As someone who was really obsessed with She’s The Man in their adolescence this book was my bread and butter. I highly enjoyed Vi and Jack’s dynamic and witty repartee. This author knows exactly how to portray realistic relationships between her characters and I LIVE FOR IT. It also does a great job of modernizing the classic Shakespearean tale with a diverse cast and unique approach to the storyline. Long story short – If you were a fan of the early 2000s Shakespeare retelling meets high school romcom era this book is definitely for you!

Twelfth Knight is a modern day, YA re-imagining of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Viola Reyes is sick of misogyny in her fandom circles and plays as a male character in the online RPG Twelfth Knight. Duke Orsino is the star football player who starts playing Twelfth Knight in the aftermath of a sports injury. They strike up a friendship, both online and at school. I really appreciated that each character had their own internal battle to fight, and I got quite a kick out of seeing the in-book versions of real-life fandoms. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a grumpy-sunshine with a really feisty heroine. And anyone who, like me, was obsessed with a certain soccer-themed movie re-imagining of Twelfth Night.
I felt seen by Olivia and the struggles that she faces in the story. I empathized with Jack as my husband had not one but two knee injuries changing what his daily life looked like. Olivie beautifully tackled themes of feminism, misogyny, religion, and racism. Some of these were explored more than others, but I feel like this is a great starting point for important conversations. I loved the diverse cast of characters and how they added layers to story. I laughed! I cried! I felt anger and joy. Needless to say I will be thinking about this book for a long time!

omggg 4.5⭐️!!! i love love the authors writing style!! this was such an easy ready and i enjoyed every bit of it!! the characters were so will written

5.0

First off thank you Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me an arc for an honest review.

Love does not even begin to describe this book. Olivie Blake solidified her genius in my mind with her reimagining of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. I felt seen by Olivia and the struggles that she faces in the story. I empathized with Jack as my husband had not one but two knee injuries changing what his daily life looked like. Olivie beautifully tackled themes of feminism, misogyny, religion, and racism. Some of these were explored more than others, but I feel like this is a great starting point for important conversations. I loved the diverse cast of characters and how they added layers to story. I laughed! I cried! I felt anger and joy. Needless to say I will be thinking about this book for a long time!

In my opinion: Perfect for fans of She’s the Man

Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing an ARC for an honest review.

Based on the description solely I was very much looking forward to this book! Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is a classic story and retold modern day with a sporty/geekiness twist sounds like a comfort read. As someone who isn't into sports but into MMORPGs (that also got me through high school myself) I knew I would connect with Vi immediately (also being a woman in STEM who advocates for equality I knew exactly the issues she faces online).

This book falls under the Young Adult category well with the characters in their last year of high school determining what to do for college. With Jack's knee injury, he is having to re-evaluate his college plans of continuing to play football. Meanwhile, Vi doesn't know what she wants to do but she just wants the boys to listen to her while they play ConQuest (a DnD-style tabletop).

I wanted to love Vi as she slightly reminded me of myself but she was such a mean character. She gets called a bitch quite a bit throughout the book (sometimes even by herself) and some of the actions she takes it's understandable why people are mean right back. I was hoping she would have a redemption arc but she never does. Jack even tells her she never needs to change, just be herself. While you cannot please everyone in life, I was hoping to see more of her understand what her actions mean to others. Even later in the book with the minor fight between her and her brother it is glossed over. While Jack seems to have a character development and understanding that life will throw curve balls at you and you just have to do your best, it seems like Vi won't change and grow.

I wish we got to see more of Olivia, as she turned out to be my absolute favorite character. I loved her from the beginning and understood her actions and was happy to watch her character growth. If the author would ever want to continue the storyline or write up a bonus chapter, I'd hope to see Olivia in college being more herself.

Overall, I think the book was well wrote. It brought up feminism, race-issue, and religion issues. Though I do feel some of these issues were glossed over, knowing the intended audience is Young Adult, I hope that spears more conversations and allows them to stop and think if they would have acted any differently and maybe open their minds up more.

My TLDR: If you enjoyed other Twelfth Night retellings (or even enjoyed movies such as She's the Man), this book is for you. While Vi doesn't have any sort of character growth, Jack and Olivia's growth makes up for it.

StoryGraph Review: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/f30708e3-198f-4641-9953-f939f95fca7f
GoodReads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6238224425

Twelfth Knight is a modern day, YA re-imagining of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. Viola Reyes is sick of misogyny in her fandom circles and plays as a male character in the online RPG Twelfth Knight. Duke Orsino is the star football player who starts playing Twelfth Knight in the aftermath of a sports injury. They strike up a friendship, both online and at school. I really appreciated that each character had their own internal battle to fight, and I got quite a kick out of seeing the in-book versions of real-life fandoms. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a grumpy-sunshine with a really feisty heroine. And anyone who, like me, was obsessed with a certain soccer-themed movie re-imagining of Twelfth Night.

