Look, this book isn't perfect. The activism in it seems a little performative and I had issues with characters saying racist/homophobic things only for the main character to sound woke whenever she called them out on it. I had issues with the writing style and the lack of plot. However, I also grinned impossibly hard during the first date scene because I just loved Alison and Charlotte together. And I really appreciate this book for having a pansexual character! You rarely see that! (Although I cannot speak for the pan rep, so hopefully there will be some ownvoices reviewers who can speak to that.)

Anyway. This book was cute. It was sweet. Sure, it was plotless and I struggled to get along with Alison the whole time and found that the relationship drama was soooo unnecessary. But I also appreciated this book for what it was: a simple, sweet story about learning to accept that not everything has to be perfect.

Thank you to the publisher for giving me a review copy via Netgalley! It in no way impacted my review or rating of the book :)

-Book Hugger

ARC was provided by NetGalley and Second Story Press in exchanged for an honest review.

This review is being published before the release date (September 22nd, 2020)


Content/Trigger Warnings: Anxiety, minor manipulation, racism, toxic masculinity, internalized homophobia, cultural insensitivity (from the teacher)


Oh jeez, friends... I wish I could say that I enjoyed this book more than what I did, I really do. I have sat on my feelings about this book for a couple of days and I still feel conflicted with this book. Let me start by saying, I love a good retelling and I love, love the fact that this is a retelling of one of my favorite plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream. I mean, who doesn't love a good Shakespeare retelling especially of one of the plays that often gets overlooked? But friends, let's dive into this review and then you'll understand what I mean.


“𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒘𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒆; 𝒋𝒐𝒚’𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒍 𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈.”

- 𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒎 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒆

The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life follows our main character Allison, who desperately wants to end her high school year as Valedictorian. And sometimes when you wish so badly for something, you get roped into co-producing the school's play of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Along the way she'll learn how to balance the show, battle the never ending school working, being a friend to her friends, and possibly find a romance along away that she might not be ready for.

For starters, I love the representation that's in this book. I haven't seen many readers talk about this, but there's a good chunk of diversity within this book. Our main character Allison is lesbian which also leads to our main sapphic romance for this book. We also have a pansexual side and we have a male male side relationship, as well. Plus, there's a Korean-American side character and a Moroccan side character too. I wish there had been just a little more diversity, but overall I think many reader's will appreciate the representation in this book. A side note, there's a male corgi featured in this book and his name is Princess Sunshine!

I also have to talk about family dynamics for a second. Allison's parents are the cutest thing! You all know I'm a sucker for family dynamics and the way family dynamics happen in books. So the fact that Allison's parents are so nice and open minded really warmed my heart. I really appreciate seeing open minded parents in books especially since far too often do I find books where there's a parent or parent that has issues with their children coming out to them. And I think it's so important to show the the positive along with the bad. So I really loved seeing that in this book.

Also, I really loved the newfound family and the way the author shows the importance of friendship throughout this book. This is a dynamic that I really love and I wish books did the found family more often. What I love most about this is the overall setting because I truly believe plays and projects can really bring people closer together. So seeing that in this book and the fact that this book concluded with the found family, it really warmed my heart.


“If you’re going to do a Shakespeare play, it may as well be A Midsummer Night’s Dream, right? I mean, all those crazy love triangles have got to keep the audience interested. She loves him, but he loves her, and they all end up in the woods together with some fairies! The story may be weird, but it’s not boring.”


However, despite all the good thing this book offers, there were a few issues that I couldn't look past. For starters, the main character is supposed to be lesbian and while I know in the real world, no has to use a label if they don't want to. However, I feel like it would have been more beneficial if the main character actually referred to themselves as lesbian more than the three times that I actually saw them referencing themselves as a lesbian. A speaking of representation, I wasn't a fan of the stereotype used for the one character. Using the stereotype of the womanizer for a character only for them to turn out to be a closeted gay just wasn't something I'm a fan of especially the way the sexuality was used as a plot device. And there's also the fact that this character put the openly gay character through absolute hell. All of this felt like a set back of YA to about five-six years ago.

