This book is so much fun!
This is another ebook I must have bought from Amazon ages ago and have no memory of acquiring, but started reading it one day when I was out with my dog and I just loved it so much!
I’m a sucker for historical fiction (especially Tudor England), and I love fantasy, so when you mix them together and add a dash of romance and a whole lot of snark, you have a book designed to appeal to me.
This book is by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows and is a fictional retelling of Lady Jane Grey’s very short reign as queen of England.
Instead of a divide between Protestants and Catholics, these authors decided to make a portion of the population Eðians (pronounced eth-y-un) which basically means they’re shape shifters. They can turn into an animal and back into a human, although they don’t get to choose which animal they turn into – each human has one animal form.
There are some who think that shape shifting is natural and dates back centuries, if not millennia, but there are others, who call themselves Verities, who think Eðians are an abomination and should be wiped out.
Eðians largely had to live in the shadows until one day Kind Henry VIII lost his temper and turned into a lion, after which he decided Eðians weren’t so bad after all and should be able to live in harmony with Verities.
In case you can’t tell Eðians are Protestants and Verities are Catholics.
Now, if you don’t know the true history of Lady Jane Grey, she was cousin to Edward, Henry’s only legitimate son, who inherited the throne. But Edward only lived a few years before getting sick and dying. Before he died, he named Lady Jane Grey as his successor, but Mary had a few things to say about that, so she rounded up an army, stormed the castle, and had both Lady Jane Grey and her husband, Guilford Dudley, beheaded. Lady Jane Grey is also known as the nine-day queen because she only reigned for nine days before losing her head.
That’s not what happens in this version (which the narrators keep insisting is the “true” version of events).
In this version, Edward never got sick. Instead he was being poisoned by Guilford’s dad, who talked him into naming Lady Jane Grey queen and arranged for Jane to marry his son so Lord Dudley could rule through them.
Edward is very surprised to find out that his dog is actually an Eðian when she transforms into a (naked) girl and warns him not to eat the food he’s being served because it smells bad. From then on, he won’t eat anything until she OKs it, which turns out to be very little. Poor Edward is practically starving by the time his sisters pay him a visit.
Turns out Mary is in on it because Lord Dudley has been telling her she’ll rule after Edward dies. Bess (i.e. Queen Elizabeth I) gives Edward some apricots with an antidote to the poison and a note telling him to meet her at their grandmother’s house in northern England.
Dudley is getting impatient with Edward’s refusal to die and is getting ready to take matters into his own hands, so Edward has to find a way out of the castle right now or die. He jumps from the window, hoping to fly away as a bird, and sure enough, he turns into a bird and flies away.
Meanwhile, Jane, who has already had several failed engagements, is surprised when she’s informed she’s engaged to marry Gifford Dudley, whom she’s never met. She’s much more interested in books than marriage, but being a woman in Tudor England, she has no say in the matter, and her mother is anxious to get her married off, so off she goes.
She is very surprised when, on the morning after their wedding, her husband turns into a horse.
Turns out Gifford (who goes by G, because who wouldn’t with a name like Gifford?) is an Eðian, but he has not learned how to control his shape shifting, so he turns into a horse every morning at sunrise and back into a man at sunset.
Jane and G are still on their honeymoon and just starting to like each other when Edward goes missing, and is therefore pronounced dead. Jane and G are dragged back to London in the middle of the night without being told where they’re going or why. It’s not until they reach the Tower of London that they’re told the king is dead and Jane is now queen. Jane didn’t even know she had been named Edward’s successor.
As in real life, Jane rules for nine days before Mary comes along with her army, dethrones her, and locks up her and G (in separate cells) planning to behead Jane and burn G at the stake because, according to Mary, Eðians are an abomination that need to be eradicated.
While sitting in a cell trying to figure out what to do, Jane turns into a ferret (much to her surprise, since she had not known that she was an Eðian), which is apparently one of those creatures that can flatten itself to squeeze into tight spaces because she manages to squeeze under the door, steal the keys, and free G. They make it to the stables where Edward’s dog’s father, who happens to be kennel master, helps them escape and Edwards’ dog, Petunia (Pet for short) helps them find their way to Jane’s great-grandmother (Edward’s grandmother).
They do all manage to meet up at Gran’s castle, including Bess, who totally has a plan to take back Edward’s throne. Edward, meanwhile, has stumbled upon a beautiful Scottish girl named Gracie and talked her into helping him, despite the fact that she knows he’s the King of England, and England and Scotland weren’t exactly on friendly terms at that point in time. They’re also totally falling in love.
By the time they reach Gran’s place, Jane is turning into a ferret every night and G is still a horse by day, giving them only a few minutes at dusk as humans together, so it’s a bit of a Lady Hawk situation. Oh, and there are a bunch of references to The Princess Bride, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
So they have a few trials to endure in order to round up enough fighters to take back the throne, but the strategy basically comes down to Edward sneaking into the castle in bird form, then resuming his human form (finding some clothes) and revealing himself to be alive and still the true ruler of England.
The plan mostly works and Mary gets so furious she turns into an ass, and was apparently never again seen in human form. Meanwhile, Edward has slowly been coming to 3 realizations: 1) he was not a very good king; 2) he doesn’t want to be king; and 3) despite his misogynistic upbringing, he learns that women can be very capable rulers. Since Bess was the one who did all the planning and work to get Edward back on the throne and has proven herself to be the most capable ruler, Edward abdicates and Bess becomes Queen Elizabeth I.
I loved every minute of this book, and I will definitely be checking out more by these authors!