Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC. Imagine “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret” crossed with the 70s music culture of “Daisy Jones and the Six” and you get “Mary Jane”! I just loved this cool coming of age story with all its quirky and not so perfect characters. I only hope there’s a follow-up... I just have to know who Mary Jane grows up to be. I’m pretty sure I’d want her to be my BFF!

MARY JANE is a fun, breezy read about 14 year old Mary Jane coming of age in 1970s Baltimore. This felt reminiscent of DAISY JONES AND THE SIX, with a younger protagonist. I sped through this novel and thoroughly enjoyed the nostalgia, the music references, and the message that love is more important than being proper or ladylike or maintaining appearances. I loved Blau's characters - especially Mary Jane and her new friends Izzy and Sheba - her descriptions of food and clothing and music; but at times the storyline felt a bit unrealistic and rushed. The conclusion was optimistic, if a bit simplistic, but left you feeling sun-kissed and happy, like Mary Jane coming back from a day at the beach. Overall, an enjoyable escape to the 1970s.

Thank you William Morrow Books and NetGalley for the ARC; which I kindly received in exchange for an honest review.

This book made me happy. Mary Jane lives in Baltimore with her parents; stalwart, upstanding citizens. Her father goes to work each day, and her mother takes pride in the routine of her life; she tends to her little family with meticulous care and straightforward, straight-laced, rigid rules or decorum, home, and meal preparation. Mary Jane follows the rules, and lives a quiet life, but at 14, she also feels invisible in her ever-increasing awareness of the smallness of her world. Singing in the church choir gives her joy, but she feels that there must be more. Her parents allow her to take a job as a nanny for a doctor who has recently moved into their suburban neighborhood, and from the moment she meets her new charge, she knows she can make the household run smoother, as well as the feeling of acceptance she has never felt or seen before; so unlike anything she has ever encountered in her own orderly life. One day not long after she started her job, she arrives to find two new residents ensconced in the household; Dr. Cone is a psychiatrist, and has taken just one client for the summer; rock star Jimmy, and his even more famous wife, the flamboyant, incomparable Sheba.

Mary Jane learns to discover her true self within this unlikely cast a characters. She discovers what family means - not just those born into the same bloodline, but the power and nature of acceptance for being just who one is, both inside and out.

The appeal of this book for me is the era it was written; just before the disco age, just after the Vietnam war era was losing momentum. The world was changing, and Mary Jane is walking the balance between being a product of a narrow-minded, racial unequal suburbia, and also becoming more aware of the widening circle of self-discovery and acceptance of people for who they are inside, rather than how everything looks from the outside. A powerful lesson, even by today's more evolving, accepting standards. This was a true joy to read.

It's obvious the author didn't live during the 1970s, or was too young to remember them and didn't do much, if any, research. Her idea of how the music industry functioned in the mid '70s was way off base, also. Her portrayal of how "rockstars" lived their lives was straight from the staged photo layouts and interviews in teen fan magazines and schoolgirl fantasies.

My biggest beef with this story is it has another one of those I know what's best for your child because my lifestyle is better and freer than yours storylines, so as an adult I'll swear in front of them, smoke pot, let them see naked bodies, and talk about penises and sex all day; and if you don't like it I'll encourage your child to lie to you. Other adults, when a child is not being abused physically or mentally, have no right to go against a parent's wishes when it comes to swearing, drugs, nudity, and how graphic sex talk is.

There was a scene where the father of the five year old, the fourteen year old MC was nannying for the summer, said he felt fourteen was old enough for inclusion in adult discussions of addiction and sexual matters, but that was not his decision to make. I always give these stories the benefit of the doubt thinking that in conclusion the storyline will wrap up showing that pushing a young teen into adult situations is not a good thing; I have been disappointed in the number of times this has not been the case. In this story it was basically, look how fun this is, eff your parents they're just not hip. These books are usually written by authors who don't have children.

Then the conclusion was an unbelievable hot corny mess.

This delightful coming of age novel takes place in 1970s Baltimore. Fourteen year old Mary Jane is growing up in a very strict, up-tight family. Her mom teaches her how to cook, how to keep house and to always maintain a respectable image. She’s a shy, quiet girl who loves singing in the church choir and Broadway show tunes. Her sheltered world is shattered when she accepts a summer nanny job with another “respectable” family in the neighborhood. Mary Jane’s mom doesn’t realize that the respectable Dr. Cone is a psychiatrist who is focusing on helping one patient recover from addiction for the summer. The patient, a famous rock n’ roll artist, and his equally famous actress girlfriend will also being living in the house for the summer.

Mary Jane is exposed to a chaotic home with piles of clothes everywhere, a refrigerator full of spoiled food and dinners of cereal or takeout every night. As Mary Jane begins to bring order to their household, the Cone’s turbulent home begins to expose her to new ways of thinking and progressive attitudes about life. The free expressions of affection, different types of music and revealing clothing styles are all new to Mary Jane. As the summer progresses, Mary Jane begins to see different possibilities in the world and a different future for herself.

Much of Mary Jane’s sheltered life reminded me of my own experiences as a young girl growing up in the 70s. I was instantly drawn into the story and found the message of Mary Jane’s open mindset a welcome inspiration of hope. The author captures the culture of the 70s era with descriptive details in the clothing, music and food references throughout the novel. If you liked Almost Famous or the 70s show, you’ll love this quick read!

Mary Jane, a 14 year old girl, has gotten a summer job nannying for a family in her neighborhood. Her strict parents thought working for a doctor and his wife would be a respectful way to spend her summer days, but what went on inside the house was far different than what anyone was expecting.

Overall, the biggest issue with this book is an extreme marketing error.
It's marketed to be similar to Daisy Jones and the Six meets Almost Famous - and that quite frankly is almost comical because it is so far from the truth here.
While there were little hints of musical influences throughout the book; a character here, a scene there, a song lyric tossed in - it just simply was not focused on music. This wouldn't be a terrible thing, if it wasn't what the book is marketed as!

What this book is really about is a coming-of-age story for Mary Jane. We truly get to watch her grow before our eyes. From the first day she walked into the Cones family home to the end of the book, we get to witness Mary Jane find her inner voice, explore what else is out there besides the sheltered beliefs her parents have, and standing up for herself.
Where Jessica Anya Blau was going with this story was sweet, I liked the themes she wanted to incorporate, but the story itself just felt so bland. There was no big pivotal moment, there was no grand discovery, there was no ups and downs - the story just read really flat for me.
In the end, I found myself just ready to finish hoping that the ending would give me something huge and impactful, and instead it just existed.
The biggest takeaway here for me is: there's a marketing error, and it's a plain storyline.

Fourteen-year-old Mary Jane Dillard comes from an incredibly strait-laced family: she helps her mom prepare all their meals, sings in the church choir, and her music knowledge is limited to the show tunes of the month record club.

She lands a summer job nannying the young daughter of a local psychiatrist and her parents approve, believing it must be a respectable household.
Mary Jane is in for a shock when she enters the Cone home: there’s clutter everywhere, take-out for dinner nightly, Mrs. Cone doesn’t wear a bra …and Dr. Cone has only one patient for the summer, a famous rock star struggling with addiction ...who is moving in to the house with his movie star wife.

This progressive 1970s household is surprising to Mary Jane in most ways — including the fact that the Cones regularly hug and say “I love you”, which doesn’t happen in Mary Jane’s home.

Over the course of the summer, Mary Jane shows the Cones and their famous guests the sensibility of home cooked meals, ironed clothes, and alphabetized book shelves and in return they show Mary Jane how to let loose every once in a while with beach trips, record store visits, and a front row seat to view the world of sex, drugs, and rock ’n roll.

These two lifestyles collide in a charming coming of age tale! Mary Jane is an innocent/naive girl but reserves judgment and is open to discovering more of the world beyond her front door.
As a young girl, I can remember daydreaming about random things like finding a famous person hiding out in my small town and this book follows that same highly unlikely plot. So while it requires some suspension of disbelief for the reader, if you ever wished for something exciting like that as a kid, you’ll probably be charmed like I was by this book!

Thanks to William Morrow/Custom House and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Mary Jane is scheduled for release on May 11, 2021.

This book made my day! What a great read! I am definitely recommending this to my book club, as I'd love to share thoughts and hear others opinions. I do not think I will raving about this one for quite some time.

