“The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life” is a young adult book centered around a high school student named Alison. Alison is producing the school play (in the hopes that it’ll help her become valedictorian), and tries to balance that with everything else going on in her life. Alison also has a crush on a girl named Charlotte, but despite that, she agrees to go out with an old friend of hers named Jack, and another major part of the plot is her trying to figure out her sexuality and who she really wants to be in a relationship with.

I thought the plot was interesting, and I loved the relationship between her and Charlotte. I really enjoyed this book, and I would recommend it to those who are fans of the YA genre.

**Thank you to NetGalley, the author, & the publisher for a chance to read & review an E-ARC of this novel!**

This was a fun contemporary read with LGBTQIA+ representation as well as themes of challenging our own thoughts about success, expanding our comfort-zones, & being honest with those closest to us. Please find my extended feedback below...along with some spoilers (beware).
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Things I Liked:
-the honesty regarding the high school experience...it felt like a genuine portrayal of all the weirdness that is high school & adolescent without being over done or (for lack of a better word) dramatic
-Mr. Evans was hilarious!
-how descriptive the writing was about the experience of producing a play
-it was an easy read with short chapters...I like shorter chapters as I feel more invested in continuing to read cause "JUST ONE MORE CHAPTER" :)

Things That Didn't Sit Quite Right With Me:
-how annoying Allison was at points...I found myself wanting to take her by the shoulders & shake her while yelling "what are you thinking!?"
-the awkward date/non-date scene...cringe
-the ending felt sort of anti-climatic...I felt like the play (one of the main plot points of the story) was sort of brushed over in the end
-the ending also felt a bit rushed in my opinion...all of a sudden everything sort of wrapped itself up & then it was over

Overall, I gave this novel 3 stars. It was a fun & relatable read that made me laugh out loud many times. I think it would be a great read for those interested in reading novels with LGBTQIA+ representation or themes including theatre, comedy, or coming of age.

Alison has been tasked with producing her school’s production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream. She has to to deal with the many disasters that occur on the way to opening night, as well as with her developing crush on Charlotte, the play’s lead.

This is a cute, easy read for anyone who loves YA contemporaries. The characters were fun and likable -- if not a little flat.

There were some things I had an issue with. I didn’t like the way coming out was discussed in this book. It was presented like coming out fixes everything. It didn’t do a good job of showing that many people don’t come out for their own reasons, and that all of those reasons are valid.

I was also disappointed with Ben’s character arc. I won’t spoil anything, but know that it’s a trope that I’m not a big fan of, but one that is used often in media.

I really liked the "love triangle" angle between Alison, Becca and Jack. I'm a sucker for comedic misunderstandings and I thought that scene was hilarious. I really wish it had been dragged out for more of the book.

This is good if you’re looking for a quick read that’s not too heavy or complicated.

I was given a free ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, Dani Jansen and Second Story Press for a review copy of this book.

Alison Green, desperate Valedictorian-wannabe, agrees to produce her school’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

This is a really sweet coming-of-age book.

The only thing that grated on me was that the 'villain' was a closeted teen. I just don't like to see it.

A huge thank you to Netgalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I should preface this by saying I am a middle school English teacher, and we have a Shakespeare Appreciation unit at the end of each year. We also require our students to read 10 novels of their choosing each year, and they get extra credit if they choose from the Modern Shakespeare shelf, which houses retellings and Shakespeare influenced literature. This will definitely be added to the shelf once I can get my hands on a physical copy!

So, yeah, I'm a little biased. I thought this was a really heartwarming, light read (that is not to say it doesn't have depth or tackle serious issues). The characters are relatable. The representation (gay, pansexual, Korean, etc) was great to see, and even though the protagonist makes some questionable decisions, you still find yourself on her team.

This started a little slow but picked up for me, which I was happy about. I ended up reading this one in one night, because I genuinely wanted to know what happened next. I am so appreciative of the author for sharing this one with me!

