Review: My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

Hey all, Dani here.

It’s the start of another bonus post day. Why? Well because I have a lot of books to talk about, both recent reads and ones I read last year and never got around to reviewing. It seems the only way to get caught up is to do a series of mini-reviews, which honestly I don’t really want to do, or having some days where I post a second review. True, the mini-reviews would probably mean a little less work, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.

I hope you all don’t mind these days when I’m springing extra content on you.

Anyway, let’s jump into today’s first review. It’s a book that I struggled with a couple of times over the past few years, but something just clicked this time and it changed my whole perspective and enjoyment level for this read. Okay, it’s time to start the actual review now.

Book Details

Format: e-book

Pages: 512

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication Date: June 7, 2016

ISBN: 0062391798 (ISBN13: 9780062391797)

Summary

The comical, fantastical, romantical, (not) entirely true story of Lady Jane Grey. In My Lady Jane, coauthors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows have created a one-of-a-kind 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.

My Thoughts

Rating: 4.5 stars

I tried to read this a couple times over the past few years and it did not go so well for me. The first time I only made it in a few pages and then set it aside to read other books. The second time I think I read about 30% and I just found the book to be outlandish and ridiculous and not at all humorous.

Then something just clicked when I picked this book up last month. I had read Fatal Throne and Voyager and had started watching “The Tudors” again and binged my way through seasons 2 and 3 of “Outlander,” so perhaps I was just in the mood for dramatic historical reads. I don’t know. This time I picked up the book and found it to be highly entertaining.

The humor was spot on. I found the dramatic nature of the plot to be quite interesting. I understood the historical period and context so much more. Yes, it was outlandish and ridiculous, but I appreciated that aspect of the story this time.

This is a book that you can’t try and think of it as historically accurate or try to think of it as a serious read at all. It is pure wild entertainment. And I think that is the problem I was having with it the first couple times. Some of the thoughts and conversations of the characters are in more modern lingo and sentence structure. The narrational humor certainly is modern.

But you get attached to the characters and the story, and you see how it skirts the line between historical reality and ridiculous fantasy.

I’m really glad I decided to give this story another try. It was definitely worth it, and now I’m going to continue on to read about Jane Eyre with the next Lady Janies book, My Plain Jane. I’m also super excited about the final Janies novel, My Calamity Jane, out later this year.

Where to Get a Copy

You can grab your own copy of this book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, or your local independent bookstore through IndieBound.

You can also check with your local library.