Rachel Magee's It's All Relative is a delightful modern retelling of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, set against the backdrop of a family wedding at a beach house. The story follows Helena, who brings her best friend Landon as her plus-one to her mother's wedding, only to discover that her soon-to-be stepsister, Amelia, is Landon's college ex. As the week unfolds, romantic entanglements and family dynamics become increasingly complex, leading to humorous and heartwarming moments. Magee masterfully balances multiple perspectives, creating a charming rom-com that explores themes of love, family, and second chances.

It’s All Relative by Rachel Magee is a fun rom-com!

If you like books with family drama, lovable characters, and witty banter - this may be the book for you.

This story has great depth, but is still an easy, and quick read.

I’m a sucker for modern Shakespeare retellings, and this one hits the spot.

Helena is dreading her mom’s wedding. Not because she doesn’t approve of it or anything. It’s mainly because her soon-to-be step-sister, Amelia, is her exact opposite. While Helena is messy and late all the time, Amelia has all her ducks in a row and an amazingly gorgeous and dreamy fiance. Helena just feels inadequate around her, so that’s why she brings her friend, Landon, to help keep her on track to hopefully fit in with this new family. What no one realizes til it’s too late is that Landon is Amelia’s ex-boyfriend from college. Landon has never managed to get over Amelia, but she’s engaged now. Besides, Landon is only here to support Helena. Of course, not everything will go to plan.

This was a super fun read that I managed to fly through within a day. I’m a little rusty on A Midsummer’s Night Dream, but reading this helped me remember the original story and admire the way the author cleverly retold such a fantastical story in a modern setting. The antics the family got up to in the days leading up to the wedding were hilarious. There was no lull in the action here that made me even want to put the book down.

My only cons were that the characters forget their original goals basically immediately. Landon rarely spent time with Helena and Helena didn’t try to get her act together till nearly the end of the novel. I think a little more set up would have made the emotions much stronger down the road.

Overall, though, I definitely recommend this book to others. It’s a great specifically for the summer just because of its gorgeous setting, but is a good read for any time of the year.

Thank you netgalley for the advanced preview audio book. I just love getting advance copies! This one lives up to the hype!

This review is based on an audiobook edition obtained via NetGalley.

I don't know if the narrator or the author is to blame, but I didn't enjoy this one that much. I did persevere and finish it, but I can't tell you how many times I fell asleep while trying to do so.

I had two main issues with this audiobook. Firstly, the characters were basically indistinguishable from each other most of the time. The narrator did very little vocally to differentiate characters, apart from their gender. There were times where I had to rewind to the start of a chapter to check who's POV we were currently following, because I couldn't tell. As I've said many times before, I love a book that swaps between character POVs, but here it was a detriment for the majority of the runtime.

The second issue I had was just some blatant flubs in the narration. One hilarious one that I noted while listening was "She nippled her lip", which I think was supposed to be "nibbled". Either that and the narration is bad, or the author lost their mind.

I probably would have enjoyed the story a lot more if I was more familiar with "A Midsummer Night's Dream", which I'm only somewhat aware of, but that obviously shouldn't be a prerequisite.

"It's All Relative" tells the story of two families blending into one, but it's told from the perspective of the two eldest daughters from each side of the new family.

Helena is the bride's only child and practically her only family up until recently. And Helena struggles a bit with feeling replaced by the groom's side of the family, who all seem to have their lives together in ways Helena can only dream of.

Amelia is the groom's oldest daughter, and the one who held the family together after her mother's death. But she's been so afraid of things that don't go according to plan that Helena's whirlwind, devil-may-care attitude has Amelia tied up in knots.

It doesn't help that Helena's plus one to the wedding turns out to be Amelia's first love, the one who got away. Or that Helena's crushing on Amelia's fiancé, Gage.

As everyone tries to navigate their way through intense feelings and personality clashes during the lead-up to the wedding, it's anyone's guess as to how things will turn out.

I found Rachel Magee's retelling of A Midsummer Night's Dream to be entertaining and enjoyable, if a little chaotic at times.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

*It's All Relative* by Rachel Magee is a delightful exploration of family dynamics and the complexities of relationships. With a sharp wit and relatable characters, Magee deftly navigates the tumultuous waters of love, loyalty, and the inevitable clash of personalities that can arise within families. The story is both humorous and heartfelt, capturing the essence of what it means to belong while also challenging the conventions of traditional family ties. Magee’s engaging writing style keeps readers invested, making it a captivating read that highlights the beautiful messiness of human connections. A perfect choice for anyone looking for a heartfelt story that balances laughter with poignant moments.

I wanted more family drama from It’s All Relative! This is the perfect set up for all the family drama.

That said, this is a Midsummer Nights Dream retelling - which is my favorite Shakespeare play and 100 percent why I picked this book up in the first place. You can feel the ode to Shakespeare in the four grown kids that the book focuses on - Helena, Amelia, Landon and Gage. There’s even a nod to Titania, Queen of the Fairies from the play in Aunt Robyn’s cockatoo.

