Book 7 The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzie Lee fulfilled the category “Book with a Character on the Ace Spectrum” for the PopSugar 2022 Reading Challenge. Ace stands for asexual. I’m so glad the LGBTQA+ designation was included this year.

The Lady’s Guide is Book Two in the Montague Siblings series. This might be considered a duology, but the books have two different main characters. Felicity is a side character in the first book. I’m not sure how the author will do a third in the series, as the youngest brother is only about two years old. But I digress.

In this novel, Felicity Montague, a gentleman’s daughter, is trapped by social and political conventions of the late 1700s. Like her brother before her, Felicity has ideas, wants, and needs that do not conform to their society’s. Monty wanted to be with a man (his true love), and Felicity wants to be a doctor.

The first novel took us on Monty’s adventures with Felicity in tow. In her story, she goes alone into the world to try to convince hospitals and doctors of her worth to study medicine. Like her brother, her adventure takes her all over the map of Europe. Finally, in the Mediterranean, a touch of magical realism rears its head.

Unlike the first volume, this is not a romance, but it kinda is, though… Felicity receives a proposal from a male baker early in the book. She turns him down (indirectly as she never goes back to his shop) because she wants to pursue her dream of being a doctor. Later in the story, a woman tries to romance Felicity. Throughout the novel, Felicity states she does not enjoy touching, and that romance and love do not have a place in her life. But she knows she’s lonely. She realizes she needed more fraternal/sisterly love than romantic. She ends up happy. So yes, it is a romance!

I loved how Felicity knew who she was. She knew she did not wish to get married and have children. Nor did she want to live a secret life in love with someone of the same sex. Nor did she want any type of physical or romantic relationship with anyone. It wasn’t just that she turned these things down. She knew it was not in her nature to pursue such things. She didn’t feel weird or awkward about her true self. She accepted it. The best part was those who really loved her—her brother, her friends, even the woman romancing her—accepted Felicity for who she was. If only the modern world could be so accepting!

I also found it very interesting how different the first book is from the second. We romance authors are chided constantly about heat levels in our books. We have to always be sweet (no sex) or be hot. In these two books, we had a gentleman who was gay and pansexual. His libido had a hard time fitting in the room. In contrast, we have Felicity, the complete opposite in her opinions and nature about sex. Both books are great reads. I like that the author chose LGBDQA+ as her “category” rather than worrying about the heat level. I would’ve been sorely missed not to hear Felicity’s story.

I give The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzie Lee Five Letters of Recommendation from the Medical Board.