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Mary, Queen of Scots, has lived most of her life in the court of the French king, Henry, while her mother has governed on her behalf back in Scotland. She’s been betrothed to Henry’s son, the future king, Francis, for about as long as she can remember, and she’s pretty lucky because they’re good friends. It could be far worse for a queen and prince in their situations.
She has one big problem, however: Mary is an Eðian, a human capable of shape-shifting into an animal (Mary transforms into a mouse), and her homeland as well as France are strict Verities, who believe Eðians are abominations.
Mary has managed to stay safe and use her mouse form to her advantage for all of her 17 years. But then she faces new threats: King Henry is killed, and the ascension to the throne that Francis and Mary imagined was going to be many years in the future is suddenly occurring now. Plus, they are facing enemies galore, who are quite content to plot and murder to get what they want.
My Contrary Mary is the fourth in the line of books written by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows (The Lady Janies, based on their first book, My Lady Jane) that rewrites dark and sad pages of history to make tragedies into happy endings. My Plain Jane and My Calamity Jane reworked sad stories with different twists, but this book returns to the world of Eðians. It’s all good clean fun, with nods to modern-day movies and a hefty dose of references to “The Princess Bride.” I liked this better than the two other Jane books since the first, but I didn’t laugh out loud once, so it wasn’t as good as My Lady Jane, the best of the lot. Still, this is a nice choice for a quick, light read.
Rated: Mild. There are a few instances of moderate language, maybe a dozen or fewer uses of mild language, and occasional uses of the name of Deity in vain. Violence is minimal; a king dies during a jousting tournament but it’s only spoken about. People are given potions that generally aren’t harmful or permanent. Sexual content includes kissing, mild references to the French king having a lot of lovers, and mild discussions about wedding nights and needing to produce heirs.
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