I also had an issue with the the relationship between Allison and Charlotte. Right of the back we're given instant "she's not like other girls" vibes and that is one of the tropes that I'm not the biggest fan of. There was also so much idolization from Allison and how she viewed Charlotte that it was hard to read through at times. We also have the fact that these two characters barely interact and the few times that we do get them interacting, it's mostly through texting. Also, they only go on one date, very instantly lovey vibes, and at some point they have this big fight which felt forced, unnatural, and very unbelievable. And I say this statement because there was hardly any build up that would make us suspect a fight was coming. It got to a point where I just didn't care about them anymore. I found myself more interested in the side characters or how the book would conclude than what would happen with these two characters.

And I have to mention how I wasn't a fan of how self-destructive Allison's character was throughout this book. There are countless moments where she pushed away the people who care about her and then acts shock when those loved ones are mad, upset, or hurt by her. And while I love what rom-coms usually do, the execution of things is what I pay attention to and this wasn't it. The amount of selfishness and self-destructive behavior was so overwhelming that it impacted my mood while reading. It also felt like it dragged the plot into a more negative mood. Not to mention all of this paints Allison in a negative light that can make a reader dislike her or not feel any connection to her character at all.

Overall, this book had a lot of good and a lot of bad. There were things I loved and thing I wished were given more time to be developed or flushed out a little better. I recognize that this is a debut novel by this author so I hope my critique of this book was fair and highlights everything, both good and bad. I think many readers who love retellings and rom-coms will enjoy this book. And if sounds like a book that might be down your reading genre, I definitely recommend giving it a try!


The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

I received this book as an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

This book follows Alison Green as she navigates high school as a lesbian while also trying to produce her high school’s play, oh and she wants to be valedictorian.

This book was not as great as then blurb made it sound. It felt like it was written by an adult that thinks they really know teens but missed some marks. I was super disappointed with how sexuality was handled and it did not feel authentic.
Additionally the pacing of this book wasn’t great. We spent a ton of time pre-play production and then BAM all of a sudden it was show night. I would loved some more of the middle parts.

I love everything to do with theatre! Especially Shakespeare and especially especially his comedies.
So I was really very excited to read this book and dove right in.

Sadly, I have to admit that it fell a bit flat for me. I felt like Alison was a bit one note and I couldn't quite connect with her, mainly because for most of the book I felt like all I knew about her was that she's gay and wants to be valedictorian really badly. She also seemed a bit unremarkable to me and I wasn't quite sure why she was the protagonist.

A lot of the characters were simply a stereotype: Goth girl, who only broods and wears dark make up and is rude and makes art, the stylish gay who is costume designer, the macho who tries to hide the fact that he's actually gay, the cool punk-y girl who is a rebel and of course queer and so on and so on.

The fact that Alison and Charlotte actually form a connection also felt a bit random as I failed to see any chemistry between them. I don't even quite know why Alison developed the crush in the first place except for that Charlotte is pretty and has a tattoo.

I also felt that the storyline was a little predictable and everyone felt much younger than their actual age. But I don't mean to say that I disliked this book because I didn't. It has some flaws that irked me but it was an easy and quick read and I am sure that quite a lot of people will enjoy this.

Cute & quirky. High school depiction had some flaws. Protagonist’s challenges reveal the reality of life beyond the facades high schoolers so carefully construct. However, the portrayal of LBGTQ characters seems to be a bit stilted and one-dimensional. The idea was good, but the execution got lost somewhere in the process.

2.5 stars

I'm a bit disappointed. I was enjoying this. I liked the characters and A Midsummer Night's Dream is always an entertain backdrop. But the ending let me down and I didn't feel like there was a proper resolution for Alison (I feel like all the other characters had good mini arcs and solid moments). This is definitely my own bias coming in but Alison mellowing out wasnt satisfying for me. I wish there would've been more a focus on balancing school and personal life instead of her just apologizing and saying she's changed. It just seemed like such a big part of her character and her journey. And by the epilogue her realizing she doesnt have to be so focused on Valedictorian is supposed to be a cathartic end to her storyline but I wish it would've been that she still wants it but learned how to balance her social and academic life. That would've felt fresh and inspiring to me. You can grow and develop as a person without changing or sacrificing things and i think this was a missed opportunity to highlight that. Overall this wasn't bad. There were actually a lot of good moments I actively enjoyed but the ending just wasn't satisfying for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Secondary Story Press for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review. This book sounded adorable when I stumbled across it on NetGalley, but to be honest it took me awhile to really become interested in the story. Once I did though it was a very cute story and our main character, Allison was very endearing. I was particularly interested in this book when I saw that it centered around a F/F romance because I don’t feel like that’s represented enough within the book community. The romance however wasn’t that great and wasn’t that prominent in the story. At it’s core this book was about Allison coming to terms with who she is and growing as a person. There was a lot of diversity in this book, unfortunately it felt forced and like the author had thrown it in at the last minute for the sake of being diverse. It just fell flat it that department, which is disappointing. The other issue I had is that the ending fell flat for me in the sense that everything was wrapped up very nicely and quickly. There was also the conflict in regards to the phone call that never really got addressed, that aspect of the plot felt pointless for that reason.

As I said above though, this story is mainly about Allison growing as a person and I think that’s what makes this book enjoyable and just an all-around cute and fast paced read. I loved getting to see her not only realize her flaws, but come to accept them. This book would’ve been a four-star book if the romance had felt more organic and had been touched on more throughout the story. This is because the was marketed in a way that made that made it seem like the romance was a crucial part of the story and it wasn’t.

This was such a sweet, funny book! Al (Alison) is struggling with producing her school’s play, figuring out dating her crush, and how to stay on track for becoming valedictorian. This book shows how to balance a busy senior year in a great, humorous way. The writing is great, characters are believable. Great story! This rom-com is a bonus for anyone who is a techie in theatre!

"Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing."

'The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life' was a cute read. I liked that it was focused on theater, which I don't think happens very often in YA. I wasn't in a theater group in high school, but because of this book, I wish I was. It seems like so much fun!
Her friend Becca was probably my favorite character. She's very supportive and seemed to care a lot about Alison.
I'm also happy that this is a f/f romance. I don't read enough of those.

"I wanted people to think I had everything under control."
The phrase above really spoke to me. In this day and age it sometimes feels like you HAVE to be okay and to be outstanding. When you feel like you're not doing okay, you pretend to be.
It was very nice to see someone else say it.

"You can't order someone to have fun, can you?"

Sadly it took me a while to get into the story and to like the main character. Alison has a habit of minding everyone's business, when she had a lot of things to do herself.
For example during the scene where Alison invited a third person on a date. This part annoyed me so much! It really made me dislike the character.

The relationship felt very flat. Maybe it should've happened sooner, so that the author could really develop the relationship more. I also didn't really like that the MC needed to be "more out". I don't think that you can expect that from someone. Let them be as out as they want to be.

Omg, this is such a fun book. Cute and adorable. You keep rooting for Alison's (our main character's) problems to solve till the end!

Just read and smile and have a good time!

Meh, I expected more. I was a theatre kid in high school (still am) and I'm a Shakespeare nerd so I was hoping I'd love this. Not so much.

Who puts a high school kid in charge of producing a show? I know she was "tricked" into doing more work, but this was a little far fetched for a contemporary book. Also, are there schools in which teachers decide who should be valedictorian? Is it not based on grades everywhere? I'm so confused.

The characters were kind of flat and the conflicts were a little rushed for me. They were over as soon as they began and they really weren't that important. I guess that's a bit more representative of the high school age but it still didn't pull me in.

As for what I did like, I liked that kids were discussing their sexualities and they were accepting of each other. I think that's something that needs to be normalized so kids feel comfortable talking about it.

Overall, not a win for me.

This is a cute story about an overachiever and her search for balance. I found the characters mostly likeable, though as always, adult me cringed a number of times at the teen choices.

Things I liked: relatable characters, good depiction of real life

Things I didn't like: some characters felt inauthentic, the drama teacher

Overall it was a story that kids might like, so I am considering adding it to my classroom.

*advance copy via Netgalley*

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
2.5 Stars

My Goodreads review is linked down below.

The Year Shakespeare Ruined my Life is a story about Alison, a young girl desperately vying for her high school's valedictorian position. She manages to get roped into producing the school's play during her senior year. Alison struggles with balancing the school play, romance, and her school work in this coming-of-age YA novel.

I did enjoy this book for it's light-hearted and wholesome feel to it. The LGBTQ representation and the various different character's ethnicities was a great addition as well. These two reasons together were what made me fly through the book. However, reading this book, I did get a lot of secondhand embarassment with the choices the main character chose throughout. There were times where I had to put the book down in frustration because some of the things Alison did were so easily fixed by just being honest with the people around her. I found myself constantly wishing she would just open her eyes a little and just pay attention to the people in her life.