Thank you to NetGallery for a free ARC.

At its base, this book is a fun, classic retelling of Twelfth Night. The characters are so fun and individual, I had no issues pulling them apart from the Shakespeare counterparts. I adored Vi and Jack. I loved watching them grow and watching Viola's walls break down to let Jack in, especially during the pseudo third act break up. These two are surprisingly mature for high school seniors but I appreciate not dumbing them down. I will say that towards the beginning Viola felt a little like a "I'm not like other girls" character, but I realized it was more of her protecting herself rather than trying to be different.
This book plays a lot on things such a sexism in the geek/nerd world. I think this translate very well into the Viola pretending to be her brother part of the plot. It also briefly touches on some notes of racism with Jack being mixed race, but it didn't hold much to the story. That being said, I loved having non of the main characters be white. It doesn't add or subtract much from the story itself, but I loved the inclusion of different races and heritages including Muslim (?) for Olivia Hadid.
This is such a fun YA novel. I thoroughly enjoyed devouring this book. It stays loyal to the source material while nurturing its own fun spin on the classic story. Well worth the read if you are a Shakespeare fan, or a fan of DnD or MMORPGs.

Okay. So I loved the author's previous book which was why I was so excited to get this one. Yet, the beginning was really slow start for me. Like really slow. And the topic of gaming was a bit boring for me. Too many references thrown at me about the games and role playing parts. The two main characters were great though. And I definitely wanted to know what happened to them. Some parts were very predictable but gave the story the flow it needed. Overall, it was a nice romance, I just didn’t enjoy this book as much as I hoped. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for my review.

This was a really fun read! It was super nerdy in a good way and I loved the main characters. The romance was super cute and their initial awkward friendship was fun and weirdly realistic. My only complaint was that there were a few too many unnecessary side characters and it kind of got confusing after a while.

There is so much that I love about this book! It’s a common enemy to lovers trope, but I was happy to see that the author changed things up a bit and had her own take on it. I loved that both football and roll-playing games were well detailed in the story. I thought it was great that both Vi and Jack, though very flawed in the beginning, showed much growth by the end. And I loved that at the end, the characters used their words and actually communicated with each other honestly and expressed their feelings as mature people.

I loved this book and highly recommend it, especially to teens/YA and to readers who enjoy RPGs. However, I am neither of these things and I loved it.

Thank you Net Galley and Tor Teen for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review which is not affiliated with any brand.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc!

I knew this would not disappoint! This was so engaging and hard to put down. I almost read all of it in one sitting! The romance was so cute! I loved seeing Jack and Vi's relationship develop. There were also some very loveable side characters (Bash and Olivia)!

This book explores sexism and the challenges that women face, particularly when it comes to video games and male dominated areas. I loved how this book portrayed Viola's character and everything she has gone through. She voices her honest opinions and is herself despite what people say about her. At the end she learns to let others in but doesn't change who she is. I sae a lot of myself in Vi and absolutely loved her. I also love that Jack was able to grow and see himself as more than just a football player.

Overall I loved reading Twelfth Knight and would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves romcoms and coming of age stories.

I was given the opportunity to read an electronic ARC of this prior to publishing.

This story was adorable - sweet, cute, sassy, realistic, and very geeky/nerdy. I liked all the characters- Vi in how she wants to take on the world but doesn't know what her place is, Jack for trying to figure out where he is going and staying fairly optimistic, Olivia for being strong in finding herself, Badg for just being a loving individual, as well as other characters.

I have not read anything by Follmuth/Blake before, the writing was well done and you can tell she knows the world of D&D, World of Warcraft, etc.

I really liked this book overall, although i couldnt quite connect or feel it in some areas, and would recommend it to everyone!

A book I needed in my youth to know that it is valid to be a girl in a male-dominated space.
This story has important commentary on feminism in the gaming communities, both for table top and video games, while also being a fun romance and Shakespeare retelling!

Thank you so much for the amazing opportunity!

This author can do no wrong in my opinion. They have a magical ability to write a banger book every single time. It never misses.
I’m utterly amazed and obsessed!
5/5

→3.5✰
~spoiler free review
⤿thank you to netgalley and tor publishing group for the arc!

