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larry's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
ciuli's review against another edition
3.0
3/5
I went into this book fully conscious that I wasn't the biggest Felicity fan. I didn't really like her in the first book but I was like "A book with an aro-ace main character, with pirates and adventures!", I was curious about it and decided to give it chance. I'm sad to say that I kind of got what I was expecting, which isn't much.
Felicity is a brat. I know she acts the way she does because she is ambitious, and she's a feminist, and the level of male-female inequality in 1700 was just unbelievably high, buuut she's a brat. At the beginning of the book, she only cares about herself and her ambitions, not caring about how her actions or what she says reflects on others. She's always saying that she's so different from pre-tour Monty, but she's really not. She's only smarter, but she's very much self-centered. She thinks she's one of a kind, as if every other female of that era is just a blonde bimbo with no ambition. I'm sorry, but the way she treated Johanna is just wrong.
I loved Johanna. I love that she didn't put up with Felicity's superiority complex anymore and she just told her to hop off that pedestal she put herself on.
I am aware that throughout this book we are shown Felicity's growth, but considering this is the second book in a series, I was hoping that some of that growth had already happened in-between the time the two books are set, and we didn't have to start from the beginning all over again. I think this was probably done because the two books can be read as stand-alones, but having read the first one it felt repetitive.
That leads me to focus on another point: the repetitiveness of this book. We get that Felicity is smart. We get that she has read loads of medical books and stuff. That doesn't mean that we need endless specific explanations every single time something medical is involved. It's fine once, twice I already start to wrinkle my nose, the third time is just boring.
Considering the title, I was definitely expecting a more exciting plot. Up until three quarters of the book, nothing really happens, we just have first Felicity and then Johanna and Sim, moving from one city to the other, and that's it. The only bit of action we got is right at the end, and that's too little too late for me. Thank God for Monty and Percy though. I think the author too knows that the book was getting boring and she reintroduced them.
All this said, I know I only highlighted the aspects I didnt like, but that doesn't mean it was a total waste of time. The cast of characters and its diversity merits a shout-out, considering there is a aro-ace main character and a muslim lesbian or bi side character. It was a pleasant and easy read but as Marie Kondo would say (lol) it didn't spark joy in me.
I went into this book fully conscious that I wasn't the biggest Felicity fan. I didn't really like her in the first book but I was like "A book with an aro-ace main character, with pirates and adventures!", I was curious about it and decided to give it chance. I'm sad to say that I kind of got what I was expecting, which isn't much.
Felicity is a brat. I know she acts the way she does because she is ambitious, and she's a feminist, and the level of male-female inequality in 1700 was just unbelievably high, buuut she's a brat. At the beginning of the book, she only cares about herself and her ambitions, not caring about how her actions or what she says reflects on others. She's always saying that she's so different from pre-tour Monty, but she's really not. She's only smarter, but she's very much self-centered. She thinks she's one of a kind, as if every other female of that era is just a blonde bimbo with no ambition. I'm sorry, but the way she treated Johanna is just wrong.
I loved Johanna. I love that she didn't put up with Felicity's superiority complex anymore and she just told her to hop off that pedestal she put herself on.
I am aware that throughout this book we are shown Felicity's growth, but considering this is the second book in a series, I was hoping that some of that growth had already happened in-between the time the two books are set, and we didn't have to start from the beginning all over again. I think this was probably done because the two books can be read as stand-alones, but having read the first one it felt repetitive.
That leads me to focus on another point: the repetitiveness of this book. We get that Felicity is smart. We get that she has read loads of medical books and stuff. That doesn't mean that we need endless specific explanations every single time something medical is involved. It's fine once, twice I already start to wrinkle my nose, the third time is just boring.
Considering the title, I was definitely expecting a more exciting plot. Up until three quarters of the book, nothing really happens, we just have first Felicity and then Johanna and Sim, moving from one city to the other, and that's it. The only bit of action we got is right at the end, and that's too little too late for me. Thank God for Monty and Percy though. I think the author too knows that the book was getting boring and she reintroduced them.
All this said, I know I only highlighted the aspects I didnt like, but that doesn't mean it was a total waste of time. The cast of characters and its diversity merits a shout-out, considering there is a aro-ace main character and a muslim lesbian or bi side character. It was a pleasant and easy read but as Marie Kondo would say (lol) it didn't spark joy in me.
ewmanaia's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
hellobookbird's review against another edition
4.0
Charm has never been a flower that blooms in your garden, has it?
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.
“I don’t know what you’re referencing, madam,” the chairman says, his voice raised over mine.
“I’m talking about menstruation, sir!” I shout in return.
It’s like I set the hall on fire, manifested a venomous snake from thin air, also set that snake on fire, and then threw it at the board. The men all erupt into protestations and a fair number of horrified gasps. I swear one of them actually swoons at the mention of womanly bleeding.”
