A review by erickabdz
The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

5.0

I’m learning there is no one way for life to be lived, no one way to be strong or brave or kind or good. Rather there are many people doing the best they can with the heart they are given and the hand they are dealt. Our best is all we can do, and all we can hold on to is each other.

And, zounds, that is more than enough.

I didn't know how much I needed this book until I read it. I can't believe how much I loved, how much it covered while still giving us an interesting, funny and heart warming story. This book also made me realize how much I need to join a science girl gang and bring piracy back. There was so much of this book I loved I'm going to break it in points:

Felicity Montague. I loved Felicity so much, and I especially loved that she was not flawless; on the contrary, really; the entire book was about she learning her faults and becoming a better person because of them.

Girl gang. I can't begin to explain how much I loved this. (Minor spoilers ahead) Johanna, Sim and Felicity drive the entire story, and it's so hard to see something like this in YA; a book about friendship and this kind of love, not romantic but just as strong. This book was about friendship and adventures and girls and I loved it so much. I liked a lot Johanna's message, a callout to some kind of feminism we often see out there: liking "girly" stuff does not make you less strong, does not make you less capable or bright.

Little of romance. Not total lack of, because we had Percy and Monty there being their adorable selves and I loved them for it, but romance was not the main focus in this book, and neither on the girls' lives. This was so, so refreshing. But I want to add to this point: Percy and Monty was another thing I loved about this book, and loved even more they didn't keep our attention away from the girls. They were there, being incredible cute and domestic and their small appareances made my heart super warm I love them.

Diversity. !!!!!!!!!!!!!! First we have Percy and Monty, being good and healthy and loving Felicity. Love them love the concept. But then we have Sim, who is a Muslim, badass pirate with a soft heart for her friends that doesn't make her less capable of command a fleet. I loved Sim, even if she didn't had many lines, because she was a strong prescence in the book either way. And then we have Felicity

Spoiler

being ace coded!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHH!!!! I LOVED every thing that was about this, and especially loved that it was a thing that got "resolved" or "healed" or she got to "find the right guy". No!!!! She didn't need that!!!!!!!!! This was my favorite quote about this "Second, an apology to me, for trying to force my heart somewhere it didn’t belong, and for thinking myself odd because it didn’t fit there."I love Felicity so much and this kind of representation warms my heart

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This book is about feminism; is about girls becoming stronger not in spite of being girls but because of it; is a book about learning and love and friendship. But this is, mostly, a great, big adventure that nobody should miss out.

I do not need reasons to exist. I do not need to justify the space I take up in this world.