Cynthia Hand

Brodi Ashton

Jodi Meadows

Hold on to your hats: The authors who brought you the New York Times bestseller My Plain Jane, which Booklist praised as "delightfully deadpan" (starred review) and Publishers Weekly called "a clever, romantic farce" (starred review), are back with another irreverent historical adventure. Welcome to 1876 America, a place bursting with gunslingers, outlaws, and garou--better known as werewolves. And where there are garou, there're hunters: the one and only Calamity Jane, to be precise, along with her fellow stars of Wild Bill's Traveling Show, Annie Oakley and Frank "the Pistol Prince" Butler. After a garou hunt goes south and Jane finds a suspicious-like bite on her arm, she turns tail for Deadwood, where there's talk of a garou cure. But rumors can be deceiving--meaning the gang better hightail it after her before they're a day late and a Jane short. In this perfect next read for fans of A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, bestselling authors Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, and Brodi Ashton bring their signature spark to the side-splittin', whopper-filled (but actually kind of factual?) tale of Calamity Jane.

My Calamity Jane

Kimberly Burgess 

I think the endless pop culture references were the most entertaining part of the story. Not a bad story, just paced slowly compared to the other two Jane books.

Sahi K

I had such a fun time with the previous two books in this series that I’ve been quite eager for this one to release, even though I know nothing about the historical figures this story is based on. And while I did have access to the audiobook, I kept putting it off without even realizing that it was perfect for one of my readathon prompts. Glad I finally figured that out in time, because this book couldn’t have been read at a better time. 

The first thing that comes to mind when I think about this series is “pure fun”. And at a time when I need some lightheartedness in my life, this was a delight to listen to. The plot is wacky, but I’m assuming atleast some parts of it are based on real incidents involving the characters during the 19th century. And as always, I thoroughly enjoyed the authors breaking the fourth wall to engage with us readers directly. I’ve really found it to be such an interesting way to satirize the story. And I can’t not mention how effectively the authors include some current pop culture stuff in, and one of those Marie Kondo moments really made me giggle endlessly. 

I think the humor of the story really comes through in the audiobook. The narrator Sophie Amoss is hilarious and her different tones and accents are pitch perfect, bringing so much life to this story. And however wild a story about the Wild West, gunslingers and werewolves might seem, there was unbelievable depth and emotion here which I really appreciated. The pace was steady throughout, never letting us get bored and I really found it hard to put down. 

The characters are a very enjoyable bunch and I found it so easy to get invested in their lives. Jane loves living life on her own terms and has come a long way from the tragedies of her childhood, but sometimes the sadness still lingers and she gets to explore it more when her life takes an unexpected turn. Annie wants to support her family, but her idea to do that is to be impulsive and go on an adventure - she really talks too much but I was awed by her supreme confidence in her abilities and never backing down in the face of unfavorable odds. Frank is the third of their trio, a kind and compassionate young man who loves his show business, his adorable dog George and his whole family. And the leader of this group is Bill, the popular gunslinger and a father figure to all of them - I never thought I would fall in love with a typical old gun toting hero of a western. 

We also have an ensemble of side characters, some good and some bad, some mysterious and others just going along with the flow. Amongst all this are some adorable romances, beautiful friendships, necessary second chances, and so many heartfelt moments. And I loved that we have an amazing sapphic couple who are just adorable. And the epilogue with everybody was just perfect. 

It’s easy to dismiss this series as just fun, which it unmistakably is - but it also explores so many important and relevant themes. Found family always has a special place in my heart and the bonds that the characters form with each other in this are beautiful and it emphasizes that sharing blood doesn’t make one a family, choosing to love, support and respect one another does. Another major point I felt this book was trying to make was about stereotypes - how harmful it can be if you stereotype/discriminate a whole group of people based on just the actions of a few instead of giving every person an equal chance to live their lives on their own terms and judge them based on their individual character. 

And the last point was about the cult of personality; how a single person with enough power or charisma can harm scores of people, especially when they are supported by other folks who love the proximity to power; and how this personality cult can then be used to incite mobs, deny justice, and gaslight the ones who are trying to bring the truth to light - if all of this seems very similar, it’s because it’s the America we are currently living in. 

In the end, I had such an amazing time listening to this audiobook. If you’ve already read the previous books in the series, then I hope you’ll continue with this as well. If you are new though, but would love to read a satirical series about historical figures with supernatural elements, and lot of hilarity and hijinks - then this is perfect for you. And do give the audiobooks a try because they really bring out the laughs.

Candyce Kirk

Luna

hoping this book would have wlw: 🥺

finding out this book has wlw: ☺️

finding out this book uses wlw to invalidate other sexualities: 😔


i still liked the writing of this but instalove, homophobia, and westerns are not my jam

Heather Harrington

Everywhere you turn in 1876, America is full of outlaws, gunslingers...and werewolves? And where there are werewolves, or garou as they're known as, there are hunters, and the best in the business is none other than Calamity Jane and the ragtag band of Wild Bill's Traveling Show: Annie Oakley and Frank "The Pistol Prince" Butler. After a routine hunt goes sideways and Jane finds herself bit, she hightails it to Deadwood, a small town where rumor has it there's a cure for garou. Once there, Jane finds that not all rumors are true, and after a shadow from her past resurfaces, she realizes she's in way over her head. 

