Rating: 5/10
You know, I went into this book really hoping that I would enjoy it. I had listened to the audiobook of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue earlier this year and I really loved it. Not only had I enjoyed that book, but I also liked Felicity in the book. So, I hoped that since I had liked her in that book, I would be able to enjoy a book that was entirely focused around her. Unfortunately, it really didn't turn out that way. This book was one of the most disappointing books that I've read this year and it's very unfortunate. Let me start with the summary.
Summary from Amazon:
"A year after an accidentally whirlwind grand tour with her brother Monty, Felicity Montague has returned to England with two goals in mind—avoid the marriage proposal of a lovestruck suitor from Edinburgh and enroll in medical school. However, her intellect and passion will never be enough in the eyes of the administrators, who see men as the sole guardians of science.
But then a window of opportunity opens—a doctor she idolizes is marrying an old friend of hers in Germany. Felicity believes if she could meet this man he could change her future, but she has no money of her own to make the trip. Luckily, a mysterious young woman is willing to pay Felicity’s way, so long as she’s allowed to travel with Felicity disguised as her maid.
In spite of her suspicions, Felicity agrees, but once the girl’s true motives are revealed, Felicity becomes part of a perilous quest that leads them from the German countryside to the promenades of Zurich to secrets lurking beneath the Atlantic."
This, by all means, sounds like it would be an interesting, empowering book. But, it wasn't. In terms of the writing, I generally liked Lee's writing in Gent's Guide. She has a knack for dialogue and comic relief. I think that this still certainly has it's role in this book and it was still very well done. But this book, as a whole, just really did nothing for me. It was very childish and whiney. Felicity didn't feel like a strong woman, fighting to do what she loved. She felt like a whiney teen that's mad because life isn't fair. Most of this book was dedicated to Felicity realizing that girls can be pretty and smart and that she shouldn't look down on women who want to behave femininely. There, I've saved you a 400 page read. It was just so preachy. The moral of the story was just beating you over the head constantly. Not only that, she's the protagonist and yet somehow she's just following people around for the entire book. I don't know how she managed to be a side character in a book where she's the protagonist. The pacing is also very weird because the reader rarely gets scenes of travel. It's all just teleporting from place to place with big time jumps. I literally cannot tell you the length of time that this story was meant to have taken place because the pacing was so weird.
And in order for the story to even begin, the audience is forced to suspend their disbelief over Felicity's whole character. Since when is Monty the voice of reason? Felicity was always the level-headed one and yet she somehow thinks that it's a good idea to travel to the middle of nowhere with a pirate that she doesn't know. Then she's surprised when that pirate isn't very trustworthy? It was just so unbelievable to the point that this book should've been about someone else entirely. This was not the Felicity from Gent's Guide. I don't even know who this girl is. Don't even get me started on the fact that there's next to no piracy in this book. How can you literally have 'piracy' in the title and leave it out of the first 300 pages of the book? It's like you're constantly waiting for the story to start. Why didn't Lee just have her be the doctor aboard the Elefteria? The pirates literally offered her the position in the last book and that would've made sense! I guess what I'm saying is, this story just didn't make sense.
In short, the book got the rating it did because it all just didn't make sense and it was out of character (and pretty boring). It would've been lower, but I genuinely like Lee's writing in a general sense. I think that she knows how to write a story that reads quickly. Honestly, if it was written differently, I would've probably just DNF'd it. Also, the fact that she included Monty and Percy didn't hurt. I was willing to sit through this whole bloody book just because I might get to read about them again. Perhaps I'm too old for this book. Some YA books work fine for adults and some don't. I think that Gent's Guide works well for both. This one though, would better be left to teenage girls. The message of the story is a good one overall, I think it would be a fine book for actual teenage girls to read. But maybe not for anyone over the age of 17. Despite the sour taste that this book left in my mouth, I am still excited for the third book in the series (partially because I know that Monty is in it again). It's marked to come out in April and I'm very excited to read it. I'm hoping that it is much better than this one.