The only reason I read [b:The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue|29283884|The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (Montague Siblings, #1)|Mackenzi Lee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1492601464l/29283884._SY75_.jpg|49527118] was so that I could read this one (all based on the title+cover, mind you). I was charmed and—as much as I loved Monty and Percy—I wanted more of Felicity.
This started out strong and then snagged for me during the journey to Johanna. Thinking back on this, I think this was sort of intentional since that's when Felicity herself hit a snag in how she wanted her life to go. It wasn't until the middle of the book that things took off and I was swept up in an adventure of epically feminist proportions, revolving around the friendship of three very different ladies.
Maybe everyone has hunger like this - impossible, insatiable, but all-consuming in spite of it all. Maybe the desert dreams of spilling rivers, valleys of a view. Maybe that hunger will one day pass. But if it does, I will be left shelled and halved and hollowed.
Felicity is incredibly smart, bookish, blunt, and socially awkward. She hungers for knowledge and is driven by a deep-seated need to wrap her brain around every single little possible thing that she could learn...and offer that to the world because she knows she's better than more than half the men out there.
I like curling my hair and twirling in skirts with ruffles, and I like how Max looks with that big pink bow on. And that doesn't mean I'm not still smart and capable and strong.
Johanna is smart, bookish, and is underestimated because of her love of dresses, curled hair, and feeling pretty. In this world, there is enough room to be both.
“Too many white men,” she replies. Ebrahim laughs. Sim doesn’t.
Across the table, she meets my eyes, and some invisible string seems to tighten between us.
Sim is Algerian, Muslim, and quite possibly the most interesting pirate I've run across in the series so far.
More than the characters themselves, I loved how Lee explores important themes like racism, internalized misogyny, and the "right" way to be a woman. As another review put it: "A woman can be a doctor, a woman can be a wife, a woman can like dresses, a woman can be straight, queer or asexual (as it seems Felicity is) and a woman can be a pirate... and all those are valid expressions of womanhood."
All-in-all, I absolutely loved the reaffirming messaging that you are enough which I don't think we (especially as women that don't fit the standard mold) are told enough.
Everyone has heard stories of women like us—cautionary tales, morality plays, warnings of what will befall you if you are a girl too wild for the world, a girl who asks too many questions or wants too much. If you set off into the world alone.
Everyone has heard stories of women like us, and now we will make more of them.
Recommended for those looking for a historical comedy that perfectly weighs deeper concepts with laugh-out-loud moments.
mychemicalseal's review against another edition
4.5
listening to the audiobook made me enjoy this more than when I originally read it. I had found Felicity a very irritating very 2014 # feminism kind of person, but on this reread it was interesting seeing how she is confronting her prejudices and learning that she's not the only girl struggling against what 18th century society wanted from her.
weasley1912's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
mackle13's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
2.5
This is actually the second time I've read this book.
I had neglected to mark is as read on Goodreads or Storygraph previously, and found myself wondering whether I'd actually read it or just thought I had - because nothing of the story really stuck with me. So I thought, hey, let's give it a go and find out...
So I read the opening, and it seemed familiar. But I was still thinking, well, there might have been a preview at the end of the previous book? Because it's familiar, but still not really ringing that "oh, yes, I've definitely read this and remember what happened now!" bell.
So I read a little more and was like, ok, maybe I didn't read this...
And then I would remember things happening, little bits and pieces, but it still never really congealed into a solid "Oh, yes, I definitely remember this now".
All this to say - by the end of the book I'd realized that, yes, I had definitely read this before and clearly remembered very, very little. That's how much of an impression it made on me...
Which isn't necessarily to say it's a bad book, but it wasn't all that great, either. It definitely dragged in places. And I found Felicity kind of tedious by the end.
For me, the best of this story was actually Joanna knocking Felicity down a few pegs.
See, Felicity has a whole lot of "not like other girls" going on. The kind of sort of tomboy who looks down on girly girls, and has a falling out with Joanna for wanting to be part of society and liking dresses and parties... and Joanna is finally like, you're not better or smarter than me just because I like dresses and frills and you don't.
And Joanna is still smart and daring and caring and brave, all wrapped up in frills and lace.
And, look... I'm going to admit. I went through my "not like other girls" phase. I feel like a lot of burgeoning bookworm/nerds do, and it's often a sort of defensive thing, really, because we feel bad about ourselves, so we make ourselves feel better by putting down other people...
But it's not a good way to be, and the best part of this book was when it got called down and Felicity learned something and grew a little.
(Ok, aside from that, the actual best part was the scant parts were Monty and Percy were involved, because they're still delightful. And, yes, I did want to smack their heads together several times in the first book, so there's that.)
Anyway -
The worst part of this book is that it drags and it's so repetitive. There are only so many times I can hear Felicity's same speech to bolster herself up before it's like, yes, we get it. Move on.
