The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi LeeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The sequel to The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue already has a surprise or two up its sleeve from the word go. I went into it lowkey thinking that we'd start off with Monty and Percy still in Greece after the end of Book 1, even if Felicity was on her way back to Britain - and then, surprise, the boys are rooming together in London and Felicity escapes from a hapless would-be suitor in Edinburgh to come see them. (Naturally, she claims Monty's afflicted with syphilis, which let's be honest, wouldn't be a whit out of place.)
Like its predecessor, Lady's Guide is a bit overlong at times, with a surprising way of languishing in different places for quite extended periods of time. But where it really shines is how it continues to capture the first book's rebellious spirit, following a protagonist freely flying in the face of social convention - both due to queerness, since Felicity reads to me as asexual homoromantic (of course, such terminology isn't used in the book, just as Monty was never directly on-page identified as bi), and also due to Felicity's determination to break into the male-monopolized medical field completely in spite of all the fragility on display at pretty much every board she appears before. The book also carries strong themes of "don't meet your idols," as well as a focus on the people of North Africa in the days of the Barbary Coast - hence the "Piracy" in the title. And because it's Mackenzi Lee, we're of course going to meet a particularly memorable lady pirate in Sim, a young hijabi connected to a notorious Barbary legacy who probably would fit very well in Bygone Badass Broads right alongside Felicity and so many other ladies in this book. And some pretty well-placed environmental themes too, especially when we meet a new species that looks rather like it'd belong in a certain iconic shot of Emilia Clarke wearing nothing but reptiles...
Yep. In this book, here there be dragons. Literally.
I don't know what Lee's got in mind going forward, though I'd be very chuffed if she came up with a new adventure narrated by either Monty or Felicity for sure!
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