4 ⭐️ ‘s

Ahh sweet Mary Jane! What a great coming of age story and how important an open mind is. Characters offered a whole new world to Mary Jane - and I loved that she embraced it and how it helped her to also pave her own way - in her beliefs, in her mindset, in her relationships, especially with her mother, but also loved that the book showed how families are all so individual and unique.

Baltimore, 1975. Mary Jane is 14, sings in her church choir, and helps her mom make dinner that they eat as a family- being sure, or course, to include President Ford in their pre-meal prayer. When she is hired to be a summer nanny for Izzy, she has no idea what is in store for her. This is a lovely coming of age novel that takes place over a summer. It's exactly the book that I would have obsessed over as a teen (escaping my daily life for something more free and loving was a common wish of mine growing up) and that now, as an adult woman, I find comforting and nostalgic. I appreciated the females characters the most- naive Mary Jane, hopeful Izzy, regal Sheba- everyone except Beanie Jones. 4 1/2 ☆

Disclaimer: I got this in exchange for an honest review.

This is a coming of age story about a fourteen year old girl in 1970s Baltimore. Mary's always been told what's respectable and what isn't. When she's babysitting for a nurse's kids during the summer (something her parents believe is a respectable job) she realizes there's a carefree life outside her home. The Cones are nothing like Mary's family. They say I love you out loud and they're more vocal. The way Mary was describing her life sounded a lot like how I've seen South Asians get represented in books. I loved that the Cones treated Mary like a daughter in their house and this is a cute book for pre-teens!

MARY JANE by Jessica Anya Blau is a sweet and charming coming-of-age story that brought me right back to my own coming-of-age in the 1970s. Mary Jane Dillard is a shy and strait-laced fourteen-year-old in 1975 in Baltimore. She lives with her conservative parents in an affluent neighborhood and spends most of her time cooking with her mother, singing in the church choir and listening to show tunes on the record player. She is thrilled to land a summer job as a nanny for the Cone family, taking care of their five-year-old daughter, Izzy. Her parents agree to the arrangement since Izzy’s father is a doctor, which of course means this is a respectable family. May Jane soon learns that the Cone household is a far cry from her conventional home. Unbeknownst to her at the time, a drug addict rock star and his movie star wife are moving in so Dr. Cone can treat him away from prying eyes. Over the ensuing weeks, Mary Jane is exposed to an alternative lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll music. But she also tries to bring a sense of order to this family. I loved the bond that formed between Mary Jane and Izzy and the rest of the characters. Mary Jane learns to question her own family’s values and see things from different perspectives as she is pulled between her family and the Cones. The characters all felt so real and believable. The many references to the music and the culture of the time period were delightful. I loved this nostalgic and endearing story and highly recommend it. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow Publishing for the advanced reader copy in return for an honest review.
While the comparison to Daisy Jones and The Six was a bit misleading, I thoroughly enjoyed the parallel time period and cultural similarities of Mary Jane. The characters were intriguing, their relationship development kept the book flowing, but the overall plot (if there was one) was lacking. Overall I did still very much enjoy Mary Jane, and would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy, 1979s-era read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my digital copy in exchange for an honest review. And honestly? There are not enough words to say how much I loved this book. I was initially drawn to the cover and honestly, I have no idea why...it just called to me. But the second I started this book, I knew it was going to be going on my favorites list. And I was not wrong...I love love LOVED everything about this book...starting with the fact that it was taking place in the 1970s...Mary Jane would be slightly older than me if she were real but I was a child in the 70s and I pretty much loved everything about the 70s...I loved every single character in the book and they all had to be exactly as they were to make it what it was...and I could picture every single person in the book including Jimmy and his "furry" chest. One thing I love when I am reading is seeing a character grow and come into herself, so to speak. That was happening for Mary Jane with these people...she started to see herself in a different light and she was learning who she was and who she wanted to be. When I was almost done, I sent a screenshot to my friend and told her she was going to want to read this book and that my heart literally felt like it was breaking because I wouldn't be seeing these people any more. This should be a "Now and Then" type movie with an amazing soundtrack or even a short Netflix series...

Upon finishing this book, my first thought was, “Wow, this would be great as a sit-com/movie!” I’m a child of the 70’s (the exact age as Izzie, in fact!), so reading this was like a trip down Memory Lane!
I enjoyed seeing through Mary Jane’s eyes, and the tenderness she showed toward Izzie was very touching. I felt a pang or two as Mary Jane began to realize that the lifestyle her parents led, and their beliefs, should be questioned, and even challenged. It hurts when one realizes their parents have fallen off their pedestals and are not models of perfection.
For the nostalgia trip I took from this book, I would have given it four stars. However, there was some very vulgar language, and sexual situations, that made me uncomfortable, so I would have rated a two. My three stars are for the enjoyment I felt while reading about the sisterly, almost motherly relationship between Mary Jane and Izzie.
*Thank you, Netgalley, for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are strictly my own.*

I enjoyed the book. The characters were true to live and insightful. It gave you a look at the way different family units run. Easy read

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advance copy in exchange of a fair review.
YAY! This book is a delight to read! Mary Jane is a teenager in an upper class neighborhood, wanting desperately to break free from the thumb of her mothers strict rules about clothing, conversation, church, and a ladies place in the home and neighborhood.
Enter the Cone family, a mom who can’t cook, a dad who is a therapist for drug addict Jimmy, and a sweet little girl needing a babysitter. They open Mary Janes eyes to another way of living, at the perfect time in her life and in American culture: the 1970s!
The description of the era, of moms who wear hose without holes to church, and the tight gossipy neighborhoods juxtaposed with the music, the drugs, and being a girl whose eyes are opening to life outside her tightly run home is perfect. I smiled and laughed throughout at the authenticity of it, and sang the songs as if it were yesterday.
Just a fun read!
5*

This is a difficult one for me to review.  On one hand, I loved this book. I mean I really, really loved this book.  On the other hand, it made me extraordinarily uncomfortable at times, and I’m still not quite sure if that’s the book’s fault or mine.  In the end, I landed on four stars because at its heart Mary Jane is a refreshing story of hope.  And the world needs a lot of hope right now.  

What I Loved

✨In 1975, I was five years old just like Izzie.  Viewing her character from that lens was remarkable.  Speaking of Izzie, she will go down as one of my favorite characters ever.  

✨The 70’s nostalgia.  This was the era of my childhood, and so many of the pop culture references really took me back. For instance, Sheba was most certainly meant to bring Cher to mind. The Sonny & Cher Show. The Cher doll.  These were staples of any 70’s girl’s childhood.  In addition, Casey Kasem and the American Top 40 visited me every Saturday morning through the speakers of my box stereo with gold velour panels.  

✨As always with longings of the past, there are the painful realities of said past as well.  Mary Jane realistically portrayed the sexism, racism, anti-Semitism and pejorative language of the era.  The portrayals of this in these pages are difficult but authentic of the 70’s.

✨The characters.  I loved Izzie and Mary Jane.  The rest of the characters I sometimes loved and sometimes hated.  Sometimes I loved to hate them.  I felt a lot of feelings reading these pages, and even when those feelings were not comfortable, any book that makes me laugh, cry, love and hate is an excellent one in my view.  

What I Struggled With

✨For most of the book, I was oddly uncomfortable and unable to tell if the adult characters genuinely cared about Mary Jane or were grooming her for something.  Some of the things she was exposed to were entirely inappropriate for a fourteen year old girl.  This is where I’m unsure if this is the book’s fault or my own. My frame of reference is as a parent in the 2000’s which may very well be an entirely different experience than it would have been in the 1970’s.  

In the end, I found Mary Jane to be a refreshing, laugh out loud funny story of hope.  I rate it four far-out seventies stars!

My thanks to NetGalley, William Morrow Marketing and Book Club Girls for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.  This will be in stores on May 11, and you’re going to want to grab your own copy.

This novel is pitched as “Almost Famous meets Daisy Jones and the Six” — one of my favourite movies, and one of my favourite recent novels. So, of course, my interest was piqued. After finishing it, I think it’s a pretty apt comparison, but this novel stands very much on its own, too. Mary Jane is a warm-hearted, well-written story of Mary Jane’s coming-of-age in 1970s Baltimore, during a momentous summer. I really enjoyed it.

