4.5 stars. First of all, thank you netgalley for the ARC. Took me a while to get to this story but then, it was just such a fun read. Been a while since I've read a YA book and this was just hilarious and adorable. She's the man was one of my go to movies in the younger days (Jesus christ, I feel so old now) and I've enjoyed Shakespeares Twelfth Night. So this was a good adaptation of the story but with twist, as always.

Vi reyes, I love this kid. Her anger is just so understandable and good god, I do not miss high school. This book made me want to go back to RPGs and delve in the art of DnD. Will see.

Congrats Alex (Olivie) on your book. This was a fun read.

4/5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC!

Twelfth Knight follows two characters. Twin Viola Reyes, a perpetually annoyed with the world for navigating the difficulties of dealing with other people in life. When I tell you this is the most relatable character on the planet, I’m not kidding. And we have school running back Jack Orsino, beloved by all (except Viola), and with a big athletic future ahead of him. Until he breaks his leg, and somehow they end up playing video games together every night for months—only he has no idea he’s playing with her, not her twin brother, Sebastian.

Vi is such a fantastic character. She’s done with the world, but easily hurt by it. I loved following her and her love of gaming. Outside of his own POV, I can see why she thought of Jack as a perpetual headache. Jack, who was such an interesting character to read from, being outed from his beloved game by an injury and finding solace in a video game instead. I loved both their character developments, the journey of self discovery and when they start to allow themselves to care for each other.

Honestly, perfect romance, characters, everything. I only really had one problem with this book.

Olivia Hadid, popular cheerleader and Jack Orsino’s ex girlfriend who’s been avoiding him. Olivia Hadid is Palestinian. It’s never mentioned once that she is, but she’s given a Palestinian last name, she says her family lives in Jordan, and while creating a self insert for a game, she implies her character is in “exile”. I’m not sure why it wasn’t outright said, but there it is. Olivia is just…riddled with stereotypes that I really had a hard time getting over. Aside from getting her name from a model, she’s struggling with her family (Jack mentions that her family doesn’t really approve of him). Also while creating her self insert for the game, she creates a character who is running away from an evil uncle that wants to marry her off. The character tries to help other women in similar situations, too. I honestly don’t know how you can fit so many stereotypes into the few pages dedicated to an unimportant side character. Like it’s baffling.

Overall, the sweetest romance as always. I highly recommend it!!

I was a bit skeptical about wether the gaming and cosplay would ruin this book for me but it did make it more interesting! And was something I’d never read before.

But it was great ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The slow burn enemies to lovers was perfect. Viola and Jack are high school rivals and complete opposite attracts.

Fun, quick and easy read. It definitely kept my interest, I wanted to know if they won the MMORPG game or not!

Thoughtful teen romance and coming of age story.
Vi is a gamer, geek, nerd and is blunt to a fault. Jack is a people pleasing jock with the “perfect” high school life. When a knee injury turns Jacks world upside down it throws him into the world of Twelfth Knight a game where he meets Vi who is pretending to be a male. Sparks fly as these two try to negotiate the pressures of high school, making choices about the future, and negotiating the horror of relationships.
A warning if you don’t like the character of Vi in the beginning maybe don’t read this book. I found lots of other review that complained that Vi was just mean. I think she just didn’t know how to express herself and is justified in some of her actions.
I thought this was a sweet coming of age story that covers issues faced by females who want to work/play in male dominated areas. The story is the classic nerd girl meets jock boy but done in a slightly more sophisticated way.
Read if you like
Geek cultures/games/cosplaying
High school romance
Grumpy sunshine female grump male sunshine
Feminist undertones

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I unfortunately decided to DNF this book. I went into this book expecting to love it, the entire premise of it really spoke to me, a Shakespeare retelling, a nerd x jock trope, and characters of color as main characters, were all up my alley in terms of what I look for in a good read. But this book did not deliver. Vi is one of the most unlikeable characters I've read in a long time. I understand the struggle, living a world where everyone seems to be working against you just because of who you were born as, a woman, a person of color and a woman interested in hobbies that put you into a male dominated space. But Vi is just...MEAN. She's not nice, even to the people around her who support her, and are working with her. She's not a good person, she's not a heroine to root for, she's a villain. The entire first chapter of the book, she spends telling us how unimportant everyone around her (who are apparently her friends) are, how unmemorable, how unattractive, how boring, how unintelligent, but god forbid someone disagree with her, then they're terrible people. Vi's personality gets a 0/10 for me.

