My Contrary Mary

First.. How do three authors even get together and write a book? And then make the various different perspectives seem seamless. And also make sure the humor stays on point throughout. I wasn't quite sure how it would work out, but these ladies proved me wrong, because this book is so entertaining and laugh out loud funny.

This book maybe titled My Lady Jane, but it's is still more about King Edward and his personal growth. He is a young man who was thrust onto the throne too early in his life and has never shown much inclination towards his responsibilities. He lets his advisers manage the ruling and is quite an entitled brat who thinks he deserves to be King because he is a man, but he is still loving and compassionate.. most of the times. Only when the betrayals are revealed does he begin to realise his faults and slowly changes into a better, responsible person. Thankfully, he also evolves into someone who believes in the wisdom and the strength of the women around him and comes to value their opinions immensely.

Jane and Gifford are the IT couple of this story - forced into an arranged marriage and unbeknownst to them, the center of the conspiracy to dethrone the rightful King. Theirs is a very slow burn relationship and I loved the evolution of it throughout the story. Despite him being a man for only half a day and Jane preferring the company of books, they come to respect each other while helping poor people in need and also their common ideas about uniting the Edians and Verities and bringing prosperity to the country. It's a relationship built on trust and mutual respect, and they do occasionally have pillow fights, but it's a sweet development from friendship to love.

We also have other wonderful ladies who play a major role in the plot - Mary, the eldest sister who wants the throne for herself; Bess, the second sister who wants whats best for the kingdom and people and vows to restore her brother to his rightful throne; Pet (aka Petunia) who is always right there risking her life to protect Edward; Gracie, the foxy Scot who is quick with her knives and maybe likes Edward, but is not sure of her feelings for a King. Bess was my favorite of the lot - compassionate, thoughtful, intelligent and strategic, she really has great plans for the prosperity of the people. And the ending plot twist was definitely very very unexpected and had me grinning because of the way the authors were able to connect this wierd fantasy tale towards that conclusion. 

The authors really deserve all the points for writing this fantastic tale. The conflict between the Edians (shape shifters) and Verities (humans) in this fantasy is essentially an allegory for the Catholics vs Protestant conflicts of the 16th century. We are almost aware from the beginning, which parts of the tale are true and which are made up, but that never takes us away from the enjoyment of the tale itself. The authors' snarky commentary throughout is a delight to read and definitely made it more unique. Right from a nod to Titanic in the dedication to Game of Thrones to the conspiracy theories surrounding the original author of Shakespeare's works, there are a lot of pop culture references, but they feel very integral to the story and are on brand with the humorous take on history.  

If you like your historical fiction reads to be authentic to the actual history, then this book is not for you. If you are ready to suspend your belief and have a lot of fun reading a hilarious take on Tudor history with lots of interesting female characters, then this book is perfect for you. Pick this up when you are in need of something to make you forget all your worries. This will definitely make you smile.

This was a wonderful book. It was funny, and well written, and terrific. And meta - probably meta describes this, in a tremendously wonderful way.

But best of all, they've given a better fate to Jane, Edward, and Elizabeth of York than they received in real life. Oh, and Gifford/Guilford as well, but I have fewer strong feelings about him.

I want to read more now!

Well, I was reminded again, how important it is to read the book in appropriate mood. As you've probably guessed, My Lady Jane completely missed it. Maybe it was the wrong time. Or maybe this book is really not my book.

I didn't expect a lot from it - just a couple of good jokes. But, to my greatest disappointment, I hadn't got even that. The characters, the plot were more or less bland. Especially the ending. It seemed to be so forced and honestly, it felt as the authors got tired of the novel in the middle of working on it.

I don't see any point in reading second book in the series.

A bit long, but surely worth the read, My Lady Jane is a wonderful novel with a most interesting concept; namely, an YA historical retelling with bits of fantasy and a lot of romance. It is a captivating read that brings the reader compelling characters, a fun plot, and a (what I think we could call) “magical system” that both makes sense and is as amusing as, say, Pullman's dæmons—I mean, I guess we all agree that being an Eðian would be almost as good as having a dæmon, don't we?

My favorite character was the main protagonist and title character, Jane, up until I realized Bess is THE Queen Elizabeth I of England, whom I love, so I felt obliged to change that. Jane is my favorite out of the three narrators, though; but rest assured that they're all great in their own ways—Edward has one of the most solid character arcs I've ever seen in YA novels, even though his love story with Gracie is highly extra. If you like History and fun, magical retellings, this is one you won't regret picking up.

I think this is what happens when a group of young women are taking a European History course and binging on Fruits Basket at the same time. Historical fanfiction is what I'd call it. Weirdly it makes me want to read up on actual history now for comparison. About halfway through the narrators say they're giving history the finger, which I'm pretty sure happened quite a bit sooner.

The pop culture references get to be a bit much but, having digested quite a lot of fanfiction over the years, that's pretty much par for the course.

I had heard a lot of people raving about the Lady Janies series by Cynthia Hand, Brodie Ashton and Jodi Meadows and because of my love for the Tudor era and the fact that in my teens I fell in love with the movie Lady Jane starring Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes I knew I had to read this book.

