The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee
Series: Gentleman's Guide #2
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on October 2nd 2018
Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, YA
Goodreads

Felicity Montague is through with pretending she prefers society parties to books about bone setting—or that she’s not smarter than most people she knows, or that she cares about anything more than her dream of becoming a doctor.

A year after an accidentally whirlwind tour of Europe, which she spent evading highwaymen and pirates with her brother Monty, Felicity has returned to England with two goals in mind—avoid the marriage proposal of Callum Doyle, 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 small window of hope opens. Doctor Alexander Platt, an eccentric physician that Felicity idolizes, is looking for research assistants, and Felicity is sure that someone as forward thinking as her hero would be willing to take her on. However, Platt is in Germany, preparing to wed Felicity’s estranged childhood friend Johanna. Not only is Felicity reluctant to opening old wounds, she also has no money 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 will lead her from the German countryside to the promenades of Zurich to secrets lurking beneath the Atlantic.

I received a copy of this book for review. This does not influence my thoughts on this book or this review.

I’ve been obsessed with The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue so when I heard that there would be a companion sequel about Felicity, I knew I had to read it. I’m happy to report that this sequel was definitely worth the wait.

Felicity wants nothing more than to become a doctor. But as a woman in the 1700s, not only are her options limited, they’re basically nonexistent. Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy is about Felicity’s journey to make her dreams come true and along the way, maybe learn more about the world and meet participate in some piracy.

I loved Felicity. Her no-nonsense attitude was definitely a highlight in the first book and being inside her head was just fantastic. I really liked her journey and while she definitely did make some mistakes along the way, she really grew as a person by the end of the book which is just lovely to read. The side characters were also so wonderful and I really loved seeing Percy and Monty again, even as side characters.

I also really liked how the book make it super clear that Felicity is asexual and aromantic. While those words aren’t used exactly (it is the 1700s after all), it is very clear that Felicity identifies along those lines.

Overall, The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy was just a wonderful sequel. If you read and loved the first book, I think you will really like this one too.