A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue

March 15, 2019
A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue Book Cover A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
Montague Siblins, #1
Mackenzi Lee
Historical Fiction
Katherine Tegen Books
June 27th, 2017
Hardcover; Audiobook
513
Library
Young Adult
Christian Coulson

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—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.

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. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.

Still it isn’t in Monty’s nature to give up. Even with his younger sister, Felicity, in tow, he vows to make this yearlong 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.

 

When my Kid’s Lit book club decided to pick up A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, I was ecstatic. A Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy had just come out and I was ready. I’ve read so many reviews of this book throughout the blogosphere and every single one of them was singing the praises of Makenzi Lee, Monty, and Percy. Only I should have remembered that hyped books rarely are my cup of tea.

God bless the book people for their boundless knowledge absorbed from having words instead of friends.

It’s the 1720s and Henry “Monty” Montague couldn’t be more excited for his summer. He is embarking on a Grand Tour of Europe with his best friend, Percy. One last wild summer where they can be themselves before the unspeakable happens — before Percy goes to Law School in the Scandinavian countries, and Monty has to reign it in to become his father’s heir – and a boring-ass adult. But this trip is complicated by the addition of Felicity, Monty’s sister, joining them on the first half of this tour, by their stuffy chaperone, and by Monty’s romantic feelings for Percy. Which, while he desperately wishes Percy returned, Monty knows are all in his head. But! One should be optimistic about these things, shouldn’t they?

“We’re not courting trouble,” I say. “Flirting with it, at most.”

I feel like the only person in the world who didn’t completely fall in love with A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. It’s a strange and isolating feeling… But, I for some reason I was never able to engage despite the 1.5 billion things happening throughout this complex story. I was into it in the beginning. I love the voices for both Monty and Percy. The first 50 pages were engrossing and exciting; there was a sense of anticipation for the adventure to come. And then things started to fall apart for me.

It’s remarkable how much courage it takes to kiss someone, even when you are almost certain that person would very much like to be kissed by you. Doubt will knock you from the sky every time.

As the book began, I was intrigued by all three of our protagonists. They have so much potential! Plus, we have this fun trip across Europe where we will explore the relationships between these three characters! Yay! NOPE. The plot quickly diverts from the original intention and instead, Monty steals something he shouldn’t and becomes a wanted criminal. Which you think would be fun for me. Alas. Suddenly, this story is a demi-fantasy heist I don’t have any interest in.

“Oh no.”
Percy looks sideways at me. “Oh no what?”

I swallow. “I’d first like it to be noted that I most certainly not a smuggler.”
“Monty…” he says, my name sopping with dread.
“And,” I continue overtop him. “I’d like you both to remember just how much you adore me and how dull and gloomy your lives would be without me in them.”
“What did you do?”

The characters from A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue never connected with me. Monty is a fun and unique narrative voice. Like all the characters in this book, he has a ton of potential. The most, actually. He has the most arrogance and bias to overcome on this journey. However, Monty but became annoying when literally zero character development happened throughout the book. Honestly, I’m extremely confused by this. Perhaps Lee thinks Monty grew and developed? Weird. Also, Monty is 100% an alcoholic. Does no one seem bothered by this?! Is that common in the 1800s?! I wasn’t triggered or anything, I just kept being pulled out of the story when he continued to drink himself stupid and was obviously dependent on alcohol for his survival and NO ONE SAID ANYTHING.

“Ugh. Feelings.” I take a long drink then pass her the bottle. 

Sadly, it turns out there wasn’t much more to Percy and Felicity than what we saw in the first 50 pages (yes, yes, we get to see that Monty doesn’t know them because he doesn’t know Percy and epilepsy and Felicity wants to be a doctor, but that’s the END of their development). Percy and Felicity are stronger characters than Monty overall. Percy wants to fight his own battles, has secrets, and… well, we learn about him and therefore he changes over the course of the story. But, honestly, I don’t think he truly changed throughout the book. Instead, the only change was how Monty, and therefore the reader, sees him. I felt the same “development” came from Felicity. So, where does this leave our characters? This makes Percy the biracial epileptic who obsessively carries around his violin for a plot point 400 pages into the book. And Felicity is the surly intellectual girl who wants to be a doctor. That’s it for these characters. They have nothing else going for them.

“Just thinkin about all that blood.” I nearly shudder. “Doesn’t it make you a bit squeamish?”
“Ladies haven’t the luxury of being squeamish about blood,” [Felicity] replies, and Percy and I go fantastically red in unison.

