My Contrary Mary

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.