When your vice becomes a virtue

Mackenzie Lee’s novel is a fun romp across 18th Europe with a bitchy bisexual mc, his brilliant ace sister, an unrequited love for his gay best friend and a host of murderous aristocrats in pursuit. The plot moves fairly quickly with snappy dialogue supplied by Lord Henry “Monty” Montague, a seemingly unrepentant spoiled brat rogue on his Grand Tour. Monty is a great character, who manages to never be completely obnoxious in his clueless privileged bumblings. He retains enough awareness to make him truly charming- you actually want him to succeed despite him inevitably putting his foot in it. He crashes parties of powerful and dangerous people, blithely stealing artifacts just for the sake of it only to find himself embroiled deep in a larger mystery with alchemy and murder on the menu.

The romance subplot between him and his best friend builds throughout the story as they escape capture by various factions after them and their stolen goods. All in all a fun read.