That said, I loved the realistic sibling relationship between Felicity and Monty. It barely appeared throughout the text, but I could connect to it. Felicity and Monty weren’t certain they could trust each other, and they were aggressive and antagonistic to each other, but they loved each other. Siblings to a T. I wish we could have seen more of this wonderful relationship!

It occurs to me then that perhaps getting my little sister drunk and explaining why I screw boys is not the most responsible move on my part.

I struggled a lot with the writing in A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. The plot is predictable and simultaneously all over the place. This comes from both the plot points and the pacing. I was hooked before Versailles and then everything started to speed up and slow down at the same time. We had everything thrown at us: Intrigue! Court drama! Gypsies! Highwaymen! Pirates! Poisons! Opera! Dens of Iniquity! Churches! Living dead! And yet– I felt like things moved too slowly. It took a long time for anything to happen. As a reader, this was quite a confusing dichotomy.

I’ve always been of the mind that subtlety is a waste of time. Fortune favors the flirtatious.

Most of the plot’s emotional tension came from one of my least favorite plot points: Characters not speaking to each other. If all three of our protagonists had trusted each other enough to be vulnerable, a lot of the emotional drama would have been solved. From a plot perspective, I think this would have made a stronger book. I couldn’t handle the emotional drama AND the physical drama (see the list above) all coming at me at 100 miles per hour. Plus, characters not speaking to each other as a plot point infuriates me. #SeeArrowsFlight

It’s a strange feeling, realizing that other people you don’t know have their own full lives that don’t touch yours.

Finally, there were a handful of continuity errors which I found distracting. The most obvious being when Helena and Dante are having a secret conference in Dante’s study about secret things they don’t want Monty and Co to know. So, what do they do? They have this conference in halting French instead of their native Catalan, which none of their guests understand. Obviously, Monty overhears and the plot moves forward! But that’s just one of many. It was incredibly distracting.

Love may be a grand thing, but goddam if it doesn’t take up more than its fair share of space inside a man.

Okay, that was a lot of ranting. But there are things to rave about, too! Lee gets HUGE kudos for writing historical fiction (fantasy?) with prominent feminist, LGBTQ, and diverse themes, characters, and ideas. You might think this is weird for a historical novel. But, Lee did her research! She didn’t toss all these ideas into A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue because she was trying to be trendy. Lee wrote about all these things because they existed. In the Afterward, Lee explains that the Tour of Europe was the focus of her undergraduate thesis. She did a ton of research for the thesis and this book, providing the reader with a high-level explanation of the historical accuracy of certain concepts in the Afterward. She covers the Grand Tour as a concept, 1720’s politics, epilepsy, race relations, and queer culture. These all existed in the eighteenth century, but we don’t have much documentation since not everyone was educated and these concepts were taboo. If I had known this was all possible before picking up A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue I would have enjoyed the book quite a bit more. But I’m glad Lee included this Afterward! History is incredible.

Lucky for me as well, or else we might have never met, and then what would have been the point of my life?

HUGE Kudos to Amanda @ Cover2CoverMom for helping me when I was dragging through this book. When I told her I couldn’t get into the text, she recommended I pick up the audiobook. It is incredible! Christian Coulson is practically perfect as the narrator and does a marvelous job bringing to life the absurdity of Monty affecting the world. With Coulson reading I wasn’t as annoyed, instead, I was sometimes even gripped! I was suddenly laughing and Monty’s character made sense. After all, if the humor works, the whole book works. I will certainly be seeking out more of Coulson’s narration in the future. (And, for those of you who don’t recognize the name, Coulson played Tom Marvolo Riddle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Just thought you should know.)

We are not broken things, neither of us. We are cracked pottery mended with laquer and flakes of gold, whole as we are, complete unto each other. Complete and worth and so very loved.

I have an unpopular opinion of a quite popular book. I should have expected this based on my track record with hyped novels. I wanted desperately to enjoy A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, but alas. How to end this review? How about this — My opinions are summarized perfectly my friend Kara in her review:

This book should have been more exciting. I mean, exciting things happened. Somehow I just didn’t care that much.


What do you think?

  • Have you read A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue? What do you think of it?
  • What popular books didn’t work well for you? Why not?
  • Are there books you love more on audiobook than in physical format? Which books? Why?

26 Comments

  • Captain's Quarters March 15, 2019 at 9:26 am

    Well matey, I didn’t like this book much either. It irked me. In fact I made it walk the plank. The link to me review is below if ye like. But I thought yer viewpoints were spot on. Arrrr!
    x The Captain

    https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/02/walk-the-plank-the-gentlemans-guide-to-vice-and-virtue-mackenzie-lee/

    • Jackie B March 28, 2019 at 11:18 am

      Ooooh, you DNF’d this book! I might have done the same thing if this wasn’t for book club. I like to read book club books all the way through so I can defend my perspective of disliking the book. XD That said, my book club ladies mostly agreed with our opinion, Captain! I’m so glad that we’re not alone when it comes to this particular hyped book.