Jack is really just as unlikeable as Vi. He's cocky and demeaning to people around him, and his indifference towards Vi is gross, even if Vi is a person I do not like. He's not special, and also if your girlfriend dumps you, maybe respect that?

I thought I would try to power through the book, in hopes of Vi's personality turning around as she learns perspective and perhaps empathy for those around her, but as I skipped forward a bit to see if that's the case she really doesn't show any growth, and I was uninterested in pulling my teeth by continuing this book.

I'm really disappointed, I've heard such amazing things about this author and I was really surprised to see this character be so incredibly bad, for lack of other words. I would not recommend this book to friends, and unfortunately I do not plan on coming back to it in the future.

*Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book, and for the opportunity to read and review it in anticipation of it's release.*

I was honoured to receive an Arc of this book and excited to be able to review it! while i am definitely older than the target audience of YA, i found the book and the plot kept me reading none the less.

the characters were engaging and heartwarming, even side characters had a depth to them that left you attached to them after brief meetings. violet was an amazing fmc, her expression of herself and her strength also feeling isolating were things that resonated with me. and duke was an amazing mmc who showed a depth of thought not commonly associated with the ‘jock’ type.

everyone is more than they seem in this book. and thats its glory.

quite frankly the discussions of race, sexuality, personality, feminism, and even briefly on religion, all hit the nail on the head without being preachy or too fact laden.

i’d definitely recommend this book to anyone! while it IS ya, and even appropriate for younger YA audiences, this book has plenty for adults to read and enjoy as well.

This was so cute and nostalgic for me since it's a retelling of Shakespeare's Twelfth Knight and therefore, also reminded me of one of my favourite movies - She's the Man!
At first, I didn't like Viola all that much but her character growth is so well executed. I was rooting for her and Jack the whole way through! Jack is a darling! I also love all the side characters, especially Olivia and Bash! I just can't wait for the rest of the world to meet this crew! Thank you, Alexene, publisher and netgalley for allowing me to read and review this lovely book, I will always be honest with my reviews.

Twelfth Night is the PERFECT read for anyone looking for something fun and charming but also... socially relevant. This book delt with so many topics like sexism, sexuality, social and familial responsibility, dealing with self-worth issues, etc., but incorporated everything so realistically into a light-hearted romcom.

I don't want to be considered beautiful without being seen as capable, too.


I'm both so similar and so different from the MC Viola Reyes that it's kind of comical to me. She's a self-proclaimed nerd (same) with very strong feminist views (also same)... but the difference is, she is so firm with her own self-worth that she is willing to put her friendships on the line so that she doesn't ever get stepped on as a woman, which is something I can only aspire to be.

I don't know how any girl can exist in the world without being perpetually furious.


I can understand people who would hate Viola. She's definitely a bitch who just assumes the worst of everyone. BUT! While I was reading from her perspective, I constantly found myself thinking, Yup, this is what being a woman is like. She basically voiced out everything I keep hidden in the depths of my brain.

Then we have our hero, Jack Orsino. He's charming, sweet, and has everything figured out... until he doesn't. He's definitely not the most memorable character, but he's likeable and does grow a lot in the book.

Twelfth Knight wins in the side character department, though, which is so rare for a contemporary romcom. We have Olivia, who is so charismatic and deep. She's a fantastic friend and a wonderful sister. There's also Bash (Viola's twin brother) who is lively and unexpectedly caring.

"I think we're lonely. Like, as a species."
"So what does that mean?"
"That we can like who we are and still like being alone and still want to feel connected."


We have so much character and relationship growth in this book from all angles -- we have characters who learn to look at life differently, and characters who we realize are truly the garbage of society; we have relationships that make it through complicated situations, and relationships that are formally broken for good reason. I really appreciated how this book showed both the good and bad in society.

There are only a few minor qualms I have that turned this book from a 5-star to a 4-star:
- Jack felt more like a side character than a main character to me. Normally, I'd be more than fine about the heroine taking the spotlight, but this book was written in 2 POVs, so I would have liked to feel more connected to him.
- I needed more romance! Like I said, there were so many things dealt with in this book that it felt like the romance did take the back seat sometimes.
- One of the MCs (Viola) was... Filipino? This felt so random and unexplored. She didn't feel Filipino at all, so I didn't even realize this until she started calling her grandmother lola. I wish they'd either incorporated more culture into her character.

Overall, though, this was a fantastic read. Here's to all the feminist nerds of the world who need to be seen! ❤

This was so cute! What a great little theatre romance! I will definitely be reading more by this author!

The book has potential. There is a good book hidden within the pages but the end result that we receive just doesn’t reach that potential.

Vi is just not a likable character. She stays the same character from cover to cover and everyone else changes to fit her like she was perfect the entire time. Her sections of the book drag you down and make it hard to get through the novel. You keep reading expecting a growth in character that never comes.

But some people will love this book. It just didn’t hit for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this eArc in exchange for my honest review.

No. I'm sorry, but no.

I love TTRPGs like D&D (but know nothing about video games, not going to lie), and so I was very excited to read Twelfth Knight because it sounded like a romance with all of my favorite things. But I couldn't get over Viola's character.

Man, she was so unnecessarily mean I wanted to stop reading. She's just mean for no reason; yes, there are some instances in which she's good at calling out guys for their behavior or taking advantage of things, but she's so quick to assume everyone is the same. And everyone faces her wrath, too. If someone disagrees with her, she tears into them with honey badger-like ferocity, including her so-called best friend? And, I dunno, it was frustrating and hard to read when she was so ready to hate everyone and every guy for typical teenage behavior. So what if a few guys want to hit things instead of sit through a political drama? I know I'd be more interested in tons of fight scenes instead of court politics anyway because that's just my personality and what holds my interest. Sure, the guys she was playing with were rude and could have at least tried her idea, but... I don't even know how to explain it.

I was hoping that she'd start to change her behavior the further into the book we get, but we don't- in fact, the ml encourages her behavior by flat-out telling her to never change. She only seems nicer because she interacts with other people less the more the book goes on.

Her character was overall frustrating and hard to read. She made fun of the ml several times about his injury despite football basically being his entire life, and it was very insensitive and cruel for her to do so.

thank you Netgalley for the free copy

Thank you so much netgalley and the publisher for this arc!
I did not have a great first impression with this book, but it did become very much better by the end! The first half was a bit slow and I personally did not enjoy the main characters - which I’m guessing was the point, since they become much, MUCH better throughout the book (the last half of it). Jack and Vi were so cute and had their own unique personalities, and I LOOOVED that they were a bit nerdy. The game they played together sounds so fun and the characters all had great dynamics. This book also brought up a bunch of issues with identity that I feel were kind of misplaced, but spoken about very well throughout the book nonetheless. This was a good read, even though the first half took me a bit to get through haha:)

This book is really unique! I have never read a YA romance that centers around gaming / nerd culture. Viola and Jack were such compelling characters. I loved how this book talked about Viola's struggles as a woman and the persistent misogyny in nerd culture. I loved how everything about the MMORPG "Twelfth Knight" and the characters of Jack and Viola.

This was fantastic. As someone who is newer into gaming, I loved this and would definitely recommend for all ages.

What a great retelling that was! Twelfth Night is the Shakespeare play I’ve seen the most, so I know it well. This was a worthy retelling.

If you know the story, you know it. Some of the characters are flatter here than in the play, out of the necessity of focusing on the mains, but there are plenty of nods to the larger Shakespearean world. Jack seemed more realistic than Vi, but I related to Vi’s experiences more. I don’t typically read romance, but I am definitely interested in reading more from this author.

As a huge fan of She’s the Man, I was very excited to pick up this title, and it did not disappoint!

The characters—namely Viola, Jack, and Olivia—felt incredibly real. I especially loved the diversity of the main cast and how the social issues they are passionate about were brought up in a natural way.

The pacing of the entire story had me glued to the pages until the end. The final confrontation was absolutely beautiful, and the character development of Viola and Jack was just perfect.

This was a cute slow burn YA romance. I appreciated how true to high school prose it was and how relatable the characters were.

I thought her VI's moms relationship was going to be with someone completely different and was glad it wasn't!

This book perfectly encapsulates an over thinker and how it can affect different types of relationships.

I would definitely recommend this book!

