Book Review: My Calamity Jane (The Lady Janies #3) by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows

Rating: ☆☆☆
Audience: Young adult paranormal historical fiction
Length: 516 pages
Author: Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows
Publisher: Harper Teen
Release Date: June 2nd, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Welcome to 1876 and a rootin’-tootin’ America bursting with gunslingers, outlaws, and garou.

JANE (a genuine hero-eene)
Calamity’s her name, and garou hunting’s her game—when she’s not starring in Wild Bill’s Traveling Show, that is. She reckons that if a girl wants to be a legend, she should just go ahead and be one.

FRANK (*wolf whistle*)
Frank “the Pistol Prince” Butler is the Wild West’s #1 bachelor. He’s also the best sharpshooter on both sides of the Mississippi, but he’s about to meet his match. . . .

ANNIE (get your gun!)
Annie Oakley (yep, that Annie) is lookin’ for a job, not a romance, but she can’t deny there’s something about Frank she likes. Really likes. Still, she’s pretty sure that anything he can do,
she can do better.

A HAIRY SITUATION
After a garou hunt goes south and Jane finds a suspicious-like bite on her arm, she turns tail for Deadwood, where there’s been talk of a garou cure. But things ain’t always what they seem—meaning the gang better hightail it after her before they’re a day late and a Jane short.

STRONG START.

Eh ending.

I’ve really enjoyed this book series. I found them easy to laugh along with, the side quips from the narrators were charming, and the characters were fun. The whole comedy concept of it is what made me read My Lady Jane when it first came out and continue on. I feel like they’ve kinda fallen from there though.

MCJ started off great. I was into the story, was cool with the paranormal “twist” and wondered where the story would go. I thought everyone was easy to love and liked the found family aspects of the show.

What didn’t mix was that I felt this was focused a lot more on Annie than Jane. Jane was there, often, of course, but she didn’t really get a massive story line like the other Janies. The focus was around Annie and Frank and their very much insta-love, love story. Cute at times, annoying at others is how my thoughts ranged reading this.

I found it continually harder to pick this book up to read and ended up skim-reading the last half. I think if it had been a bit shorter, not filled with random, out-of-place, political comments and had more focus on Jane, her love story, and what she was dealing with, I could have enjoyed it more.

Overall audience notes: