I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
A cute and fluffy YA romance. The writing is good and the characters interesting.
At times the MC is very, very intense which made for some awkward reading
Also some of the events were unrealistic.
On the whole, a good book.

Cute YA love story. Was kinda mad at the adults within the story, how did they let things get so out of hand?? I mean, I knew it had to happen for the story to progress I guess but still, it was a bit overboard. Other than that, really enjoy the book.

*Dnf *
I really wanted to like this book because i'm a shakespeare fan but i just couldn't. I think it was not for me.

This was definitely a fun read. It was light and fluffy while still talking about being a teen lesbian and what being out means. My primary issue was that the story itself was built on a lot of clichés and a formula expected for YA books, and it made the story a bit underwhelming.

I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately I could not get into it. I do not think this was the one for me. The premise was super interesting, but towards the end to me it just fell apart.

I really enjoyed this one. It had a lot of great humor and diverse characters. The representation was super fun but I had one major issue that kind of hurt the book for me.

A major theme is the pressure to come out and I'm not here for that. No one should be pressuring anyone to come out, ever. Coming out is already hard and stressful, and the added pressure Allison must have felt when her best friend pressured her would have been awful. Come out when you want to come out.. Come out for you and for nobody else. If that theme hadnt been present I wouldve rated 4 stars.

I identified so closely with this book - Shakespeare has probably ruined quite a few years of my life at this point. Highly recommend for a LGBTQIA+ friendly read. I devoured it.

THE YEAR SHAKESPEARE RUINED MY LIFE , is a cute, relatable, coming of age story that involves Alison, a wishful teen in love, looking for the right path…that may or may not involve a crush she has? Alison’s character brought me back to high school when we all had a crush in school. