The Gentleman's Guide to Getting Lucky

By Mackenzi Lee

“The queer teen historical you didn’t know was missing from your life.” — Teen Vogue, on The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue

In this funny and frothy novella that picks up where the New York Times bestselling The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue leaves off, freshly minted couple Monty and Percy fumble through their first time together.

Monty’s epic grand tour may be over, but now that he and Percy are finally a couple, he realizes there is something more nerve-wracking than being chased across Europe: getting together with the person you love.

Will the romantic allure of Santorini make his first time with Percy magical, or will all the anticipation and build-up completely spoil the mood?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Nov 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9780062967183

Mackenzi Lee

Mackenzi Lee holds a BA in history and an MFA from Simmons College in writing for children and young adults. Her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Atlas Obscura, the Boston Globe, Crixeo, and the Newport Review, among others. Her debut novel, This Monstrous Thing, won the PEN New England–Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award. Her second book, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, was a New York Times bestseller and an ABA bestseller, earned five starred reviews, was a #1 Indie Next Pick, and received a 2018 Stonewall Book Award Honor and a New England Book Award. She loves Diet Coke, sweater weather, and Star Wars. On a perfect day, she can be found enjoying all three. She currently calls Salt Lake City home.

Book preview

One

"Do you mean to tell me that you have not actually fornicated yet?"

Dear God, Felicity. I lunge across the beach in an attempt to clap a hand over her mouth, and miss entirely. She is farther down the beach than I thought. The heavy copy of Don Quixote she dug up from a bookstore in Oia that’s sitting on my chest tumbles to the ground with a dull flump. Felicity, unimpressed by my pounce, retrieves my book, shakes the sand out from between its pages, then returns it to me with a disapproving scowl, as if I am the one behaving inappropriately by dropping a book, when it’s she who is shouting about my sex life.

Oh please. They’re too far out to hear. Her eyes flit across the bay, where two dark heads are poking up from the surf—Ebrahim and Percy, treading water while they wait for Georgie to finish his scramble up the side of the cliff, then leap off and join them in the ocean. She leans back against a piece of driftwood, letting her copy of Paradise Lost fall closed on one finger. You’re certainly taking your time.

It’s only been a month.

"Only? She arches an eyebrow. My regret that I even toed this subject with her intensifies. I expected that once you and Percy were in agreement about living in sin, you would lean hard into it."

Over the waves, I hear a loud whoop of delight, and Felicity and I both look up as Georgie leaps with his knees pulled up to his chest. The water throws the sun’s reflection into my eyes before I can see his splash, and I hold Don Quixote up as a shield. In spite of our month in Santorini, as a lad raised beneath the dishwater-gray skies of England, I was not prepared for just how hot the weather can be, nor how quickly the bastard sun burns me. I’m also still adjusting to sand perpetually in my shoes and the hems of my trousers, and the murderous havoc these rough, hilly streets have wreaked on my calves—there’s not yet been a day I haven’t risen from my bed stiff as an old man. Though I could live happily forever on this diet of Cyclades beaches and domed roofs bluer than the sky and grapefruits picked from our courtyard for breakfast, halved and salted and spraying sticky juice that stays on my fingers all day. With the scheduled departure of the Eleftheria delayed, first by a buyer for their cargo in Crete, then by a repair to the mizzenmast after a storm on the return journey cracked it, Felicity, Percy, and I have been treated to far more of a holiday here than originally anticipated.

Though a single addition to this Paradise could vastly improve it.

Well, I was certainly ready to shake sheets straightaway, I say, falling backward onto the beach again and letting the book rest open over my eyes. But Percy’s a bit of a proper young lady, turns out.

What do you mean by that? Felicity asks. If that’s meant to be an insult, it’s in poor taste.

I laugh. To whom? You’re hardly a proper young lady.

There are many ways to be proper, you know. And don’t do that. She snatches the book off my eyes, and I recoil with a caw of surprise. You’ll break the spine. You’re supposed to be reading it, not using it as a visor.

It keeps the sun from my eyes.

If the sun is in your eyes, move into the shade.

I squint at her. But I like the sun.

Fine. She sets Don Quixote carefully upon the log behind her, then brushes her hands off on her skirt. See if Percy loves you when you’re red as a cherry.

