3.5 stars

I never did anything with theater after first grade, but it's always been something that interests me. Even if it's more watching the plays than acting in them, so I was really excited that this book would be focused on a school play. The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life is a lighthearted story at times, but it's also filled with lessons that I think the younger audience of this genre will really learn from.

Our main character Alison wants to be valedictorian and is doing everything she can to make that happen. Even if that means helping to produce a play and never doing that before. This was a really interesting project to read about. It had moments that made me laugh, but I also felt bad for her at times. The teachers just kind of left her to it without really any support. I would've given up pretty quickly. It doesn't go smoothly, but she doesn't give up and let's say it gets messy.

I think at times Alison definitely made things more complicated for herself than they needed to be, but I think that's one of the lessons in this book as well. Communication is so important. If she had just opened her mouth to be honest a few times, things would've have been so much easier for her. But when you're a teenager that can be easier said than done at times. I definitely felt awkward for her at times.

This book is definitely diverse and I loved the side characters. They added some extra elements to this story and if I'm honest, I would love a book for most of them. I also have to mention the romance side of this story. Alison's love story in this book is cute. I loved seeing her explore that side of herself, but that it didn't take over the whole plot. Besides communication and honesty being really important The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life also addresses doing things outside of our comfort zone and what we see as being successful. The essay the Alison writes at the end of the book was really touching and I loved how that was how we ended this story.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and the Publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I liked that the story moved along pretty fast, it was a quick and fun read.

Though I finished it, the plot was predictable and I times I got a little bored. The characters were likable but I found it hard to form any sort of connection with them.

This was a really fun contemporary novel that was quick and fun, but lacked the kind of substance that I usually enjoy in my books. I think Jansen was able to capture the stresses of high school (aiming high, awkward dating, making friends with people you don't want to), and I really enjoyed that aspect. However, I think the play aspect (the part actually about Shakespeare) was lacklustre at most. For a novel both branded and titled after the playwright, I was definitely expecting way more. The play, which the entire plot of the novel relies on, was almost nonexistent in the last quarter of the story - not to mention the entire ending was so quickly wrapped up, I felt like we read the entire novel for nothing. In addition to this, the main character was really hard to like. She was really annoying and their were many moments that I just wanted to yell at her. Her primary romance in the novel was cute but there was nothing there of substance, which also disappointed me. That being said, I want to reiterate that this was really cute and quick, just lacked the umpf I feel could've made for a really interesting contemporary.

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Alison Green desperately wants to be valedictorian, so she agrees to co-produce her high school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, thinking it will increase her chances. She ropes her best friend, Becca, and little sister, Annie, into helping, but nothing is going right, to the point that they dub it “Ye Olde Shakespearean Disaster”. On top of that, Alison accidentally agreed to go on a date with her oldest friend, Jack, even thought she is crushing on Charlotte and knows that Becca has a huge crush on Jack. Alison needs to get senior year under control so she can claim the valedictorian spot she has dreamed of for years!

This romcom went a bit over the top at times with the comedy parts of the book, though overall it was a cute story. I liked the epilogue essay but would really have liked to know <spoiler>whether, after all that work, Alison made valedictorian or not!</spoiler>

The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life is a perfectly fine book. Mostly, it’s actually rather fun. It’s a little forgettable, but it’s got a solid structure and pacing, interesting ensemble of characters, and more than a few genuinely amusing jokes and one-liners. Protagonist Alison, teen lesbian overachiever, is struggling to balance her first relationship, schoolwork and her quest to become valedictorian, and the shambolic school play that she’s somehow found herself agreeing to produce and stage manage. While I’ve seen a few reviewers calling her pretentious and unrealistic, I have to say I found her pretty relatable and authentic - pretentious, yes, but have you talked to many teenagers lately? Specifically the kind trying to be valedictorians? “Pretentious” is not remotely an unrealistic character trait for a teenager. (Exhibit A: me at 16. Hoo boy.)

So that’s all well and good, and the main final message - that we can’t always be perfect at everything, and that can be fine - is, too. But there’s another ongoing theme throughout the book that I found a little off-putting; namely, the importance of being out as a queer person, to everyone, as publicly as possible. Some characters demand or pressure their friends to come out, or to come out to other groups and in other spaces, when the friends aren’t ready; at other times, it’s suggested that relationships won’t work if both parties aren’t equally, fully, publicly out. I feel like the author was intending to create a message of being true to yourself or something, but it really comes off badly, potentially harmfully.

