Blurb: “Alison Green, desperate Valedictorian-wannabe, agrees to produce her school’s disaster-prone production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her second big mistake is accidentally saying yes to a date with her oldest friend, Jack, even though she’s crushing on Charlotte, the star of the play.”

Meh. This was fine, but I’m not sure I’d recommend the audiobook. I wasn’t a fan of the narrator, and that can easily ruin a book for me. I hate to say I didn’t like the book because I might have had a different experience if I read it.

Thanks to @NetGalley and Second Story Press + ECW Press Audio for my ARC!

DNF 60%

It had some really good references and funny jokes, but just that. I didn't care about the characters so much

I really enjoyed The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life, it was exactly as advertised and extremely charming. It tells the story of Alison Green, who’s been trying to become Valedictorian ever since she knew what one was. In her bid to please a teacher and to pad her academic resume, she agrees to help produce her high school’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream but quickly learns she’s bit off more than she can chew managing what her sister dubs Ye Olde Shakespearean Disaster. The one bright spot to this Shakespearean mess is that this gives her the perfect excuse to see more of Charlotte, the captivating lead whom Alison is desperately hoping is also into girls. Navigating her love life, the high school play from hell, her studies, and her friends may be more than Alison can handle but she’ll be damned if she won’t give it her all and learn to lean into the weirdness and go with the flow.
There is so much to love in this book but my favorite is the relationship between Alison and Charlotte. They were just so cute. From Alison’s complete state of flusterment at the beginning to the way they grew and learned to communicate with each other, it was lovely to see. I am a sucker for WLW romances in YA but ones as nuanced as this are especially nice. I also really loved Alison and Annie. There are so many books where the siblings are very much tertiary characters, almost like stage dressings but Annie and Allison’s relationship as sisters felt fleshed out and explored and, as a sister myself, it was nice to see. I also had a lot of fun reading about Alison and Becca and how very much Harvey the car felt like its own character. Alison’s car surfing scene was a favorite of mine.
Overall, The Year Shakespeare Ruined my Life felt populated and real with many complex relationships and I loved all the queer rep especially, it did my heart so good. So to all the young overachievers and the high school LGBTQA kids and the theater kids and Shakespeare nerds and lovers of misfits, I say, go forth and enjoy this wonderful and fun book. It’s such a lovely time!

I really enjoyed the way this coming of age story was executed, and there were a few moments that touched me and I felt I resonated really deeply with it. however, everything felt very surface level, and while an easy read is always enjoyable, there was just something about this that was too easy.

This was an all-around okay book! I definitely enjoyed my time reading it, but it’s not one I would scream about from the rooftops about how amazing it is. It was an easy reading experience that put a smile on my face, and had the best character of Princess Sunshine.

This book didn't work for me. I found it too juvenile and overly dramatic. I love middle grade books but this is a YA and it felt way younger with how the characters acted. I wasn't invested in the characters' lives and not much in the story either. I read really fast some parts just to know how it was going to end. I really wanted to like this because the concept sounded really cute.

Name of the book : The year Shakespeare ruined my life
Author : Dani Jansen
Publisher : Second Story
Number of pages : 295
Rep : Lesbian, Pansexual

The year Shakespeare ruined my life I s a fun, light young adult contemporary novel about a high school student named Alison, who desperately wants to become a valedictorian at the end of the year. When she is roped into co producing A Midsummer Night's Dream, she has to learn to balance theatre, her school work, her friends, family and a potential romance.

Alison's interactions with her friends and her sister were my favourite parts of the novel. Alison is salty at times, makes terrible mistakes but also learn from them. The novel is full of heartache, laughter and rewarding outcomes.

Though the ending was a bit rushed, I enjoyed reading this coming of age debut of high school crushes, academic life, first dates, awkward teenage moments, angsty teen relations and being fully out to the world in one's own terms and conditions.

Dani Jansen is indeed an author to look out for!

DNF. I just could not get into this book. I gave up after 50 pages. I just didn’t like the story. It didn’t feel like real teenagers in high school. It just didn’t feel realistic.