𖥻⚔"i just think maybe happiness isn't crossing a finish line, or finally meeting the right person or getting the right job or finding the right life. it's the little things."

honestly i don't have much to say! it was exactly what i was expecting and that's not a bad thing at all. i know little to nothing about football and game campaigns (both of which are kind of major components in the story) but it was actually really easy to read about which sort of surprised me? i didn't rate this book higher bcuz i don't really think about the characters often. yea sure, they have depth and all. but i like to walk away from a book knowing that the characters are memorable and i'll think about them all the time. for me this book was sort of like a "that's cute. moving on" if yk what i mean (a lot of rom-coms i read are like that. but still). this book definitely has potential tho 🤭

𖥻⚔"we're always walking some line between triumph and disaster. and you can play this in your minds over and over-what if i'd done this, should i have done that?-but in the end, it doesn't matter what you could have done. it matters what you do, and more importantly, it matters who you do it with."

✠ ——— ✠ ——— ✠ ——— ✠
pre-read review
i just got approved for my first arc!! i'm freaking out i've heard so many positive reviews for this book, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed 🤞

ya romances you are my everything, i love you to the death <3

thank you NetGalley for this eARC

twelfth knight follows two characters, viola reyes, a twin who seems to hate the world, along with majority of the people who are in it (she's just like me, truly), then we have our star running back jack 'duke' orsino, loved by EVERYONE (not viola though, she has a special dislike reserved just for him), jack has an incredible future in football completely lined up for him, that is until he suffers from a severe knee injury which leads him into the world of Twelfth Knight where unbeknownst to him he starts playing with Viola, whose playing as a guy.

this book is absolute perfection, the beginning was a bit slow and confusing for me to get into but once i started understanding what was going on i fell completely in love with every single word as well as every single character. the character developments is something i hold so close to my heart <3

on that final note, bash darling, i love you so much, you are very special to me

I told you I would read ANYTHING this woman writes (under ANY PEN NAME) and I was NOT LYING!

This is her second YA romance novel, and boy was this even lovelier than the first. Farol Follmouth has an incredible way of exploring important topics such as race, feminism, bisexuality, and women in STEM.

In this gem, we get:
🏈 jocks and nerds
👾 flirty video game messages
🗡️ adorable costumes and cosplay
🏠 found family

I don’t read a ton of YA books but I would ✨highly✨ recommend this one. While I was able to read this as an eARC, I have ALREADY still preordered a physical copy of this book (it has sprayed edges 😍).

Thank you to Alexene Farol Follmouth, Tor Publishing, and NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Delightful YA romance - heavy on the comedy elements, featuring a seemingly all-business high schooler Vi Reyes and Jack “Duke” Orsino, star running back of the high school football team and much to VP Vi’s dismay, President of their student council. After an injury sidelines Jack’s football season, he’s introduced to an mmorpg and is connected with a classmate who also plays, and they strike an immediate connection. Meanwhile, all of Vi’s friends seem to be abandoning her, and her feminist mom has been happily dating the same guy for months!

Sort of generally following the plot of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, this book features hidden identities, revealing conversations, and relationships with more depth than they seem.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing both Violet’s and Jack’s points of view, and their personal journeys intersected in all the best ways to help them both grow as people and grow into a couple with a healthy relationship.

The banter in this book is top notch - every line of dialogue is true to each character and clever and funny - and maybe because it’s coming from a play there is a LOT of dialogue. Character diversity also shines, with lots of different ethnicities and backgrounds represented.

As a woman who had to deal with toxic masculinity in gaming, comics, and RPG spaces for most of the past thirty years, I really appreciate how those experiences are reflected in Violet’s story as well.

Recommended for all fandom/gaming fans and fans of romcoms and modern Shakespeare adaptations!

Alexene Farol Follmuth’s Twelfth Knight was the Shakespeare/teen movie/gaming mashup I didn’t know I needed, and I loved every minute of it! If 10 Things I Hate About You and She’s The Man had a sarcastic book baby with a heart of gold, it would be this YA novel, a retelling of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night that takes on misogyny, family expectations, and what it means to find the people we can truly be ourselves with. I loved the main characters, prickly, independent Vi and golden boy Jack as well as their friends and families. This was the first book I’ve read by Follmuth, but I’ll definitely look for her other work! Thank you to Tor Publishing Group and Net Galley for the advance reader copy.

4.25 Stars

A Shakespeare themed ya romcom set in the world of online role playing games (with a bit of an Arthurian twist)

This was a fun book. At first I had a hard time connecting with the characters because I found them to be pretty unlikeable. But that’s… kind of the point. These characters are teenagers still figuring out who they are and the character development throughout the book was great.
Im not the biggest role playing game fan so I wasn’t as invested in that aspect of the book but I enjoyed the enemies to lovers vibes and seeing people connect over a shared interest.

Read if you like:
-enemies to lovers
-role playing games
-football
-Shakespeare retellings
-unlikely friends/found family


Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the ARC!