An absolute triumph of a book. Every single complaint I ever had in a contemporary novel was fully addressed in this. Character development? Check. Fantastic side characters that are also developed? Check. None of this BS enemies to lovers? Check. Real conflict handled appropriately? Check. Pure care and attention to the characters dilemmas without it being cheesy? Check. I genuinely cannot say how much I enjoyed this and how perfectly she captured the feelings of being a teenager going through every last dilemma they could encounter. As someone who relates HEAVILY to Vi I felt almost uncomfortable at times because I swear Alexene was peering into my mind. You can tell this was a personal story and never veered onto the cheesy side. Also want to point out that she has some magical power of being able to explain EVERYTHING so that no one gets left behind when explaining things. This is a top read for me and I am so shocked I adored it as much as I did. A million stars.

Reading this book was like a breath of fresh rom-com air. It was everything I needed and wanted in a YA Rom-Com. The author did a fantastic job bringing us into the complex but wonderful characters' worlds.

There are real aspects to this book that people experience and that makes it more relatable. I couldn't stop reading this book. I also enjoy that this book was the POV of both main characters.

If you a Shakespeare fan this book is fun with all the references to his work. The Author did a great job contributing his work into the modern century.

I highly recommend this book for the fun, easy, and complex dynamic of a YA Rom-Com.

So this book follows Viola Reyes, a type-A nerdy girl who is too strong for her own good, along with school and football golden boy Jack Orsino. In true Twelfth Night fashion, Vi gets into a sticky situation where she lies about her identity to Jack over an online role-playing game cleverly called "Twelfth Night". Enemies in school, they begin to form a real friendship online. Antics ensue, and trust me, you want to be there to read it!

I LOVED this book! I haven't read any of Olivie Blake's books under this alias but I think I might need to after reading this book. Vi's character arc was so beautiful (and a little too relatable, oops) and I just love her so much. Jack- I need my own Jack Orsino, quite possibly the most perfect book boyfriend. He's such a little cutie and I loved seeing this journey with fandom and his relationship with Vi. Even the side characters *cough cough* OLIVIA!!! I was so invested in her story and wouldn't be opposed to a little spin off that focuses on her. I am a Merlin girlie and the computer game Vi and Jack play is based on Arthurian Legend and I ATE. IT. UP. If you are any form of nerd, you will love this book.

This book is the most perfect romcom, do yourself a favor and read it!!

As a huge Shakespeare fan who especially loves retellings, I was so excited to read this, and it did not disappoint. I usually judge retellings along two tracks: how is it as a retelling (or, how did it incorporate the source material) and how is it as a story, and this passed on both counts.

The Twelfth Night elements were incorporated cleverly. The mistaken identity was when Viola meets Orsino online and knows who he is, but panics and tells him she's her twin brother, Sebastian. "Cesario" is her online character's name. There is a little bit of Viola-Orsino-Olivia love triangle, but it's not a source of angst and drama, which I really appreciated, and I admired how it was able to incorporate it without sacrificing the central relationship (Orsino and Viola) OR making the inclusion seem superfluous and just for the sake of aligning with Twelfth Night. I also liked the reason Olivia and Sebastian became friends and how that aligned with the original as well without leaning too hard into strange romance things. The identity themes were translated into a high-school-senior "who am I and what do I want to do with my life going forward" context, which worked well.

As a story, I was invested in Viola and Jack's relationship from the beginning and how it developed both in person and online. I liked how Viola had genuine reason to be annoyed with Jack (she's a naturally prickly person and Jack is slacking on a shared duty Viola finds important) but Jack never really hated Viola, and as he came to know her he learned how to understand her and not take her prickliness to heart. The incorporation of the TV show, video game, con, dnd, etc and the ways they interacted with each other within the text was well done. It was also sweet for both Jack and Olivia to learn to enjoy these "nerdy" things and not be embarrassed about them or look down on them - it was just because they had never really been exposed to them before. The scene at the end with their new dnd group was heartwarming.

After Viola and Jack, my favorite dynamic was Viola and Bash. Viola/Sebastian dynamic is something that intrigues me about the original play that we simply do not get a lot of beyond hints, and I love when it's explored more in retellings where an author has more space to play around with it. Every time they were on page together, I was laughing, because their dialogue and dynamic is hilarious (including, or perhaps especially, when their mom was also involved). I also loved Viola and Olivia's growing friendship.