My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton & Jodi Meadows
Published: Published June 7th 2016 by HarperTeen
Genre: Historical Fiction/Fantasy/Young Adult/Romance
Pages: 491

I just checked the page count on goodreads and I was surprised to see 491 pages! This book flew by! I finished this in two short days it was so much fun!

When I first looked into the book I had no previous knowledge of Lady Jane or that she was Queen of England for a mere 9 days. The little I read into her story was quite tragic and I had never read historical fiction before, so I didn’t quite know what to expect. I think in some way I expected it to be boring. Turned out so far from it!

The story tells of the divide in England, but instead of the Catholics and the Protestants we have the Verities and the Eðians. The Eðians are shapeshifters and can turn themselves into a spirit animal and the Verities of course hate this is has labeled them unlawful and wants to kill them all.

The book has a lightness to it that makes it such a delight to read, and the fact that it was written by three different people escaped me completely. I’ve read books written by more than one author before (ex. Will Grayson, Will Grayson) and I’ve loved the difference in tone and voice of the authors. But it wasn’t even noticeable in this book, it just flows effortlessly.

“No horse jokes,” he said.
My lord, I apologize for the horse joke. If you put down the book – unharmed! – I will give you a carrot.”
He brandished the book at her, “Was that a horse joke?”
“Neigh.”
“Was that a horse Joke?”

I laughed out loud, several times. And it was exactly what I needed after starting over fifteen books that I just got bored with and had to put down. I’ve never read fantasy before either and it was a lot easier to swallow that I thought it might be.

The pace of the book is flawless, the plot is (can I say good when it’s based on such a tragedy?) good. Or should I say plots plural, for this shifts the viewpoint between three different characters. It also speaks in times to the reader directly and pulls you out of the story and with that effect emphasizing just how silly it all is.

“…and Bess can stay with Jane to make sure she doesn’t ferret her way out of that cage.”
“Can you use ferret as a verb?” G asked
She shrugged. “You can now.”

This is clearly poking at current vocabulary and how it is fast changing and everything is used as verbs these days. And I think it’s perfect how they’ve managed to completely blur the lines between this present and the past I wasn’t sure I’d be able to understand or relate to in any way.

I highly recommend this to anyone and everyone, just make sure you’re in the mood to read something silly and fun. If you’re looking for something more serious and biographical then I think you might have to look elsewhere.