Ach, ich bin hin- und hergerissen. Die Figuren und die Welt sind so real. Ich konnte jeden Charakter nachvollziehen und habe es geliebt, wie imperfekt Monty ist - und dies auch zum Teil weiß, aber es eben nie besser gelernt hat. Aber - und ich sage das schweren Herzens - der Alchemie-Plot war bis zum Ende ein Fremdkörper, der einfach nicht zum Rest gespasst hat. Und leider ist es nicht nur eine Station auf der Reise der Charaktere, die sie dann hinter sich lassen, sondern ein großer Antrieb. Die Figuren machen so viel mit und immer wenn man denkt, dass sie am Boden angekommen sind, passiert eine neue Katastrophe. Das hätte meiner Meinung nach völlig gereicht, um die Geschichte spannend zu halten. Ich liebe die freche Queerness, die Atmosphäre der verschiedenen Städte/Stationen und wie real sich die Figuren anfühlen. Der Schreibstil ist leicht zu lesen, löst Gefühle aus, ohne sich zu sehr zu verlieren. Genau dafür liebe ich dieses Buch. Und genau deshalb bin ich so traurig, dass es sich nicht völlig rund anfühlt. Es hätte perfekt sein können. Versteht mich nicht falsch, ich lese sehr gerne Fantasy und habe nichts gegen fantastische Elemente, aber hier kommt das Ganze sehr überraschend aus dem Nichts und wirkt eher wie ein Mittel zum Zweck, als wie ein Element mit großem Mehrwert. Es passt schlicht nicht zum realistischen, historischen Ansatz. Ich gebe trotzdem 4 von 5 Sternen, aber bin unsicher, ob die Bewertung der Zeit standhalten wird.

4.5 Stars I really enjoyed this book! Monty is a hilarious character who often tends to overdramatize things which made his narrative fun to read. I only gave it 4.5 and not a full 5 Stars because at some point in the middle of the book I found the plot to be a bit boring but it then picked up again ... like a lot! Can’t wait to read the sequel in fall!😆

I thoroughly enjoyed the plot, the characters, and the writing. This book is a joyride right from the start. Monty, from whose side this story is told, is witty, sassy and a complicated mess and I love him. Reading the story through his eyes is really enjoyable. I have never marked so many passages in a book as "great writing, super enjoyable, etc." as in this one.

“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 worthy and so very loved.” A fun queer own voices adventure book, that also deals with racism and epilepsy stigma - basically historical fiction about characters that normally don't appear in this genre.

4.5 Stars I really enjoyed this book! Monty is a hilarious character who often tends to overdramatize things which made his narrative fun to read. I only gave it 4.5 and not a full 5 Stars because at some point in the middle of the book I found the plot to be a bit boring but it then picked up again ... like a lot! Can’t wait to read the sequel in fall!😆

december 18 when i first read tggovav last summer, i really liked it; i thought 'wow, what a fun story and additionally to that, it even has something to say!' now i've reread it and i loved it 10 times more. it's such an important story that deals with its heavy topic in the most entertaining way. and i've officially added it to my all-time favourite books. some reasons for that: the characters: i lovelovelove monty, he's a dumb idiot, and 50% of his thoughts/the things he says are unreflected and hurtful, but the important thing is that he learns, that he realises the mistakes he's made. he's become a whole different person by the end of this book, and i have to applaud mackenzi lee for this character journey because, whoa, it's so believable and organic, and it's so lovely to see him 'waking up'. and also, of course he's funny and i enjoy being in his head a lot. well, then there's percy, who is just the cutest, and made me fall in love with him a bit, and felicity, the most badass character ever, who is just my absolute favourite!! this time around, i also noticed how well written the supporting characters are, especially dante and helena and mateu! i really love them all so much, and i understand their actions, their conflict, and i felt like i really got to know them. the themes: this story is not told in a black-and-white / good-and-evil way. it asks difficult questions and doesn't present a simple answer. - how do you deal with a loved one being sick? - how do you go about trying to save them? - would you take someone's life to save someone else? all these themes are touched upon in a nuanced and careful way, which really made me think beyond the fun adventure plot. also, i learned so much about race relations, (social) treatments of epilepsy, queer culture, traveling, piracy, being a woman, in the 18th century. the romance: yeah okay, i love the friends to lovers trope. and it's so well done here; the romance plot is super swoon worthy. even i, as someone who is allergic to cheesy stuff, smiled like an idiot more times than would've been necessary. even though i had quite a few face palm moments because godddd it could have been so much easier. now i have no idea how to end this review. let me just say that i closed this wonderful book with a smile on my face last night, and that it's so worth reading it twice (or more)! __________________________________________________________ august 2017: this book wasn't perfect or my new favourite but i had so much fun! monty's voice was hilarious and even though he annoyed me a bit at first i enjoyed his overall emotional journey. i loved felicity's character the most though. what i also loved was how lee managed to include more serious topics in this light and fun adventure novel, like what race issues and the treatment of people with epilepsy was like in the 18th century.