So other than that - but it’s a pretty big that - a pretty fun, very zippy, book, with quips and quests and just about every possible theatrical shenanigan imaginable.

Cute & soft LGBTQ+ romance that theater-nerds will love! The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life is sweet and funny and the main character Alison is full of anxiety and obsessed with school and making sure everything is perfect. She takes on being producer for the school play even though she’s never done it before and is trying to write essays to get into college and also has a crush on the cool girl Charlotte. She has a lot going on, and the pressure to do everything well and to appear like she’s fine is *so* relatable!

I did end up giving this book only 3 stars (though I would say it’s more like a 3.5/3.75) because the book felt so rushed and everything felt like it was relieved so easily throughout the book. But I did really enjoy the adorable romance between Alison and Charlotte!

Also, how cute is this bright cover?! 😍

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.

Alison's goal is to be the valedictorian this year and she doesn't want to stray from her goal. Sadly, she ends up becoming a producer in the school play of A Midsummer Night's Dream and her hands are full. Apart from the play, Alison is getting to know Charlotte and she doesn't know if her interest is mutual or not.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It's a YA contemporary and our heroine is homosexual and out to her friends and family, yet there's a really good question concerning what out means to her and in general. Especially with her concerns regarding her attraction to Charlotte and wondering if she knows she's attracted to girls and not boys or later on if she would be okay to be publicly dating another girl. I enjoyed the variety of characters and I loved all the secondary characters and how some of their stories also gave depth to the story.

I liked the character development of our heroine, but I wish that it would have happened a bit earlier in the story. She could be a better friend, sister, girlfriend. I needed to see more of that. We learn from our mistakes and she's a young one, but I just needed to see more of her better version or at least after the mess she had made to try and make better amends and show that she's learnt from her mistakes somehow. Also, the ending felt slightly rushed, but other than that, it was an amazing read.

It was cute and funny and I definitely recommend it!

The year Shakespeare ruined Alison Green's life was a remarkable year for her, even if she doesn't say so.

I had so much fun reading this book. I laughed out loud at so many places and the romance was really cute and heartwarming. The Shakespearean touch was amazing and i was the happiest nerd while reading all about the work that goes into creating a play. The LGBT rep was so well done and all the relationships, wether romantic or otherwise were deeply and tastefully written. Thank you so mich for providing this e-arc to me. I had a blast reading this. Good Luck to the author.

I was a bit worried about reading this one because of the focus on Shakespeare and knowing how much I am not a fan of him. I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed this book even if I’m unsure if this book resembles the Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night Dream.

Thoughts and Themes: I actually really enjoyed this book and liked the struggle that Alison has with being out but also being closeted. While she is out to her best friend and family, they are the only ones who know about this. I know one of the issues that people may have with this book is the lack of the use of the word lesbian but I felt that this is a choice that was made because of the main character.

I thought it was important that Alison never really referred to herself as a lesbian and just kept saying gay or referencing that she didn’t like men. I think that this really added to the complexity of her figuring out how to let others know and how her being unable to put the label on herself contributes to this.

Characters: In this book you get a range of characters and I thought that was great. I thought it was good to see that you had different races/ethnic groups represented through the different characters. I really like all of the characters that are introduced throughout the book and especially enjoy their interactions with each other. I liked the relationship that Alison has with her friends and how supportive they are of her in the thing that she enjoys.

Something else that I liked is the way that Alison has to deal with the mistakes that she makes with her friends and others. I like reading as she deals with this and grows as a person through these errors that she makes. I like how you get to see the complexity behind some of these characters anger towards Alison and how she doesn’t seem to always understand their anger.

Writing Style: This book is told in the perspective of Alison and you don’t really get to know anything from the others. I thought this was great because you get to see a lot of the things that are happening in her head as it is told in first person.

A very well written and engaging teen story.


Alison Green dreams of being the valedictorian. Nerdy, socially awkward, a little emotionally clueless, gay (out to her parents, sister and best friend), Alison is really every girl. She harbours a secret crush on Charlotte, a super cool girl but cannot imagine doing anything about it. Her best friend, Becca, has a crush on Alison's friend, Jack, and is always tongue-tied in his presence. 


Without meaning to, Alison finds herself the producer of the school play -- a role she's wildly incapable of handling. 


The story is about Alison's action packed school year.


The writing is just so easy, funny and engaging that reading this is so much fun. Twitterpated -- its been a decade since we've seen an author use this delightful word.


Alison is a real person who makes mistakes, creates messes, hurts people, apologises, has some level of self-awareness -- just a complete human being. We love the whole show-not-tell way the characters, their strengths and failings and their growth is written. 


There is not a single character that we didn't like -- Becca, Annie (Alison's sister), and one really tertiary character, Jenny -- particularly stand out. The romance between Alison and Charlotte has some cute moments, but it's not like there is any major focus on it. 


This is a super-light, breezy, extremely entertaining read.

This book was a fun treat filled with unexpected turns in the story.

What I loved most in the book would be the fact that it is centred around a play in high school which will focus particularly on a set of students. This theme being the forefront brought out the capability of the author to do complete justice to those dorky, fun, superb characters. I expected a little more details on the play that they were producing but sometimes that was a good thing that not much of the play was stressed on and instead the same amount of importance was given to the individual characters. The book on the whole was a humorous treat for me and j think I laughed aloud twice when our lead was unable to control the situation. The fact that life is full of defeats and embarrassment and how we live up to that is so well detailed.

This story of LGBT+ people who have so many varying mentalities and social pressures is seen in this book and this was quite a differently written book. The amount of love, care and acceptance shown in this book is heartwarming and I was engrossed throught the entire read. It was well written and I would recommend it for a light and fun read with a touch of emotion.
Thankyou netgalley for the copy #netgalley #theyearshakespeareruinedmylife

This was a cute read - It's the perfect thing to pick up if you don't want to think too hard about what you're reading and not necessarily something that will stick with you after you're done. The cheesiness was a little much for me at times, but overall I was entertained!

** spoiler alert ** Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

For starters, this book made me feel like I was reliving my theater days. I enjoyed the feeling of nostalgia when the characters played the same warm-up games that I had in middle school. I also enjoyed the representation of anxiety and panic attacks. I thought that it was done nicely and accurately depicted how it feels to have an anxiety attack (speaking from experience).

While this story was enjoyable it wasn't anything special. Not a lot happened and the second half became slightly repetitive for me.

However, I really enjoyed Zach and Ben's storyline and felt that all of the characters were well fleshed out. I could see myself picking up a sequel about Zach and Ben's relationship.

As for Charlotte and Ali's relationship, I thought it was cute in the beginning but there wasn't enough focus on it for me to be too invested. I also grew to find the character of Charlotte annoying because she wasn't supportive of Ali's Valedictorian dreams.

Overall it was an enjoyable read and I could see myself picking up another book by this author or a sequel.

I requested this from NetGalley for the cover and the fact that it was a female/female romance. The summary didn't grab me but when I started it, I easily read half of the book in one go.

This book is about Alison, a perfectionist in the worst sense of the word, as she tries to become valedictorian by volunteering to be producer for the school play. She then has to organise the whole thing around people she doesn't normally talk to, people she doesn't really like, her friends, her crush and the very oblivious teacher.

One thing I liked about this book was the writing style. As I mentioned, this is a very easy book to read and I finished it really quickly (great considering I was reading this for a reading challenge). But unlike a very similar book, we're told this main character is socially awkward and we actually see it happening. Not in ways that sparked off my secondhand embarrassment sense but in a way that had you wincing with her because why did she say that? I could see myself saying the same thing in her position and that made it better (and a little worse because mirror). It was quite funny at times but most of all I appreciated how Alison was actually awkward, not just we're told about it and then we see her managing to get off the right things to say at the right times.

The other characters were good as well. I enjoyed all the side characters and how Alison's relationships with her sister and her best friend were just as important, and cause conflict, just as much as her relationship with her love interest. It was a very female centric story, with the main characters nearly all being women, and it was refreshing to get that mix. This would be the kind of story we would have gotten five years ago, but it would have been a girl and boy rather than two girls, and it was really good to see.

dI have never been in a play like this but the plot stemmed from the author's want to look at what happened behind the scenes. It was really good to see a character being the producer of a play, because that isn't a role we normally see in YA books. It was fun to see how everything had to be managed and Alison had to deal with juggling the various personalities of the play. I

would say that there isn't anything that struck deep with this book. If you want a light-hearted YA female/female romance, this is a great book to try.

