What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Monty is an eighteen-year-old rake, enjoying all of the pleasures of his upper class life in the eighteenth century. He embarks on a tour of the continent, along with his sister, Felicity, and his best-friend-turned-crush, Percy. When Monty pockets a trinket in what he thinks is an act of petty thievery, he turns their tour into an adventure, complete with highwaymen, pirates, and angry duke bent on revenge.
What I think (in 250 words or fewer): Have you ever had a million things to do, but instead of doing them, you decide to download an e-book because why not, and then read the entire book in one sitting? Yep, I did it, and I'm not sorry: this book is remarkably fabulous!
Monty has one of the best, most distinctive voices I've ever read. I laughed out loud many times and after marking about ten quotes as my favorites, I decided this whole book is quotable, with a British accent, naturally. I spoke Monty-style for the rest of the day and annoyed my children--love it!
Monty is unapologetic about who he is: a rake in the true sense of the term (unlike the "rakes-in-name-only" of regency romances). Monty makes no secret that he is attracted to both men and women and has a crush on Percy, his biracial friend who was raised by his aunt and uncle in upper-crust England. If Monty is the rake, his younger sister Felicity is the bluestocking: she is attempting to get out of attending finishing school to become a doctor. She's learned quite a bit by reading purloined anatomy and science books; Felicity even gives herself stitches (to Monty's horror! He can't handle blood).
The book's not all fluff: homophobia, racism, PTSD, illness, violence, and abuse are thematic elements throughout, with a touch of improbable alchemy-magic. I have much affection for this yarn and am rather appalled at my vain attempts to pen this review as if I were Monty narrating.
This book is on the 2018 Rainbow Book List.
My grade: A!
Read it today, so you can be ready when Felicity's story, The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, comes out in October 2018.
My favorite quotes: (here are four of about a million):
- "It's beginning to feel like he's shuffling his way through the seven deadly sins, in ascending order of my favorites" (e-book, ch. 2).
- "Rather, it is simply the tale of how two people can be important to each other their whole lives, and then, one morning, quite without meaning to, one of them wakes to find that importance has been magnified into a sudden and intense desire to put his tongue in the other's mouth" (ch. 3).
- "If the situation weren't so dire, I'd comment on how quintessentially highwayman-ish they look, as though they've borrowed the outfits from the theater" (ch. 6).
- "I'm desperate not to let all my stupid hope fill the silence between us, but it's filtering in anyway, like water running through the canyons that longing has spent years carving" (ch. 21).
Other reviews: Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and Hypable
This book is available in the Greensboro Public Library.
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