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The delightful trio of authors who have dubbed themselves the Lady Janies have returned with another reworking of the real stories of historical figures, this time focusing on Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley, Frank Butler, and Wild Bill Hickok. As with My Lady Jane and My Plain Jane, they throw in a supernatural element or two (this time, it’s werewolves) and insert a number of pithy observations throughout from themselves, the narrators.
In this story, Wild Bill and his adopted son, Frank, as well as Calamity Jane, whom Wild Bill has had under his wing for a few years, travel around entertaining the masses with their impressive skills with the gun, whip and storytelling. But their show exists mainly as a cover for the real work they do: hunting down garou (werewolves) who aren’t taking care to stay safe and not hurt others around them. Annie enters the story as a young woman with amazing abilities with a rifle who wants to get away from her limited life in rural Ohio and her unpleasant stepfather. She’s eager to put her skills to use to provide for herself, rather than be married off.
Sparks fly when Frank and Annie meet, but Frank has a secret Annie may not be able to live with. The titular Calamity Jane, for her part, is just content to be able to live on her own terms, dressing up often in men’s clothes and not having to be ladylike. A young reporter with a similar habit strikes her fancy.
The group faces their biggest challenge when they finally find the “Alpha” of the werewolves, who’s recently been stirring up all kinds of trouble, and they have to face down their fears and their pasts and consider what kinds of futures they want if and when they survive the threat.
I had such a fun time with the first book in this series, My Lady Jane, and have had high hopes for each book in the set. My Calamity Jane still didn’t quite match the fun and romance of the first for me. It had all the right elements but didn’t make me laugh out loud regularly. I did enjoy the romance between Frank and Annie. Otherwise, this didn’t live up to the perfect concoction that was the first book.
Rated: Mild, for a few uses of mild language; violence is regular but generally not intense; there’s a whole lot of gun use but mostly to showcase the skills of the characters and as a reflection of the times; sexual content is limited to kissing.
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