My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadow is the first book I have read that was a collaboration of three authors. I have read other "solo" books by Cynthia Hand and by Jodi Meadows, a writer from the Shenandoah Valley and enjoyed them. I was concerned about the style and flow of the story with three authors; however, I wanted to read the book because Lady Jane Grey has long been of interest to me. In fact she, or rather her ghost, was one of the characters in the first play I directed "Ladies of the Town," about noble women had died or were executed in the Tower of London.
I was very pleasantly surprised that the book was really good. The Lady Janies, as the authors call themselves, did an excellent job on the actual history of Lady Jane and her nine-day reign as the Queen of England up to a point that they "...revise a bit of history..." by allowing Jane and her husband to escape from the Tower before their scheduled executions. In addition to revising history, they also added some fantasy to the mix. In their version, some people are blessed, or cursed depending on your point-of-view, with the ability to change from their human form to that of an animal and back again. One feature I really enjoyed was when the authors would interject their own amusing comments on the characters and the story. Book Trailer from Epic Reads
If you are looking for a more traditional historical fiction book, try Nine Days a Queen: The Short Life and Reign of Lady Jane Grey by Ann Rinaldi. Rinaldi is one of the best writers of well-research historical fiction.
Awards & Honors:
- Booklist 2016 Top 10 Books for Youth, Fantasy/Horror
- Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2016, Young Adult
- Goodreads Choice Awards 2016, Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction
- Booklist 2016 Editors’ Choice, Books for Youth, Older Readers, Fiction
- YALSA 2017 Best Fiction for Young Adults