2.75 stars.
On one hand, this was nice and easy read wich i appriciate and really like in some books but on one hand, i was annoyed with the main character, Alison so so much. She did so much shitty things, pushed so many people away - yes, i get it. Things aren`t always easy to navigate and when one is stressed one can end up lashing out. But, there is a but yes: Very quickly the thing she did was accsepted, forgiven and moved on with very quickly. Jack - he was extremely kind and accsepting and just went with it even though he did ask her out and Alison acted shitty. Alison acted shitty to her sister, Becca and Charlotte too, but there it also was quickly brushed over and that annoyed the hell out of me. Sometimes it felt like Alison did not see what she did wrong... just ugh. Many of the teachers were so nice and interesting, i would have liked to read more about Mr. Evans, his past with the theathre group and just generally his past. Alison had her okay moments, but i did not feel like she had a very big character development in the story... i wish we could have seen more that she actually understood what she did wrong, and yes she sometimes tried to talk to them and wouldn`t leave, but still, it was forgiven, looked over and moved on too quickly.

This book was really good. It exceeded my expectations. I loved the character development we saw and definitely think it deserves more hype

That was just so cute! I genuinely don't know if I have any other words to describe this. It's basically exactly all that it promises to be: a very cute YA read, including some great friendships, a quite enjoyable plot set around a school play, and a non-sexualized, genuinely cute and romantic, wlw romance!! I didn't remember from the synopsis of the book that our main character is a lesbian, so you can only imagine my excitement when I started reading it and, very quickly, realized that I was finally about to get an adorable wlw YA romance, where no one dies, there's no added drama, and the whole story doesn't revolve around a coming out moment. The author is bi herself and, honestly, you can tell. And you can tell because her queer women are depicted with an authenticity, a sensitivity, and genuine nuance that could only come from a person who can personally relate to their experiences, their feelings, and their struggles.

While the romance was a big part of why I enjoyed this book - and yes, I do wish I had a book like that when I was in high school - I was also a big fan of the friendships we got to explore in the course of the book. I seriously liked Becca, and was also a big fan of Jack. I think the only character that left me wanting more was Ben, who I thought would have been a much better character if he was just depicted as Alison's "academic rival" and not... well, that. I just think it would have been a bit more realistic if he wasn't an outright jackass, and was shown to be a more well-rounded character from the beginning.

Apart from Ben and his depiction, I thought the book was actually quite realistic in the way it depicted teenagers and their behaviour. Is Alison a good main character? Yes. Does she make really stupid decisions and mistakes because she is a teenager? Also yes. None of the characters were perfect and, for me, they all behaved like genuine teenagers, making mistakes, assuming things, occasionally even being stupid. But they were a lot of fun to read.

** An ARC was provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. **

Reading this book was like getting a cozy, warm hug from a loved one; it lightens your mood and makes you feel good.

All the characters stand out in their own manner. Alison is wonderful in the lead. I loved her strive to be perfect in whatever she did. Similarly, I loved her family too. It was so endearing to read how supportive her parents and Annie are of her. Also, Charlotte is amazing and I loved her relationship with Alison. Moreover, the author develops some of the characters nicely that changed my perspective of them. For instance, I really disliked Ben in the beginning, but as the story progressed, I started to like him too.

At the same time, the author also wrote the story in such a humorous, feel-good, and quirky manner. I loved the overall theme to try your best, but it is OK if you are not perfect and make mistakes along the way. Similarly, there are so many moments that I just adored in the story. Jack and Alison sharing a date with Becca, Alison consoling Ben, the theater mafia, and of course the entire setup of the school play. I also laughed out loud during the warm-up exercises.

However, my only minor gripe is that there is a lot happening, so we don’t go deeper with the characters. For example, I thought Zach and Jenny were interesting, but they came only for a few minutes. Even Becca and Jack are prominent in the beginning but are hardly seen in the second half. The story would have been perfect if the author focused more on the characters.

Overall, I loved reading this book! It made me want to pick up A Midsummer Night’s Dream and read it.

Special thank to Netgalley for providing the eARC if this title. ‘The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life’ by Dani Jansen is an exciting story about a group of high schoolers putting on a play at their school. After unexpectedly being out of charge of the school play her senior year, Alison must figure out how to handle business on and off stage while dealing with friendships, a sassy younger sister, crushes, and understanding Shakespeare. This book was full of loveable characters, relatable high school drama, and theater hijinks.