Thank you Netgalley for a free ebook arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life is a short, queer, high-school romantic comedy! Alison Green is the main character, and her anxiety bleeds into her rampant perfectionism in a very realistic way, and I say this as someone with anxiety. I loved her ongoing battles in her mind of imagining the worst things happening, over and over again. It might read a bit repetitive for some, but I just recognized it as how someone with anxiety would think.

The queer representation in this book was fabulous, and I fully connected with Alison's struggle with coming out to everyone, not just her family and closest friends, and I loved her observation that there are "different levels of "out"". Reading about her crushing on Charlotte reminded me of my first crush on a girl, and the extra stress of not knowing if she liked girls, or if she knew I liked girls. The queer identity of some other characters wasn't as well developed, but I appreciated the pansexual representation.

There were parts of the book that seemed to be written by an adult trying to remember what it was like to be a teenager, which took you out of the world a bit, but overall I was still able to be immersed in this story. I enjoyed all the relationships Alison had with her partners, friends, and family members.

this is a sweet, queer YA rom-com that I would recommend for fans of Love, Simon.

This is an adorable teen story. Really enjoyed this one.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

I received an arc for this book by NetGalley.

When I saw the title for this book and read the synopsis I thought it would be a really quick and fun sapphic read about high school and a Shakespearean play.

I really liked reading about all the different side characters and once the story picks up it is quite easy to blast through it. And it was quite interesting to read a book about a girl who's a lesbian, but doesn't really think/care to tell people about it, except her family and her friend.

That being said, I couldn't really connect with Allison (the main character) and the romance wasn't as much a part of the story as I would've liked it to be. I was hoping for a little bit more of the romantic moments and I didn't really feel like that was happening. Also some parts of the plot get dragged out a lot, where as the most exciting parts are done in a few pages.

I was so excited to read ‘The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life‘ early for a few different reasons. I was a theatre kid at school and then university and studied Shakespeare! I even had a terrible second year due to my Shakespeare module but still love that genuis bard! I love reading YA books that have kids who love acting or get involved with their school play. This synopsis really caught my eye, as did the book cover!

Alison is that typical Hermione-kind of character that is solely focused on high grades and wanting to get the highest school acolade: Valedictorian. She’s even drooling over the trophy case at the beginning of the book! In order to get a little closer to her dream, she agrees to help one of her teachers co-produce the school play. That doesn’t end up working out for her as the same teacher leaves her high-and-dry with the work.

She does have some great friends in Becca and Jack and a quirky sister in Annie too! She even has a crush on the cool girl at school Charlotte.

All the theatre terminology and warm-ups were great to read because they brought back some fond memories, but unfortunately things started to go a little down-hill after the start.

One of the things that annoyed me about the plot was that it ended up being a little stereotypical. Good girl falls for cool girl, gets pushed into doing extra work for kudo points, falls out with best friend and everyone around her. A great example of this plot done perfectly has to be ‘The Paper and Hearts Society: Read with Pride‘. It was brilliant! This book, however, fell short.

It kept going from Alison to Annie and back, leaving me super confused who was talking each chapter. While I loved the focus of an LGBTQ+ relationship (*motions to all the books I love*), it just felt flat.

There were moments where I was left looking for more explanation. Everyone gets super annoyed at her for everything (setting up her friends on a date) and the bully who is sexist to girls but ends up having a reason. There’s even a point towards the end of the book where Alison and her girlfriend break up because she’s not ‘out’ properly and wants to focus more on her school work.

First thought in my head: Erm…what? No.

It had some promising moments such as the anxiety attack she has in the canteen. I thought that more would be written about this but nope. It came and went. There was even a ‘theatre mafia’ threatening her not to ask local businesses for funding because it was ‘their patch’. That also came and went with no conclusion. I don’t know whether the author forgot about it but not sure.

I’d been so excited for a F/F romance! Alison was gay and Charlotte was pansexual. There was also a side character called Zach who was gay too! This too fell through. We had Charlotte whose dad was not accepting of her sexuality (we never went into depth about this), Zach ended up secretly being in a relationship with Ben (the sexist guy) and everything was just left unfinished.