Percy would love me if I were green and purple. I have to resist the urge to reach up and scratch the space where my right ear used to be. The burns there have begun to heal into scars, so I’ve started experimenting with a variety of increasingly creative ways to hide this uninvited alteration to my face. Though short of adopting some sort of masked vigilante persona, it’s beginning to feel futile to do anything other than simply learn to live with the way I now look. It has been a not insignificant adjustment. I’m still shy around mirrors—even very polished cutlery can be disarming. Still catch myself wondering why noise in a crowd is so hard to pick apart. Still go to push my hair behind my ear and get an unpleasant lurch over finding it absent, nothing left but raised marks in furious red.

Dear God, in spite of the grapefruits, this deaf, sexless month has been an eternity.

So what’s Percy done that’s got your breeches twisted? Felicity asks, Paradise Lost once again open as though to prove just how little she cares about this conversation, but it’s her dragging it out again, not me.

Nothing—that’s the problem. I flip over onto my stomach, elbows buried in the sand. "He’s never done anything. With anyone. And he’s more tentative about it now than he was when he was tipsy in Venice. Should have seized that opportunity."

A soft wind snakes off the water, and Felicity claps a hand to the back of her floppy hat to keep it from blowing away. "Now, that makes you sound like a pig."

"He wasn’t very tipsy—just enough to feel brave about getting a hand down my breeches

Reviews for The Gentleman's Guide to Getting Lucky

[viragoreads · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was the best of the series! The novella takes place after book one and it focuses on Percy and Monty and their newly professed love for one another. It's almost like a little slice-of-life story. Just the two of them learning their way around these feelings they've kept hidden for so long. The fear and anxiousness of their potential first time was oh so sweet and heart-wrenching. It was all so very relateable.The false starts and disasters of their attempts at intimacy are hilarious. They characters were so very likeable this time around. The growth they each were experiencing was front and center. This was well done.

[kell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A sweet little story that picks up where the novel ends.

[brittaniethekid · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The author's attempt to write a m/m sex scene without actually writing any sex, but I love these characters.

[krau0098 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Series Info/Source: This is the 1.5th book in the Montague Siblings series. I borrowed a copy of this on audiobook from my library.Thoughts: This was a cute addition to the Montague Siblings series. It was very much a romance, and funny and quirky just like the first book in this series. I listened to this on audiobook (it was a brief 2 hours) and it was pleasant enough to listen to. Monty and Percy are hiding out on Santorini island after the events in the first book. As Monty and Percy try to take the next steps in their relationship many tough conversations are had and hilarious antics ensue.This was well done and a fun little story that filled out what happened with Monty and Percy after the first book. It was nice to read about these characters again and I enjoyed this quick dip back into this historical fiction world.My Summary (4/5): Overall this was a fun little diversion if you want to read a bit more about Monty and Percy. I wouldn't recommend reading it as a stand alone because you need the background to understand what is happening here. It was cute and quick read and a great little mood lifter.

[bumblybee-190414 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This small volume in between books #1 and #2 of the Montague Siblings series gives a further look at Monty and Percy's relationship and its, ahem, more intimate parts. They were my favorite part of TGGTVAV, so I was thrilled to get to read what is essentially a fanfic by the original author. Everything I enjoyed about the previous book is present here, except, because it is so short, the focus is narrowed even more significantly down to Monty and Percy. There is a realness in their relationship that I love, and it really shines in this story. While I was hoping that it might be from Percy's perspective - a contrast from the first book - Monty's voice is just so enjoyable that, having read it, I can't imagine anyone else as a narrator. If you enjoyed TGGTVAV and want more of Monty and Percy specifically, this is the next one to reach for. It's a very quick, lighthearted read, and I think it does their story justice.

[eavans-914612 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Shameless and self-indulgent. I Loved it.

[elenaj-147457 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was cute, but . . . Are you kidding me, the whole book is about building up to having sex for the first time as a couple, and then they never actually get there??? Come on.

[widdersyns · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Just as funny and charming as the rest of the series. I have to say I am surprised by how graphic it was considering it’s YA, but perhaps I am just out of touch.

[infjsarah · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Amusing little novella related to the main series. I enjoyed this one a lot too although very litle actually happens.

[spinsterrevival · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Cute enough but not sure of its purpose as really it’s just a nice fanfic in the form of a novella.