My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Jodi, and Brodi
****spoilers ahead****
This is book is hilarious, but you definitely have to be in the mood for it. My Lady Jane is a book that you sit down and read. The pacing is even, but you want to keep going, and the humor is there. Make sure you know what you’re reading. I’ve been putting this book off for a while because I judged it by its cover. Horrible, I know. The book claimed to be historical fiction, but I thought “There is no way that this is historical fiction, it’s got too many stars on Goodreads, and the cover notes look straight up romance”. I was wrong. Well ok, not actually that wrong, because both assumptions proved themselves to be true, but it turned out better than I thought it would. The thing is, I wanted to be in the mood for that kind of book, because I have been looking forward to reading this and I didn’t want to hate it, just because I wasn’t feeling it.* I started Thursday and finished Friday.
*I was totally feeling it.
See the historical fiction part is very true. Emphasis on fiction. For about the first half, the authors stay true to what is known of history. And then comes part two. Part two is very fun and gr8 but what is historical accuracy???? But honestly their ending is much better than how history says it goes. Who doesn’t love less death?*
*don't answer that
The romance is so fun. Here are my favorite types of romantic relationships in order from best to worst:
1. Friendship to lovers
2. Not lovers to lovers (in a gradual, crush-based, way)
3. Instalove*
4. Love triangles/squares**
Now guess where My Lady Jane falls? Number 2? That’s right! So it’s an arranged marriage between Jane and her husband G, but yay! They both think the other person is hot, so that helps. Gradually husband and wife overcome their general animosity toward the other and understanding blossoms into friendship/crushship, which then turns to love. It’s great and the authors take their time developing it. Now Jane and G are the main couple here (obviously. The book is called My Lady Jane), but Prince Edward and Gracie are pretty cool too. Their relationship is well developed too, and doesn’t fall apart as soon as Jane and G take center stage. There is a description of love in there too that I took note of, but I can’t find it now.
*no exceptions. Not even for soul mates. Soul mates need friendship too.
**with the exception of Jem/Will/Tessa in The Infernal Devices if that even counts, because there is just so much love there, ok?
So everything else is great too. There is a spectacular amount of world building that hits me in all the right places. One of the main premises is that people can occasionally turn into animals, if the genetics are right. Now some people might call this a Patronus rip-off of sorts, but I loved it. Your animal form doesn’t seem to be an all important review or example of your character, as most human/animal (or spirit animal) relationships tend to be. There are certain aspects that shine through on each one, but no one cares? They just think it’s cool you can become an animal at all.
The narrators stop at one point to tell us that Pet didn’t do and that was just ¬¬¬.
THERE ARE SO MANY ALLUSIONS GOD ABOVE PLEASE SAVE ME. After awhile it got annoying. There are some good ones thrown in* but there are just so. Many. Shakespeare references. TOO MANY. That is literally all that I would change about the book, and it is only a mild annoyance. Yay!!
*looking at you Tangled reference
My Lady Jane is great, you should go read it.
