Friday Spotlight: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue

So I’ve decided to start a new thing on here and post single book reviews each Friday. To kick it off, I thought I’d do one that I recently completed: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee, which I gave 4.5 stars.

We start off the book getting to meet our protagonist, Henry Montague, who is about to go on his Grand Tour with his best friend, Percy, and his little sister, Felicity. Monty, as is his nickname, is rather rambunctious with quite the reputation that precedes him. He is also attracted to both women and men, and has a deep crush on Percy. But he is unsure of whether or not Percy returns those feelings. Monty’s idea of how the trip is going to go is rather different from what actually occurs. He is expecting to go out to parties, have several affairs, and just go out with a bang before he comes back to take over the estate from his father.

The group, along with their chaperone, Mr. Lockwood, head out to Paris, where Monty makes a huge splash by being rather naughty while in the apartment of someone important. Monty, Percy, and Felicity soon lose contact with Mr. Lockwood, and hijinks ensue for the rest of the novel. Pirates and highwaymen make an appearance and cause all types of problems for the trio.

This was absolutely brilliant. I loved the romance between Percy and Monty and how they went from friends to lovers. I loved the humor, especially Monty’s narration. I loved Felicity and how she pushed against the ideas of what women were expected to be. I loved Percy and how genuinely lovely he is. I loved how Lee addressed racism, homophobia, sexism, ableism, and parental abuse, especially since a lot of historical fiction loves to gloss over the fact that history is not full of straight, able-bodied, white men. I loved that we saw Monty grow over the course of the book. I loved the action. I just bloody loved it all.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the panacea aspect of the plot, but overall, it was a fun ride. I cannot recommend the audiobook enough, especially since Tom Riddle from Chamber of Secrets narrates it and is absolutely fantastic. I also highly recommend reading the afterword by Lee as she explains her research that she put in while writing this book.