Jane Doe Chronicles by Jeremy Lachlan Book Review | Life of Dahlia

During late December and early January, I was going through a bit of a reading slump, we’ve all been there right, like you really want to read but you’re struggling to get through the book you have in your hands and it just seems to be going at a snail’s pace. I mean what could be more annoying.

I wanted to start of this year a fresh, I was hyped to start re-reading ‘Ink heart’ by Cornelia Funke, I got about half-way through and I was just really struggling with it for some reason and not because it isn’t a good book because I’ve always really enjoyed it. I’ve also been going through some mental health stuff, I really wanted to find comfort in reading but for some reason I was just finding it really hard. Anyway, I decided to put that one down for the time being and pick up something totally different.

If you saw my ‘Year Long Book Haul’ video, I mentioned wanting to read more books by Australian Authors, well at the start of January I decided to renew my library membership which had apparently ran out like two years ago, shows how much I used it, like never. Anyway, I renewed my library card and browsed through the book selection of my local library and I was quite surprised to come across two books which I had recently put on my ‘Book Wish list’ that were by an Australian Author. I’m sure you can guess what came next, I scooped up the chance to read them and borrowed both the current volumes from the ‘Jane Doe Chronicles’ (Jane Doe and The Cradle of All Worlds’ and ‘Jane Doe and The Key of All Souls) by Jeremy Lachlan. And I’m so glad I did because I really enjoyed them and I will defiantly be keeping them on my Wish list to purchase sometime in the future because I can totally see myself reading them again.

The ‘Jane Doe’ Chronicles by Jeremy Lachlan

Jeremy Lachlan’s series follows our main character Jane Doe, I mean I know that’s kind of obvious seeing as her name is in the title of the books, Jane grew up on the island of Bluehaven and the only person she has is her Dad but he is quite unwell and has been for most of her life. Most of the people of Bluehaven think she is cursed because of the devastating earth quakes that have only come to pass since her and her fathers’ arrival some years earlier.

For many years before their arrival, Bluehaven was connected to other worlds through ‘The Manor’, many of the world’s great explorers ventured into ‘The Manor’ to see what secrets it yields. But ever since the ‘Doe’s’ arrival on Bluehaven, the gateway has been sealed shut, it refuses to open. Until one day fourteen years later.

After some distressing events, Jane’s Father disappears through the gateway into ‘The Manor’ and Jane is forced to journey there to rescue her Father. Alone and with no clue what she is doing, she has to venture through the labyrinth between the worlds to find him. But there is a great evil inside ‘The Manor’ that she has to watch out for while searching for him.

Character’s

Jane is the last person she would think could be a hero of a story, she doesn’t even know her real name and her whole world dislikes her, but they tend to make the best kind of hero’s don’t you think? The characters that don’t know their true potential or what they are truly capable of.

Jane as a character is quite humble but also quite witty and funny which is one of the aspects I loved about her, the way she is unafraid to talk up when she is the grips of a terrifying situation was often when she had her best moments. While she is unsure of herself for a majority of this story I loved seeing her grow as a person and the relationships she developed with other characters in this story.

Jane meets a lot of interesting characters in this story, they all have a lot of depth and great back stories, with a few having quite a bit of influence on how the story plays out, Like her ‘Parents’, ‘Winifred’ and ‘Roth’. Most notably though I love the dynamic between her and Violet and how Violet has a more important part in the story later on. I also loved the way Jane and Violets relationship changes over the course of the story, it was quite enjoyable to see it develop over time.

World-building

The World this story is set in is complex because while we start off in Bluehaven, we then venture into ‘The Manor’ which is a huge labyrinth built by three long forgotten Gods that connects thousands of worlds together. In ‘Jane Doe & The Cradle of all Worlds’ we start in Bluehaven and then spend a majority of the time in ‘The Manor’, The latter being a place full of wonder but also unseen dangers, with rooms that contain traps as well as seas, forest and snow like environments that have leeched in from ‘Other Worlds’.

In ‘Jane Doe and The Key of all Souls’ we also get to experience life in a different ‘Other World’ and coincidently ‘Roth’s’ original world, which is now a barren wasteland. And if I didn’t make it clear before ‘Roth’ is the villain of this story.

The world building in Jeremy Lachlan’s Jane Doe Chronicles is great; I loved the complexity of ‘The Manor’ and learning the History of the ‘Other worlds’ that are included in both of the books as well as how certain characters are linked to those worlds.

Jeremy Lachlan has created so many amazing characters as well as a fantastic world that Jane’s story is set in, I honestly can’t believe this series is his Debut as a writer because his characters have some great back stories, they also have a lot of depth to them, they have personality and insecurities that are help make them relatable. He has done a fantastic job bringing them to life and making us as readers feel immersed into their world.

If you are interested in books with female lead character or characters from the LGBTQAI+ community then you will probably like this one, but really, I would recommend this for anyone who likes to read middle grade, teen or young adult fantasy fiction, it really just depends on what interests you when it comes to reading material.

If you like books like ‘His Dark Materials’ where there is the excitement of travelling between worlds then you will probably like this one as well or if you’re just looking to read more fantasy type novels by Australian Authors, then defiantly check this one out because I’m pretty sure you will enjoy it.

Reading Challenge Update:

These books tick off the following prompts for my 2021 Reading Challenge.

If you want to know more about my reading challenge you can check out my original post here.

A book written by an Australian or local author. Jeremy Lachlan is from Sydney, New South Wales, he grew up in Griffith which is in Country, New South Wales.	√
Something borrowed (it could be from a friend or a library.) I borrowed the ‘Jane Doe’ Chronicles from my local Library.	√
Something fantasy. The ‘Jane Doe’ Chronicles are categorized as being in the Fantasy genre so I felt that it was appropriate to tick this category off as well.	√

I hope you enjoyed this Book Review, I really enjoyed reading this series and I would really love to read more by this Author in the future, as well as dive into reading more fantasy and science fiction books from other Australian Authors.

I hope to see you in my next post or book review, if your interested in knowing more about my ‘2021 Reading Challenge’ feel free to check out my original post here. I’ve even included a downloadable PDF incase you would like to do your own reading challenge. It includes all my prompts as well as a few extra spaces for you to include your own.

Until next time, I hope you all have a lovely day.

Disclaimer – This post is not sponsored and doesn’t contain any affiliate links, links included are for reference only in case your interest in checking out anything mentioned in this post. Read full Disclaimer here.

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