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ravenstears 's review for:
My Lady Jane: The Not Entirely True Story
by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My Lady Jane was a book that gave me a few giggles and was an interesting idea, but as a lover of all things Tudor, just left me disappointed.
The sad story of Queen Jane and her husband Guildford has always been one of my favourite parts of Tudor history. And I was so excited by the idea of a book that was going to rewrite her story and give her a happy ending. But this book just didn't deliver on the excitement for me. I found the idea of the premise much more interesting than the actual outcome and felt that the way the authors downplayed Mary's hatred of other religions by making it hatred of other humans for magic quite poor as it added nothing complex or interesting to the reality and instead just made light of it. Not to mention I didn't find the changes made to names or appearences etc overly amusing or indeed needed for this story.
I also just found Jane written in such an unlikeable way in this story. The way she kept calling her husband a beast at the start even though she supposedly is a great lover of Edians and believes greatly in them having rights and even wishes she was one herself. She also, for someone who is meant to be so well educated and never done reading, is bloody stupid most of the time.
Gillford (why rename him, just why?) has basically no personality in this book beyond loving Jane and being a horse and also he keeps being given famous poetry from other people to sprout. Which I think was meant to be charming or funny but it really wasn't for me and I found actually took away from any personality it was trying to give him.
Honestly the amount of modern refrences put in this book was just off putting overall.
If you want a historical reimagining with humour I suppose I could recommend it but only at a push.
The sad story of Queen Jane and her husband Guildford has always been one of my favourite parts of Tudor history. And I was so excited by the idea of a book that was going to rewrite her story and give her a happy ending. But this book just didn't deliver on the excitement for me. I found the idea of the premise much more interesting than the actual outcome and felt that the way the authors downplayed Mary's hatred of other religions by making it hatred of other humans for magic quite poor as it added nothing complex or interesting to the reality and instead just made light of it. Not to mention I didn't find the changes made to names or appearences etc overly amusing or indeed needed for this story.
I also just found Jane written in such an unlikeable way in this story. The way she kept calling her husband a beast at the start even though she supposedly is a great lover of Edians and believes greatly in them having rights and even wishes she was one herself. She also, for someone who is meant to be so well educated and never done reading, is bloody stupid most of the time.
Gillford (why rename him, just why?) has basically no personality in this book beyond loving Jane and being a horse and also he keeps being given famous poetry from other people to sprout. Which I think was meant to be charming or funny but it really wasn't for me and I found actually took away from any personality it was trying to give him.
Honestly the amount of modern refrences put in this book was just off putting overall.
If you want a historical reimagining with humour I suppose I could recommend it but only at a push.