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

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Entertaining, heartwarming, all-round a delightful and exciting story.

Our charismatic-scoundrel-with-a-heart-of-gold protagonist (Henry "Monty" Montague), an 18-year-old English lord, embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe with sister Felicity and best friend Percy. Naturally, it all goes completely off the rails. In the process Monty matures considerably, and forever changes his standing regarding his father and his travelling companions.

There's so much to enjoy about the book:
  • Interesting setting. Assuming that the depiction of the 1700s is accurate, I thought it was fascinating how there was a strong England/France alliance with tourists visiting frequently from both sides, even though everyone was relying on communicating by letters. There were already English banks, embassies, etc in France, which did not intend to become French but rather to remain there as international institutions.
  • Good bisexual representation! Monty's crush on Percy is a main plot thread, but his attraction to women isn't dismissed or trivialized. He is not "really" gay, he is really bisexual.
  • Fabulous audiobook narration, especially of the French villain's voice.
  • A somewhat magical plot device is foreshadowed well in advance and didn't feel like a huge surprise or genre-breaker when it appears.

I notice that some of the reviewers here can't stand Monty's personality, finding him to be too much of a "rake" (scoundrel) and too inconsiderate to his travelling companions. I agree that Monty is an ass, but I also thought this was balanced out pretty well by the fact that he's constantly getting payback for his misbehaviour from not only the world at large, but also from Felicity and Percy themselves.

I did find it a tad contrived that
despite their long-held mutual crush on eachother, Monty and Percy didn't get the truth out between them until the end.

The main obstruction is established at the beginning,  when Percy asks Monty if them kissing was all just a lark, and a flustered Monty replies "No... yes!". Disappointed and not wanting to just be yet another of Monty's flings, Percy ends the situation.

This was hard to believe because (a) Monty is good at reading people, as seen when he chats up a bank clerk later in the book, and should have been able to piece together Percy's reaction; and (b) Monty wanted to tell Percy about his feelings for years and believed it to be Real Love™, not just a lark.

I think it would've been more believable if, for example:
- When asked if was just a lark, Monty replies something cautious like "I dunno, what do you want it to be?". Percy could then interpret this pessimistically ("He's just humouring me") and the plot could continue as before.
- It could be more obvious (perhaps just to the reader, if not to Monty himself) that Percy ended the situation because he's not a one-night-fling sort of guy and believed that Monty's nature would never change. For example, Percy might ask Monty about his fling with the girl at Versailles and express his opinion that he could never have a one-off relationship like that with someone, even if he loved them
.
I also found the writing style to be overly flowery at times, with a bit too much detail about specific thoughts or particular actions.
However, I still found The Gentleman's Guide to be an excellent book and would certainly recommend it.
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