Overhyped in my opinion.. it took me 10 days to finish, I ALWAYS took a break in the middle of a chapter or even stopped in the middle of a sentence (what what?! yes, this happened), because I was so bored - I kinda speed-read the last 100 pages, because I wanted it to come to an end.. not impressed While writing this I lowered the rating from 3 to 1, because I don't even want to talk about it. Bye.

Eine schöne Mischung aus Abenteuerroman und Queer-Romance. Das (für mich) neue Setting zur Zeiten der Grand Tour sowie die Kombination mit den - durch ihre kleinen und großen Probleme - sehr nahbaren Charakteren, hat mir viel Freude beim Lesen bereitet. Streckenweise fühlte sich die Story leider etwas gezogen an und Henry ging mir manchmal mit seinen Handlungen auf die Nerven. Das wären aber auch meine einzigen Kritikpunkte und ich werde mir auch den nächsten Band organisieren!

4.5/5 Dieses Buch hat mich so überrascht. Es ist so viel passiert, was ich einfach nicht erwartet habe. Ehrlich gesagt, wusste ich auch nicht recht, was ich erwarten sollte. Bevor ich es begann, hatte ich nur gutes davon gehört. Was ich über den Inhalt wusste, war hier geht es um Monty, der eine Europa Reise mit seinem festen Freund Percy und seiner kleinen Schwester unternimmt. Naja und so ist es auch. Doch verläuft die Reise nicht wie sie geplant haben. Sie erleben ein Abenteuer nach dem anderen. Ich kann nicht erwarten bis der nächste Teil draußen ist. :)

I think the book had a strong start, but it was all downhill from there. First of all, Monty was an incredibly annoying main character, which ruined the book for me. The plot was horrible and I stopped reading when I had around 100 pages left. It was just too much and unbelievable.

This was so much fun! I kind of hated Monty for the first half of the book and didn't care too much about the whole Lazarus Key plot, but nevertheless was immensely invested in the story. There were several occasions where I laughed out loud or audibly gasped. I also really love Felicity, so I'm diving right into the second book!