Touted as a historical fiction novel with a twist I wasn't quite sure how I was going to get on with this book telling the story of Lady Jane Grey who upon the death of King Edward, son of Henry VIII finds herself on the throne where she reigns for nine days before being ousted by Queen Mary Tudor who has her executed for treason. I had always loved the story as I'd seen it painted as a love story between a young bookish and innocent Jane Grey who is married off to the wild son of Lord Dudley the right hand of the King and despite not knowing each other they fall in love through the circumstances in which they find themselves and their desire to make England a better place. The tragedy in their story has always been that as their love grows and they find themselves trying to be just rulers they are torn apart as they face execution.

When I started this book I immediately had an issue with it. I don't think that Young Adult genre means you need to mollycoddle or dumb down your subject matter for your readers. Therefore I was disappointed that instead of calling a spade a spade and talking about the huge unrest between Catholics and Protestants at the time of the novel we instead are offered an alternative history where it's between Verity's (Catholic's) and Edian's (Protestants). Edian's are a human who can transform into an animal form. Jane's husband Gifford is an Edian and tranforms each day into a horse in the novel. I found this whole plotline a distraction, it drew away from the actual historical story that was trying to be told and instead made it seem, for me, overly fantastical.

I love fantasy as a genre but in this case, I found it faintly ridiculous and it took one of my favourite and most fascinating historical figures and glossed over all the important stuff instead making it a little too fluffy for me. I love the story of Jane Grey because it's about the love story between Jane and Gifford Dudley and I didn't really feel that the author's got to the heart of this. The other overwhelmingly wonderful thing about the movie version of Jane Grey is how she fought to try and make a change in the country even when she was only on the throne for such a short time. She had a strong sense of justice and wanted more equality for people, a proper currency that was for everyman and this could have been a powerful and moving story in the novel if we had not been so focused upon the animal/humans changing form storyline.

I have to be honest and say I didn't love this one, I sort of skimmed the last 10 chapters because by that point I really didn't care about the characters as much as I had thought I would when I started. I could only give this a 3 out of 5 stars because for me a wonderful story was glossed over and a huge opportunity missed to tell a story of a girl who fought for change in a time when women had little power and the love that helped her to rule a country, even if it was only for 9 days.

Dit boek zou al helemaal mijn ding geweest zijn als ik het gewoon had gelezen, maar het lezen als audioboek gaf het zeker een extra dimensie. Het was echt geweldig.
De voorlezer is een extreem getalenteerde dame, met een arsenaal aan stemgeluiden en accenten om dit verhaal en zijn personages tot leven te brengen.
Als ik terug denk aan dit boek, dan komt spontaan de moeder van Miranda in mijn hoofd: Such fun!

Dit boek neemt echt wel een loopje met de geschiedenis. De auteurs namen bekende historische personages en feiten, en gaven er een grappig, absurde twist aan. Het deed me heel vaak denken aan Monty Pyton, vol woordspelingen en sarcasme. Neem dit boek dus alsjeblieft niet au sérieux.
Het is gewoon een zotte rit, met een absurde plot en van die extreem droge humor die ik althans bijzonder kan smaken.

I've never liked audio books, but I heard the audio book for this book was really good. So I gave it a shot, and I can now say that I love audio books! I will definitely be reading the rest of the series by audio book as well! It was such a fun read, and funny as well! Would definitely recommend! One of my favorite books I've read this year!

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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You may think you know the story. It goes like this: once upon a time, there was a sixteen-year-old girl named Jane Grey, who was forced to marry a complete strange (Lord Guildford or Gilford or Gifford-something-or-other), and shortly thereafter found herself ruler of a country. She was queen for nine days. Then she quite literally lost her head.

Yes, it's a tragedy, if you consider the disengagement of one's head from one's body tragic. (We are merely narrators, and would hate to make assumptions as to what the reader would find tragic.)

We have a different tale to tell.

Pay attention. We've tweaked minor details. We've completely rearranged major details. Some names have been changed to protect the innocent (or not-so-innocent, or simply because we thought a name was terrible and we liked another name better). And we've added a touch of magic to keep things interesting. So really anything could happen.

This is how we think Jane's story should have gone.

In My Lady Jane, coauthors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows have created a one-of-a-kind YA fantasy in the tradition of The Princess Bride, featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed, and only a passing resemblance to actual history—because sometimes history needs a little help.

At sixteen, Lady Jane Grey is about to be married off to a stranger and caught up in a conspiracy to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But those trifling problems aren't for Jane to worry about. Jane gets to be Queen of England.

Like that could go wrong.

Well, that was adorable. I don't normally read historical fiction, with or without fantasy mix, because my attention tends to wander off, but this book kept me hooked until the very last page. It's not thought-provokingly deep and doesn't offer endless dramarama that spirals off into the abyss, but it's lighthearted, witty, and highly entertaining. Plus, the romance is cute.

It's definitely a fresh change for those who are tired of high-tension, action-packed stories. Can't wait for the second book.

