The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy

August 15, 2018
Felicity Montague fights to take up space in a world that demands she remain invisible.Barred from study at hospitals and universities because of her sex, Felicity chases her dreams of medical study from London all the way to Stuttgart, where her idol, Alexander Platt, an expert in preventative medicine, plans to marry before embarking on an expedition. Without any money of her own since she ran away from home, white English girl Felicity must rely on Sim, an Algerian Muslim woman with connections to piracy and secret motives. To make matters worse, Platt's fiancee, Johanna Hoffman, also white, used to be Felicity's best friend until falling out over their changing interests. As in The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (2017), Stonewall Honor recipient Lee (Bygone Badass Broads: 52 Forgotten Women Who Changed the World, 2018, etc.) develops a world rich in historical detail, crafts a plot wild with unexpected turns, and explores complex topics like colonization and identity. Felicity's brother, Monty, and his boyfriend, Percy, play smaller roles in this volume; the story focuses on the relationships between Felicity, Sim, and Johanna as the three women fight their own battles for respect and recognition within societal systems built to suppress them. Traveling alongside Sim and Johanna challenges Felicity to acknowledge the flaws of her not-like-other-girls self-image and realize that strength comes in more than one form.An empowering and energetic adventure that celebrates friendship between women. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 14-18)

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September 1, 2018

Gr 9 Up-A year after the events of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, Felicity Montague is wallowing in self-pity and boredom. Countless visits and petitions to Edinburgh's hospitals and universities to obtain an education have proved fruitless. Felicity runs away to London to meet up with Monty and Percy, where she discovers that her idol, the famed Dr. Alexander Platt, is looking for research assistants-and is much more likely to hire a woman, given his own unorthodox path to his medical license. The only problem in meeting him is that he is currently in Germany about to marry her ex-best friend from childhood, Johanna Hoffman. Luckily, a secretive and mysterious young woman named Sim is willing to pay Felicity's way. Things don't go according to plan, and Felicity, Johanna, and Sim are drawn into a continent-spanning chase that leads them to a remote island on the Atlantic and a secret beyond their wildest dreams. Felicity's sarcastic wit is entertaining, and she grows as she comes to terms with the realization that there is more than one way to be taken seriously, and what it means to be a strong woman. Gender inequality during the 18th-century is thrown into sharper focus, and readers can feel Felicity's many frustrations emanate from the page. Lee also touches on different definitions of femininity, and hints that Felicity may be asexual. These timely themes are set against another thrilling, swashbuckling romp across Europe and Africa. The author's extensive notes serve to shed some light on the time period and her inspirations for the characters. VERDICT An incredible, must-have follow-up full of old characters and new, blood and guts, and a delightful barrage of sarcasm.-Tyler Hixson, Brooklyn Public Library

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2018
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Though her elder brother Monty may be content, cuddled up in the dregs of London with the boy of his dreams (The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, 2017), Felicity Montague has grander ambitions. Unfortunately, it's the eighteenth century, and ambition in a woman isn't well received. Felicity, who is determined to become a physician, has been met with resounding rejection from the hospitals of Edinburgh, though she has received a proposal that she won't be accepting. Then she learns her medical idol may need an assistant, and he's more forward-thinking than most?but he's about to marry Johanna Hoffman, Felicity's childhood best friend turned nemesis. Still, Felicity never said no to a challenge before, and so begins an adventure featuring field surgery, pirates, sea dragons, and one truly massive dog. Felicity, comfortable discussing medical science and not much else, and who ultimately realizes that she's not interested in romantic or sexual relationships of any kind, is a singular heroine; Lee navigates her narration with even more aplomb than she did Monty's. Felicity's reconnection with Johanna and her gradual awareness of her own dismissiveness toward traditionally feminine interests adds wonderful depth, and Sim, the Muslim pirate inspired by pirate queens through history, offers a different image of strength and a window into a wider world. Lee's research is thorough and organically incorporated, and this action-driven adventure is a joy. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue was a Stonewall Honor Book and a New York Times best-selling smash hit, and demand for this companion is at an all-time high. Eighteenth-century hospitals may not want Felicity, but twenty-first-century readers sure do.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)