By the end I was just frustrated. I really wanted to love this book but I’m sad that it didn’t work out.

“Sometimes, the hardest thing to learn is how to be okay with things as they are.”

This started very similar to any high-school coming of age book, with the main character Alison Green's goals of being a valedictorian and acing her high school life.
But the troubles begin when she said to being a producer for a high school play without really understanding the inconveniences it could bring. Apart from finding no time to study which lead to a drop in her academic performance, it also brought about some differences between her and her best friend.
Though Alison is out to her family and best friend, but she isn't out to her school. When her friend asks her out on a date, she accidentally says yes. This brings about a series of misunderstandings and problems.
This book is a light read about how Alison plans out the complete play with managing her academics and personal life.

Alison Green desperately wants to be valedictorian, so when she is given the opportunity (roped into) producing the school play, she goes along with it. Needless to say, nothing quite goes as planned, and juggling school work, a play, a girlfriend and the theatre mafia is no small feat.

The book boasts of a lesbian main character, pansexual love interest and has both POC and gay characters and as such should be great for representation. I feel it doesn't quite give them enough space to shine though, bad sometimes they feel a little flat.

The main character Alison started out fine, but some of her choices just made her an unlikable person (although probably very realistic). There's probably a lesson in there somewhere about accepting help and the found-family/close knit friendship group is always lovely. Ultimately, I didn't as much read the book because of Alison, but because of all the other characters, which I would have lived to learn more about. In addition, some of the developments were set up a little too heavy-handed (I like my foreshadowing a bit more shadowed).

It's a fast read and an enjoyable book, perfect for a summer vacation and if you're into theatre then it's an added bonus. Perfect for young teens!

Really enjoyed most of this diverse (both racial and LGBTQ) YA book, but there were a few aspects that I didn’t love, including the unsupportive family of some of the queer characters.
I liked the characters, the storyline, and the romance. The writing was really good too.

Look, this book isn't perfect. The activism in it seems a little performative and I had issues with characters saying racist/homophobic things only for the main character to sound woke whenever she called them out on it. I had issues with the writing style and the lack of plot. However, I also grinned impossibly hard during the first date scene because I just loved Alison and Charlotte together. And I really appreciate this book for having a pansexual character! You rarely see that! (Although I cannot speak for the pan rep, so hopefully there will be some ownvoices reviewers who can speak to that.)

Anyway. This book was cute. It was sweet. Sure, it was plotless and I struggled to get along with Alison the whole time and found that the relationship drama was soooo unnecessary. But I also appreciated this book for what it was: a simple, sweet story about learning to accept that not everything has to be perfect.

Thank you to the publisher for giving me a review copy via Netgalley! It in no way impacted my review or rating of the book :)

-Book Hugger

ARC was provided by NetGalley and Second Story Press in exchanged for an honest review.

This review is being published before the release date (September 22nd, 2020)


Content/Trigger Warnings: Anxiety, minor manipulation, racism, toxic masculinity, internalized homophobia, cultural insensitivity (from the teacher)


Oh jeez, friends... I wish I could say that I enjoyed this book more than what I did, I really do. I have sat on my feelings about this book for a couple of days and I still feel conflicted with this book. Let me start by saying, I love a good retelling and I love, love the fact that this is a retelling of one of my favorite plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream. I mean, who doesn't love a good Shakespeare retelling especially of one of the plays that often gets overlooked? But friends, let's dive into this review and then you'll understand what I mean.


“𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆; 𝒋𝒐𝒚’𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒍 𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈.”

- 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒎 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒆

The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life follows our main character Allison, who desperately wants to end her high school year as Valedictorian. And sometimes when you wish so badly for something, you get roped into co-producing the school's play of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Along the way she'll learn how to balance the show, battle the never ending school working, being a friend to her friends, and possibly find a romance along away that she might not be ready for.

