As a Shakespeare fan and a high school English teacher, I really loved this book! Follmuth captured the angst of teens struggling to find themselves as we as figure out how to exist in a social circle, as well as the joy of things like ren fair, comic conventions, great video games, and competing at sports. Her characters are rich and well-rounded, and the story took the best parts of Shakespeare and pulled them into the modern era while doing what The Bard does best: put into words the struggle of how to be human. Five stars and looking forward to buying this for my classroom!

I really enjoyed this clever Shakespearean retelling. I like how the characters learn and grow over the course of the book - a story that shows how we all are more than what we may at first seem. Highly recommended for high school readers who are into gaming, digital online spaces, sports, or Shakespeare.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc of this book. All opinions are my own.

Incredible! I absolutely loved this one. Such a great book to curl up with. It was hard to pull myself away to do things, but I always looked forward to diving back in. Highly recommend!

2/5 ⭐️
1/5 🌶️

I wanted to DNF this book so many times..at 10%..at 30%…60%..but I pushed through and finished this book. The first 40% of the book was just her being mean to people with no growth between FMC and MMC. It was boring and the FMC is just not a nice person..which she admits herself on numerous occasions - which self awareness is great but it makes for a not so fun read. She’s even mean to her mom for no reason other than the fact that she’s a date blogger and has found someone that makes her geniuinely happy. I ended up skimming most of the end where it did get a little better. However, still not what I was hoping for.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Teen for this e-ARC!

Opinions are my own.

Viola is always frustrated with the world, trying to navigate the challenges of dealing with people. And then there's Jack, adored by everyone (except Vi), with a promising athletic future. But everything changes when he breaks his leg, and they end up playing video games together every night for months. The twist? He has no idea it's her.

I did love the fact that we have a female video game player but Shakespeare is not my cuppa and this was a retelling.

This was actually super cute. I almost DNF as it felt very slow, but I'm go glad I kept going. This is very much a slow-burn high school romance, mixed with a little grump x sunshine. Definitely gonna keep an eye out for her YA Romance now.

I am a huge fan of Alexene Farol Follmuth/ Olivie Blake, and I was so excited to see her branch into a new realm of fiction with this Shakespeare adaptation! I thought this story was really well done and it breathed life into the original in a fresh and exiting way, I would definitely recommend this.

“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.” - Feste (Act 1, Scene 5) Twelfth Night

I’m a sucker for a Shakespeare retelling. I’m also a sucker for an Alexene Farol Follmouth (Olivie Blake) book, so I couldn’t pass this one up.
Twelfth Knight is a love letter to nerd culture of all kinds and the Bard himself. Follmouth gives us a Twelfth Night retelling set in a modern day high school with its own hierarchy and royalty. And what could be more Shakespearean than a fall from grace? Jack Orsino’s own fall from Duke to peasant, along with Viola Reyes’s struggle to be seen and heard, make for the perfect tale to intertwine this retelling into. It’s a love story in the most tender way. The romance transcends realms and social standings and hardships. You want to root for it, which is exactly what you should get out of a romance.
The most interesting part of transitioning from an Olivie Blake book to an Alexene Farol Follmouth book is the differences. Follmouth stories seem to be less grandiose and more geared toward YA audiences. They also lean more into that nerd culture rather than the dark academia side of academics.
While there are a multitude of differences, we’re talking about books by the same author, so there are bound to be similarities. One thing that’s the same across the board is the amazing cast of characters. Jack and Vi carry the story, but the support from characters like Bash and Olivia really drive it home.
This is a story about relationships, both romantic and platonic, and how necessary they are to our lives. These relationships can and will change and grow. They may even be outgrown, but the point still stands: We all need someone. Even people as resilient as Vi need someone. We sustain ourselves on human connection and none of these characters are an exception. People can be difficult and frustrating, but we will never stop needing them. It’s about finding people who will choose you WITH all of your flaws rather than in spite of them. Choose people and let yourself be chosen.
Thank you to Netgalley for early access to this one! And thank you to Alexene Farol Follmouth for another great story. Check it out on May 28, 2024!

4.5 stars
I love olivie Blake’s YA books. They are a perfect mix of romance, commentary, and a solid plot. I really liked our main characters Vi and Jake. I felt attached to them and so excited for the story to continue on every page.
Thank you so much to net galley and the publisher for this ARC!!!!!!

