a year away from my age!) falling in gay love while traveling Europe? What's not to love!
Sadly, as before mentioned, Lee just didn't manage to give the main characters interesting depth. The plot was a series of happenstance events which individually could have been fun, but strung together were aggravating in their implausibility. I can think of so many ways that this book could have been great without the convoluted steal and return plot, but those would have required a depth of character and relationships that this book lacked.
With all this being said, the ending was cute. I can see why someone less overly-critical than me would love this.
one of the worst crimes a book can commit is be boring and i'll stand by that. i accidentally fell asleep listening to this at one point at around the 70% mark and missed about 3 chapters out of its 30. did i go back? no. did i miss anything important? unlikely - i just kept going and the story still made sense. it's also very predictable. moments that i can tell are meant to come off as amusing aren't funny and this book is just too long for there to be so many scenes like that. i hate monty, the mc. i think he's horrible to his sister and percy, and is so self-absorbed. upon reading other reviews after i finished, i found out the author has been involved in some controversies so i can drop this 1-star review guilt-free
Sooo cute and the adventure was described so well it was super transportive! I do think the romance could have been developed better and I would have loved some chapters or moments from Percy’s perspective