Boasted to be a LGBTQIA+ book, and it just felts like it was using that to gain popularity in that genre. I know I am not the target audience for this book, but it truly missed the mark.

This is a relatively light-hearted read and for the most part I did enjoy it. Most of the characters felt very realistic to the high school setting and the theatre storyline was really detailed. I'm a theatre kid at heart so I loved the amount of focus that the theatre had in this book and it really helped me connect to the characters.

Unfortunately this was the only connection I could find, while the characters were realistic a lot of the side characters felt quite similar to read and I'm not sure I could totally tell you who was who at the end of it. I also felt that the coming out storyline could have been handled in a better way as it felt a bit unresolved.

I would still recommend this to YA readers but not necessarily to readers who are looking for a diverse read.

I spent a lot of time relating to Alison. She was awkward around her crush and often made missteps but with good intentions. She is one of those people that have a goal and do everything within their power to accomplish that goal even if sometimes that might be detrimental to herself. This is a cute book and the voice it gives to teens who are LGBTQ+ is important because not every experience is the same. There is no rule book on being who you are and how to navigate those around you who may or may not have a reaction to you simply being who you are. I would definitely recommend this book to others to read, especially teenage readers. I did hope for a little more Shakespeare though especially since A Midsummer’s Night Dream is my favorite play.

It's taken me a little bit to get to this book, but I was excited when I finally go to it. Unfortunately, I was a little letdown. Don't get me wrong this was a solid 3 star read, but the description had me thinking it would be a bit more than that. I needed to manage my expectation better.
I did love how much representation is in this book. It's awesome to see a book filled with it as I feel like there isn't enough of it. Give me more of this!!
What fell flat for me was the romance. I couldn't connect with Charlotte and Allison's romance, or for me it felt like a forced romance. Not in the sense it was actually forced, but it just lacked something. It liked a little sparkle especially since it was a new romance.
Also, it must be noted there were a lot of stereotypes or cliches about sexuality and what one should look like or act like based on their sexuality or attitude. I understand that there are a lot of these in high schools, and since the story takes place in high school it does make some sense to include such things. I just found it a bit overwhelming at times.
It's a cute book. It isn't great, but it isn't horrible. And while this book may have been average for me it may work for others.

This book had a lot of potential, and I did appreciate the LGBT representation in a young adult book. Sadly, this book just did not work for me. While I thought the book was well written, I realized as I read that I am not the target demographic for this book, nor did I really enjoy the story. It is marketed as a young adult book, but is felt more of a middle grades/middle school book. Many of the characters felt to me that they were stereotypes of how people act in high school. I really wanted to like this book, and thought the premise sounded interesting. Unfortunately, this was just not the book for me.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Objectively, this book was fairly poor. The writing was meh, the characters were very basic and the plot points were extremely predictable and typical. But I still enjoyed my time reading it.

♡ Allison was a good narrator and I also love that she was a lesbian because I don't think there are enough lesbian protagonists in normal teen romances. I liked her friendship with Becca and also with her sister Annie.

♡ The addition of it being about theatre didn't really appeal to me because I'm not a theatre kid. I don't mind Shakespeare though. But it was a fun way of bringing an unsuspecting cast of characters together to create drama.

♡ The budding romance between Charlotte and Allison was cute but sort of cringey.

O V E R A L L
I think it's just very obvious that this was a debut but there isn't anything wrong with that. I'm glad that the market is now more open to sapphic teen romances rather than just straight romances and this is for sure a step in the right direction.

This was overall a fun, quick read, however some of the content surrounding the love interest declaring that the other needed to come out before they could be together for real did not particularly highlight the story for me in terms of LGBT representation. While our MC does not seem to be too bothered by this, it still came actress as wrongful pressure to come out when no one can know when you are ready for that, and it invalidates the character. This trend followed with the best friends, who is straight, pressuring her to come out again to her parents. Otherwise, the story felt slightly younger and maybe would have been better for a younger audience in my opinion. I did enjoy the books humor and lighthearted moments a lot. I found the ending felt rushed and I would have liked to see the characters more than the abrupt resolution. If you like slightly melodramatic, funny contemporary stories then you will enjoy this!