I have forever been a sucker for books that parallel/reference Shakespeare... and this book was no exception!! I loved seeing the names come to life on the page in a way that was really interesting and exciting. I've never seen Twelfth Night taken into the video game/online roleplay realm, and it matches SO well with the "mistaken identity" themes of the story! My only gripe is that I felt as if the book had a bit of a slow start to it, but I loved how it evolved from there. Seeing all the characters, not just Vi and Orsino, get their moments, made me really happy, and I enjoyed how the book wrapped up. While it wasn't totally true to the original, that wasn't what I was asking from this retelling, and it really filled this little spot in my heart that loves Shakespeare retellings!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

So far I have only read Alexene's fantasy books and I have loved them. So this was a first for me with her romance. However, it did not disappoint.
Viola is the independent, loner-by-choice girl who has few friends and fewer nice things to say to people. Viola finds herself frustrated with everyone and everything. Her best friend tells her to be nicer, the guys don't take her being a gamer seriously and Jack is not making being VP any easier. Jack has it all, the popular football player everyone adores until he gets injured and finds himself lost outside of football. They both think they couldn't be more different than each other but when they begin to play Twelfth Knight night after night and strike a mutually beneficial deal they find that they aren't that different after all. Viola as a character is very relatable: "𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬". And Jack is very easily likable. This is a great retelling of Shakespeare's Twelfth Knight. I think the gaming aspects of the book are very easy to follow and I for one loved that it was heavily plot driven. Themes of
sexism, racism, and sexuality are very well embedded into the plot, I like that it has diverse characters (shoutout to miss Olivia for always delivering with that).

tropes: reverse grumpy x sunshine, gamer/athlete, rivals to lovers, secretly identity

This was such a fun time! I love seeing topics like gaming take center stage in romance novels, and combining a gamer girl with a football player was just a recipe for some rom-com goodness! This book was a fantastic blend of lighthearted fun and more relatable struggles that a lot of high schoolers and young adults undergo.

Viola was definitely a character that I needed to warm up to, but as you get more into the story I think she becomes someone you can really understand and for some, relate to, although I still did think that some of her anger was a bit much at times. And Jack was lovely, I really enjoyed his character arc and seeing how he complimented Viola’s character as well. But the side characters!! Wow! I loved Olivia and seeing the friendship form between her and Viola, I think their friendship was a fantastic catalyst in Viola’s own character arc and I also loved seeing Olivia come into her own as well.

I do wish we had more romance though, Jack spends over half of the novel trying to win his (kind of ex) girlfriend, Olivia, back, and even with that we don’t see a ton of romance between Jack and Viola until the last 25% of the book. However, I do think the relationship progression between them was very genuine and felt real. I will also say that I was so excited to find out that Viola was filipino, I don’t think I’ve read a book with a filipino main character yet so when I realized that I felt really giddy and wish we got to delve into Viola’s background just a little bit more.

Overall, such a fun and cute read, I felt like I learned a lot about gaming and RPG’s too and every page I read of Viola and Jack playing Twelfth Knight made me want to immerse myself in a game too! I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who loves a good rom-com, coming of age YA book!

Thank you to net galley and tor teen publishing group for the arc in exchange for an honest review

Viola and Jack might be the leaders of their student body government but they certainly don't see eye-to-eye. Viola is no-nonsense and uncompromising about who she is and what she likes (which happens to be DND and Game of Thrones-esque things like video games, Ren Faire, cosplay, etc.). Jack, on the other hand, is the golden boy, star running back, and homecoming king-apparent. His life is gloriously uncomplicated with a beautiful girlfriend at his side and a college football scholarship lined up as a stepping stone on his way to a pro-career. But when a catastrophic injury sidelines Jack for the season, he drowns his sorrows in a nerdy online game and meets "Cesario", a fellow player who is surprisingly easy to talk to. Little does he know that "Cesario" is actually Vi, who is shocked to learn that there is more to Jack than meets the eye. As the two begin to grow their friendship online and IRL, Vi increasingly is faced with a choice: to continue to hide behind the screen or to be as uncompromising about her real feelings for Jack as she has always been about everything else.

I love a grumpy-sunshine trope but this was the first one I'd read with the FMC not being the sunshine which was refreshing for me. That said, I feel like Viola was little too "not-like-other-girls" for me to really love her. Jack on the other hand was precious and I loved his growth throughout the story.

The plot was a bit predictable in places, which was fine with me, but I definitely felt like this story could have been 50 pages shorter without losing much. I'm usually a fan of a slow-burn but this was just a tad too slow for my liking. Some of that I attribute to the side plots which really didn't do much for me personally. However, they were definitely on theme with the story's message of the importance of being "true to yourself" so at least they didn't come out of left field.

Overall it was a nice, low-stakes and wholesome read to kick off the month of March. I'd like to give it a 3.5 but I'll round up for the sake of Goodreads.

Thank you to Tor Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC. .

Thank you to netgalley and Tor publishing group for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review
⚔️slow-burn, dislike-to-lovers, grumpy x sunshine, witty banter, and shakespearean retellings, what more could you possibly ask for?

For one, Vi Reyes might just be one of the best characters i have ever seen in a book marketed as a ya romance. She isn't likeable in the generic way, and she is ok with that. She is such a complex character who is learning how to be herself, and express her feelings, and let people in all while being a teenager. Even people who aren't into video games might find her relatable.

Jack Orsino is another character who proves to be more than meets the eye. Dealing with a crisis about what his future will look like after tearing his acl and not being sure he will ever play again. He is stubborn and witty, and doesn’t give up on things important to him.

