Cute Title

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

I picked this up because the title was cute. That's it. I had no idea what I was getting into with this book. I figured it would be sometime from the 1700s-late 1800s/early 1900s and I was correct. I was not expecting a gay coming of age (although I should have since it was in the YA section of half price books) adventure story. Henry is the son of an earl. His best friend, Percy, is light skinned mixed race bastard who was raised by the man who sired him until his death and was then raised by relatives. Felicity is the younger sister of Henry and while she was desperate to go to school, she meant real school and not finishing school. The three of them set off on an adventure with a chaperone. Monty (Henry) and Percy are going on their Tour before Percy enters law school in Holland. Felicity is joining them for part of the trip as she will be dropped off at her finishing school on the way. They go to France. Monty meets a girl. Before they start discarding clothing he takes a small puzzle box from the desk. They get caught before things start but not before he is completely naked. He flees and gets seen by everyone. The trio leave the party and with their chaperone they flee France. On the drive they get attacked by highwaymen and get separated from their chaperone and servants. They walk until they can find people. Percy has a seizure; nobody knew he had epilepsy until that moment. They get help from a shop keeper who lets them stay on his boat until Percy is well. But, the highwaymen were really the Duke and his men, the same man Monty stole the puzzle box from. Percy goes to the bank and flirts with the teller to get money; turns out their chaperone already made it to the bank and left them a note about where to find him. But, they don't go there. Instead they set off to find an alchemist to help Percy. They find his house and are told he died, but his children let them stay the night. Then stay for a while. They go to an event and Monty meets a man who turns out to be the "dead" father's jailer. They confront the son and he tells them the truth. They plan for Monty to get arrested so he can talk to the father; it works. He makes friends with the father who tells him about his family, how to open the puzzle box, and where his dead not dead wife is. They stow away on a ship that gets attacked by pirates. They pirates help them and they help the pirates. They get to where the dead not dead wife is and plan on how to get to the sinking tomb. But the Duke shows up and captures Monty. They go to the tomb. Percy and Felicity show up. The daughter burns the heart. Monty gets shot. They all escape, except for the Duke. Percy, Monty, and Felicity get back to the pirates. Felicity saves Monty. The captain of the pirate ship offers Felicity a job as the ships surgeon. They sail to Greece. Monty and Percy decide to stay. Monty is going to learn how to live without the money and title. Percy doesn't want to go to an asylum; he was never going to law school, his family was sending him away because of the seizures. The book ends with Monty writing a letter to his father saying he's not coming back. Of course, since this is a coming of age story there was a lot of pining, slight touches, and longing looks. Plus miscommunication. I hate miscommunication as a plot device, but this was unintentional, not knowing what to say or how to say it, or saying the wrong thing. They finally learned how to talk to each other and admitted that they may make mistakes but that they want to learn and grow together. It was a fun adventure story with a sweet romance. And I am interested enough to read the next book.