Luckily for me, My Lady Jane was not a royal disaster.
My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows follows Lady Jane Grey, a bookworm written into the line of succession after her cousin, King Edward of England, becomes deathly ill. This story, however, won’t be found in the history books. Jane is forced to marry Gifford (call him G) Dudley, an Edian cursed with the ability to be a horse by and a man by night. Meanwhile, Edward’s sister Mary schemes for the throne and threatens to eliminate all Edians from society.
When I first saw this book in my local bookstore, I was immediately intrigued. The book looked interesting and funny and after reading several rave reviews, I knew that I needed to purchase this book. While I was excited to read this book, I did have some hesitations. In its description and many reviews, the book is recommended to fans of The Princess Bride. I’ve tried to watch The Princess Bride multiple times, but never make it past the beginning because I get bored and distracted. Obviously, these aren’t the same stories, but I still was afraid that it would utilize the same type of humor that I don’t typically find funny.
This book definitely wasn’t what I expected, but it definitely exceeded my expectations. I was worried because I struggled to get past the first part of the book. I got the humor, but I wasn’t laughing out loud like I expected. I liked the characters, but they really didn’t stand out to me like other characters from similar books. To me, the pacing was slow and I found myself wanting to skip over certain narrators. I’m glad that I pushed through the first half of the book because all of the negatives that I found in the first half turned into positives.
As for the humor, I think it definitely improved in the second half of the book. I also found many of the plays on words and uses of Shakespeare extremely amusing. I found myself pointing out several of the lines to my sister. Even though I didn’t laugh out loud, I constantly smiled through the second half of the book.
Also, the characters greatly improved in the second half of the book for me and I was really invested in reading their different points of view. I really liked how Edward grew as a character, discovered what he really wanted, and finally acted with the wisdom that a ruler should possess. I loved Jane’s quirks and I think many readers will relate to her character. I liked Gifford, but he wasn’t my favorite character in the book because his personality and appearance reminded me of many other YA characters.
I really loved My Lady Jane, but it wasn’t a five star read for me because the beginning dragged on for me. Since there was so much hype around this book, I think I set my expectations too high, which caused me not to find it as humorous as other readers. However, I do applaud the authors because even though there were three, the story felt extremely cohesive. I rate this book four out of five stars.
Beauty and the Bean Boots 