4 stars!

To start, I think this book is a lighthearted novel for anyone who needs a book to simply enjoy, without complicated plots or characters.
"The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life" was a book that used the nerd girl who is obsessed with school trope, but the novel itself was kinda cute. It has decent LGBTQ+ and POC rep. I honestly didn´t enjoy some parts or plotlines from the book, but I kept reading anyways.
The main character *knew* she was the main character on her life and owned it. How? you may be asking. Well, she was a bit annoying, manipulative and plain. I felt like her only personality traits were trying to be valedictorian and being a perfectionist. Also, I felt like her relationship with her love interest was a bit rushed and she (the love interest) was a solid side character, with not much more to her personality than being "mysterious". Besides that, the few romantic moments they shared were still cute. The side characters, for example the mc's friends, were sweet enough and they all had growth during the novel.
I felt like the book was a bit wattpad-y to me, but I still enjoyed some parts. The author knew her main character well enough to describe her troubles during producing a school play, but still the character felt a bit shallow.
To end this, I'll share my favorite quote: "By Saturday afternoon, I was reduced to googling "What do lesbians wear on dates?""

The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life by Dani Jansen is a drama-filled story of theatre, friendship, romance, and perfectionism. As valedictorian-wannabe Alison Green takes on the responsibility of producing an increasingly catastrophic high school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, she learns about her relationship with success and her relationships with those around her.

A very amateur Shakespeare production provides the perfect backdrop for Alison’s journey of self-discovery, and Jansen has done the research needed to build it beautifully. In the noisy cafetorium—an impractical hybrid of cafeteria and auditorium—financial crises, cast dramas, schedule conflicts, and artistic clashes find their home. Jansen’s setting word gives what Alison’s best friend, Jules, calls “Ye Olde Shakespearian Disaster” all the scope it needs to be a delightfully disastrous as possible.

Throughout The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life, Alison is focused on a single mission: become valedictorian. This conviction, combined with Alison’s inherent perfectionism, shines through in all of her decisions, fast leading her to burnout. Alison is driven and relatable, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t make mistakes. She gets caught up in taking on too much, she interferes in other people’s lives, she neglects her relationships in favour of success, and she finds herself constantly afraid of what others think of her. But as the story progresses, Alison begins to discover more about who she is and who she can be. While she doesn’t let go of her hopes and dreams, she starts to understand that it’s okay not to be perfect, and she learns to more greatly appreciate the people in her life.

The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life is a book about trying new things, accepting imperfection, discovering oneself, and building relationships. It also features some great queer representation! I’d recommend The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life to readers of Becky Wallace’s Far from Normal, Becky Albertalli’s The Upside of Unrequited, and Poppy Nwosu’s Taking Down Evelyn Tait.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. It is set to be published in September 2020.

"The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life" by Dani Jansen is a fresh YA novel with a high school setting, several LGBTQ+ characters and a convoluted tangle of romantic subplots that gives a nod to "A Midsummer Night's Dream".
The novel is funny, entertaining and gives the reader an honest insight on what it means to come to terms with one's identity while juggling schoolwork, family matters, extracurricular activities and one's very first crush.
Although the characters felt a bit stereotypical and the plot twists were not exactly unexpected, it was a pleasant read, and I recognized in these pages many things I remember from my own high school days.
I can definitely recommend this book to any young reader who is struggling with being different, not only because of being LGBTQ+, but for any reason at all

The biggest flaw in this book is that it ends! What a nice, funny, unpretentious, wonderful book!
I laughed a lot with this reading, what a wonderful book, I wanted you to come to my country, I loved it!

The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life by Dani Jansen is a light and cute YA contemporary. It follows the misadventures of Alison, a high school student who is producing her school's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. She's got a lot to cope with if she's going to make it through the school year. The overall story line of novel is fun and goes pretty quickly, but I was never all that invested in any of the characters to become attached or really care all that much one way or another about their fates. It also never managed to surprise me, but in the end it was still fun to pick up.

This was a super fun contemporary! I really loved the parts of the book set at the main character’s house and with her friends, the one thing that wasn’t super interesting to me were the parts with so much backstage theater lingo. This is a great stand alone with fantastic LGBTQ+ rep! I’ll be making an instagram post about this soon!