A review by bract4813mypacksnet
Jane by Robin Maxwell

5.0

I was delighted to accidentally discover Jane the Woman Who Loved Tarzan. Though in her author's statement at the end of the book, Ms. Maxwell claims she has never read a single Tarzan book, yet she kept me as enthralled as Edgar Rice Burroughs did with the original Tarzan books. By the time Jane and Tarzan were fighting her nemesis in Opar, I was literally sitting on the edge of the couch reading as fast as I could. I loved that the story was written in Jane's point-of-view while being book-ended by her meeting Edgar Rice Burroughs and telling him her story. Jane is a strong heroine, studying anatomy at university, the first woman in the class. There is downplayed passion between Tarzan and Jane (in keeping with the original sexless ERB stories). In addition, there is a refreshing give-and-take in their roles. He teaches her to survive in the jungle; she teaches him to survive in England; together they uncover the mystery of his parentage; together they face their mutual nemeses. As a physician and naturalist, I enjoyed the anatomy and more technical paleontological aspects of this novel as much as I enjoyed the action scenes.