This hilarious and irreverent start to a new trilogy by the trio of YA authors who created the Lady Janies series gives Mary, Queen of Scots, a much cheerier future than a beheading.
My Contrary Mary takes the true story of the young, ill-fated queen of Scotland and France and twists it into a thoroughly delightful pretzel of magic, intrigue and intentional anachronisms. Mid-16th-century Europe is divided in many ways, but authors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows insert yet another partition: Eðians and Verities. Eðians are shapeshifters who can transform into animal forms on demand. Verities are "not amused" by Eðians, believing that "people should be people, period." Mary is on the verge of marrying Francis, the future king of France, a country that is firmly in the Verity camp--but Mary is secretly an Eðian, capable of becoming a very sneaky mouse. Another problem: Mary's uncles are always on the lookout to benefit themselves and killing the king would help them immensely. It will take more than the potions and prognostications of Nostradamus, seer and adviser to the throne, and his daughter, Ari, to fix the mess in which the royal families and their hangers-on have found themselves.
My Contrary Mary is packed with sly jokes and references to contemporary culture. Points of view alternate by chapter among Mary, Ari and Francis. Readers catch delicious glimpses of Francis's anxiety about the pressure to produce an heir with Mary; Ari's professional insecurity and raging crush on one of Mary's ladies-in-waiting; and Mary's dawning understanding of what it really means to rule a country. Like My Lady Jane, this inventive work of historical fiction is a tremendously entertaining feminist version of French Renaissance life. We are very amused. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor