I wasn't expecting to like this one as much as I did. Bea could be a difficult character to enjoy, as she was often so dismissive of the activities at camp that everyone was so passionate about. And as someone without camp nostalgia - quite the opposite, in fact - I was worried I wouldn't enjoy this at all. But Mia and Nolan were so wonderful to her, and her experiences with anxiety worked so well in helping her to find common ground with others at times. Seeing others work so hard to bring her into the fold and give her experience with normal socialization was truly wonderful.

Loved loved loved it!! Probably the best YA book I’ve read this year!! Serena Kaylors Long Story Short mixes Enemies to Lovers, and amazing banter with Shakespeare. It was funny, witty and I fell in love with the characters. Bea and Nik were so prickly and cute with each other, I just wish this was a series!!! I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more books from this author.

Thanks to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for an advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a cute story! Long Story Short is set at the Connecticut Shakespeare Summer Academy where Beatrice is off to check off some teenage milestones. Having been homeschooled and dreaming of studying math at Oxford, she's not had time or practice at making friends or being a typical teenager. What's the worst that could happen at this summer academy?
The teenage antics, the enemies to lover, and great characters, this book is a must read!

I did not go into this book with any preconceived notions, and walked away with some mixed thoughts. As a homeschooling mom of three kids, I didn’t love the way that homeschoolers are stereotyped as loners who lack social skills, but I know that is a common misconception among those who are not familiar with the homeschool community. Also, I know the author needed this background to preform the transformation of the main character. I don’t know if the enemies to lovers transition with Nik has a turning point where you understand why his feelings changed, or what his motivations are. I was still pretty skeptical, even after the happy ending. But if you are a fan of Shakespeare and friends to lovers romance, then this is a book to check out!

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

In Long Story Short 16-year-old home-schooled math genius Beatrice Quinn has just been accepted at her dream college Oxford University. Her parents, however, don't think their anxious socially awkward daughter is ready to live abroad alone. Bea strikes a deal with them. If she can spend the summer at a Connecticut Shakespearean Camp and come out of her shell, they'll let her attend Oxford. They assign her tasks including making a friend, engaging in small talk, pulling a prank, among others. When she meets her Black bi-sexual extroverted roommate Mia, she is one step closer to success. Mia and Nolan, her gay best friend, help Bea achieve her goals and more. She gets a part in a play, attends parties, and even enters into a Shakespeare-off with her crush/nemesis Nikhil Shah. Bea's evolution from awkward math nerd to self-confident actor is handled realistically, and the enemies-to-lovers romance is predictable, yet charming, as the two wittily spar, using the Bard's works as fodder.

To be honest, at first, I was going to pass this by. But I ended up giving it a read and am glad I did. This book was by a debut author, and I love Young Adult Romances, so I decided to give this one a try. I got an eARC, an ARC audiobook, a physical ARC, preorder goodies, and a bag with the cover on it. Thank you, NetGalley, the publishing company, and Serena Kaylor herself.

Homeschooled in California, Beatrice is a genius who has dreamed of going to Oxford University. But making friends is a problem she hasn’t been able to solve, so her parents worry about sending her halfway across the world. They send her to the Connecticut Shakespearean Summer Academy and a detailed list of teenage milestones to check off. She has 6 weeks to show her parents she can be a ‘normal’ teenager. When she’s adopted by a group of theater kids and makes an enemy with the popular British son of the camp founders, she realizes that relationships are trickier than math. Will she realize that there’s more to life than she can find in the pages of a book?

I like the whole learning-to-be-a-normal-teenager thing. I’ve never been homeschooled, so it’s interesting to learn how it is for someone who's been homeschooled all her life.

I also enjoyed the side characters, especially Mia. I would’ve loved to be friends with her. And the scenes were descriptive enough to put me into the book. I loved the character growth of all the characters, especially Shelby. There were no sudden changes, which I liked. The changes were eased into.

I can’t say there’s particularly anything I disliked about the book. I would love to see a short sequel to Bea’s story about what ends up happening after camp.

