| Book Review: My Lady Jane | ||
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Book title | My Lady Jane |
| Series/standalone | The Lady Janies #1 | |
| Author | Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows | |
| Pages | 512 | |
| Year published | 2016 | |
| Category | Genre | Young Adult | Historical | Fantasy | |
| Rating |  |
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Official 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 is about to become the Queen of England.
Review
In A Nutshell
A fun (and probably inaccurate) retelling of the life of Lady Jane Grey.
Highlights
- The best thing about My Lady Jane is that it didn’t take itself seriously. The absurdity of the story, the crazy scenario, the ridiculousness of the situation that made readers go “whaat?” were all combined into one novel. The result is a book that’s light-hearted and entertaining. You can just tell that the three authors (who called themselves The Lady Janies) were having so much fun writing this book and it clearly shows.
- The premise. I really liked the idea the authors bring to My Lady Jane. What if there were people who can turn into animals? This concept in itself is not new, there were many examples of it. We have seen JK Rowling in Harry Potter explored the concept as “magical gift” in form of animagus. KA Applegate’s Animorphs series spins it as a superhero ability. And those were just two out of hundreds ways to utilize it. In My Lady Jane, however, the authors use it as a tool to show something else. The Eðians – people who can turn into animals – and Verities – those who cannot – were representations of social castes and through them the authors explore racism, discrimination, and injustice.
Things I Wish Were Different
- The characters. I am sorry friends, but I really don’t get all the fuss about Jane. Sure, she loves books, and yes, that gives her instant 10 extra points from me. Apart from that, Jane and G and Edward and pretty much everyone else in the cast just didn’t get me invested enough in their story. I read the book because it was fun and it was a page-turner. I don’t really care about the characters and it probably has something to do with the second point.
- At no point, did I feel the characters were in actual danger – which was weird because according to the story there was so much at stake. The problem is the stake didn’t feel real. I think that the authors sacrificed too much to make the story as fun as possible, but as a result the story felt inconsequential. Turned out, having too much fun could be bad for you.
Final Score
3.5 stars (out of 5 stars)
Verdict
I read My Lady Jane on Kindle so I didn’t know how many pages it actually have in physical version until I looked it up on Amazon. The number that I found surprised me. 512. Believe me, it didn’t feel even half that long. This book is the very definition of light reading and page-turner, and many readers will find it entertaining. For some, however, the characters and the lack of actual stake could impact their enjoyment of reading.