However, this is marketed as contemporary women’s fiction and I found myself thinking this is more New-Adult fiction, as most of the characters are just starting out and it doesn’t have those hard hitting topics that I think of that would traditionally mark a book as “women’s fiction.”

Overall, this was a pleasurable read and I’m glad I listened to the audiobook; Tanya Eby did a great job with the different POVs.

I hope more authors take note and try more Midsummer Nights Dream retellings!

I haven’t read mid nights summer dream since high school so it was nice to read a retelling of it. It was a quick listen. And the narrators were really good!

Thank you NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for giving me a copy to review.

This was a solid 3 for me. I didn't love or hate it. I was a little bored in the middle so it took me a while to finish it.

Sorry, this one wasn't for me. It was a bit too silly from the start, so I didn't get very far into it.

Meh, this one was okay. It felt like the female main character had some self esteem issues that she really needed to work through on her own. The romance was cute but not enough for me to really get into the story like I wanted to.

Loved this book. Great setting. Great characters. Loved the story and the narrator was great. So relatable and easy to read.

This was such a cute book. You have the perfect family, the perfect best friend, and the perfect klutzy free spirit all brought together in a modern retelling of MidSummer’s Night Dream. Every single character was easy to like, even when being painted as the villain by whichever narrator was speaking. I listened to the audio version and the narration was excellent. If you’re looking for a fun, light romantic comedy, this book is for you!

love this book and the way they twisted/explored the Shakespeare classics. The audio on this was so good and the narration was perfect. I am really picking when it comes to narrators and this one was excellent.
I highly recommend it!

A modern Shakespeare retelling? SIGN ME UP! Having just finished "If We Were Villains" before picking up this book it was interesting to see how Shakespeare inspired another author.

As the book is inspired by Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" you probably will guess how the romance in this book will go on and that our four main characters are basically in love with the wrong person.

The book is told by our four main characters (Amelia, Helena, Landon and Gage) POVs, so it is interesting to see how various characters think and experience life around them. I did have a problem with one of the characters, namely I didn't like Helena too much. She felt a bit childish to me, but I guess that was how she was supposed to be. And by the end, I did think that Landon and Peter would've been a better match than the person that Landon ends up with. Oh well!

All in all, this book was an okay and quick summery romance read, with not much of depth. I'd give it 2.5 stars out of 5. So if you're into that, I would suggest you picking it up.

In short what to expect? Second chance romance, no spice (at all), friends to lovers, multiple POVs, modern retelling, light summery romance.

If you want an easy, quick, character-driven read then I think you'll enjoy this.
I really liked what it was about and seeing the thoughts of Helena and Amelia going into this change in their lives and as much as I wanted to not like Amelia's way of dealing with stuff I have so much empathy for her, I teared up a couple of times. I liked that it had multiple POVs cause it shows how each character can be panicking and all over the place but appear in another POV calm and collected. I liked all of these things and I really wanted it to be a 5 star read but there were a couple of things that affected that like the repetitiveness, how most of the characters lacked depth and the multiple POVs being written in third person. I still enjoyed it and think it's nice tho.
I switched between the e-book and the audiobook, the audiobook was clear and the narrator did a good job but I had some difficulty telling the POVs apart sometimes.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and listen to the advanced audio recording of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Love this book and the modern twist on a Shakespeare classic. I loved this audiobook and hearing the book in the dual pov voices help me visualize the scenes which was an added value to my experience.

It's all relative by Rachel Magee
Narrated by Tanya Eby

Tanya Eby's narration was good, it kept me engaged till the end but I would have loved some different type of narration for every character. That was the only issue I had with audiobook.

This is a rom-com that felt like watching a movie on the screen. There are good things and bad things, and oh I like a cosy rom com for sure, sometimes cheesy but this was too sweet, truth be told. It's a modern retelling of a Shakespearean drama midsummer night's dream.

Helena and Amelia are daughters of the bride and groom and the thing that first put me off was Helena had a crush on Amelia's fiancee. Whatever anyone had to say, I dislike it very much. It's not boyfriend ffs, it's fiancee. Also it was weird that Landon had never asked Helena anything at all about the family her mom was getting married into. That was too unrealistic given that they worked together and in this era with tech we are surrounded with. As story continued, it was getting clearer who was going to end up with whom but I couldn't just digest it. You can't be okay with a long relationship ending in a day. The awkwardness will be too much in reality. It was too far fetched.

The female characters were okay but make characters were almost non existent non influential, expendable, just to show support to the female characters. They had no rage, only love for the respective female characters. That not how real men are.

So as I said it was too sugered up to be real. Apart from that, if you keep all that aside this story was good. A fluffy story to begin with till the end. Good for one time read, also if they ever make movie based on it, I'm definitely gonna watch it because they are my comfort ones.

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas Nelson fiction, Harper Collins Christian publishing for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Book rating : 3.5 stars
Audiobook rating : 4 stars

This family dramedy started off strong for me. A teacher excited for her summer break brings her teacher pal along to her mother's destination wedding where her ex will be in attendance. Sadly I ended up DNFing at about 20% because while I liked the narrator, the story itself felt a bit overly dramatic for my tastes and the plot was a tad predictable. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest opinions. Recommended for fans of movies like The family stone.