Top Ten Tuesday | Pride Month Reading Recommendations!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Books I Decided to DNF (did not finish) too Quickly', but as someone who's a big fan of DNFing books that just aren't working for me, I decided to talk about my LGBT+ recommendations for Pride instead - Happy Pride Month!

(I'm also hoping to read at least one LGBT+ novel this month - you can take a look at my TBR here, if you like.)

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire: We're starting off with a strange recommendation because I didn't actually enjoy this one very much; I liked the concept far more than its execution, but this is the only book I've come across (so far) in which the protagonist identifies as asexual, and describes herself as such, and we need far more asexual representation in fiction.

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley: Set in America in 1959 when black students were first admitted to previously all-white high schools, this powerful debut follows two teenage girls, Sarah and Linda, as they battle racism, both outwardly and inwardly, and their growing feelings for each other.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli: Another fantastic voice in the world of YA, Becky Albertalli's debut follows Simon as he tries to find the courage to tell his friends and family that he's gay, only to be blackmailed by a fellow student who wants his help winning the affection of a girl at school. This is fun, funny and heart-warming, and has some brilliant things to say about the process of coming out.

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee: A spoiled, wealthy, bisexual boy from an aristocratic family is given the opportunity to take a tour of Europe before he must resolve himself to the family business in this incredibly fun novel. Add to the mix the best friend he's fallen in love with, a sister with no intention of going to finishing school and a theft that sees them being pursued across Europe and you have a wild ride of a novel.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters: Quite possibly the twistiest, turniest book I've ever read, Fingersmith is considered Sarah Waters' masterpiece and reads like a Dickensian thriller - only this time, the women have agency. Because of the Victorian setting this one is a great book to read in the autumn, but if you're looking for something to sink your teeth into for Pride this month I'd definitely recommend this one.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers: This is one of my favourite science fiction novels. While its focus is far more on character than plot, the universe Chambers has created is such a beautiful, hopeful vision of the future. She explores sexuality, gender, family units, war, peace and what it means to be human, and if you haven't read this one yet then I can't recommend it enough.

A Portable Shelter by Kirsty Logan: The stories in this collection, inspired by Scottish folklore, are told to an unborn child by its mothers, who are eagerly awaiting its birth. It's a lovely, melancholic collection and definitely one to read for anyone interested in folklore and fairy tales.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: One of my favourite novels of all time, this stunning novel tells the story of Patroclus and Achilles, from their childhood together up to their roles in the Trojan War, and their relationship as it grows from friendship, to companionship to love. Definitely one to read if you haven't already!

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu: Given that this is a Victorian novella I can't imagine Le Fanu would have described this as a lesbian story but, like most early vampire stories, Carmilla is awash with homoeroticism. This novella was released about 25 years before Dracula and, in my opinion, is the far better work. One to read if you'd like something short this month!

The One Hundred Nights of Hero by Isabel Greenberg: This beautiful graphic novel has stories within stories as two women in love tell tales to a friend of the husband of one of the women who has made a bet that he can seduce her while her husband is away. Inspired by The Arabian Nights, it features stories about and for women in a fantasy world where women are second-class citizens.

Which books made your list this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | All You Need is Love (and Books)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is a love themed freebie, so today I thought I'd talk about my bookish otps. I usually struggle with otps - something I've mentioned before is that, for whatever reason, I have more otps from films and tv shows than books - but today I decided to challenge myself to sit down and think about the romantic couples in books I love and was pleasantly surprised to discover that almost half of them are from books I read last year!

(Please be aware that there may be some spoilers in this post if you're the kind of reader who doesn't like to know who ends up with who!)

Cinder and Kai from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: There are plenty of sweet couples in this series, Cress and Thorne are especially adorable, but I've always had a soft spot for these dorks.

Judith and Lucas from All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry: I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did and I loved it, and I was especially surprised by how much I enjoyed the relationship between these two.

Monty and Percy from The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee: Well done romances that grow from friendship are hard to do - quite often they come across as a little lazy to me - but the relationship between Monty and Percy was my favourite thing about this book.

Molly and Reid from The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli: These two are just the cutest nerdy, body-positive couple and I love them.

Saba and Jack from Blood Red Road by Moira Young: When it comes to fictional characters I have a genuine soft spot for guys called Ben and Jack and I love this Jack in particular, but I loved Saba even more and their chemistry is fantastic.

Achilles and Patroclus from The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: I went into mourning after I finished this book and I adored the way Miller wrote the relationship between these two from childhood through to adulthood. If you haven't read this book yet you're severely missing out.

