First, thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

This book was a delight. It's not often we find YA books that center around a girl interested in STEM and is also neurodivergent. I don't want to diagnose Beatrice, because I'm not a mental health professional, but it is was clear throughout the novel that she's very much neurodivergent, and throughout the book, we see Bea because okay with that while also growing as a social creature. I found the plot a bit far fetched, what parent wouldn't be thrilled that their only daughter got into OXFORD? I understood her parents' concerns, because I honestly don't think Bea would have been successful at Oxford once she realized that her fantasy of the university was just that, a fantasy.

I really loved the characters in this, especially Mia and Nolan. They took to Bea immediately, tucked her under their wings, and with gentle prodding and support, shoved her out of the nest when needed. Mia was an absolute GEM of a character, and she had her own story outside of being Bea's emotional support person aka a friend. Nolan as well was lovely, and he as well is going through some things with his twin sister, Shelby, who at first plays the role of the "rival", but because this is YA and everything needs to be tidied up at the end, she becomes more of a respectful acquaintance.

There was definitely a nod to Pride and Prejudice with Nik being Darcy and Bea being Lizzie Bennett, if Darcy and Lizzie flirted using Shakespeare quotes. I will say, I never really appreciated how saucy some of Willy's lines could be until they were used in the context of a verbal sparring/flirting. The chemistry was there, and although Nik kind of came off as a dick at first, he does redeem himself. He fully accepted Bea as she was, and who doesn't want a hot brilliant boyfriend at the age of 16?

All in all, this was very cute. Bea learns how to accept herself, to open herself up to love - not just romantic love but platonic love as well. This was a book was more about friendships than romance, and I think that's where this book really shines. Once the typos and final edits are done, I can see this really being a great debut.

To start off, I want to say thank you to Netgalley for giving me an ARC of this book!

Okay, so I read this in one day and says a lot about how much I loved it. This story is about friendship, love and just overall finding one’s identity. I related a lot to the main character (Bea) and how she felt about opening up in general. You see her in the beginning as someone who is shy and doesn’t really feel self-assured. Throughout this story though you see her grow and gain confidence in herself and others. The plot was amazing and the characters I loved so much. Bea and Nik are my fav like they were so cute. It was like enemies/maybe Shakespeare rivals lmfao to lovers. This was such an amazing story and again I’d like to say thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to review it! 5/5 stars. :))

What a cinnamon roll of a book! It was adorable. I loved the summer camp setting, especially with the Shakespeare/acting twist, and the characters were so fun and fresh! Nik and Bea are banter goals, and I loved how she worked on her socializing skills with all her might. Mia was a delight as well, what a good friend she was to our heroine who hasn’t had a friend before. The Shakespeare line competition and performance at the end of the book was pure joy.

Homeschooled and a whiz at statistics, Beatrice knows that she belongs at Oxford, where she will finally find people who understand her. She thought the hardest part would be getting in, not convincing her parents to let her go. They've put a halt to her plans until she can prove she's able to make friends with people her own age and function in social situations. Their solution: Shakespearean theater camp and a detailed list of teenage milestones to check off. She has six weeks to show her parents she can pull off the role of "normal" teenager and won't spend the rest of her life hiding in a library .As the summer draws to an end, and with Oxford on the line, this girl genius stumbles through illicit parties, double dog dares, and more than your fair share of Shakespeare. But before the final curtain falls, will Beatrice still feel like Oxford alone is enough?

A fun teen book. :) I love YA genre actually. This one does the teen rom-com perfectly.. All the awkwardness, the sweetness and the single-mind focus of teenage love. The secondary characters are interesting as well and make the book much more fun. The heroine's growth is wonderful to read... A terrific, sweet rom com

Thanks to the publisher for providing an arc.

I love this book with my whole heart! I had the pleasure of reading an early draft back in 2018 (!!) and reading the most updated version this week had me falling in love with these chaotic theatre children all over again. I'm so excited for this to be out in the world!