For starters, I love the representation that's in this book. I haven't seen many readers talk about this, but there's a good chunk of diversity within this book. Our main character Allison is lesbian which also leads to our main sapphic romance for this book. We also have a pansexual side and we have a male male side relationship, as well. Plus, there's a Korean-American side character and a Moroccan side character too. I wish there had been just a little more diversity, but overall I think many reader's will appreciate the representation in this book. A side note, there's a male corgi featured in this book and his name is Princess Sunshine!

I also have to talk about family dynamics for a second. Allison's parents are the cutest thing! You all know I'm a sucker for family dynamics and the way family dynamics happen in books. So the fact that Allison's parents are so nice and open minded really warmed my heart. I really appreciate seeing open minded parents in books especially since far too often do I find books where there's a parent or parent that has issues with their children coming out to them. And I think it's so important to show the the positive along with the bad. So I really loved seeing that in this book.

Also, I really loved the newfound family and the way the author shows the importance of friendship throughout this book. This is a dynamic that I really love and I wish books did the found family more often. What I love most about this is the overall setting because I truly believe plays and projects can really bring people closer together. So seeing that in this book and the fact that this book concluded with the found family, it really warmed my heart.


“If you’re going to do a Shakespeare play, it may as well be A Midsummer Night’s Dream, right? I mean, all those crazy love triangles have got to keep the audience interested. She loves him, but he loves her, and they all end up in the woods together with some fairies! The story may be weird, but it’s not boring.”


However, despite all the good thing this book offers, there were a few issues that I couldn't look past. For starters, the main character is supposed to be lesbian and while I know in the real world, no has to use a label if they don't want to. However, I feel like it would have been more beneficial if the main character actually referred to themselves as lesbian more than the three times that I actually saw them referencing themselves as a lesbian. A speaking of representation, I wasn't a fan of the stereotype used for the one character. Using the stereotype of the womanizer for a character only for them to turn out to be a closeted gay just wasn't something I'm a fan of especially the way the sexuality was used as a plot device. And there's also the fact that this character put the openly gay character through absolute hell. All of this felt like a set back of YA to about five-six years ago.

I also had an issue with the the relationship between Allison and Charlotte. Right of the back we're given instant "she's not like other girls" vibes and that is one of the tropes that I'm not the biggest fan of. There was also so much idolization from Allison and how she viewed Charlotte that it was hard to read through at times. We also have the fact that these two characters barely interact and the few times that we do get them interacting, it's mostly through texting. Also, they only go on one date, very instantly lovey vibes, and at some point they have this big fight which felt forced, unnatural, and very unbelievable. And I say this statement because there was hardly any build up that would make us suspect a fight was coming. It got to a point where I just didn't care about them anymore. I found myself more interested in the side characters or how the book would conclude than what would happen with these two characters.

And I have to mention how I wasn't a fan of how self-destructive Allison's character was throughout this book. There are countless moments where she pushed away the people who care about her and then acts shock when those loved ones are mad, upset, or hurt by her. And while I love what rom-coms usually do, the execution of things is what I pay attention to and this wasn't it. The amount of selfishness and self-destructive behavior was so overwhelming that it impacted my mood while reading. It also felt like it dragged the plot into a more negative mood. Not to mention all of this paints Allison in a negative light that can make a reader dislike her or not feel any connection to her character at all.

Overall, this book had a lot of good and a lot of bad. There were things I loved and thing I wished were given more time to be developed or flushed out a little better. I recognize that this is a debut novel by this author so I hope my critique of this book was fair and highlights everything, both good and bad. I think many readers who love retellings and rom-coms will enjoy this book. And if sounds like a book that might be down your reading genre, I definitely recommend giving it a try!


The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

I received this book as an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

This book follows Alison Green as she navigates high school as a lesbian while also trying to produce her high school’s play, oh and she wants to be valedictorian.

This book was not as great as then blurb made it sound. It felt like it was written by an adult that thinks they really know teens but missed some marks. I was super disappointed with how sexuality was handled and it did not feel authentic.
Additionally the pacing of this book wasn’t great. We spent a ton of time pre-play production and then BAM all of a sudden it was show night. I would loved some more of the middle parts.

I love everything to do with theatre! Especially Shakespeare and especially especially his comedies.
So I was really very excited to read this book and dove right in.

Sadly, I have to admit that it fell a bit flat for me. I felt like Alison was a bit one note and I couldn't quite connect with her, mainly because for most of the book I felt like all I knew about her was that she's gay and wants to be valedictorian really badly. She also seemed a bit unremarkable to me and I wasn't quite sure why she was the protagonist.

A lot of the characters were simply a stereotype: Goth girl, who only broods and wears dark make up and is rude and makes art, the stylish gay who is costume designer, the macho who tries to hide the fact that he's actually gay, the cool punk-y girl who is a rebel and of course queer and so on and so on.

The fact that Alison and Charlotte actually form a connection also felt a bit random as I failed to see any chemistry between them. I don't even quite know why Alison developed the crush in the first place except for that Charlotte is pretty and has a tattoo.

I also felt that the storyline was a little predictable and everyone felt much younger than their actual age. But I don't mean to say that I disliked this book because I didn't. It has some flaws that irked me but it was an easy and quick read and I am sure that quite a lot of people will enjoy this.

Cute & quirky. High school depiction had some flaws. Protagonist’s challenges reveal the reality of life beyond the facades high schoolers so carefully construct. However, the portrayal of LBGTQ characters seems to be a bit stilted and one-dimensional. The idea was good, but the execution got lost somewhere in the process.

2.5 stars

I'm a bit disappointed. I was enjoying this. I liked the characters and A Midsummer Night's Dream is always an entertain backdrop. But the ending let me down and I didn't feel like there was a proper resolution for Alison (I feel like all the other characters had good mini arcs and solid moments). This is definitely my own bias coming in but Alison mellowing out wasnt satisfying for me. I wish there would've been more a focus on balancing school and personal life instead of her just apologizing and saying she's changed. It just seemed like such a big part of her character and her journey. And by the epilogue her realizing she doesnt have to be so focused on Valedictorian is supposed to be a cathartic end to her storyline but I wish it would've been that she still wants it but learned how to balance her social and academic life. That would've felt fresh and inspiring to me. You can grow and develop as a person without changing or sacrificing things and i think this was a missed opportunity to highlight that. Overall this wasn't bad. There were actually a lot of good moments I actively enjoyed but the ending just wasn't satisfying for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Secondary Story Press for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. This book sounded adorable when I stumbled across it on NetGalley, but to be honest it took me awhile to really become interested in the story. Once I did though it was a very cute story and our main character, Allison was very endearing. I was particularly interested in this book when I saw that it centered around a F/F romance because I don’t feel like that’s represented enough within the book community. The romance however wasn’t that great and wasn’t that prominent in the story. At it’s core this book was about Allison coming to terms with who she is and growing as a person. There was a lot of diversity in this book, unfortunately it felt forced and like the author had thrown it in at the last minute for the sake of being diverse. It just fell flat it that department, which is disappointing. The other issue I had is that the ending fell flat for me in the sense that everything was wrapped up very nicely and quickly. There was also the conflict in regards to the phone call that never really got addressed, that aspect of the plot felt pointless for that reason.

As I said above though, this story is mainly about Allison growing as a person and I think that’s what makes this book enjoyable and just an all-around cute and fast paced read. I loved getting to see her not only realize her flaws, but come to accept them. This book would’ve been a four-star book if the romance had felt more organic and had been touched on more throughout the story. This is because the was marketed in a way that made that made it seem like the romance was a crucial part of the story and it wasn’t.

This was such a sweet, funny book! Al (Alison) is struggling with producing her school’s play, figuring out dating her crush, and how to stay on track for becoming valedictorian. This book shows how to balance a busy senior year in a great, humorous way. The writing is great, characters are believable. Great story! This rom-com is a bonus for anyone who is a techie in theatre!