Most of the characters were a little one-note as well. The only characters that I felt really had any personality besides just their stereotyped behavior was the younger sister and the love interest. At times, I wished the story was told through the love interest's point of view, because she seemed more interesting than Alison was. I think this was due to the language in this book being very simplistic, which didn't allow for any of the characters to get any real time for their personalities to shine through.

The way Alison's queerness was explored was nice, it did feel very realistic to a young lesbian's experience in high school and the romance within the book felt appropriate and sweet. However, I did wish their relationship was explored a little further. One thing that did bother me was that Alison did not call herself a lesbian, instead using "gay". A small tidbit that could have made a lot of difference for a young lesbian reader who may read this.

Overall, this story was a fun read but I found the characters to be a little one-note and the plot was thin. I really enjoyed the idea behind this book, I just wish it was executed a little better.

For as long as she's known the meaning of the word Alison has been determined to become class valedictorian and she will stop at nothing to achieve that goal. So when a teacher asks her to co-produce the school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream she jumps at the chance to gain brownie points with the faculty and pad the extracurricular section of her college applications. This proves to be the first mistake in a string of many as she comes to realize that not only does she not know anything about the theater, but the teacher has tricked her & she is on her own as producer.

I requested this one from Netgalley strictly due to the fact that I abhor Shakespeare and expected to be able to commiserate with our MC. However Shakespeare wasn't really the problem in this story,, youth, inexperience and ego were the real villians here. Alison just couldn't seem to get out of her own way for most of the book which resulted in a comedy of errors. This is a cute lgbtq+ YA story about the perils of perfectionism that I think is best suited to the younger YA crowd, maybe 13-16 year olds.

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

This review in its entirety can be found on my Goodreads by using the link below

[3.5]
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review. The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life follows our main character Alison as she is roped into producing the school play her senior year. This year it's A Midsummer Nights Dream, and Alison, aiming at being valedictorian, is desperate to make it the best show ever.

What really spoke to me about this one was that it felt like a coming of age story. Throughout the book there was a lighthearted tone immersed in everything that made me fly through the story. It really echoed something that could be seen on screen. Of course there were moments that the main character made questionable choices that impacted the people around her, which was hard to read at times. I wouldn't say that I disliked Alison. In fact, there were points in the story where I could see myself in her, but that just made it all the more worse when she threw a wrecking ball into her life. The side characters too, were amazing, but they needed more time on the page for me to care about them more. Therein lies my main problem I had with this book, that everything felt too superficial and not rooted in anything steadfast. Certain problems would arise and then just as quickly be glazed over or fixed immediately, and the characters didn't feel important enough. There didn't seem to be enough evidence of how Shakespeare was ruining her life. Maybe the whole point was that the experience changed her for the better as shown in the epilogue, however, there was both not enough and too much focus on the play without giving enough to everything else. It would have been nice to see more scenes of being in class and interacting with her friends and family. I definitely enjoyed this one despite the few issues I had with it. If you're looking for a engaging read that doesn't leave you feeling overly affected by it, then give this one a try. It's entertaining and won't ask too much in exchange.

For this #yanovel I decided to read other reviews before making mine to make sure I wasn’t alone in my ⭐️⭐️⭐️ review. The plot is cute and when compared to the 90s teen romcom movies I love, it’s not far fetched. Yet something is lacking and the reader doesn’t connect with the main character and there’s no opportunity to connect with other characters. Most of the teachers introduced lack authority and the school doesn’t seem to respect extracurricular activities. I tried to imagine reading it as a high school student and I think I would have enjoyed it, but it would not have me reaching for the author’s next book. 📚📚📚 #netgalley #netgalleyreview #bookreview #shakespeare #lgbtqteens #teenromance

First things first, I'm so glad that more books are showcasing LGBTQ+ characters as the lead and the romantic interest. This has been a trend I've seen in the past year and I'm loving the representation!

Honestly, I was just a little bored. I liked the story concept and I liked most of the plot points, but the execution seemed too simplistic for me. The language was very simple, even for a YA book ("I did this... then I did this..."), and while there was drama in the book, it was very muted.

I think the biggest thing that got me though was that even though there was a lot of positive talk about coming out, it seemed like people just came out and that was that. I know not everyone has a negative experience, but I do think it's important to touch on the negative experiences that people can have, especially in books meant for young adults who are in a time in their life where either they may be questioning their identify or a friend may be. Books can be great resources to learn how to support someone who is going through the process of discovering their identity and they can also be great resources to learn how to support someone who's true identity may not be welcome in their home or school.

