I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

Earlier this week, I finished A Sky Beyond the Storm by Sabaa Tahir and I honestly may never recover from the devastation that book wrought. Thankfully, My Contrary Mary came along at exactly the right time. The Lady Janies series is a go to historical/contemporary fantasy for me as the characters are always likable, the humor is ALWAYS on point, and the plot is always intriguing. In fact, almost every book written by these three has been a one sitting read for me. I can say with complete honesty, that My Contrary Mary is only the third book to make me laugh out loud in 2020. The first was My Calamity Jane (by the Lady Janies, of course). The second was The House in the Cerulean Sea (another must read of the year).

This first book in a new but connected series about historical figures named Mary had everything I was looking for in a book this week. It told a slightly altered version of the events of the life of Mary Queen of Scotts. In this version of events, her fiancé Francis never died, and there may or may not be some shapeshifters on or around the throne. Francis somehow managed to be frustratingly naïve and immensely likable at the same time, and I can honestly say that his character growth was a blast to experience.

The third POV in this book is Ari – whose full name is Aristotle, and is the daughter of Nostradamus. Unfortunately she can’t quite seem to tell the future as well as he can, but she does happen to be a bit of a whiz with potions. She also happens to have her eye on one of Queen Mary’s ladies in waiting. I expected to miss the POVs of Mary and Francis, but found myself looking forward to Ari’s chapters just as much if not more than the two main characters. The appearances from Nostradamus were among my personal favorites, and I loved how her wonderful, sapphic romance developed.

Not shockingly, this book was another complete win for me and I am already absolutely dying to get my hands on the next book these amazing authors put out. Can y’all please just release two books in 2021? After 2020, I think we all deserve it.

My Contrary Mary is my first book from this author and I wasn't disappointed. I was waiting to finish this book to decide if I should dive into her other series focusing on different Janes and I'm excited to add them to my tbr.

My Contrary Mary follows Mary, Queen of Scot, and from the first page, I was reminded of the TV show that I loved. Now this book is a lot of fun and there's also shapeshifting so if you're wondering, it's a lot happier and clearly not a portrait of the real history which is perfect imo.

I really liked following Mary which is a force to be reckoned with even if she trusted blindly some people at times. Betrayals happened and she learned her lesson. I loved seeing her taking control of a situation and also seeing how Francis grew in this book.

Overall, it was a really cute discovery and I can't wait to read more from this author. I'll definitely be diving into her other series while waiting for the next Mary ;)

(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC via Netgalley)

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Long may she reign. My Contrary Mary basically reminded me of the TV show Reign. Which I loved and made me fall in love with this entire book. Even though Frances came off like a little bitch sometimes. I just think he needed to woman up and take charge of stuff that was going on around him. Then again, that's just my opinion.

Other than that, I loved Mary's character. She was just written so freaking well and it was easy to just fall in love with her. Plus her and Frances together kind of made it look like he had a spine or something. She was definitely a force to behold all on her own and it was just amazing to see her grow throughout the book.

I'm still kind of upset with some of the betrayals throughout this book but ugh, I devoured and loved everything about it just the same. I'm super excited to dive into the next book and can't wait to dive into it. Whenever it comes out. Just give me the ARC!

This book was a delight! As always I loved the comedy. The characters were very likeable. I also loves that we got a little update on the characters from My Lady Jane. Overall this book was just a fun romp though some of the more darker parts of our worlds history.

I have to say, I know very little about Mary Queen of Scots, other than that she was beheaded, yikes! So I was happy to dive into this and get a bit of real history mixed with some cool fantasy and a happier ending for Queen Mary.

Like the Jane books, this is full of puns, references, and humor. It's pretty lighthearted and makes fun of historical practices and people, which made it easy to listen to. I especially loved the Lion King reference "Everything the light touches" lol. There's also a surprise visit from past characters of My Lady Jane if you've read those.

Mary is a great character, she goes through a lot of loss and adversary, but she remains strong and wants to do what's best for her people. In this retelling, she's also a shapeshifter which is pretty awesome and definitely comes in handy. Her husband Francis, is totally in love with her and I enjoyed seeing him realize what was important and grow a spine to stand up to their enemies.

Aristotle, or Ari, is the daughter of Nostradamus and has a secret relationship with one of Mary's ladies, Liv. My feelings on Ari go back and forth, sometimes I liked her and then she would help the evil Queen Catherine and she was on my short list. I do think she was trying to do the best she could in her situation and I liked her and Liv's romance.

This was such a fun read and definitely measures up to the previous books. I'm glad I got a chance to read it early and I'm looking forward to the other Mary books!

I received an advanced copy of the audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

I am so excited for this book. I've loved the audio versions so far (for the other JANE series) and this is no exception! I have sent a request to read an early copy of the egalley as well because I didn't want to stop after the audio sample - this trio of authors is awesome.

This was a very good book to listen to. I found that listening I was able to be drawn into the story more then reading. The narrator is also fabulous! I am very fortunate to have listened to it and cannot wait to gift to my friends and family at release date! One of the best audiobooks in a long time!

This was such an interesting book. It sounds like there are other books in this "series"? I am really interested to read them. It's a great mix of fantasy aspects twisted into the historical fiction of Mary Queen of Scots. I loved that mary can turn into a mouse. It was a fun addition to the story, and it provided so many opportunities for Mary to spy and get around the castle.

This is perfect for YA readers!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

I'm sure this book is amazing but the synthetic voice narrator was ruining the book for me. I got to Chapter 4 and was enjoying the story but the flat, robotic narration was not working for me. I wish they had uploaded the actual audiobook for the book. The audiobooks for this series are amazing! I will definitely be checking out the real audiobook when it comes out.

Thanks so much netgallery and HarperCollins for sending me Advanced audiobook!
This was my most Anticipated release of 2021 there is magic when These author get together
This was set in the same world as my lady jane We even get to see some of Characters! This was supper fun and hilarious just like the past ones
I have always loved Mary queen of Scotts so I was so happy for her to be the leading lady I thought for sure she was gonna be my favourite but no that went to my girl Ari! she Was so funny and her romance was so cute Francis was ok but i felt myself wanting to scream at him most the time I can't wait for for rest of the Mary's

I listened to about half of this, and felt as if the synthetic narrator was trying to ruin the book for me. I have read and loved all the Lady Janies books and promote them like crazy. My Lady Jane is my favorite, and the fact that this book is in that same world makes me so happy! But.. this way of reading is not going well. I usually do audiobooks due to my health, but this is not going to work. I would LOVE an eArc (or physical, but I know the publisher doesn't do that anymore), to promote and provide accurate feed back to this lovely book! I am 99.95% sure I would LOVE it!

As the popular Reign series on the CW has shown, we just can't get enough of Queen Mary. This new "Mary" book--like the "Jane" books before-- is history told through a humorous tale with lines from movies and pop culture references intertwined. This historical fiction also has a fun, shape-shifting fantasy element mixed in. As with previous retellings by these three authors, my favorite aspect of the novel is the witty narrator's commentary.

Not normally my cup of tea but I loved the narrator and the fact that Mary, Queen of Scots, is getting the justice she deserves was amazing. It was fun and definitely worth the listen. I can’t wait to see what everyone else thinks about it!

Thank you to Harper Audio and NetGalley for an advance copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review. I recognize that the narrator was a voice AI and not representative of the final narration.
I thought this book was charming! In addition to the strong female protagonist, I love that all of the women in the story were strong, smart, and heroines! (Well, maybe not “heroine” for the Queen Mother!) What I love most as an educator is that I think a story like this would inspire a student to read and learn more - more history, more similar stories, more Mary! I know I looked up a couple biographies because I was curious about certain plot points. I could see making this book an option for a compare and contrast project - real vs fiction. I love to recommend the YA steampunk series by Gail Carriger to students and I’ll now add this book to my recommendation list.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an audiogalley of My Contrary Mary in exchange for an honest review.

They're back! The wonderful authors behind The Lady Janies books delve into the world of historical Marys by starting out with Mary, Queen of Scots. The liberties taken from history were fun and fit well with the Janies books and I am always here for adding queer rep to historical fic books. This isn't exactly a hard-hitting look into the real world Mary's life (unless the authors are time travelling geniuses who are actually the only people who know the true story) but it was really fun nonetheless.

Book 267 towards my goal of 280! 5/5 stars for this Historical Fantasy read! Another great book by The Lady Janies! Love the cover. The characters and storyline were super fun! Great comedy thrown in there. Loved that we got to revisit a couple characters from My Lady Jane! Super fun, highly recommend you pick those up once it releases! I did receive this audio arc from Netgalley in exchange for honest review.