One other thing I liked about Felicity was her being ace, and being generally comfortable with this part of herself. What I didn't like was the way other characters treated this, as a sort of challenge as opposed to just being part of who she is.
Overall, I didn't really buy the pseudo-relationship with Sim and Felicity. There's a fair deal of flirting from Sim's part, but it felt awkward and out of place, especially since they were often at odds, and not in the cute, bantering kind of way.
Also in the negative, a lot - and I mean <i>a lot</i> of this book could be solved by people talking.
If Sim had told Felicityabout what she was doing, and looking for, and why she wanted Joanna's mother's map and that she was protecting the dragons , and if Felicity had actually talked to Joanna about her feelings when she felt they were growing apart , and if people had just generally talked about what they were doing and why, then most of this book would happen differently.
And, yes, there's the whole "well, that's the plot", but it could've been a different plot...
Also, I'm a big fantasy fan, but I was a bit whiplashed when all of a suddenthere are dragons? Like, why not just make it a natural sea creature that people would use for medicines and remedies? Like, we literally have people killing real creatures every day for stupid reason and collections. Why dragons all of a sudden?
But reading the write-up of the next story, it seems like fantasy/supernatural is gonna be part of this series hardcore now. Maybe?
***
Anyway - I do remember enjoying the first story, and wished I could've liked this one as much... but I was also a little hesitant because I don't have a great track record, in general, of series where the POV keeps changing for every book. If I enjoyed the first book, and enjoy the later books less, I invariably just find myself wishing we were back with the people who made the first book so much fun.
And, in this case, Felicity just didn't stand up as well in her own story as she did in the first.
This is actually the second time I've read this book.
I had neglected to mark is as read on Goodreads or Storygraph previously, and found myself wondering whether I'd actually read it or just thought I had - because nothing of the story really stuck with me. So I thought, hey, let's give it a go and find out...
So I read the opening, and it seemed familiar. But I was still thinking, well, there might have been a preview at the end of the previous book? Because it's familiar, but still not really ringing that "oh, yes, I've definitely read this and remember what happened now!" bell.
So I read a little more and was like, ok, maybe I didn't read this...
And then I would remember things happening, little bits and pieces, but it still never really congealed into a solid "Oh, yes, I definitely remember this now".
All this to say - by the end of the book I'd realized that, yes, I had definitely read this before and clearly remembered very, very little. That's how much of an impression it made on me...
Which isn't necessarily to say it's a bad book, but it wasn't all that great, either. It definitely dragged in places. And I found Felicity kind of tedious by the end.
For me, the best of this story was actually Joanna knocking Felicity down a few pegs.
See, Felicity has a whole lot of "not like other girls" going on. The kind of sort of tomboy who looks down on girly girls, and has a falling out with Joanna for wanting to be part of society and liking dresses and parties... and Joanna is finally like, you're not better or smarter than me just because I like dresses and frills and you don't.
And Joanna is still smart and daring and caring and brave, all wrapped up in frills and lace.
And, look... I'm going to admit. I went through my "not like other girls" phase. I feel like a lot of burgeoning bookworm/nerds do, and it's often a sort of defensive thing, really, because we feel bad about ourselves, so we make ourselves feel better by putting down other people...
But it's not a good way to be, and the best part of this book was when it got called down and Felicity learned something and grew a little.
(Ok, aside from that, the actual best part was the scant parts were Monty and Percy were involved, because they're still delightful. And, yes, I did want to smack their heads together several times in the first book, so there's that.)
Anyway -
The worst part of this book is that it drags and it's so repetitive. There are only so many times I can hear Felicity's same speech to bolster herself up before it's like, yes, we get it. Move on.
One other thing I liked about Felicity was her being ace, and being generally comfortable with this part of herself. What I didn't like was the way other characters treated this, as a sort of challenge as opposed to just being part of who she is.
Overall, I didn't really buy the pseudo-relationship with Sim and Felicity. There's a fair deal of flirting from Sim's part, but it felt awkward and out of place, especially since they were often at odds, and not in the cute, bantering kind of way.
Also in the negative, a lot - and I mean <i>a lot</i> of this book could be solved by people talking.
If Sim had told Felicity
And, yes, there's the whole "well, that's the plot", but it could've been a different plot...
Also, I'm a big fantasy fan, but I was a bit whiplashed when all of a sudden
But reading the write-up of the next story, it seems like fantasy/supernatural is gonna be part of this series hardcore now. Maybe?
***
Anyway - I do remember enjoying the first story, and wished I could've liked this one as much... but I was also a little hesitant because I don't have a great track record, in general, of series where the POV keeps changing for every book. If I enjoyed the first book, and enjoy the later books less, I invariably just find myself wishing we were back with the people who made the first book so much fun.
And, in this case, Felicity just didn't stand up as well in her own story as she did in the first.