This is a good, lighthearted romance teen story that doesn’t take itself too seriously. If you like camp romances, Shakespeare, or homeschooler out in real-world first-time romances, this is the book for you.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for the opportunity to review this title. This book was okay. I had such high hopes for it, as a former homeschooler myself, but at the characters at times fell flat for me. The concept was fun, a girl being able to come out of her shell by going to Shakespeare Camp, however sometimes it felt like Beatrice was trying too hard to change herself to please others. That being said, it had some very fun moments and a very cute love story.

Great for the audience! Teens shopping in our YA section will gravitate towards this one for sure. Good recommendations for anyone looking for something more chaotic in the romance area.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an arc in exchange for an honest review!

i loveee a book about summer camp shenanigans and this was a drama camp so double the fun!!

i loved bea and watching her step out of her comfort zone, and her friendship with mia and nolan was sooo wholesome and cute!! i loved their friend group! and though i did find the miscommunication the two a bit repetitive, the romance between bea and nikhil was excellence!

this was a really cute read and is a perfect summer read!

Give me more. I definitely could read another book set in this universe. I wasn't entirely sure I was going to love this when I first started it, but by the end I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I want more. I loved the characters, the flirting and the banter. My least favorite part was the whole Romeo and Juliet production, but that's because it's my least favorite Shakespeare play. Though one thing i did love, is that we actually get to see the performance outside just this tiny scene. I find that books that feature some kind of performance/recital often get swept over and we see all the building up to the big thing, without getting to experience the big thing. So I'm glad Kaylor included it. Can't wait to see what Kaylor writes next, because I know I'll be picking it up.

10/10 definitely recommend. Had such a fun time reading this. Kaylor nailed her characters, the flirting and banter was top tier. Definitely made me want to go to a theater summer camp - maybe to not perform Romeo and Juliet, but still want to go. Go pick this up if you want a fun, romcom with shakespearean one-liners, terrible first impressions and a girl who just wants to go to Oxford.

I was a little unsure at first. I really don't care for Romeo and Juliet (when there is so much better Shakespeare out there, but overall I really loved this book. It was funny and cute and its just another reminder I definitely missed out on the whole summer camp thing. I had such a good time reading this, and Kaylor character's felt so realistic and honest. The banter and flirting was so great too. Definitely recommend reading this.

I was certain this book would become a new favourite. I mean, as an autistic theatre kid I literally couldn’t be more excited for a book set at a theatre camp with an autistic-coded main character written by a neurodivergent author.

Unfortunately, though, I didn’t just find myself let down by this book, I also felt weirdly offended by it. It’s never explicitly stated that Bea is autistic, but for readers like me it is unmistakable and therefore all the more painful to read about how she has to change herself. To me, her entire character arc and “growth” felt build around getting rid of her autistic traits which is… not a good message.

But even if I could ignore those parts, this book didn’t do it for me. Most of the characters lacked depth and, honestly, the love interest was kind of an asshole.

I just couldn’t enjoy this one despite it being right up my alley.

This theater camp book was an easy read with some funny moments and cute banter. However, I was torn about rating it. While the main character, Bea, grows and learns to be a better version of herself, which I find commendable, I thought some of the helpful friends' actions may have crossed the line between helping her explore her possibilities and pushing her into uncomfortable situations that she didn't need. Lots of people are going to love this cute story, but I could have done without the romance--I didn't really buy it. And I would have loved to have seen more of Bea's math background in the story, but I guess that would have meant going to a different summer camp. Hmmm. So, that's 3.5 conflicted Shakespearean stars.