      • Captain's Quarters April 2, 2019 at 1:17 pm

        I did finish it. I just thought it was silly and didn’t really get the hype. It is nice to hear that the book club ladies felt the way we did. I might have loved this more if I was a teen maybe?
        x The Captain

        • Jackie B April 2, 2019 at 6:05 pm

          Perhaps? I think 12-15-year-old Jackie would have really enjoyed this book. Once I hit 16 I might have been “too old” for the silliness of the adventure. I think I’ve become a bit more fun in my old age. XD

  • Jaclyn March 15, 2019 at 11:14 am

    I didn’t particularly care for the book either! To your point, I felt like the characters were all pretty flat, and Monty in particular was irritating. I just couldn’t really get into it, and ended up DNFing. ‍♀️

    • Jackie B March 28, 2019 at 10:21 am

      It was nice hearing that most of book club agreed with us that this book didn’t quite meet our needs. This book has been so hyped by so many people, I am often a bit wary when I don’t like hyped books… I’m not afraid of disagreeing with people, but having to defend an unpopular opinion is exhausting for me.

      When was the last time you finished a Kids Lit Book Club book?

      • Jaclyn March 29, 2019 at 3:33 pm

        I finished East, albeit about two months after book club. Mostly just because I had forgotten to download something else before a flight to California in January.

        And before that, Starfish, last March. Looking back…apparently I’ve been in a book club slump for about a year and a half now. Oops.

        • Jackie B April 2, 2019 at 5:53 pm

          Yikes. That’s no good. Do we want to try to do something about that? I mean, if you just aren’t into reading right now, that’s cool. But I bet Kids Lit can also stage some sort of intervention. XD 😉

          • Jaclyn April 2, 2019 at 6:21 pm

            I dunno. Let me think about it. ‍♀️ It’s no that I’m not reading at all…I’ve listened to the Harry Potter series multiple times in the past six months. But I haven’t finished many other things in a long time—kid lit or otherwise. I’ve started a few books, but am having trouble gaining momentum on anything.

            • Jackie B April 3, 2019 at 3:40 pm

              I love that you’ve listened to Harry Potter multiple times in the past six months. Like, all the books multiple times? Or just some overlapping due to listening with Aaron?

              Is this something only related to books? Or is not finishing something happening elsewhere too?

  • PerfectlyTolerable March 15, 2019 at 3:07 pm

    Great review! I didn’t even notice the point about Helena and Dante speaking French, but I could see how that could e super annoying! It doesn’t make any sense at all! I’m sorry you didn’t like this better, I loved it, but not everyone is going to like every book! I’m glad the audiobook helped! I loved the narrator <3 He really was perfect for Monty! And if you decide to give The Lady's guide a try you should listen to that on Audiobook as well 😀 I love the narrator for Felicity too!

    • Jackie B April 2, 2019 at 11:18 am

      It was just one of many little things which I found distracting. Lee could have benefitted from a stronger editor. But it didn’t ruin any major plot points for me.

      Christian Coulson’s voice is incredible. I am 100% going to hunt down more books narrated by him in the future, whatever they are. I’m glad that the narrator for The Lady’s Guide to Piracy and Petticoats is also wonderful! If I get to picking it up, I’ll definitely be picking up the audiobook. I have a feeling that it will suit my preferences much more. 🙂

      Have you also read the novella? I don’t know anyone who has, and I’m so curious!

      • PerfectlyTolerable April 2, 2019 at 3:59 pm

        I haven’t read the novella 🙁 I couldn’t find a copy ANYWHERE 🙁

        • Jackie B April 2, 2019 at 4:34 pm

          Really?! That’s a shame. 🙁 I wonder why that is? I just looked it up, and my library doesn’t even own a copy of it. How odd!

          • PerfectlyTolerable April 2, 2019 at 5:26 pm

            It was an incentive if you pre-ordered the ebook 🙁 so it only exists in peoples ebooks so they can’t share or sell it

            • Jackie B April 3, 2019 at 10:02 am

              Ohhhhhh. Well then.