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee was one of my most anticipated reads this year. Unfortunately, due to other review copies I had to read and review first, it took me a while to finally pick it up. I finished it a few days ago and it feels like one of the worst book hangovers I’ve ever experienced. This is for sure one of the best books I’ve ever read and if you want to know why, make sure to read my following review. One of the reasons why this book is worth all the stars in the world is that Mackenzie Lee proves that it’s not impossible to put together a very diverse cast in a YA historical fiction novel, set in the 18 hundred. In this book we have a biracial, gay (I assume he’s gay, I’m not a hundred percent sure to be honest, he could also be bisexual or pansexual) upperclassman, a white bisexual upperclassman and a independent, fierce and very smart teenage girl who puts every single man in this book to shame with her bravery and her brains. Felicity, our main characters little sister, is more than just a pretty girl and that is what she proves everyone; that women are so much more than just a pretty accessoire to a man. Felicity became one of my favorite characters from the book in the blink of an eye and I couldn’t be happier about how Mackenzie Lee did not only include gay, but also black as well as strong, female, badass characters in this book. This book is so much more than a cute historical love story, as some of you might think. It focusses on so many important issues, for example homophobia, racism, politics, society, PTSD, anxiety, ethnicity diversity and nerve diseases. A BOOK THAT MAKES YOUR HEART FEEL WARM AND FULL I feel like this book has taken over my life. It’s so much fun and smart and adorable and hilarious and thoughtful and so well written, I can’t even put into words how much I loved this book. I’ve been gushing about it for days now and I enjoyed every single page so much that actually I already kind of read it twice, which is also a reason why it took me quite a while to finish it. Whenever I read a chapter, I turned to the German edition and read the same chapter again in German, not only because I wanted to reread every chapter as soon as I finished it but also because I wanted to see how it was translated. This might sound crazy to some but it was so much fun though. This book is one of those books that not only entertain you for a couple of hours but also make your heart feel so warm and full. It’s definitely one of those books that stay with you for quite a while because you just can’t stop thinking about these characters and their stories. Considering all the hype it got from basically everyone in this community I went into this with pretty high expectations I have to admit and I was not disappointed. I usually don’t like historical fiction that much but this book was everything. I’ve never heard of Grand Tours or anything like that before but it immediately reminded me of today’s, mostly rich, teenagers who basically take a gap year before college. I can’t believe that was already a thing back then and it was so interesting to learn about all this. In theory, teenagers who go on a Grand Tour are meant to be having an educational and cultural experience, in reality – of course – there’s a lot of drinking, a lot of partying and a lot of fooling around. This is also what Monty and Percy, our two main characters, have in mind when heading to Europe. Their fathers plans for them of course look a little different than their own and Monty unexpectedly manages to get themselves into a lot of trouble; a series of dangerous adventures which they obviously hadn’t planned at all. But while trying to get out of this alive they learn more about themselves, get to know each other a whole lot better and have some really amazing and honest conversations about sexuality and disability etc. pp. What I think is also very important and a something you don’t see in YA books often is the fact that when Monty, who’s totally spoiled and who can be a privileged bastard at times, says something stupid or behaves like a jerk, his friends call him out on it, which is so rare in young adult literature. And he learns from it, he thinks about it, he questions himself and the things he just said or did and this just felt so real and honest. This is just what friends should do. Because although they call him out on things a lot, they don’t attack him. They still respect him; respect the person he is. They all try to teach each other things about life and love; they help each other out; they are there for each other. It’s amazing. This is what real friendship looks like and I absolutely loved it. I’m also very impressed by how much research the author must have done to get all the things right. That’s what we learn from the author’s note where she explains what kind of research she’s done (she also recommends books and essays to read on different topics) and it’s all so interesting. This book is so fast paced, despite its 500+ pages. I flew through the pages and it was so hard to put it down; nearly impossible though. Just now I realized how bad I actually am in writing reviews for books that I adored as much as I adored this one. I never know where to start and I never know what to say, what words to use because everything seems so blunt and not enough to appreciate the awesomeness of this book. What I also absolutely loved about this book is that the setting changes so much. As mentioned before, Monty, Percy and Felicity are on their Grand Tour through Europe and they stop in Paris, Barcelona, Venice and Santorini and although I only just got back from my own tour through Italy it made me want to go on another trip yet again, especially because Santorini for example has been on my bucket list for years now and I cannot wait to discover this beautiful place myself. A VERY SPECIAL, FUN AND INTERESTING READ It’s not only the book that is so special; it’s the characters that make it so precious, because there are so many interesting and diverse characters in this book. It also features some pirates, highwayman, alchemy and one of the cutest romances ever. It’s very slow burn but it for sure pays off. Sometimes though it really drove me nuts. At some point I just wanted to slap their faces together and finally make them kiss; it was absolute torture but so good and definitely worth all the drama. I ship Percy and Monty so hard, it’s ridiculous. I am utterly obsessed with Mackenzie Lee’s writing and I wish I could sit down with her for a while, drink a coffee and just talk, talk about writing, about her books, the books she plans to write in the future (hopefully a million) and life in general. She seems like such a sweet and just amazing person; I can’t wait for her to publish more books. I’m longing for more; I need more. This book definitely is one of my book highlights in 2017. It’s so good I’d recommend everyone to read it, even those who maybe don’t like historical fiction that much because I’m not a big fan von historical fiction myself and I absolutely adored this one because it’s so different from everything else I’ve ever read. If you haven’t picked this one up yet, make sure to do so! BLOG: https://book-ilicious.com/2017/08/17/review-cavaliersreise-mackenzie-lee/

For a book marketed as YA, it felt more like an adult queer historical romance, and I was so into it! Went in with low expectations and ended up loving it. Monty is such an entertaining protagonist. He's self-absorbed and oblivious but perfectly charming and misunderstood. He definitely stood out in a sea of insecure bland YA perspectives. Loved the love-hate between him and his sister, glad she has her own book in this series, since I loved both of these siblings. And the friends-to-lovers trope is always fun when both the parties involved are pining and aren't aware of the other's feelings. Makes for great drama! The setting was quite realistic, even with some suspension of disbelief necessary for this kind of story. I did like the elements Mackenzi chose to add since misogyny and superstitions was very much present during these times. The adventure/supernatural aspect was ok, I was much more invested in the character development. This book earns its five stars for the characters and the amount of entertainment I got from it. Sometimes you just want a fun time and I definitely got that!

This book was... not what I expected. Part of this was my own fault because I should have checked how old the main characters actually are before reading it, so getting yet another book about (sometimes very frustrating) teenagers is entirely on me. But what the hell was this sudden alchemy plot, of all things?! Monty, the main character, is every bit the selfish, privileged 18-year-old ass a lot of people have pointed him out to be, and while he gets some character development, given the whole "touring through Europe" thing and all the people the group meets on their way, I was hoping for him to learn and grow a lot more than this. His sexuality and especially how that affects his relationship with his father do give him some depth and a more or less understandable backstory, but at least for me, it wasn't really enough to completely love him as a character. There was more than one occasion I was sure he'd gone too far with Percy, his love interest, and there was no way this conflict could ever be resolved, let alone within the remaining pages of this book (and I still don't think it completely was, tbh). 100 bonus points though for a bisexual main character who also explains why it's not as simple as "just exclusively be with women then, if you like them, too". Anyways, at some point "disastrous road trip with lots of pining and misunderstandings (because, again, teenagers)" turns into "maybe alchemy is real and we're now on a quest to find the panacea", which, despite how it sounds, actually had a lot of potential? While I would have preferred a more traditional road trip story, I actually kind of enjoyed the more and more ridiculous series of unfortunate events they (and especially Monty's stupidity and behaviour) got themselves into, pirates included. But then it turns out this cure-all in form of a magical heart is actually real and we've somehow been in a fantasy story all along?? Or?? What?? I'm still not sure what's happening. All in all, it was an entertaining book that only took me two train rides to finish. There were moments the more sincere/romantic scenes with Monty and Percy made me smile and I started rooting for them, and I also grew pretty fond of Monty's sister Felicity who's travelling with them (realism of her character be damned) – so I'm really not sure how to rate this and might come back to change the rating.

I don't know what kept me from this for so long. I guess I saw some negative reviews and thought it wouldn't be worth my time and also I don't usually go for historical fiction. Anyway, this book blew my mind. I binged it in like two days and I could barely stop reading in between. It was such a lovely story around live and family and illness and what you're willing to do for the ones you love. And all of that around an LGBT romance with just the right amount of humour. Monty is a faulty character, but he grows above his issues. I love him with all my heart and I will protect him till my last breath, okay. Percy, too. God, Percy. I loved his story and how his skin colour influences his life even though he had the luck to be born into privilege. I also really loved that his story was inspired by Dido Elizabeth Belle. And don't even get me started on Felicity, what an icon. I hope she reaches all her dreams, she deserves everything. Yes, overall I loved every single thing about this book. I loved the slow burn, the soft affection that Monty and Percy always held for each other even as friends and the whole mystery and drama. It was a perfect package.

read my complete review (with picture) on my blog: http://isabellsbooks.blogspot.de/ 13 REASONS WHY EVERYONE SHOULD READ 'THE GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO VICE AND VIRTUE' 1. Can be used as both a book and decor As you may have noticed already, this book has an exceptionally beautiful cover! It's definitely one of my favourite book covers ever and it represents what the book is about so amazingly, in my opinion. Not only is the cover gorgeous though, the book's spine is also a sight to gawk at. So for the very impossible case that you should not like this book, it will still look stunning in your bookshelf. :D 2. The main character Monty aka drama personified I always loved dramatic characters, and Monty tops them all. I adored him from page one onwards, because he is just an overly excentric , quite hysterical drama queen who is way too full of himself. And although one might not think this at first, he has so many layers and is a pure joy to explore and an amazing choice for a protagonist. Reading this story through his eyes made everything way more fun and entertaining and amusing and I just love him so much. I actually related to him so many times and was so happy that such a different and utterly unique character had been created by Mackenzi Lee, because I never before had the joy to read about anyone even remotely as fantastically entertaining as him. I adored Monty more and more throughout the book, and I already loved him in the first chapter. :D There is so much more depth to him than one might assume at first, and I could relate to him so much because he has quite a similar mindset to me concerning a lot of things. Whenever Monty self-doubted himself, I just wanted to hug him tightly and tell him how incredibly beautiful he was inside aswell. I loved that later on in the book that subject was actually dealt with more deeply. 3. Monty & Percy's friend/relationship Oh god, don't even get me started on this point :D Monty and Percy (who is Monty's best friend since forever) are my new ultimate OTP, I ship them so hard it hurts. So Monty makes it cristal clear from the very first pages on, that he is utterly in love with his best friend Percy but isn't quite sure whether Percy is into him aswell. Although I have lately rather distanced myself from romantic books, I will never ever be able to resist a gay lovestory... omg. That's why I adored reading about Monty's great love for Percy and did not ever find it in any way cheesy. The fact that these two didn't just meet each other but actually grew up with each other and had such a long and close bond, made it realistic for me that Monty talked about having such extreme feelings for Percy. The author did such an amazing job in writing this oh so beautiful lovestory, that I always made sure that I would not get disturbed and was reading in a comfortable and silent place, whenever there was another Monty & Percy scene. I wanted to put my full attention on daydreaming about these two. Their chemistry was electric, I felt it burning right through the pages and could not get enough of it. (That's probably the only thing I can complain about regarding this book, that it wasn't about a 1000 pages longer, which would have - according to me - been only heated Monty & Percy scenes, because I craved more of these so badly....) I so wish that the author would write more about these two precious cinnamon roles, I NEED MORE! 4. Monty's bisexuality This fact was actually among the first ones that I heard about this book. After that horrid season 4 of SHERLOCK, which shattered my queer heart to pieces, I vowed to myself to drown myself in queer movies, series and books this year, so this queer aspect was something that made the book quite attractive for me. I loved that this fact wasn't just used to make the book more diverse but was actually talked about and greatly weaved into the story. It was especially interesting to read about bisexuality being dealt with in the 18th century, when this book is set. I loved how proud and natural Monty treated his sexuality, so that readers had no choice but to see it as a wonderful, natural thing aswell. 5. Percy's blackness This book seems to tick all the boxes concerning diversity, which often makes one worry that all these diverse aspects have only been included to 'make' the book more diverse. Happily, this book does not just use diversity as a sort of accessory to make the book have more layers, but actually works diversity beautifully into the storyline and makes the diverse characteristics of the characters an important trait of them, which shapes them continually throughout the story. Percy being biracial gets mentioned a lot, and since this book is set in a time when slavery wasn't yet abolished everywhere, his blackness gets him and his friends into rather uncomfortable situations. So, him being black doesn't get glossed over but gets acknowledged properly. This is why I think that this book does a great job in having a black character as one of its most important characters. Although the author herself is not black, it is still important, to read about black characters, who are amazingly written, in my opinion. 6. Felicity's strength & fierceness Felicity is the younger sister of the main character, Monty, and is the third most important character, after Monty and Percy. At first glance, she might seem rather unimportant, but let me tell you, she will so surprise you and make you love her during the book. Felicity could be called a feminist of her time, since she is a fierce, independent, striving, strong and smart young woman who does not want to follow the paths that women in that time were expected to go. There are such great moments in this book in which Felicity outshines all the other characters, including both Monty and Percy, and as a female reader, these are just glorious and so much fun to read. I loved how empowering she was regarding other women and how none of the men arround her were ever in the same street as she was. This is why I am SO EXCITED that the author of this book, Mackenzi Lee, announced that there will be a sequel to this book, featuring Felicity as the main character. *-* I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS! The title for that sequel will be: THE LADY'S GUIDE TO PETTICOATS AND PIRACY How cool does that sound though?!?! Can't wait to read that! (And hopefully it will feature some more of Monty & Percy aswell... *wishful thinking*) 7. The Grand Tour So what is this book actually about, let aside all the characters and their traits? Apparently, during the time in which this book is set, in the 18th century, it was a common thing for wealthy young boys/men, who had just finished school, to do a so called 'Grand Tour' through Europe. The goal of those tours was to get the men more culturally invested and interested, to let them meet other wealthy men and thereby make useful connections, and to make the boys basically grow up into decent men and leave all their indecent manners, like drinking and too many women, behind. In reality, though, these Grand Tours were actually much more fun and adventurous for the young men. Now, "The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue" tells the story of Monty, who is a rich young man of 18 years, who is about to go on his 'Grand Tour' with his best friend Percy, and his sister Felicity. For Monty and Percy, this will probably be their last year together, because Percy will go to a law school in Holland after their tour, so Monty is excited to have as much time as possible alone together with Percy, before their paths will be divided. They are all English and start their tour from Paris, and will go all over Europe from thereon. I just loved exploring so many European cities with this book. They were all beautifully described and I enjoyed the constant change in setting so much, that it felt like I went with them on their tour. I think that it's a brilliant idea for a book to portray this Grand Tour through Europe, because it basically guarantees lots of fun and adventure, alongside stunning scenery. 