EDIT 21/04/20: I've decided to remove my rating for this book due to all the bullshit Lee's done (if you don't know, here's a thread on it). I'm not going to remove my original review but know that while I don't think this is an awful book I wouldn't recommend it anymore.


OG REVIEW 14/06/19

content warnings: homophobia, racism, ableism, misogyny, body horror, violence, death, mentions of infidelity, child abuse, loss of a loved one
representation: bisexual protagonist, black epileptic gay main character, interracial m/m main relationship, aro/ace main character, black main and side characters

“The truth is that Percy has always been important to me, long before I fell so hard for him that there was an audible crash. It’s only lately that his knee bumping mine under a narrow pub table leaves me fumbling for words. A small shift in the gravity between us and suddenly all my stars are out of alignment, planets knocked from their orbits, and I’m left stumbling, without map or heading, through the bewildering territory of being in love with your best friend.”

So, first of all, let's address the elephant in the room: this book took me seven months to read. Now, you may be wondering, "Jaime, how on earth could you rate a book so highly when it took you over half a year to read", to which I would say, "no fucking clue". Really this book took me a month-and-a-bit to read because in mid-December I put it down to read something else and for some reason just never got back to it. I'll talk more about that later.

But now, onto the review: This is a historical fiction book set in 18th century Europe as Henry Montague, a dramatic bi disaster, embarks on his grand tour with his best friend who he's helplessly in love with and younger sister who was forced to tag along. They quickly get into some shenanigans and the plot proceeds from there.

The biggest praise I've seen this book get is its characters, and for good reason. Monty is a dramatic dickhead who is somehow endearing the whole way through the book, even before his character development when he's still a bastard; Percy is a cutie patootie I would die for who just wants to be loved; and Felicity is basically me at fifteen, fighting the patriarchy and say a big ol' fuck you to heteronormative ideals for women.

The relationships between these characters are also great, from Monty and Percy's friendship/romance, to Felicity and Monty's begrudging love for each other, to Felicity and Percy's understanding that comes from being obviously different in a way that means society doesn't value you.

That's another big aspect that I loved. From the outside, Monty is incredibly privileged. Yes, he's bisexual, but that's not something people can tell by looking at him; when people see him, they see a wealthy cis white dude. Percy and Felicity, being black and a woman respectively, don't have that privilege, and they're constantly calling Monty out on it. Monty's character arc is very focused on becoming less of an ignorant dick and I loved that.

Unfortunately, as much as I loved the characters, there was one letdown of this book for me and that was the plot. I definitely didn't hate it the way that some others seem to, but compared with the fun writing and magnificent characters it just was nowhere near as good. That's a big part of what made it so easy for me to put this book down for months on end. The plot felt very unfocused and just kind of ambled along, meaning that there didn't really feel like there were any stakes.

I am a person who will take characters over plot any day of the week, and I think that definitely helped with my enjoyment of this book. I love historical fiction that focuses on people other than straight white dudes, and on the whole I would say that this book delivered in lots of key areas.