The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy is fine at best, forgettable at its worst.

It follows a woman in the eighteenth century, striving to become a doctor when everyone and everything around her is telling her to give it up, because it is just a pipe dream.

That’s a strong hook and a solid plot.

I like some elements which it touches upon - self doubt, asexuality, internalized misogyny. All of these themes are explored in Felicity’s (the aforementioned woman) narrative.

There’s substance there and the book at least in the first half sticks to this.

In the second half though, it is as if the pacing decided to go on 2x speed and the character motivations aren’t as fleshed out as they were in the beginning.

It is not bad - I really enjoyed some parts of it but I’d prefer the first book (Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue) over this one.