The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy

 The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzie Lee, 454 pages.

This is the sequel to The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (see my post about that book here), and follows Monty's younger sister, Felicity, about a year later. Felicity has also chosen not to return home to their father's house after their adventures on the grand tour, choosing instead to try to pursue a career as a surgeon. Unfortunately for her, being a woman is a significant stop to her ambitions, and she has yet to find anyone willing to teach her. So when she gets the smallest hint that her medical hero might take her on, and is marrying her former best friend in Germany, she will do anything to make it there before the wedding. Including accepting help from a very sketchy sailor who's goals are unclear (who might just be a pirate). Adventure ensues, featuring sea monsters, pirate kingdoms, and natural science research. All ultimately centered on different ways to be a woman in the 18th century, and exploring how there is no one right way.

Overall this was a really fun book, although I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first. All of the women who lead this book are extremely interesting, but the pacing was just a little wonky, and a fair number of pages are taken up by what is functionally soliloquy. This still definitely count as a fun summer read, and I'm excited for the final book coming out later this year.