I really enjoyed the other two books in this series, so I was looking forward to this one, but I was slightly underwhelmed. The humor and wit was all there, the characters were fun, and I always love a satirical take on history, but I felt this was too long. If it were about 100 pages shorter, I think it would've been more effective. It was just a bit too drawn out for me that by the end I was just over it and got a bit bored. Despite that, I would still recommend if you're in the mood for a fun historical fiction/fantasy.

Emily C Peterson

Lovisa

The number of times I cried... Karaktärerna i denna är lätt mina favoriter av alla i hela The Lady Janies serien. Annie Oakley är så bra och fin och Jane och Frank. Lite svårt att sätta ord på det, men gosh darn, amazing. 
Min favorit i hela serien.

K.J. Haakenson

The Lady Janies have done it again! 🤩 I’m not a fan of westerns but I *had* to read this one cuz c’mon it’s a Lady Janies book 😂🙌🏻 Pop culture references were top notch as always (some of my favorites were from Up, Marvel, and Toy Story 😋). Frank was, by far, my favorite character for many reason but the top being we both have running-induced asthma 😂❤️ Also this is one of the few books that have made me cry. 🥺 (Like actually tear up. That never happens 🤯) But this book made me laugh too and I love books that do both well.

Wren Hardwick

The cover was not orange and green, but I’m still really happy with this book! Western, our Lady Janies’ humor, talking dogs, were-umm, garous, and loads of history to be straightened out! Absolutely outstanding!

- - -

I'm calling this cover to be orange and green. If it's not, the rainbow will not be complete and I'll be sad. 

- - - 

THIS IS AMAZING OMGSH I CAN JUST NOT WAIT.



*lowkey singing the songs from the musical*

Ashlee

This was another fun romp into the world of The Lady Janies and I so appreciate the authors for bringing these stories to life. They are always a great way to turn an otherwise meh day around and this was no different.

It wasn’t quite as good as the first two, in my opinion, but I still love the twist they put on the story of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show and it’s titular performers. The popular culture references are always one of the funniest aspects of these books and I’ll admit I’m unabashedly proud of myself whenever I catch one. 😂🙈

As expected, the pacing in this book is pretty spot on and the western parody aspect was hilarious. These are absolutely the books to read when you need an easygoing, lighthearted laugh that will suck you in from the beginning.

Kaylee Z

I read My Plain Jane when it came out and was entertained so when I saw that this trio were creating a story surrounding Calamity Jane, I definitely wanted to pick it up. I’ve been meaning to delve into the world of Westerns and the idea of doing so with an easy to read comedic take on the genre seemed a great entry point. In truth, I don’t think I would recommend anyone read it on that basis. 

Throughout the last couple of years, I have really been finding Young Adult reads to no longer be an age group I totally enjoy. There are some that are amazing but, for the most part, my reading tastes have changed a bit so please keep that in mind when it comes to my thoughts here.

My Calamity Jane is a very surface-level story that really centers around Annie Oakley. I’m not sure why it is marketed as having Jane as the main character (I guess the obvious answer is that her name is Jane and it fits with the series) but she really does not get much time in the story. The majority of her journey is overlooked and her major character moments are very much lack-luster. I liked the idea of following Jane, Annie and Frank but the book was very Frank/Annie focused - which is fine but not really a ‘Jane’ story.

Of all of the characters, I would have to say that Frank was my favourite. Heck, maybe even his dog haha. Frank is easily the most mature of the bunch but, because of that, he does not have much of an arc. He is fairly stagnant and reliable. Annie was spunky to the point of almost being annoying but I did like her conflict even if we don’t get to see her development as much of it happens during a travel time-jump and a very randomly convenient plot moment involving a bear. Jane herself has a good enough back story to help force her ‘revelation’ near the climax of the book but she really just sits around drinking a lot and being confused about her crush. 

The Lady Janies as a writing trio seemed more of a collective in My Plain Jane but in this iteration, I could really tell that it was written by 3 different authors. The story did not have a good flow and the ideas that they went with were a bit all over the place. They desperately try to make a social commentary on many different aspects of the time period to the readers of modern day but it felt extremely forced with all of their ‘narrator asides’. I also know that they try to add humour with their commentary but I mainly found these moments boring if not a bit cringey. 

In terms of the paranormal twists that get added to each book in this series, I wasn’t overly on board with the idea of them being werewolf hunters. The lore never added up for me from how they started to how to ‘cure’ it to the society that surrounds them… it was all very under-developed. Almost as though there was just a few points that they wanted to cover regardless of how they fit together. Further twists in the story were also fairly obvious. Nothing was really surprising aside from how they brought up these revelations. The set up for one particularly ‘big’ twist wasn’t even really done, there was just a line that essentially said ‘by the way, this is a thing’. 

This just wasn’t a fun ride in general for me. I wasn’t invested in the characters, there was too much and yet not enough going on and a lot of the story seemed forced. I do plan on picking up My Lady Jane however because I do want to give this series another try but if book 1 doesn’t hook me, I likely won’t continue on to read their next trilogy (which I believe is based around Mary’s of history).

My Calamity Jane

Reviews