Rosemary and Sissix from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers: The relationship between Rosemary and Sissix was such a pleasant surprise. I loved their chemistry and hoped something might happen but thought 'nah, the author's probably not going down that road' and then she did! This book is another one of my all-time favourites.

Meche and Sebastian from Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: The above quotation is one of my favourites and always tugs at my heart. This is another one of my favourite novels and I loved the relationship between Meche and Sebastian, both their awkward teen years and their awkward reunion as adults. This is another example of platonic to romantic love done exceptionally well.

Laura and Carmilla from Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu: Definitely not exactly the healthiest relationship on this list, but Carmilla is one of my favourite classics and I've always loved the strange, intoxicating relationship between Laura and Carmilla.

Maia and Csethiro from The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison: If someone held a gun to my head and asked me to pick my favourite novel of all time, this is the novel I'd pick. What I love about the relationship between Maia and Csethiro is that we only ever see its potential, but I love the way they interact with each other and I love that they work at becoming friends before anything else.

What did you talk about this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | New Year, New Authors

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

Happy New Year!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2017' and I'm going to interpret this as authors I read for the first time in 2017, not necessarily authors I first heard about or came across in 2017. On with my list!

Alison Plowden: I read Plowden's Women All On Fire: The Women of the English Civil War in 2017 and have since picked up copies of Henrietta Maria: Charles I's Indomitable Queen and The Stuart Princesses. I'm a huge history nerd, particularly of women's history, and the Stuart era is an era I'm starting to develop much more of an interest in. I think Plowden's work is going to help me learn so much more about this period of history.

Mary Robinette Kowal: I didn't love Shades of Milk and Honey, but I enjoyed it enough to want to seek out more of Kowal's work in future.

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀: Stay With Me was one of my favourite reads of 2017 and I can't wait to get my hands on whatever Adébáyọ̀ releases next!

Julie Berry: All the Truth That's in Me was another of my favourite reads of last year, I loved the way it was written, and I'm interested in reading more of Berry's work.

Camilla Grudova: The Doll's Alphabet is probably the weirdest short story collection I've ever read, full of grotesque, unpleasant stories that were so well written I'll definitely picking up whatever Grudova releases next.

Riley Sager: I don't read many thrillers so, when I do, I tend to enjoy them a lot which is exactly what happened with Final Girls. I'm looking forward to the release of The Last Time I Lied this summer!

Mackenzi Lee: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue was so much fun, I loved Monty and Percy so much, and I can't wait to read The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy and Bygone Badass Broads later this year.

Madeline Miller: I finally read The Song of Achilles in 2017 and it easily became one of my favourite books of all time. I'm so excited for the release of Circe this year.

N. K. Jemisin: I've been slowly getting back into high fantasy over the past year or so and have been especially keen to read high fantasy books written by BAME authors. I picked up a copy of The Fifth Season after seeing so many good reviews and now understand why it has so many good reviews. Jemisin's writing and world-building is exquisite and I'm looking forward to reading more of her work.

Kirsty Logan: A Portable Shelter was one of the best short story collections I read in 2017 so I'm hoping to read Logan's other collection, The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales, very soon.

Who did you talk about this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | Best Books of 2017

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Favourite Books of 2017', and it's a topic I'm not quite comfortable with this year. Out of all the books I've read this year not many have wowed me, in fact most of them have left me feeling a bit 'meh, and in all honesty I don't really like choosing the best books of a year before the year is over, just in case I read something amazing in the last few weeks of December, so look out for another post at the end of this month/beginning of next month in which I'll make myself choose my Top 3 books of 2017!

While most books did leave me feeling a bit cold, the more I thought about it the more I realised that, actually, I did read some really fun, really well-written books this year, and I think it'd be doing the books and their authors a disservice not to mention them. So, in the order I read them, here are my top ten books of 2017:

The Good Immigrant ed. by Nikesh Shukla: An essay collection that really opened my eyes to the kind of racism I have contributed to and not noticed in Britain because of my white privilege. That makes this book sound so preachy, and it really isn't, but it made me think a lot of thoughts and, frankly, I think it should be required reading in schools alongside Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's We Should All Be Feminists.

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Speaking of Adichie, I decided to finally explore some of her fiction with her short story collection this year and loved it. It was so different from everything else I've read and it's made me really excited to read her novels.

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin: One of the most original fantasy stories I've ever read, told in one of the most interesting ways I've ever seen a story told. 

Final Girls by Riley Sager: This twisty and twisted thriller plays around with the 'final girl' trope in horror films and that made it so much fun to read.

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli: Be still my beating heart! I didn't think it would be possible to love this book after I enjoyed Albertalli's debut, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, so much, but I think I loved it even more. I found Molly to be such a relatable heroine, something that rarely happens for me when I read Contemporary YA, and the whole story is lovely. This book is like a warm hug.

Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀: After reading The Thing Around Your Neck, this debut confirmed that I really enjoy fiction set in Nigeria and I'm eager to check out more. Whatever Adébáyọ̀ releases next, I'll definitely be getting my hands on a copy; this debut is a fantastic page-turner, so much so that I read it in one sitting, and full of twists and turns. I highly recommend it!

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee: Another really fun read with such a charming protagonist and a romance brimming with chemistry. This novel was so full of character and Lee didn't tone down on the historical accuracy for the sake of romanticising the past and, as a history nerd, I really appreciated that.

All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry: This one took me by surprise. I was expecting it to be more of a thriller than it was, but the story turned out to be quieter than the blurb made it out to be and I really, really enjoyed it. I loved the way it was written and I loved the way the story unfolded - this is a great one to read in the winter!

Persuasion by Jane Austen: Can you believe it? The book that turned me against Austen when I was eighteen has appeared on my best books of the year list eight years later. Pride and Prejudice is fun but, having reread this one, I think I agree with the many other Austen fans who regard this one as her masterpiece. I also watched the 1995 adaptation this year and thought it was brilliant, so I recommend it if you haven't watched it.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: Last, but definitely not least - this one isn't only one of my favourite books of 2017, but has become one of my favourite books of all time. It's a masterpiece. I adored it, and I can't wait to read Circe.

Which books made your list this week?

Review | The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

by Mackenzi Lee

My Rating: 

Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.

But as Monty embarks on his grand tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.

Still it isn’t in Monty’s nature to give up. Even with his younger sister, Felicity, in tow, he vows to make this yearlong escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt that spans across Europe, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores.

This is one of those books that somehow passed me by until about a month before it was due to be published, and once I was aware of it I saw it everywhere. I saw so many rave reviews from readers who'd managed to get hold of a review copy that I knew I had to have it and, once I had it, I had so much fun reading it.

This easily could have been a frustrating, infuriating book. It takes a very good author to write a character who grows significantly as a person throughout a story, and boy does Lee do that well with Monty. Monty is privileged in many ways; he's white, male and wealthy and has been able to get away with his reckless behaviour because he's white, male and wealthy. He's been privileged since birth and, as such, he doesn't comprehend how life isn't as easy for his sister, Felicity, and his mixed race best friend, Percy.

Could it be frustrating to be reading a story from the point of view of someone who's had so much handed to him on a plate and taken it for granted? Yes, but Lee writes Monty so well that he is a sympathetic character. What's important about Monty's story is that he does grow as a person, at a natural pace, and we can see how he changes and why he changes which, as a reader, is very rewarding. When all Monty has known is the privilege he was born with we can't punish him for that privilege, instead he has to learn for himself to be aware of that privilege, and it was so refreshing to follow a protagonist in historical fiction who isn't 'ahead of their time'. So often in historical fiction protagonists feel like 21st century people in costume because authors don't want their characters to be so unrelatable that they're unlikeable, but Lee isn't afraid to make Monty a product of his time and his upbringing and still, ultimately, a good person, and I love this book because of it.

I was also a huge fan of the romance. It can be difficult to write a relationship that goes from friendship to romance well, but the chemistry between Monty and Percy is delicious and believable and I couldn't stop grinning whenever the two of them were together. Percy might well be my favourite character in the novel, I adored him.

Lee gets bonus points from me, too, for not shying away from the racism and homophobia that was rampant in the 18th century; Monty himself is completely aware that, were his sexuality known by the wrong people, he could be executed for sodomy, but that doesn't stop him from pursuing relationships with other men because that's part of who he is. Poor Percy, on the other hand, faces discrimination from all angles being both mixed race and non-heterosexual, but Lee still writes him as a fleshed-out young man who just so happens to be these things and not a metaphoric victim.

The only small issue I had with this novel was the fantastical element which, to me, seemed to pop up out of nowhere and jarred me a little. It wasn't bad by any means, and it certainly didn't spoil what is a brilliant book, but I wasn't expecting it and I'm not sure it needed to be there. It's difficult to discuss without spoilers but the idea of a magical (for lack of a better word) panacea certainly gave the plot some direction, I just wasn't expecting this supernatural cure-all to be real within the story. If you've read it then hopefully you'll know what I mean, because I'm fairly sure I'm not making any sense. The review skills are strong with this one.

All in all this was a fun, entertaining and fast-paced read that also packed an emotional punch, fantastic character development and a whole lot of historical context. I really enjoyed the experience of reading it and I'm eagerly anticipating The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy!