Started: 28/04/19
Finished: 11/05/19
Spoilers: No.
A very easy 5 stars.
I fell in love with this book pretty early on, tbf. It really didn’t take a lot for me to be fully invested in these characters and this story. This has quickly become a new favourite and I’m so glad I finally got around to reading it.
I adore this book. I love it like Monty loves Percy.
Characters
Monty, Percy and Felicity have such a fantastic dynamic. I’m enamoured with them. What a wonderful trio they make and I wish there would be more adventures for these characters. I know Felicity has a sequel, but I’m not sure who’s in it with her. I would love nothing more than there to be a sequel in the future featuring them all again.
Monty is wit on a stick. He’s sarcastic and hilarious and the comic relief of the three. The very definition of a loveable rogue.
Percy is the voice of reason, a bit of a worrier, but ultimately very rational and grounded. He's Monty's moral compass.
Felicity is the smart one, sensible, stoic and almost cynical. She’s the unshakable spine that holds Monty and Percy upright throughout this book.
Their character development isn’t a personal journey. They don’t change drastically as individual people, so much as grow as a whole group. They go from fickle, set-in-their-ways youths to strong, determined adults that know what they want in life and aren’t afraid to take it. They become united by the things that happen to them and the awful situations they find themselves in. I couldn’t love them more.
Plot
The pacing of the plot was so well done, I felt like it was over too soon. I could have easily enjoyed another 400 pages of this around more countries on the tour. From start to finish, the story was engaging. The crazy situations the characters are plunged in to are absurd but plausible, making the whole thing exciting, wild, and unpredictable.
Many important subjects are addressed, such as sexuality, race, and epilepsy, and how badly people were treated because of all three. Hopefully books like this will remind people how far the human race has come in a relatively short period of time, and that, surely, is an encouraging thought.
Lee handles these topics with skill and class and respect while entwining them with an exciting adventure story, and I think she’s done a remarkable job.
Setting
I really enjoyed reading about the various cities and islands the characters visited. Lee describes each place with such unique detail that no one setting ever feels like the last. Every place has its own feeling and atmosphere. I was particularly excited for them to visit Venice, having been there myself only a couple of months ago. It didn't disappoint and I felt like I was there again.
Each setting is also punctuated by believable side characters, also unique to the cities they live in. The attitudes of the people reflected the history well; the English stuffy and not accepting of same-sex love, while the Italians were much more open to it (homosexuality often being referred to then as “the Italian vice”), so it was really great to see the Venetians more openly expressing same-sex love in the book.
However the French at times came across a little too stuffily, seeming more like the English than the Italian, despite in history the French being notorious for their debauchery and more open and accepting regarding sex, (for example, the most famous French king - the Sun King - Louis XIV had a homosexual, cross-dressing brother who was both famous for it and accepted for it.) With all the strange goings-on and revelry the palace of Versailles was famous for, a naked man running through the gardens is probably pretty tame in comparison. If walls could talk, eh?
Writing Style
This is my first time reading Mackenzi Lee and I must say, I’m very impressed with her writing. She’s clearly a very smart and informed woman and is dedicated to doing her research into a subject or time period before writing about it. I was surprised at times by how accurate the language and 1700’s ways were at times. For some reason, I almost don’t expect such accuracy and care to detail from a YA book, which clearly shows that YA standards have been slipping as of late. This calibre of writing is what all literature should stand to, not just YA. The bar has been set, people.
Final Impression I really do wish this was longer. I loved it so much and I can’t wait to read the sequel and the novella out later this year. And I sincerely hope these two sequels won’t be the last we see of these characters. Mackenzi Lee has a winning formula here and could take these characters absolutely anywhere. And if she does, I’ll certainly be along for the ride.
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