Follow her on twitter because she also does brief history lessons about women in the past who've gone unrecognized. Her tweets have some really obscure facts in them and she never fails to make it interesting!
Summary: Monty is setting off on his Grand Tour of Europe with his controlling father hoping it'll tame him from being obsessed only with drinking, gambling, and both the ladies and the men into a proper well-behaving gentleman. He's joined by his best friend (and secret crush) Percy and his sister, Felicity, who they'll drop off at finishing school. Monty wants to make it one last year of fun before Percy goes off to school and he's chained to the estate, but things become much more complicated than that with highwaymen, pirates, and theft.
Firstly, I'm not a fan of this cover. I don't particularly like covers that have people on them because it rarely looks good. They say "Don't judge a book by its cover," and I won't not read a book with a bad cover, but I can't help admitting that it makes me less likely to pick it up.
I went into this book expecting just a lighthearted traveling tale about two bros becoming lovers. I was ready for a classic tropey book that was all about these two boys. I wasn't wrong exactly, but it turned out a lot more adventurey than I'd anticipated.
I was really into the book at first and then Monty steals something and starts a chain reaction of events. You really have to have some suspension of belief because otherwise its unbelievable about all the trouble they get into.
Gentleman's Guide had amazing representation and diversity in a historical time period. These people existed even if that's often ignored and I really appreciated Lee's not acting like they avoided repression. That doesn't erase them from history though because they did have roles. Just because their sexuality or race wasn't supported in society does not mean they didn't exist. One of my friends said they really enjoyed how this made historical fiction more approachable again. It's historical, but still modern.
My absolute favorite character was Felicity, Monty's sister. She was capable and took charge in a world where woman weren't allowed to. She didn't listen to anybody telling her no. One of the best quotes from her: "Ladies haven't the luxury of being squeamish about blood,' she replies, and Percy and I go fantastically red in unison."
It was good, but another read that I just wasn't in love with. Certain parts really grabbed me, but others I just didn't care for.
It was a relatively easy and quick read that was good, but didn't live up to all the hype that I'd gotten. I went in with too high expectations I guess. I'm trying to save my 5 stars for the reads that I am astounded by and this just didn't get to that level for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment