My Imaginary Mary is the latest in the alternative history series by Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows, and Cynthia Hand. This entry tells the story of Ada Lovelace and Mary Wollstonecraft and it is quite a lot of fun. There are a lot of positive female friendships and occasions where women rescue themselves. As in all of the other books in the series, it is filled with humor and heart. Highly recommended.

For fans of the Jane books and the previous Mary book, this is another fun addition to the series. For me, although this isn't my favorite book in the series (I love My Lady Jane the most), it still checks a lot of the same boxes: famous historical people with a fantasy twist and a humorous tone.

Yet another fun reimagining of history. The mixing of Ada and Mary's stories made for a warm female friendship and the kindness and goodness of Pan just added to the wholesomeness.

The Lady Janies have done it again! This story was just a joy of recognizing important female figures in history, but at the same time playing with that history and creating some hilarious and tender by turns.

These books never dissapoint. I love how readers can learn a little bit about histroy in a quirky fun way. I am always googling the real events and learing more. This book is funny and tells the story of two extraordinary women in history. Lots of snark, wit and fun.

I've read the Lady Janies and was excited to learn that there would be a series that featured Marys. True, these books are slightly frantic and definitively YA, but I find them humorous and light, and I like reading about the twisted reality that the famous women exist in.
This installment features Mary Shelley and Ada Lovelace, who discover a powerful secret about themselves and craft a mechanical boy who, not so surprisingly, comes to life. I enjoyed the inner thoughts of each character, which is my favorite part of this series. The caricature of the real life historical figures was amusing as always. Yes, these books have a different writing style, with a pace and frantic energy that some might not enjoy, but I don't mind it. If you liked the others in the series, you'll enjoy this one.

My Imaginary Mary follows young Mary, a fae who we all know as Mary Shelley and Ada, a skilled builder and scientist who we know as Ada Lovelace. Mary and Ada are two best friends who are working together and one day bring a automaton to life. Pan, the automaton, starts off as a automaton but continues to grow and change as Mary continues to bring him more and more to life.

This series of books is so fun. They take history, add a twist, and bring in a whole bunch of humor. Pan was absolutely the best part of this book. Watching him getting to know the world was funny and cute to experience. Mary and Shelley’s relationship was complex and executed very well. My main complaint with these books is just how long they are and this one was no exception. I understand that with so many authors involved, a book is bound to be a bit longer than usual and these books are somewhat known for their length, but I feel that it is unnecessary. So many little and useless things were drawn out in this book for no reason and it made the book feel like it was just dragging on. I think shortening the book would’ve made it so strong. There seems to be just too many jokes that it feels overdone when tied up with the length. Nonetheless, I still really enjoyed this book and I think it is a strong addition to the series.

The Lady Janies are at it again.
This installment of the Mary series focuses on Mary (Godwin) Shelley and Ada (Byron) Lovelace. If you're not familiar with this series, the authors take real people (named Jane and Mary) and give them new (better), more fantastical stories.
In My Imaginary Mary, Mary and Ada meet and become fast friends. Throughout their story, they encounter fae godmothers, automatons, storms, and mad scientists. These adventures might even lead Mary to write a well known novel....

Silly, fast-paced, and sprinkled in with a little actual history, this book was a fun read.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an early copy for review.

I personally think I would enjoy this series a lot more if the books weren't focused on real people and just told the stories with fictional characters? They are so far removed from the lives and personalities of the real people portrayed that I find it really distracting.

This book is for fans of the Jane series, by the same authors. My Imaginary Mary focuses on the lives of Mary Godwin (Shelley), Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Ada Byron (Lovelace) in a fun, fictional telling of their lives, and adding some fae magic and automatons. Also included are Mary's stepsisters, Claire and Fanny,

Percy Shelley in this story is, as he was in real life, a cad and womanizer, pursuing seventeen-year-old Mary, even though he is already married to Harriet. In the beginning, Mary and Ada become friends and create a metal boy (automaton) that Mary accidentally gives life to (think of her novel, "Frankenstein"). Of course there is a villain, who wants to know the secret to life and won't leave the girls alone about it.

Funny and full of some of their actual history, this was a quick read. If you're a fan of the other books, be sure to pick this one up.

Another treat from the author's who brought us My Lady Jane. We are following the adventures of Mary Godwin, Ada Byron, and Pan, the boy they create. Mary and Ada are told that they are fae (magical individuals who can make anything they imagine real) and they need to be trained to use their magic. The first key lesson their fairy godmother teaches them is to use their magic responsibly. What starts off as simple lessons becomes far more treacherous for Mary and Ada when they make Pan ( Practical Automaton Number One) into a real boy in order to save him from certain doom. The girls find themselves up against incredible odds in order to make for themselves the lives that they want to live. An incredible reimagining of the lives of Mary Godwin Shelley and Ada Byron Lovelace.

3.7. If you enjoy the authors' other work this is along the same vein and likely to be enjoyable to the same degree. I wasn't wild about what they did with historical figures outside of the main characters (the men, basically all of the men), but the changes did make the story work, so.

My Imaginary Mary was an interesting interpretation of the lives of several historical figures, focusing on Mary Godwin, Percy Shelly, and Ada Byron and punched up with the edition of fae lineage, automatons, and a mad scientist.

Both Mary and Ada, as well as Ada's father, are believed to be fae, as a way of explaining their genius and creativity. Neither having a true, close friend, Mary and Ada form a close friendship and begin to collaborate on their creative endeavors as well as their fae education. Ada suffers from an overbearing and overprotective mother, while Mary is saddled with a stepmother and two barnacles of stepsisters. They end up on a cross-continental jaunt to evade the mad scientist, Percy Shelly, and their parents with the stepsisters and a motley assortment of automatons in tow as they search for Ada's father, Lord Byron. The witty girls say witty things, as do all of the supporting characters but perhaps with less intention. This book is a great mix of science, silliness, and steampunk in a historical setting.

Mary Shelley (then Godwin) and Ada Lovelace accidentally create a teenage boy. This is the content that I am here for.

I think My Imaginary Mary is my new favorite out of all the Jane/Mary books. I like the mix of art, science, and magic and how they all work together (or sometimes against each other) to make a fun, fast-paced story. Mary and Ada's friendship was the best, and felt so real, even though it's stated at the beginning that in real life they didn't know each other. Also, the men in the story--save for their creation, Pan--are garbage and I loved it.

My favorite bits continue to be the authors inserting themselves as amusing fourth wall-breaking narrators, as well as the characters making pop culture references that don't exist yet in their time.

Can't wait for the third Mary book. I wonder which Mary it will be??

Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I loved My Imaginary Mary. It is easily the most creative of their books so far, even though I really do love the world of Edians.

My Imaginary Mary follows Mary Wollstonecraft (Mary Shelley) and Ada Byron (Ada Lovelace) as they race across the continent to save their dear friend Pan.

Mary and Ada attend the same party where a scientist, Aldini attempts to bring a frog back to life. Science has not made that possible, so it is currently a parlor trick that Aldini uses to make money and keep people coming to his shows. On this particular night however, the frog truly does come alive.

Shortly after, Mary meets Miss Stamp, her fae godmother, who introduces her to Ada. The two learn that they are fae and have magical abilities. One of those abilities is to bring things to life (even though they are not supposed to). Mary learns that when she imagined the frog being alive, she accidentally brought the frog to life by giving it some of her life.

Ada, who has been attempting to create a practical automaton (a metal machine that can complete simple commands that have been programmed into it) asks Mary to help her make it better. Mary uses her fae abilities, in addition to electricity from a lightning bolt, to bring the automaton to life. She does this by giving the automaton some of her own life. Ada names it Pan.

Meanwhile, since Aldini knows that he cannot re-create life, he is determined to understand how the frog came to be. He kidnaps Ada with Pan's unwitting help. He threatens both of them to reveal how she brought the frog to life. When he forces Pan to perform at one of his shows, Mary happens to be at the show. She finds a way to Pan by making him look like a real boy and saves Ada from one of the rooms Aldini had her locked in. Ada and Pan find themselves on the run from Aldini. They hope to find her father, Lord Byron, who is also fae, in hopes that maybe he can help them. Mary initially stays at home, but joins them after realizing she wants to help her friends.

While I loved the storyline, I also loved all the historical elements of it as well. Mary has a crush on Percy Shelley, a poet. Her step-sister Jane, helps her spend as much time as she can with Percy. When Mary learns that Percy is married, she leaves to go find Ada and Pan and help save Pan's life. Her inspiration for Frankenstein comes when everyone is at Lord Byron's estate and he challenges everyone to come up with a scary ghost story. Mary combines some of the events with Aldini and Pan as the foundation for her scary story.