All in all, it was an easy and quick read, but I didn't gain much from the content.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book!

Cute is the first word that comes to mind when thinking about this book. The story is so adorable and heartwarming and I loved the representation of LGBTQ+ characters and different ethnicities.

I liked the main character, I found her relatable and down to heart. I enjoyed reading about her, through all of her worries and mistakes, and seeing her growth through the pages.
I really liked the side characters as well, though they weren’t much developed; however the interactions between them and Alison were really cute.

The romance aspect felt exactly like a cute first-time-falling-in-love relationship between teenagers, with the plus point that it was LGBTQ+ representation, and as someone who doesn’t encounter such themes often, I appreciated the freshness and the bubbly happy feelings it brought to me.

I felt that the story was a bit rushed at times, there were some plot points that were first brought up and then let go without going deeper. Besides that, it was an easy read, the plot flows well and I basically devoured it in two days. I am really happy that I got the chance to read it, and I would like to recommend it to anyone searching for a cute and fluffy coming-of-age kind of story.

Great concept. Lots of flaws.

I had a lot of issues with this book like forced coming-outs, awkward pacing, and unrealistic scenarios. (Although for the latter, the author did say: "If there's anything in the book that doesn't seem believable, the fault is mine" so I'm not too worked up about that) Despite the many things I disliked or that stressed me out, I loved the literature references and the different kinds of representation! My favourite character is the love interest, I've been in love with her myself from chapter 1 and I wish the book could have been told through her POV!

For a debut, this was okay. I'm expecting great things in the future from this author so I hope she improves some things in a possible second book!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advanced copy of “The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life” by Dani Jansen. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

This title is misleading. Shakespeare isn’t to blame here, Alison does a fine job of “ruining” her life all by herself. All the hardships that come Alison’s way are a result of her lack of backbone, her lies, and her complete avoidance of any conflict. I kept waiting for the big blow up when Alison would finally have to face the consequences of her actions but I was let down.

All we know about Alison is that she wants to be valedictorian, but we’re given no reason to root for her success. Alison was not a character I was pulling for in any aspect of the story. I didn’t get to know any of the characters as they had no depth. Everyone was a cardboard cutout stereotype that could be identified with minimal traits. There weren’t the usual stereotypical high school cliches so there was some diversity but the author somehow managed to make these diverse characters fall flat. There is also a creepy male character who is basically the “bully who is secretly gay” trope which doesn’t make all his objectifying the female characters suddenly redeemed just because he’s gay.

The teachers were all terrible role models. The one who is meant to be overseeing the play dumps all responsibility on Alison and bounces. She’s never heard from again and receives no consequences for this. The other teachers know this has happened, but don’t try to step in. As part of running the play, Alison will also be handling money but she’s never supervised or checked up on by the principal or anyone. Then there’s the theater teacher directing the play (at least until he joins to cast when one of the actors drops out and then makes Alison shoulder his previous responsibilities as well). During a painfully racist moment (played off as him being just so clueless) Alison doesn’t use her white privilege to correct the teacher and instead assumes her non-white friend should be the one to step in and set the man straight. We have Alison’s thoughts so we know she knows the man is in the wrong, but she refuses to say anything and tries to nudge her non-white friend into confronting their teacher.

Alison is also a terrible friend. She messes up over and over hurting her friends and family. They get mad at her for a few pages but then they just get over it even when they see her do the same thing to everyone around her. Alison has no power of self-reflection and is such a spineless, conflict-avoidant, people-pleaser that she is constantly letting everyone down rather than standing up for herself and the people she supposedly cares about.

There’s a f/f romance but since we know nothing about the characters, there’s no reason to pull for them. Alison is obsessed with Charlotte and then blames her when Alison’s obsession distracts her from things like schoolwork and disappointing her family when she blanks on important events and schedules a date for the same night. Alison also belittles things Charlotte cares about, constantly making fun of Charlotte’s pet corgi. Who hates corgis?!

The ending was rushed and I was annoyed and let down that Alison still didn’t have any self-reflection. There wasn’t the big blow up I was expecting where Alison would have to finally face all the hurt she caused. Going back to the title I now see it sets the tone for the whole book. I think we were meant to see Alison as the victim, but the only person she had to blame for her hardships was herself.

1/5 stars