Serena is such a master of character and romance. I root for these characters every step of the way, from awkward auditions to opening night. Nik and Bea are the kind of slow burn YA romance I wish I could bottle up for cold days. They're prickly with each other, yes, but when it comes down to it, their relationship is build off mutual respect and trust. This is the kind of romcom my theatre kid self would have adored in high school and I can't wait for everyone to fall in love with this book.

Fabulous YA, G-rated, romantic comedy with a brilliant STEM heroine

Beatrice (“Bea”) Quinn is the sixteen-year-old daughter of two avant-garde, Berkeley, California, Ph.D. psychotherapists who have a joint practice, operating from a home office, that specializes in sex therapy and marital counseling. Given that professional background, it is not surprising that Bea’s parents have made sure she has had her own personal therapist on speed-dial since childhood to help her deal with what appears to be a generalized anxiety disorder. In addition to talk therapy, her therapist has also taught her CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) techniques. It is not overtly stated in this novel, but much like the character Don Tillman (by author Graeme Simsion), Bea clearly has a milder (AKA “high-functioning”) version of autism spectrum disorder (which mental health professionals until recently called “Asperger’s disorder,” a term that has been dropped from the DSM-5). Also like Don Tillman, Bea is a genius with a photographic memory whose career of choice is genetics. She has been home-schooled since age five because her parents have believed since then that her unique combination of special needs cannot adequately be met in either a public or private, K-12 school. Without any sense of irony, as mental-health professionals themselves who formally diagnose clients on a daily basis, Bea’s parents have refused to ever allow her to receive any kind of mental-health diagnosis because they have never wanted her to be “labeled, judged, and diagnosed into some box.” (Which in and of itself, unfortunately, indicates they have an unadmitted, negative perception of the autism spectrum.)

At age 14 Bea received a high school diploma (presumably from an accredited, online, K-12 school catering to home-schooled students) and, for the past two years, she has been plowing through a huge number of online community college courses in math and physics. Her longtime, passionate goal is to attend Oxford University in England and, on a whim a few months ago, without discussing it with her parents first, Bea applied to attend Oxford the upcoming fall semester. She is amazed and elated when she receives a letter of acceptance. Unfortunately, when Bea informs her parents of this extraordinary accomplishment, they are not convinced she is old enough, emotionally mature enough, or has enough interpersonal skills and basic survival skills to handle being so far from home. Bea is an extreme introvert who has, by choice, never had any friends and spends the vast majority of her time holed up in her bedroom. In addition, she has trouble with any change in her rigid, daily routine of many years which includes, among other things, wearing the same nondescript, wrinkle-free polo shirts and khaki slacks every day and eating the same rotation of bland meals for dinner every week (the latter another spectrum trait that she shares with Don Tillman). Her parents fear she would forget to eat entirely most of the time if they were not around to shop and cook for her.

When Bea begs her parents to reconsider forbidding her to attend Oxford, they relent enough to devise a plan for her to gain some of the vital experience and life skills she would need to effectively navigate Oxford. (Skills which they take no personal responsibility for failing to teach Bea themselves.) They decide a good place for Bea to learn much of what she needs to know would be at a summer camp, specifically one focusing on theater. It will allow her to test out her response to spending extended time away from home, functioning in an alien environment, living with a roommate, relating on a daily basis with a mass of colorfully unpredictable, wildly extroverted theater people, and very likely performing onstage. Bea negotiates with them to allow her to, at the very least, attend a “dignified” theater camp that focuses on Shakespeare, and her parents enroll her in a prestigious, four-week, summer program at the Connecticut Shakespearean Summer Academy.