  • Isabelle @ BookwyrmBites March 16, 2019 at 7:48 pm

    I enjoyed Gentleman’s Guide, but I did feel a bit distanced from it as you did – Monty and Percy are cute, but they’re far from the most compelling characters I’ve ever read about. But the diversity is indeed fantastic, especially considering the time period and how much research went into making it realistic; and I’m glad the audiobook worked better for you.

    to be quite honest, I liked Lady’s Guide even better – Felicity was more relatable and I thought she was a bit funnier than her brother (who does make an appearance, so we get a bit more of that awesome sibling banter/awkwardness/unconditional support!), plus we get even more strong diverse characters!

    • Jackie B April 2, 2019 at 1:26 pm

      I’m so glad that I’m not alone in feeling disconnected from Monty and Percy. I love the idea behind this story, but something never quite clicked. It’s hard to be the only person who doesn’t seem to like a well-loved book!

      I’m glad that you enjoyed A Lady’s Guide better, Isabelle! That speaks well for my future reading this series. I don’t know how on earth Lee can manage *more* diverse characters in a realistic situation, but that’s fascinating. What additional diverse elements does Lee bring into this second book?

      • Isabelle @ BookwyrmBites April 2, 2019 at 5:04 pm

        it’s been a while so I might be misremembering/forgetting some things, but I believe that in Lady’s Guide Felicity is confirmed as aromantic and/or asexual, and we get to meet more badass women including an Algerian Muslim Hijabi pirate!

        • Jackie B April 5, 2019 at 1:33 pm

          Oooh. That’s amazing. I don’t know how Lee does it! I hope that she has future books coming out – I’d love to read more from her, even if her debut novel wasn’t my favorite. 😉

  • Amanda @Cover2CoverMom March 16, 2019 at 10:29 pm

    I wouldn’t feel bad at all for not enjoying this one. Like I told you, I don’t think I would have enjoyed this book much in print form. The audiobook really brought Monty alive, and that’s what I enjoyed most. I imagined Monty as a young Hugh Grant… I can totally admit the plot was messy & odd. The second book is very much like this one, so I’d definitely skip it lol

    You need to give her book, Bygone Badass Broads a go! It is a mini biography collection of women throughout history. I think you’d really enjoy it much better 🙂 It’s also perfect to pick up for Women’s History Month.

    • Jackie B March 27, 2019 at 5:34 pm

      Thank you for reinforcing that I should skip Felicity’s book. I mean, I get the allure and appeal, but I just need to pass. Thankfully, I don’t suffer from FOMO, so I’m not worried about it.

      And THANK YOU for recommending the audiobook! It really changed my opinion completely on this book. I’ve never been in a situation where I enjoyed the book so much more when listening to it. I like the idea of Monty being a young Hugh Grant, too.

      Ah! I didn’t realize Lee wrote Bygone Badass Broads! I really enjoy her historical notes, so I’m certain I’d love this. I probably won’t get it read this month (only 4 days left!) but that’s a great idea. Perhaps for next year? That seems like a long time to wait, however… 😉

  • Grab the Lapels March 18, 2019 at 2:12 pm

    This book would have totally lost my interest when I learned that a major plot point was two young men who want to get into trouble before they have to take on responsibility. It reeks of a boys’ weekend, which leads to them doing things after which people claim “boys will be boys.” If that’s not what the book is like, it’s my misunderstanding, but even the quotes have the word “flirt” all over the place. I can also envision a young Hugh Grant, though remember that in most of his roles he’s a jackass playboy.

    • Jackie B March 28, 2019 at 3:59 pm

      Yeah. That’s not what the plot REALLY is, but that is definitely the synopsis and the setup for the story. Obviously, things go all wonky and get out of their control and it isn’t much of a boy’s weekend (or, uh, Summer?) after all. But the reflections on Monty’s past have a lot of “boys will be boys” moments. Only, uh, Monty isn’t messing with women because he isn’t interested. So, fights and flirting and excess, yes. Mysogyny? No.

      I think this book is one you’d read if you wanted something silly and irreverent to read. But I’d never recommend it to you. The writing style would drive you BONKERS.

  • Laila@BigReadingLife March 19, 2019 at 6:32 pm

    Oh no… I’ve heard so many good things about this book. It’s been on my TBR list for a while. Now that I know your feelings I’ll approach it with caution. We don’t actually have this book in my library system so it might be a while before I can get a copy anyway.

    • Jackie B April 2, 2019 at 4:36 pm

      I’m fascinated that there sin’t a copy of A Gentleman’s Guide in your library system, consider how well marketed and hyped it has been! My library has about 10 copies between physical, digital, and audio versions. My library system is pretty big, though…

      Yeah, it’s a fun adventure novel, but I don’t think this book will really speak to you, Laila.

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