The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy
This book started out molasses slow and then ended quite well. If this title or concept sounds familiar to you it’s probably because you read Lee’s other book called The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, or you are an avid reader of thetypedwriter and you read my review on it. Regardless, this is Lee’s second installment during the Victorian England time, but with a twist.
Instead of told from white boy Monty’s perspective it’s told from his sister, Felicity Montague. I actually like her better than her brother, but considering how he’s a downright scoundrel (like they would call him during the 1700’s) and kind of an ass (as they would say today) the bar isn’t too high.
Felicity is all about pursuing her dreams of becoming a doctor and practicing medicine. The catch is that this is 1700’s England and women can’t be doctors. Or practice law. Or read books. Or essentially anything that wasn’t cooking, cleaning, or child rearing. Yeah.
So Felicity is actually an interesting character to read about, and her development as admiring other medical male practitioners to deciding her own future and her own education was really enjoyable to read about.
I also thought it was really intriguing that Lee decided to make her have a romantic interaction with fellow female pirateer Sim but felt that it did “nothing for her.” Several times Lee alludes to the fact that Felicity has no need for romantic or sexual interactions and that the pursuit of knowledge and a house full of books and friends is more than enough fulfilling for her.
Essentially, what I got from this is that Felicity is asexual. Although it’s never explicitly stated, a lot of what Felicity desires or not desires coincides with the asexual spectrum. Lee’s decision to not label it is either because the label did not exist during this time or because she did not want to put Felicity in that category permanently.
Regardless, I found the description fascinating. There aren’t tons of mentions of asexual characters and to see one in a prickly female character from old century England was very refreshing. At times I felt like Lee pushed the whole agenda a bit too far, enough to make it seem like an agenda in the first place, but I enjoyed it enough not to be too put off by the blatant self-insert.
Lastly, there are other characters that played important roles: mainly Felicity’s old best friend-turned-enemy-turned-friend again Joanna, who ran away the eve of her wedding from an addicted scumbag playing fraud and would literally throw her whole life away for a dog and Sim, a Muslim pirate who just wants to protect her people and prove to her father that she’s just as capable as her brothers. Again, Lee hit the female agenda hard.
These other girls help Felicity on her quest just as they help her and they come across other cool cameos along the way, like Felicity’s role model Dr. Platt and of course, the charming main character’s from Lee’s first novel Percy and Monty.
The only other thing I can mention about this novel was that there were dragons in it. I found myself really confused about why Lee was including the existence of sea dragons that were large enough to wreck ships, as she generally wrote in a very natural and realistic fashion that stemmed from research and actual elements of the 1700’s, so I was very perturbed and a little skeptical about why there were mythical creatures being hunted and studied. Oh well.
Recommendation: Not bad, but also not…great. It was an alright read, with the ending better off than the beginning. The characters do grow on you but the consistent monologue from Felicity and the obvious agenda from the reader make it a bit boorish from time to time. If you love Victorian England and strong female characters this definitely might be up your speed, especially if you read the first installment of Lee’s duology. If not, this is not a book you’re missing out on too much.
Score: 6/10