In preparation for her voyage into the frightening unknown, Bea reads Shakespeare’s entire repertoire of plays twice and, because of her photographic memory, has them all memorized. She also studies articles and books on the rules of modern-day friendship and how to engage in casual conversation. But it becomes clear to Bea’s parents shortly before the day of her departure that they need to spell out concrete objectives that she must successfully achieve in order for them to be satisfied that she is ready to go to Oxford. With very little planning or forethought, and giggling like kids the whole time, they scrawl on a piece of paper the following list: (1) Make a friend. (2) Share a secret. (3) Walk up to someone and make small talk. (4) Accept an invitation you don’t want. (5) Do an outdoor activity. (6) Pull a prank. (7) Execute a dare. (8) Hug three people.

Bea has no idea how she is going to check off every item on this seemingly insurmountable list of goals, but she is determined to give her all to the Herculean task. Because nothing whatsoever can be allowed to get in the way of her going to Oxford!

On Bea’s overwhelming, initial day at camp, she meets four fellow campers who will each have a huge influence on her:

—Mia Parker is an 18-year-old, beautiful, enormously talented, charismatic, warm-hearted, African-American actress who is Bea’s roommate at camp. She generously volunteers to be Mia’s personal coach to help her complete her parental list.
—Shelby Walsh is an 18-year-old, beautiful, enormously talented, white actress, who has been assigned to the same cabin as Mia and Bea, but with her own separate bedroom. She is a classic Mean Girl who is Bea’s main antagonist.
—Nolan Walsh is Shelby Walsh’s twin. He is a handsome, white, gay, clever, uninhibited, enormously talented costume designer who, across many past summers of attending this camp, has always been Mia’s camp BFF. He warmly accepts Bea into their little circle and gleefully volunteers to join Mia in helping Bea fulfill her list.
—Nikhil (“Nik”) Shah is an 18-year-old, handsome, enormously talented, mixed-race actor of East-Indian and white-British descent who is the son of famous actors, Rishi and Miranda Shah, who founded and financially underwrite this theater camp. In an homage to Darcy of Pride and Prejudice, he and Bea start off on the wrong foot when, similar to how Elizabeth overhears Darcy insulting her looks to his friend Bingley at a community dance, Bea overhears Nik insulting her looks to one of his friends at the dance held on the first night of camp at the community hall. This results in the arc of their romantic relationship becoming the ever-popular, “enemies to romance” trope.

How do I love this book? Let me count the ways:

1. Bea is an absolutely fabulous protagonist. The entire book, as is typical for YA, is entirely in her first-person point of view. This means that we experience every character in the book, including Bea herself, from her perspective as a fascinatingly quirky “unreliable narrator.” Every YA novel inevitably contains a “coming of age” story arc. In this particular novel, Bea has a well-motivated, heart-warming, and frequently hilarious personal transformation as she discovers amazing hidden talents within her that she never knew existed.
2. Mia and Nolan are wonderful, affectionate, compassionate, supportive, loyal friends to Bea. I fell in love with the two of them and enjoyed everything about them. Though they both exist as a “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” version of the stock character, the “Confidante,” neither of them come off as one-dimensional. They both have their own mini-growth arcs across the novel, with a bit more focus on Mia than Nolan.
3. Shelby is also a classic stock character, the “Mean Girl,” but she is not a one-dimensional, cardboard-cutout either. Her bad behavior is believably motivated, and she, too, has her own personal growth arc in the story.
4. Nik is a wonderful romantic hero. He isn’t just a pretty face. He is presented as an extremely talented actor who is passionate about and fully dedicated to his art. And though, like Darcy, the initial impression he gives is that of a bored, privileged, Alpha male, over the course of the story his sensitive, Beta, inner core is carefully and convincingly unveiled. Most of all, the repartee between Nik and Bea is a constant delight.
5. This is a romantic comedy that lives up to its billing—it is both romantic and frequently laugh-out-loud funny. I greatly appreciated the fact that none of the humor is rooted in slapstick—which I personally do not enjoy because it inevitably involves humiliating the person, usually the heroine, who trips and falls flat on her face. Instead, the humor arises from witty internal and external dialogue and zany situations.
6. I’ve read a number of romance novels set in summer camps during this past year (including several set at a summer camp catering to nostalgic adults). This book does, by far, the best job at making that concept entertaining, mainly because the focus is on the performance of Romeo and Juliet, rather than endless scenes of predictable summer camp activities, such as water recreation, crafts, eating s’mores around a campfire, and noisy, buffet meals in a rustic dining hall. Yes, many of those activities do appear in this novel, but there is so much going on with the theater component and with Bea’s seeking to fulfill the items on her list, those activities exist merely as a type of authentic backdrop.
7. The novel as a whole is structured with sophisticated finesse. Every major turning point is foreshadowed sufficiently to feel well motivated, but it is never done so blatantly that any Big Reveal is telegraphed, spoiling the surprise.
8. The basic writing skills of this author are superb. There is sufficient description of the setting and characters to make Bea’s surroundings and fellow campers come vividly to life without ever overloading the story with excess narrative that might bog down the forward motion of the plot.
9. Kudos to this author for performing the rather unusual feat of creating warm, loving, attentive, YA parents who are strongly involved in their daughter’s life. It is essential that YA protagonists be “orphaned” in order to solve the main story conflict themselves. But far too frequently YA authors orphan their protagonists by assigning them horrible parents who emotionally and/or physically abandon their children due to incompetence, callous disinterest, short-sighted workaholism, mental illness or a rigid, controlling attitude. In the case of this terrific story, Bea’s parents have reasonable, “tough love” motivations for insisting that Bea must make her own way during her extraordinary, “fish out of water” adventure.