Mary Jane Dillard is the only child of two very straight-laced parents. Their lives are ordered, “proper”, predictable, and rather bland. They think Gerald Ford is a great president. In summer 1975, Mary Jane is hired by the Cone family to nanny for their daughter, Izzy. What she finds in the Cone household is a completely different way of life: the Cones are a more progressive, rather more chaotic, and far less uptight family. Izzy is a whirlwind of youthful innocence and exuberance, and Mary Jane quickly becomes attached to her. She brings a certain amount of order into Izzy’s life, and the Cone household as a whole — while still retaining the warm and casual family atmosphere. Mary Jane falls in love with the family and life at their home. She feels she can breathe more easily, and welcomes the overt affection that the Cones shower her with.

"In my own house, each day was a perfectly contained lineup of hours where nothing unusual or unsettling was ever said. In the Cone family, there was no such thing as containment. Feelings were splattered around the household with the intensity of a spraying fire hose. I was terrified of what I might witness or hear tonight. But along with that terror, my fondness for the Cones only grew. To feel something was to feel alive. And to feel alive was starting to feel like love."

When a famous musician and actress move into the Cone house for long-term, full-access therapy, Mary Jane’s world only expands. She’s only fourteen (something that I forgot, on occasion, while reading), and she’s introduced to a lot of concepts, words, and ideas of which she has hitherto been utterly unaware — mainly related to sex, drugs, relationships, and music. Blau sprinkles many amusing misunderstandings throughout the novel (for example, Mary Jane struggles with the meaning of what a “sex addict” is for most of the book), and her protagonist’s innocence and naïveté is very endearing.

The more time she spends with Izzy’s family, the more she starts to break with her own family life. She comes to realize that her parents’ “properness” masks a racism and regressive mentality that was all-too-common at the time (and, sadly, remains in many places).

"We’d learned about the civil rights movement in school. It made me feel hopeful, like change was happening all around us. But sitting at Elkridge that day, I felt stuck in a time-warp atrium of segregated politeness."

Naturally, tension builds, and she starts to push back against her conservative, stultifying home life. I won’t get into the story any more than this, though, as it builds to a very satisfying ending. It’s a novel that manages to quietly incorporate a lot of commentary — about families, mother-daughter relationships, what it means to express emotion, and what it means to open yourself up to other ideas and ways of life. It’s also about acceptance, of yourself and others, and learning about what you want from life — and how perceptions can be deceiving. There are a few scenes later in the novel, between Mary Jane and her mother, that were especially good.

"I thought of our Christmas photos. I’d always thought that waxy strangers-in-an-elevator look was just because no one in my family was comfortable in front of a camera. But now I wondered if it was because no one in my family was comfortable with any other person in my family."

If you’re looking for a warm, engaging read, then I’d definitely recommend Mary Jane. Great characters and an enjoyable and uplifting story. Definitely recommended. This was my first book by Blau, and it will not be my last.

Taking place in the 1970's, Mary Jane goes to be a nanny for a "respectable family" in her straight-laced mother's eyes. Little does her mother know what lies behind the walls of the Cone house. Whereas Mary Jane's mother and father are very strict, prim, and proper, Dr. Cone and his wife are free-loving, pot smoking, hippies who buck the status-quo at every turn. Their house is messy, chaotic, loud, and energetic. Mary Jane has never experienced a house like this before. Ideas like this before. Dr. Cone turns out not to be a medical doctor but a psychiatrist instead, and when he begins to treat a famous rock star for addiction, Mary Jane's world is rocked (literally) even more. It's a summer of change, coming of age, and revolution.

I absolutely loved the world and the character in this book. From the first chapter, I found myself falling in love with Mary Jane, Izzy, the Cones, and everyone. The writing is excellent, and even though there are chapters where not a lot happens, I still enjoyed it immensely because the writing is captivating and the characters are compelling.

The ending did have some flaws (deus ex machina), but it didn't take away from my thorough enjoyment of the story as a whole. As a side note, the audiobook was excellent, and without giving too much away, there is a fun surprise at the end of the audiobook to close out the story that you won't experience if you physically read it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Custom House Publishers, and Libro.fm for an advanced reader copy and an advanced listener copy of this fantastic book. Release date is May 11th, 2021. Make sure to mark your calendar for this one.