8. This book feels like a movie I so so hope that they will make this book into a movie, because it already feels like one and seems to be destined to be put on the big screen. The previously mentioned settings would make up for such amazing scenery, the adventures in this book would make up for such an amazing plot and the characters are all so layered and diverse and would therefore give the movie an incredible amount of depth! Because the writing style was so greatly written, I could already imagine the whole book vividly before my eyes and already feel like I've seen this book as a movie, or rather as if I've experienced everything in it together with the main characters. This book, though it has 500 pages, was such a quick read, and had not a bit of boring or unnecessary scenes in it. It was the most entertaining book I have read in a long long time, from page 1 right through page 500. This story also has the very best to offer of every genre: it has adventure, romance, mystery, comedy, drama and is quite historically accurate. 9. Entertainment & Amusement Aw, this book was so much fun to read. I don't think that anyone could not enjoy this book, it is an impossible act to not have a splendid time while reading it. The writing style makes so much room for sarcasm and irony and I just loved that! There were so many funny bits in this book, that would actually not have been necessary for the story, and the book would have already been great without them, but they just made this book an even bigger favourite of mine. (This book is now one of my all-time-favourite books, if you haven't guessed that already.. :D) Monty, who is always up for ridiculous fun, gives the book a vast amount of entertainment and amusement and one just has to adore him for it! Even in the most trickiest moments, he still manages to make everything funnier. The book is so fast paced and thereby insanely well written, and the many sarcastic comments of Monty basically made me smile brightly all the time. 10. Scandals, Pirates, Mystery If all of that wasn't yet enough to convince you to buy this book IMMEDIATELY, hopefully this will: I have already talked about the main plot of this book being Monty's Grand Tour, but of course, this tour doesn't work out as perfectly as it was planned. Among their tour through Europe, the characters come across (or rather cause) great scandals, pirates and a mysterious riddle. One would think that there isn't enough place to put all of what I have mentioned above AND those things into one single book, but these three aspects (who are only a few out of many more adventurous ones) actually get dealt with in vast and most interesting detail! This book was basically like a box of chocolates, to quote Forrest Gump, one never knew what new adventure one would be in in the next chapter. 11. Historical Accuracy I must admit, that I normally don't really read Historical fiction - besides the Outlander series. So the fact that this book was set in the past did at first scare me off a bit; but now I am so happy that it is set in the past... (although I would totally love to read about Monty and Percy set in all times and places). I found it interesting that the author of the book actually has a Bachelor's degree in History, because that gave the book more ground for me. (altough I would have totally enjoyed it without that aswell) It was very interesting to read the author's notes at the end of the book, concerning all the themes in the book and their historical accuracy. I can definitely recommend to you to read through that! 12. Believe me, you will adore this book. I really cannot imagine how anyone could not at least love this book. It really feels like I have been waiting for this book to come into my life for so long. It is the sort of book that I never knew I needed but now that I've read it, I ask myself what I've done beforehand. I asked myself why I even wasted my time on reading some of the books that I last read because I almost forgot that reading can be such an enjoyment and entertainment as it was with this book. (This book also made me remember that life is far too short to read bad books, when there are SUCH AMAZING books out there that are only waiting for you to dive into!) Don't satisfy yourself with a bad or an okay book, when there are books out there that make reading the most amazing experience there is! I want (and desperately need) more books like this one, I so hope that the author will write a lot of books like this one in the future and I cannot wait for them! If you have already read this book and know a similar book to it - though I doubt it, since this book just seems too unique to be compared to anything - please tell me about it! The book soaked me completely in, I could read it for hours without ever getting bored of it, without ever having even the slightest desire to put it down. I did not want to do anything but get lost in this story and experience these adventures alongside these incredibly adorable characters. 13. You can annoy your friends with it. If you are a friend of mine, you should absolutely read this book, because I will go on about it forever, believe me. :D This is a book, which I adore everything about and could still talk about it forever. Often, amazing books leave me with me just being: there is not a lot to write about besides that I extremely enjoyed this book, since there is nothing for me to complain about. (Which is why my lower star ratings mostly get longer reviews than the books that I adored.) But this book just offers so much of everything: characterwise, plotwise, settingwise... that I could go on about it for ages. READ. THIS. BOOK. !!!!!!!!!!!!!! READ. THIS. BOOK. !!!!!!!!!!!!!! READ. THIS. BOOK. !!!!!!!!!!!!!! READ. THIS. BOOK. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4,5 stars. I really enjoyed this one! -Second read- 5/5 stars I wanted to read the second book in this companion series this month, so I couldn't resist to re-read the first one, and oh dear am I happy that I did that! I loved the book even more the second time around. Some things that bothered me when I read it for the first time didn't even stand out to me this time. I love the characters so much, and although Monty is just a mess of a person, he is so relatable (maybe the chaos is what makes him such a great and relatable character?) I had a whole new appreciation for Felicity this time around as well, and the relationship between Percy, Felicity and Monty was just amazing. Although they had their arguments, they always come back to each other and support each other wherever they can. The plot itself was a bit strange to me the first time I read it, but I appreciated every scene so much in my re-read. Especially the scene where Monty runs through the gardens of Versailles naked just got me this time. I read it while I was on the train, and had tears in my eyes from holding back my laughter so much. It was fantastic! I loved every bit, and even though it was a re-read, some scenes really still surprised me. If you want to read a fun, light-hearted book, that nevertheless addresses important issues which are even relevant nowadays, or just want to read a big with great story-telling and amazing characters, please check this one out!