I only have one small quibble with this story, which I admit is pretty much unavoidable. Though this book, with admirable inclusivity, features a multicultural cast and at least one onstage LGBTQI character, there is a crucial, defining feature that every teenager in this novel has in common: they all come from an equally elevated, prosperous background, which allows their parents to afford the undoubtedly exorbitant tuition for this specialized camp. That kind of privilege creates a socially homogenizing effect such that there are no noticeable, overt cultural differences between any of these teen characters—other than Nik’s having a British accent due to he and his parents’ being British expatriates living in the US.

Parental advisory: In my perception, this book is for the most part fully G-rated. Bea has never been kissed and has never dated. All the other characters are much more experienced, but none of the characters, including especially Nik (thank goodness!), are presented as casually promiscuous. There are no blatant sexual innuendos, no sexual harassment, and no sex (either offstage or onstage), only some fairly mild kissing toward the end of the book. This book is basically the G-rated version of a “slow burn” romance. In addition, the story includes no foul language and no wild parties. There is one scene in which Bea engages in underage drinking, but it is not presented as desirable.

Overall, for me personally, as an extremely jaded reader, this book is a keeper. I am sure I will reread it many times in the future, and I am avidly looking forward to the eventual release of the audiobook version.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5 stars
Romantic Hero: 5 stars
Parents: 5 stars
BFFs: 5 stars
Antagonist: 4 stars
Romance Plot: 5 stars
Coming of Age Plot: 5 stars
Comedic Elements: 5 stars
Setting: 5 stars
Writing: 5 stars
Overall: 5 stars

Note: I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher, MacMillan, via NetGalley, and I am voluntarily leaving a review.

Long Story Short by Serena Kaylor is a lovely young adult romance that is sure to pull at your heartstrings and leave you wanting more.

I really enjoyed this book. The writing was spectacular and Bea was such a relatable character. I really loved the other campers and the location of the camp. Mia was especially a wonderful character and I loved her friendship with Bea. This book has everything from romance to friendship to character development and a ton of Shakespeare. This is definitely a YA book you’ll wanna keep on your radar.

This was a delightful read! The relationship between Beatrice and Nik played out nicely over the course of the book and the addition of the supporting characters added to the story. I felt like the end of the book wrapped together nicely but did leave me hoping for a sequel to hear more!
I really enjoyed this story and the main character’s growth and development over her summer at camp, and I’m already looking forward to the next Serena Kaylor story.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.