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

Summary from Goodreads:

In this highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, Felicity Montague must use all her womanly wits and wiles to achieve her dreams of becoming a doctor—even if she has to scheme her way across Europe to do it. A must-have for fans of Mackenzi Lee’s extraordinary and Stonewall Honor-winning novel.

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.

Review

I wasn’t sure how I was going to like this one. At first, I was incredibly excited for its release because I absolutely adored The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. And I was glad to hear that Felicity would get her own story. But, then I read some not-so-great reviews for its pacing and lack of romance. I tend to love a good romance and a fast-paced story, so I became a bit hesitant.

I also learned that I didn’t love Felicity as much I as thought I would. In the first book, she was the logical, intelligent voice of reason. In this book, she’s judgmental, critical, and kind of off-putting. That being said, those kinds of characters tend to seriously intrigue me, and often end up my favorite if not the most memorable. So, I kept going.

I also loved getting to see my favorite characters from the book before. They brought in an appropriate amount of love, humor, and charm. And as soon as Monty and Percy are out of the plot, there was a noticeable drop in the charm and I couldn’t help but want to like Felicity more than I did. It was almost unfair to compare her to her charismatic brother. But, I couldn’t help but do this once Monty came and went.

However, I soon came to love Felicity. I love that she wasn’t ignorant of her flaws. She learns to see how judgmental and off-putting she is. And she works to fix this. I also love how deeply she loves medicine. I had major respect for how hard she worked to get what she wanted. And I definitely loved that she respected this characteristic in others also. I loved that this book sort of became a friendship story. I loved watching Felicity make amends with an old friend. I loved the mystery, the science, and the adventure to the plot. I found the writing and the pacing to actually work fine.  I read the second half of the book in close to one sitting. It was hard for me to put down.

Though, there was one thing that bothered me. The first book was historical fiction. And then 75% of this book was also historical fiction…. However; then, the author throws sea monsters into the story…sea dragons with magical, healing scales….Um? I love historical fantasy stories. I do. But, this just felt so strange to me. Like if this was meant to be fantasy, couldn’t it have been alluded to in book 1? I kept being pulled out of the story and going, “Are there really sea dragons? And could she be referring to a real animal with a fantastical name?” It was confusing and unprecedented in a frustrating way. Then, I was questioning everything that transpired in book 1 and thinking, “What else was fantasy?” and I guess it altered my perception of everything in negative fashion.

I’m glad I read this book despite my earlier trepidation. I fell in love with the story. I really came to love Felicity (almost as much as Monty). I loved seeing old characters come back. I also enjoyed meeting the new characters. There was a definite feminist vibe to it all. Honestly, I’d rate this book much higher, if not for the weird genre shift 75% through…it was just so off-putting. There couldn’t be something else related to medicine, drugs, and pirates that wasn’t so fantastical? I give this an 8/10.