At the beginning of the story, Ada is introduced to the Earl of Lovelace at a party, the man she marries in history. Mary's step-sister Jane Clairemont, opts to change her name to Claire. She goes by Claire Clairemont and she corresponds with Lord Byron throughout the beginning of the story. Mr. Babbage is also part of the story as a mentor and partner to Ada with her love of science and math. I enjoyed that while many liberties were taken throughout the story, the historical elements are still there. I didn't know the lives of Mary and Ada crossed at all in history, so it was really neat to read this story and have them both be a part of it.

I absolutely adored My Imaginary Mary. I'm trying to figure out who their next series will follow (because they have to keep writing these stories). If you haven't read The Lady Janie series or My Contrary Mary, I suggest you add those to your TBR list. They will not disappoint you.

I waffled between a 3.5 and a 4 for this one. While a great book and fun story, much like the second book in the Janies series, I felt that this one fell a bit flat. This entry focuses on Mary Shelley (Godwin in the book) and Ada Lovelace. The two move in different circles until one night Ms. Stamp, a fairy godmother, brings the two together, claiming both are fae. Their famous parents (Lord Byron, curiously not dead during this book, and Mary Wollstonecraft) were both fae, and it's assumed that Mary and Ada inherited the ability from them. Being a fae is not necessarily being a fairy, here it just means a person who is capable of making things they imagine a reality. There's of course rules to what they can and can't do, and of course Mary and Ada break most of them throughout the book. The authors' trademark humor and fun narration is present throughout, and the situation Mary and Ada find themselves in is both ridiculous and fun, much like the other books in the series. I did feel that this book was the most noticeably anachronistic than the others, which is weird to say for a series like this, but when you have characters from different time periods (Mary and Ada were not of an age, and were at least a generation apart) interacting when the other books seemed to stick to a time period a bit better, it stuck out to me. The plot took a while to get going, with Pan's pov not even starting until nearly the halfway point, and seemed to lack some of the cohesion that most of the other books had. It often felt like things were just a little too contrived to fit the plot, and I wasn't wholly satisfied with how things got wrapped up. What was absolutely fantastic, and the reason I gave it 4 stars, were the characters, particularly Mary and Ada. They were fantastic and engaging, both having an equal share of the story (poor Pan missed out here). I particularly liked Ada, she uses a cane due to contracting polio, and how her disability was depicted and impacted her actions were consistent and well done.

While I enjoyed getting to know this version of Mary and Ada and their creation, I disliked that their genius was attributed to some magical power handed down from faeries and forced circumstances and not their natural intellect and environment. Sure that century sucked for women, they were constantly being pushed down and away and shielded from contributing to the level of their abilities, in need of husbands for all things - so glad that's over. But while pieces of this tale were true, the fantastical embellishment did not appeal to me, and neither did that ridiculous villain who couldn't even reanimate a frog. I wanted danger and edge of my seat experiences, I expected more of the horror aspect of Frankenstein being that they create an automaton but it didn't quite measure up. Maybe next time - thanks #NetGalley

I love the idea of a story where Mary Shelley and Ada Lovelace meet. There is so much potential with two such incredible women! However, this book did not meet my expectations. It was not the right style for me, but I could definitely see it being a great introduction to these women for a younger audience.

Well, this was a fun read. If you've read any of the other books from this trio, then you know what you're getting into. It's definitely a fun romp through Mary Godwin's life, with the usual changes you would expect.

I don't think it's as strong as some of the other titles in the series (there are definitely a few areas where the plot just seems to drag), the puns abound and it's still a good time.

It’s always nerve-racking when you begin the second book in the series when you really liked the first one. Thus, I was thrilled when this follow-up in the “Mary” series actually surpassed my enjoyment of the first! Maybe because I’m an English teacher, and love teaching Frankenstein, and maybe because I was already familiar with most of the characters in this story (as compared to the first, My Contrary Mary, which piqued my interest to learn more about those characters) but this was a truly satisfying follow-up. There is just enough romance, just enough humor, just enough “fantasy,” and just enough pop-culture references to make the story appeal to a wide range of readers and it will definitely be a hit among my middle and high school girls. Once again, I’m thrilled that the main characters are strong, smart, and independent young women who don’t need rescuing from men. I can’t wait for the next in the series! Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ALC in exchange for my honest opinion.