I didn't like this book because the main character was being presented as being totally in love with the other guy, but when they kiss and the other guys asks "is this meaningful to you," the main character can't say YES and MEAN IT. Therefore, the two guys fight and spend the rest of the portion of the book I read before abandoning it, hostile to each other. This book is written in the first person, which means we should be privy to the internal thoughts of the main character. We should see his unhappiness about not being able to properly express his thought of being in love with the guy he loves. Unfortunately, that is never expressed. It is totally left out of the book. The reader just has to accept that.?! The ONLY reason the characters are actually apart is so the author can drag out the love story for an unnecessary 500+ pages. It's not for any other REAL reason, because a real person would have a conversation with the person they are TOTALLY in love with to express how they feel after they have a falling out about KISSING!!!! SO THEREFORE IN CONCLUSION, THIS IS THE STUPIDEST BOOK EVAR!!!!!!!!! Yep, the most stupid book in existence. No, it does not deserve one star. Zero is the amount it deserves and will get!

This book starts out super light-hearted and fun. Monty is adorably funny and Percy too. Felicity, Monty's sister, and his relationship is so true to siblings' relationship that I'm in love! All it took was 30 pages and I was already in love with the three of them, with the story! Monty is in love with Percy, who has been his best friend forever, and he is bi (maybe with more inclination to men). Everything about this is very refreshing and nice and amazing. The only thing that is not is Monty's iron hard father, but I think that is to be expected when his son and heir likes to party a little too much and is into boys... But, oh, well, he is staying in the UK while his son is touring the Continent. Monty and Percy manage to have a night out without Lockwood, their bear-leader, and they are teasing each other and having fun. Then Monty's brain goes on vacation and he kisses Percy. It's beautiful and spirals out of control until Percy asks him if it's just a laugh. Monty's answer and reaction makes me want to beat the crap out him and shake sense into him, all the while hugging precious Percy. Good gracious, my heart swelled and broke in a span of four pages! Monty, Felicity and Percy go to a ball in Versailles and it's quite irksome in the beginning. Especially with Percy, because he is of colour. But Monty needs his drink and the ambassador won't let him drink, trying to make his acquaintance with important people. But he ends up snapping and storms out, ending up with a woman in a remote room. And Monty is incredibly funny, I laughed a lot in this book. But after a game of cards, in which he ends up naked, someone interrupts him and he is forced to flee, naked, through the gardens. Monty forgets that women are the ones that take the entire blame and fall in disgrace when they are with a man to whom they are not married, and I feel a little attacked by what he said, how sexist he sounded, but it was like that before and even nowadays that notion has not been completely lost... On the rushed way to Marseilles, their carriage is attacked. People die and Monty, Felicity and Percy panic but manage to fight and escape their attackers, even if they can't go back in search of the carriage and have to try and find the road. It's a little stressful, these are not the YA fighters I'm used to. The attackers were sent by the Duke, from whom Monty stole. And what seemed like a trinket is actually a puzzle keeping something very important safe. The three of them are forced to spend the night in the forest and, unable to sleep, Monty starts thinking about why he was expelled from Eton, because of a previous conversation with his sister. He was expelled because there were letters between him and another boy. His father beat the daylights out of him... It was horrible! I want to protect Monty from his monster of a father! He said he wanted to die! And that it was not the first time he had thought that! All because he was taught that wanting a boy is wrong. It's very hard to read parts like this one... Knowing it was true, knowing it still is true... They reach Marseilles but have nowhere to go and wander the city. In a fair in the port Monty finds one of the men that attacked him, and it turns out to be the Duke of Bourbon himself. As they hide and try to come up with a plan, Percy has a seizure. Monty goes to find the apothecary he ran into earlier and he is willing to help them, letting them stay in his boat as Percy recovers. As it turns out, Percy has epilepsy... And that is the true reason why he is going to Holland, he is going to an asylum. Because people with epilepsy were considered possessed and insane... Monty is worried beyond words about him, from the moment he collapsed until their talk and he can't possibly understand why his best friend has to go to a sanatorium, or how this happened. He feels like he is losing his best friend... The man who helped Percy knows two women that can help them figure out the box. It turns out that it did not belong, originally, to the Duke of Bourbon, but to a Spanish alchemist. Then the Duke and the King's guards are searching the docks for Monty, Felicity and Percy and they have to quickly hide beneath thick cloths to be able to pretend they are poxed. It works and the guards leave them be. And after all the talk with the ladies, Monty wants to go to Barcelona to give back the box to the rightful owner and try for a cure to Percy's illness. Percy agrees with him and so Felicity falls in line too. Oh, Monty, you shameless flirt! To be able to withdraw money for their trip, he, Felicity and Percy go to the bank and just stand there for some time. Monty manages to find a man working there that has the same interests as him: other men. And he starts to shamelessly flirt with the poor guy! It's actually quite adorable! Near Barcelona, Monty and Percy talk. Really talk, like they haven't since the kiss. And it's soft and sweet and it hurts just a little, but they are slowly getting back to the place they were in before the kiss, and that's good. Monty's conversation with Felicity about feeling and being in love with both men and women and, most especially, Percy is heartbreaking... Thinking it was illegal and wrong and all those wrong concepts that still manage to cling to us until this day, sincerely makes my heart break. And seeing a beloved character feel that, hear it from the sister he loves (even if he doesn't frequently admit it) as she tries to understand her brother... It was a great scene between two characters who have a naturally complicated relationship but also left a bittersweet taste... I swear that Monty is blind and I'm going to shake