The Gentleman's Guide To Vice and Virtue: A Review

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee: Delinquents, Young Love, and an Astonishing Amount of Alcohol*

*told via colours, lists, and a healthy dash of sarcasm

RATING: ★★★★☆

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SUMMARY: Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions. But as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Even with his younger sister, Felicity in tow, he vows to make this year long escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt that spans across Europe, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores. (Courtesy of goodreads.)

Well, this was decidedly unexpected. Usually, when I crack open 500 page (yes you read that right) historical fiction novels I do not expect to actually enjoy them. However, I did quite enjoy this one. The writing is descriptive without being flowery, the settings are vivid and different, and I only wanted to stab the characters 19% of the time. (Except for Monty’s father. I wanted to stab him 100% of the time.) It was a very, very good book. I would recommend it for fans of A Darker Shade of Magic and Shades of Bronze and Gold. (Give me a break, they’re both green and I don’t read much historical fiction.)

Quick warning! Past this point in the review, here are some spoilers for this book. So, if you haven’t read it and want to read it, don’t continue. Go read it on the recommendation of a random Internet person with a crooked bookshelf and anxiety issues. If you’re reading it for English class (although I can’t imagine why historical fiction about alcohol and romance would be a good English class choice, but you do you boo) and want to pretend that you read it, continue for my spoilers. 

Anyway, moving on to lists! To start off, a small list of likes, because it’s always best to start positive and spell the word ‘small’ correctly. (Not a callout, I’d just die for grammar.) There were quite a few things I liked in this novel, and a few things I disliked. Instead of writing them out in a coherent paragraph, I think I’ll make lists because I’m secretly a two year old.

A SMALL (NOT SMOL) LIST OF LIKES

“God bless the book people for their boundless knowledge absorbed from having words instead of friends.” - Henry Montague, probably describing me.

♥ The Characters: Y’all I know Monty is the main character here, but Felicity really stole the show. I mean, a girl who wants to be a doctor and work on a pirate ship? She took the covers off amatory (new vocabulary word!) novels to hide her medical textbooks? I would die for her and I need to read the follow up in her perspective. And Percy was really great too, I liked him. I felt as though his character was really well developed and I thought he was great. Oh, and Monty was great too. Great character, that guy that’s on the cover.

♥ Plot: I really loved the whole premise of having a grand tour around Europe! I just kind of love these books where you see a lot of different places that are developed very well. The romance, which I will later talk about, was very well written and very cute. I maybe died a lot. The way it ended was oh so very satisfying? It tugged on all 13 of my heartstrings. (Thirteen’s my lucky number because thirteen.) Pirates? The whole James Boswell plan? Perfect. Absolutely perfect. I thought that a good deal of this story was very tightly plotted, and it shows.

♥  Style of Writing: I absolutely adore vivid descriptions of new settings. I love when you can just tell when the characters have traveled to a new place because it’s very lifelike and I feel not a lot of authors have been able to do this. Especially with this novel, where there are a lot of different settings, I felt it was important to establish different moods and tones for different areas, which this book does remarkably well.

♥  Author’s Note: Author notes are literally always fun. It’s great to see the author discuss their love of their book child and appreciate said book child as much as I do. (This is a weird analogy, but go with it because you love me.) Also, Mackenzi Lee included references for the historical basis in the book and I am in absolute love? The notes on the actual Grand Tour and queer culture and epilepsy were great. I learned quite a bit with this novel, and I will now use this in my annoying list of why YA literature is actually educational.

♥  Representation: Monty is lowkey bisexual and I am definitely here for it. More positive bi rep in fiction! The main romance was man x man, and it was so cute and played out so well. I really liked the fact that there were people of colour in this novel, something a lot of historical fictions overlook. Also, epilepsy representation, which is always nice to see because it’s shockingly underrepresented. Even though we’re not actually speaking of Monty, I think I should bring up how well his PTSD was handled. (It was handled really well.) 

♥  Strings Instruments: I learned what a fiddle is here and apparently it’s like a small (NOT SMOL) violin which means it’s a strings instrument which means I now have to marry this book for mentioning strings instruments. If only it had been a cello tho.

A SMALL (NOT SMOL) LIST OF DISLIKES

♦ The Alchemy: It’s just not realistic…. I’m sorry but y’all can’t market a book as being an epic tour of Europe with politics and a heist and then add this element of almost magic to it? I love fantasy, it’s my favourite genre. But the alchemy plot had no real basis here and I felt it really derailed the story. The story could have been perfect if it just stuck to one main plot, the alchemy stuff or the Grand Tour stuff. But for Lee to combine them both felt not only risky but also contrived. 

♦ Villains: Okay so I really enjoyed the actions of the villains and how their effects played out through the novel, and I think that part was remarkable. What I didn’t enjoy was how we don’t really understand motivations. It’s easy to make us sympathize with the heroes over the villains, but there are so many villains and so few motivations that it doesn’t really make sense throughout the story.

♦ Tone: I usually dislike stories written in first person. I couldn’t tell you why if you asked me, but I just don’t like them. This is more of my personal taste being annoying than an actual qualm with the story, but I felt Monty’s perspective didn’t explain as much as I would have liked to hear about the alchemy. (Hey, if you’re going to include an unnecessary plot derail, at least explain it!) 

♦ Humour: So many people have said that this book is so funny. I know humour is subjective, but the book just didn’t strike me as very funny. The only character who I actually found humorous was Felicity. I felt that the banter between Monty and Percy was very contrived and not that funny at all, but that is just my opinion. I did enjoy this book regardless of it being not that funny, I just found it odd that so many people have said it’s hilarious. 

♦ Contractions: This isn’t really a reason I detracted percents or anything I just really hated a lot of the contractions used in the book. There were triple contractions, contractions with have, contractions everywhere… I know it might be historically accurate but a lot of things were okay in the past and contractions are evil. 

♦ Scipio: Listen, the whole scene where he’s talking to Monty about throwing punches is gold. It was a beautifully written scene, but it didn’t fit with his character. He seemed to do a complete 180 in terms of behavior and I was so confused by it. So much missed opportunity for development I cry. He suddenly goes from being chicken liver to a beautiful fried egg in the space of 10 pages? I was just starting to hate him? It makes no sense someone find me a convenient wall to smash my head into.

♦ No Cello: I mean, this is an issue with almost every book. But please please please I want more characters who play cellos! More characters who have pet cellos! More characters who are cellos! All the cellos in fiction please. I just said cello too much it’s not a word anymore.

On the whole, I really enjoyed A Gentleman’s Guide To Vice and Virtue! It was some of the better historical fiction I have read, had cute romances and amazing imagery. Also, the love of my life, Felicity Montague was in it so that fixes everything. Happy reading!