Category Archives: Fiction

It’s not often that I stay up past my (early) bedtime. But when it is, it’s usually to read a book. And this was the case with Mackenzi Lee’s companion to The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy due out in October. It’s as charming as the first, if not more so since it focuses on Felicity and her quest to become a licensed doctor.

And she’s quicker to point out, not a lady doctor “No sir… I’m determined to become a doctor. The matter of my sex I would prefer to be incidental rather than an amendment.” And so relevant now as Serena Williams is set to dominate again in a major competition who has always said she wants to be remembered as the greatest tennis player of all time, not the greatest female tennis player of all time (I think most would agree). And Felicity also reminds herself and thus readers “Your beauty’s not a tax you are required to pay in order to take up space in this world… You deserve to be here,” –another timely commentary.  These are just two of the memorable quotes throughout the adventure that showcase the power of a persevering attitude and interminable spirit after abandoning a weak marriage proposal from a baker (though how difficult it was to give up the sweets and escape to see  Monty and Percy).

Felicity is certainly the most memorable character, though I became enamored with Johanna and the relationship the two matured into after years apart. And as Johanna and Felicity find common ground in fighting against a male-dominated society threatened by the intelligence and ambition of women that’s when the plot thickens. Lee masterfully uses every page, every character, and every situation to move readers through this feminist lens of history. It’s an intelligent page-turner with memorable scenes, my favorite of which happen at the beginning when Felicity gets herself in front of the male hospital board to gain access to the doctorate program and obtain the appropriate credentials. Yet, at every turn her passion is seen as “hysterical” and the mere mention of menstruation blows the men’s minds. Readers are rooting for Felicity especially because she is so well equipped to be a doctor and that’s a testament to Lee’s character development, we’d be in line to have her as our caretaker.

While Monty and Percy make appearances, it’s truly a woman’s game and includes a wide cast of characters and secondary problem that a band of pirates, including the Muslim, Sim, who accompanied Felicity across the continent is trying to resolve.

I advise a wide readership and you don’t even need to read The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue to fall in love with Felicity in this companion. But I’d recommend you do because the doorstoppers move quickly with humor, action, and heart. I look forward to anything Lee decides to write, in or out of the world that she has created in these two, which is being aptly marketed as the Montague Siblings series.

Plus, you know it’s awesome when it’s bookstagram-worthy to boot and has a fancy, yet telling title that promises adventure that yearns to be ripped off the shelves and purchased en masse. Is it October yet?

You know a book is amazing when after you’re finished you give it a hug, set it down and stare at the cover, then side eye it all day long because you just don’t want to be done with that world. That’s the way I felt mid-morning yesterday after I tore through it in one sitting chugging water in this heatwave that is the first part of July in upstate New York.

It was only made sweeter when just a few weeks ago, I was brunching with Parker and a Penguin posse of authors during the American Library Association’s annual conference in New Orleans. Now I want to do it over again so we can really talk about the book, like the memorable character Caledonia. This seafaring lady wants revenge on a devious man and his henchmen, the Bullets because she was bested by one when she was young that left her family dead and her family’s ship destroyed. So the best way to do that was to get her own ship, get her own crew, and start systematically destroying his ships. She’s a strong and loving pirate who has an all-lady crew include Pisces who, like her name, is most comfortable in the water destroying the ships from below. It is a sisterhood and Parker develops each character to their fullest while allowing room for more development as the series?! continues.

And it isn’t just one quote that I can use to pinpoint Parker’s adept writing, but one word, “steely” as a memorable phrase. Like the loveable Lumberjanes and their “friendship to the max”, Caledonia and the crew of the Mors Navis use trust and their steely capabilities to fight back since Aric Athair who keeps his Bullet soldiers plied with Silt, a drug. Her crew wants to destroy their agri-ships to first take out the drug, then his fivesons, and then him.

The action is palpable and descriptively atmospheric. I was watching a movie in my head (and while it may be tempting to make this the next blockbuster, I dearly hope not, just let us enjoy the book). I can already count the students who I will be handing it to once it’s published in August, highlighting memorable scenes like the standoff between her pirate/sister/friend Pisces when she brings aboard the Bullet who saved her life when Calendonia would no more want to see her friend dead than kill the boy, the Bullet, who did it. It’s when they discover the stowaway, Nettle, who wants to be a part of the sisterhood (if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em). It’s when Calendonia, worried that Little Lovely Hime won’t even say goodbye after she finds her way back to her family, but instead boards the ship to continue to sail with the sisterhood because they were her family when she didn’t think she had one anymore. It’s when it’s discovered that the Bullet has information that Calendonia wasn’t expecting.

The scenes are rich with sentimentality and strength. I want to befriend them all. I want to  sail the seas. I want to take down Aric Athair, but first I want to find the slick Lir and take him down first. It’s a book that I wish I could go back and re-read for the first time because it was that good. It’s a book that I don’t think I can wait too much longer to get a sequel (pick me, pick me!) but unfortunately this first book isn’t even on shelves yet. I’ll be celebrating this book birthday for sure preferably on the water, with the wind blowing through my hair, a weapon, and lady friends by my side.