Oh man this was such a cute enemies to lovers rom-com. Poor Beatrice she just has no idea how normal teenagers act, how to interpret behavior in other people or like context clues. So she has grown up homeschooled by sex therapist parents in Berkley, she is a math genius who hasn’t met a problem she can’t solve with math and just got accepted to Oxford University her dream college at 16. But her parents don’t think she’s ready to be alone in another country without any social skills so they told her if she can go to Shakespeare Summer Academy for 6 wks. and check off a list of normal teenage things they will let her start oxford in the fall. She gets the camp and immediately makes an enemy of Nik the son of the founders of the Camp and they immediately end up on the wrong foot and Nik says a comment that he didn’t think Bea overheard about her appearance which made her dislike him and he is fighting a losing battle of trying to make amends for the first interaction but making it worse since Bea has no clue that he actually likes her since she doesn’t really get social interaction at all so she thinks he is messing with her not that he’s trying to be tell her he likes her. This was so great and Bea overcomes her anxiety about being on stage, makes friends and does normal teenage things. Just really cute and I can’t wait to read her next book.

Thanks to Roaring Book Press and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

Our MC is very heavily coded as being autistic, but I've checked some autistic reviewers and they've said it's never expressly stated. It's hard to tell if she's meant to be autistic or if she's just one of those "weird homeschool kids" but either way, the way her parents handled the whole situation at the beginning just absolutely blew my mind. There's nothing on this earth that would convince me to let my 16 y/o kid go start college in a new fucking COUNTRY whether they were neurodivergent or not. And knowing what we know about Beatrice, why on Earth would she WANT to go away for college? Every interaction she's had with people over the years she talks about how much she's hated it. Why?

And honestly it felt like her parents were just like "She's not going to make it at camp so let's just let her go and fail and then she can come back home." Rather than being a parent and reminding their child that "No." is a complete sentence. As your parent I am responsible for your health, wellbeing, and safety. If I don't believe a situation is safe for you and I tell you no, that's it. End of argument.

Maybe, given the above paragraph, I'm too old for YA contemporary. Either way. This one just didn't work for me.

3.5/5

For the most part I thought this was a cute ya summer read that is easily enjoyable. I loved the diverse characters and the setting the book created. I think there was a good balance between plot and character, but I have one major issue with this story.

I don't think that I would feel as strongly as I do about the underlying message in this book if it weren't for the fact that it's marketed to a ya audience and if I hadn't had a similar experience growing up. The fmc, Bea, is a young girl with coded traits that give the impression she is neurodivergent. I don't know if this was intentional on the authors part, regardless it's important representation that I love to see in books. The narrative of being a neurodivergent person surrounded by people who don't understand you and comment on your lack of "normalcy" is a common occurrence in fiction, but more importantly in real life for a lot of people. With that said, it was discouraging to watch those neurodivergent traits in the fmc essentially disappear under the guise of "fitting in". It would have been better to see Bea and those around her come to terms with those traits and adjust their view of her. This gives neurodivergent readers the impression that they need to "fix" themselves to fit in with those around them which can be harmful.

Outside of the issue I had with this book, I think it was well written and has the potential to be a really great ya read if that issue were to be fixed!

This was cute, but it didn't really impress me overall. There wasn't anything that particularly stood out to me, and it felt too familiar. It felt like something I'd read many times already. Like ever 90s teen comedy where the nerdy girl gets a makeover to win the heart of the mean popular guy. I know there was more going on here than just that, but it wasn't interesting enough to really hold my attention. The fact that it took me almost 3 months to get through this book is another sign that it wasn't for me.

I do think it would appeal to teens, though, so I would recommend it for libraries for sure. It's just a story I've seen done so many times personally that I wasn't excited about it in this iteration.

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute summer romance between Bea (a home schooled introvert) and Nik (extrovert theater kid). Bea (who's 16) applies and gets in to Oxford without her parents knowing it. Just one problem is that they feel she lacks people skills and certain experiences to go off to college at her age. They end up sending her to Shakespearean camp for the summer with a list of experiences that she needs to complete before she has their blessing. Once there she over hears Nik (who's family funds the camp) tell his group of friends that Bea isn't pretty. So starts the enemy to lovers trope!! While completing the list her new friends decided to add to it for some more normal teenage experiences. It was fun to watch her come out of her shell and even learn that not all relationships are black and white.

This book was cute, funny, and just a fun read.

Super cute! A light and fun read with really likable, fleshed out teen characters. This book made me wish I had gone to theater camp as a teenager! The narrator for the audiobook did a great job as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my review copy!