him until he understands that Percy is in love with him too. Monty thinks that Percy pushed him off in Paris because he "let slip" that it was more than just casual! Idiot! He pushed you away because you said yes when he asked if it was just a laugh to you! You are the biggest idiot in history, Monty! Gods above, man! That thing in the bookstore, with his foot going up your leg teasingly and then his excuse when he said he thought it was the chair! Christ, Monty! He's giving you all the signs! But moving forward from that rant. The three of them end up going to the opera with the Robleses siblings and Monty eavesdrops a conversation between them, saying that Dante is going to meet someone there, that he needs to be the one to meet them because his sister no longer can. And it's a weird conversation that left me wondering if it was the Duke or their father. Because something in this story wasn't adding up, the Robleses siblings act very strangely... Oh, and when they are looking for a clue for the things they know about the box and all that, Percy finds the name of a temple or something similar in Italy that is named after Lazarus's sisters, which are referenced in the Bible that Monty was reading. Mateu Robles, Helena's and Dante's father, isn't dead. The warden of the prison who talked to Dante told Monty that the man was imprisoned because he was against the Duke of Bourbon. The heat inside the opera house makes Percy feel poorly and Monty takes him back home, where the two of them start going through the letters sent by the Duke to the Robles. Meanwhile, Felicity and Dante get home and she's trying to seduce him into giving her in the information she wants. Monty, thinking she's in danger and being a good brother, is ready to defend his sister and almost throws Dante a pot of hot tea. It's a rather hilarious moment! But something Felicity tells Monty left me wondering if she's asexual or if she just hasn't found someone that truly tugs at her heart... And Dante tells them that his father created a panacea but that it came at the cost of his wife's life so he hid her away to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. Inside that box is the key to get the cure-all that the Duke wants, so he can rule France, Spain and Poland. So Monty comes up with a plan: be arrested for thievery so he can talk to Mateu Robles and get the cypher for the Baseggio box and maybe the cure to Percy's illness. But the moment the thief-taker slaps Monty across the face he starts to shut down and desperately tries to get his head back in order so he can carry the mission to the end. After his talk with Mateu, Monty is so rattled it breaks my heart... He's flinching from people's touch (Mateu then Percy) because his father hit him so hard and for so long and now the guard did too and he needs comfort but doesn't know how to ask for it and it's truly heartbreaking. Monty opens the box, saves the key in Percy's fiddle case and then Helena is there and they are fighting and she injects him with belladonna. It's kind of scary to read because Monty loses all sense of self and Helena hits him and it makes him think of his father! Percy saves him and when Felicity tries to touch Monty he again recoils and starts ugly crying. And again it's heartbreaking! It's painful to see the deep state of pain he's in! Felicity is a great sister! She's changing over the course of the story and she shows her concern and care for her brother, which is lovely. And she is a great schemer! She was charming her way into a ship that would be their ride to Venice when the captain saw Percy and refused to have Negroes on his ship. Which was just ridiculous and left me and Felicity both aching to hit him across the face! And so she leads them in and they board as stowaways because that's what you get for being racist, man! At the end of the first part of the trip, Percy and Monty finally admit their feeling for each other!!! And they almost kiss again but a stupid cannon stupidly fired and they are interrupted! Stupid pirates! Couldn't they have waited just two more minutes to go about pirating? Don't you wish you had been truthful right from the first kiss, Monty? You would have been a lot happier all this time! The pirates that capture them are actually new to piracy and after a rushed plan from Monty saved them all from the French Navy, they are warmer toward Percy and Monty and Felicity. They even struck a deal: letters of marque in return for safely delivering them to Venice. The crew is actually super nice to them, their captain amazing! The only reason they are new to piracy is because they were all slaves-turned-privateers whose employer left them to hang for piracy after the war with Spain was over. And, again, a very innocent gesture, done solely for fun because Monty is the one to initiate it, this time with the Captain of the ship they're on, is ruined because his father was a bastard that constantly beat the crap out of Monty and I hate him! But that pirate has a heart of gold and teaches Monty to fight back. It was not great but it was a start. Shortly after they arrive in Venice, Percy and Monty have another great fight that ends miserably and ends up with Percy walking away and Monty drinking the night away. Scipio, the pirates' captain finds him and is leading him somewhere he can crash and sleep when the Doge's men find them and bring them to the Doge's place so they can be brought before the Duke and Helena. And he threatens Monty's life if the key doesn't find its way to him. So the Duke takes Helena and Monty to the island and the tomb, where Felicity and Percy find them. The Duke keeps a pistol to Monty's back up until the heart is in Helena's hands but in the scuffle that ensues due to Helena destroying the heart in the fire, the Duke shoots Monty in the side of the head. This entire part is tense and stressful and Monty almost dies! He survives only because Scipio rescues them from the Lagoon and Felicity can patch him up, but he ends up without an ear and hearing on one side, as well as burns from the close shot. It's not a perfect ending, but at least they are all alive and well, not too badly injured. The ending of this book makes all the troubles and all the fights and all the fear worth it! Felicity is asked by Scipio to be his ship's doctor (a woman! And her dream, at least in a way!). And Percy's and Monty's part is adorably cute! And they agree to not go back home. So this book is an adventure! It's light and heavy and so, so, so very well written! The characters are amazing and the story is beautiful and it touches incredibly relevant subjects to this day! I love it! It's definitely one of the books I'll always come back to, one of my top favourites! And just like my top favourites, I'd give it a universe of stars if I could! It deserves, it's that good even if I don't have the words to express more.