The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks

The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks (2021) Mackenzi Lee (Montague Siblings)

Nearly 20 years have passed since Monty (and then Felicity) fled England and their father. In the mean time, their younger brother has grown into an adult–but one with his own problems.

Adrian has struggled with his mind his entire life, but after the death of his mother, things have only gotten worse.

After my mother died, I almost stopped entirely, gripped with a fear that whatever I ate would make me sick and I too would meet a sudden end like she had. That fear would quickly tumble into its most refined form, panic, and that panic would have me gagging up anything I tried to swallow.

Although we spend a fair amount of time with Monty and Felicity, this is Adrian’s story. And it’s a hard one–far harder than Felicity’s. Because Adrian is struggling with anxiety and OCD (as we would now name them) and grief, convinced he is insane, and doesn’t believe he has any worth.

Though I’ve devoted many sleepless nights since youth to anxiously concocting scenarios in which the people I love died and I was left alone, it’s only now she’s gone that I realize I was afraid of the wrong thing. It’s not the moment the world splits in two, it’s all the days after, trying to live a cleaved life and pretend you never knew it whole and don’t feel the space of that missing piece that can never be repaired or replaced. Even the best facsimiles fall short.

I mean, as someone who continues to struggle with these things, it’s rough.

I keep having uninvited thoughts about unfamiliar food, and although I know there is nothing wrong with what I’m offered, my brain refuses to be argued with.

I sometimes fret that anyone who likes me simply doesn’t know me well enough.

I have no right to feel this underwater. Nothing bad has ever happened to me. I am a river without a source. Pain without a wound.

So, rough.

But also lovely, as we are not offered easy words and magical solutions.

“God, is this going to take years?”

“It’s going to take your whole life,” Felicity says. “But it doesn’t have to be the defining element of it.

If you haven’t read the first two books, you should be fine jumping in here as the story focuses on Adrian, and both Monty and Felicity have changed in the intervening time.

Well, mostly.

I also devoured the story, not wanting to put it down.
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Rating: 8/10

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