Summary: A very fictionalized retelling of Lady Jane Grey's marriage and assent to the throne with magic.

My day job involves very significant data entry several times a year. This allows me to listen to audiobooks, but at some point, my brain begins to shut down, and I need not only fiction but very light and humorous fiction. My Lady Jane fit the bill perfectly.

My Lady Jane is historical fiction, similar to how A Knight's Tale is a historical fiction movie. That is to say, historical events VERY loosely inspire them but should not be understood as at all historically accurate. Many narrator notes throughout the book suggest things like, up until this point, the story has been relatively historically accurate, but after this point, no history book will tell it this way. Even without the notes, this is a fantasy book in which the characters turn into animals through magic.

If you have some background in Tudor era history, this will be even more funny than if you do not, but it will be funny regardless of whether you know the history. In My Lady Jane, some people can turn into animals; those people are called Eðians. Up until Henry the VII, Eðians were officially persecuted. (Henry was a lion and when the king is a lion, it is hard to condemn him as an Eðians.) Under Edward that persecution has lessened, but not completely gone away. And since Edward is dying and he is only a teen and has not married or produced an heir, the line of succession is unclear. At this point in English history, no woman had been ruler. Mary was the oldest child, but she also supported continuing to persecute Eðians. So Edward eventually was convinced to support Jane Grey as his successor to keep Mary out of the throne.

Until this point, that is a spoiler, but it is also reasonably basic history, so it should not be too surprising. The real story of Lady Jane Grey does not have a happy ending, but my Lady Jane does, so I will not spoil that.

Some classify this as YA. I am unsure I would classify it as YA, but it is a chaste romance. There are all kinds of jokes about nudity and sex, but there is not actually any sex in the book. But I would not suggest it is appropriate for a 10-year-old, either. The satire and humor are pitched to adults or at least late teens; people younger than that will just miss most of the humor. I very much enjoyed this and I think I will probably pick up more from this series eventually. My Plain Jane is about Jane Eyre, and My Calamity Jane is about Calamity Jane, the 19th-century western star of the traveling Wild Bill show.

This was originally published on my blog at https://bookwi.se/my-lady-jane/

This book was like sitting down and eating a big bowl of jelly beans. Or maybe gummy bears. Yes, I think gummy bears. Without the calories!



My Lady Jane is a light-hearted, fun-filled, rollicking good time. It's billed as YA...fantasy? Alternate history? To me it feels most like humorous alternate history, complete with shapeshifting. Bwhahahaha. Such a refreshing turn on the whole Protestant/Roman Catholic problem. I loved that they took the very gloomy story of Lady Jane Grey and turned it into something so much fun. Note: no one dies in this version. Except...well. Anyway.

Something that always struck me the hardest about Jane's story is how freaking young all the main players were. Pawns on a chessboard to their scheming, conniving elders. Well, they're most definitely given their voices here! I was laughing before I got to the end of the second chapter, as the young King Edward is lamenting his death sentence:

There was so much he wanted to do with his life. First of, he wanted to kiss a girl, a pretty girl, the right girl, possibly with tongue.

She delighted in the smell of ink, the rough feel of the paper between her fingers, the rustle of sweet pages, the shapes of the letters before her eyes. And most of all, she loved the way that books could transport her from her otherwise mundane and stifling life and offer the experiences of a hundred other lives.

“Who are you calling beef-witted?” she laughed at him. “Your mother was a hamster, and your father stank of elderberries!”

“I might not be able to beat a weapons master, but I can easily best an old, top-heavy, pusillanimous, two-faced, paltry, odious excuse for a man.” He pushed his sword forward until it was against his father's coat. “Drop your sword.”

This book is just plain silly. It's absurd. It's downright ridiculous. But dang I really enjoyed it.

So imagine this: it's the 1500s, King Henry VIII has just died and left his son Edward the throne. Only there was none of that Reformation nonsense that divided England; instead, roughly half the population (definitely somewhere between fifty and one hundred percent, depending on how far into the book you are) can transform into animals, and the rest of the people allegedly AHEM can't and want to destroy all the people who can turn into animals by burning them at the stake and whatnot.

There's lots of royal intrigue and poisonings and throne-stealing and sibling rivalry (because oh yeah Mary and Elizabeth are here too) and people being forced to marry horse-men and stuff, but also it's sweet and funny and feminist and there's a happily ever after (but not for those that poison people and try to steal the throne and try to burn all the animal-people, obviously).

Overall, just delightful. I recommend the audio.

3.5 rounded up to 4 for Goodreads

This is a fun twist to a historical romantic comedy! I think I would have liked it more had I read it before started the new show on Prime, but I had already seen the first half of the first season before I decided to hold off and read the book before finishing the season.

This is one of the rare cases I think so many major changes has served the show, and I like them both separately for the stories they are telling. I feel like the show set me up to expect even more humor than what we get in this book, but I can see where the show gets its witty spirit from!

This was a fun fluffy read, and I can't wait to binge the rest of the show this weekend and then pine for another season well inevitably wait 2-3 years to get.