Jack and Vi’s romance story was SO cute! They started off as complete opposites who didn’t even like each other, and were forced to spend time together, slowly helped each other and developed feelings along the way.

Easy and interesting read, and isn’t confusing at all, even if you know nothing about football or video games. A very unique take on Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”


“Twelfth Knight” is an adorable romance story that has a complex and diverse cast with a plot that will pull you in and keep you reading till the late hours of the night⚔️

4.5/5⭐️

The first thing I have to say is, where was this book when I was a teenager????

I immediately knew I had to read this when I heard it was a Shakespeare retelling. Yes, I’m a huge Olivie Blake fan, but a Twelfth Night retelling was most important in the want for this book. And it hit every beat that I was ready for, but the author was able to bring in more depth to these characters in a modern and relatable way.

I was the teenager who went to conventions, cosplayed, read comics and manga, played online games with friends, participated in fandom, etc. I loved it all. But even with a supportive group of friends and family who uplifted me in my likes, I still experienced the harassment that comes with being a woman in a predominantly male space. I, like Vi in Twelfth Knight, definitely put up a harder exterior when it came to how I involved myself because it was the only way to successfully exist in spaces I desperately wanted to be in. While not to the extent of Vi, I had my own persona online that I kept sacred because it was the only way I could be taken seriously.

Alexene crafted a story and characters with such depth they felt like my friends of years past. Vi was complex. She had this tough exterior shell she thought was the only self she could be, but underneath that she was a teenager with huge thoughts and feelings who just wanted to be seen an accepted for who she was. Jack embodied all of us who thought we had everything figured out at that age, to only have that come crumbling down. He had to take a step back and realize there is so much more out there without having to give up the things you love. You’re allowed to be more than the one thing you’ve been defined by. And all the side characters really elevated the story. They were grounded in the plot, not just there as a way to move it along.

I can’t wait for everyone to read this book. Young or old, you’ll be rooting for our main characters and finding someone to relate to.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, and Tor Teen for this eARC of Twelfth Knight in exchange for a honest review.

And thank you to Alexene Farol Follmouth for yet another amazing book. Always eagerly awaiting what you’ll bring us next.

This book was a bit of a roller-coaster ride for me! It took me a while to get into it, and I wasn't sure (and maybe am still not sure) that I entirely understand or believe in the main characters (i.e., are they realistic or borderline caricatures?). I loved the feminism embedded in the frustration Vi feels and the choices she makes. I loved her strength and toughness based on past experiences of mistreatment. Jack was a bit of a mystery to me, in that I'm not sure I could really believe in his character arc of pure jock to gaming geek. I really appreciated the interactions between all the characters and the overall sense that - especially as teens - there are hidden depths in each person and that it takes effort and courage to allow each person to open up and be who they really are.
Although I appreciated the homage to Shakespeare in this story and its characters, I'm not sure many teens would get it or care about that much. Twelfth Night is not in the average high school curriculum these days (a former English teacher here).
Overall, I enjoyed this and would recommend it to readers of YA fiction.

Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC!

Twelfth Knight is just as charming as My Mechanical Romance. It feels like a modern She’s The Man to sink your teeth into as well as a love letter to the highs and lows of geek culture. I always love a book that includes a character list at the beginning. It’s just so fun to see modern Shakespeare reimagining coming back, especially ones as heartfelt as this one.

Lovers of She’s The Man, Twelfth Knight, dungeons and dragons, and Baldur’s Gate, boy do I have a book for you! This book is fun and heartfelt, with lovable fun characters to root for.

Thank you to Net Galley for an ARC of this book. Over all enjoyed a lot of aspects of this story. I liked that both main characters had defining moments and leaned into being true to themselves and not what the world would define them as being. Alexene does a great job of bringing together multi cultural characters that are funny while working through tough life situations.

tbh such a pitch perfect and FUN ya novel!!!!!!!!!! loved the characters a lot, it is very fresh and fun, easy to read and enjoyable, loved how they handled the retelling aspects

Book: “Twelfth Knight” by Alexene Farol Follmuth (aka Olieve Blake)
Rating: 5/5 🌟

Mini summary: Viola is the nerdy, top of her class, perfect daughter with her geeky group of friends. The only thing she does not have is being the student body president position, and that’s because it was stolen from her by one and only star quarterback, Jack Orsino. In fact, she’s sure he got voted over her because of his popularity.
Jack’s life is perfect, popular cheerleader gf, perfect sports team, supportive family. The only thing that annoys him on daily basis is his VP, Viola Reyes.
Life would be e a lot easier if Viola and Jack did not need each other’s help, but they do …

Review: overall, this is a romantic, coming-of-age story, but it’s a lot more than that. We see family rescuing each other, friends trusting each other and coming out, young athletes making very important decisions for their wellbeing, and most importantly, female empowerment. This is a YA book, but I enjoyed it very much an adult.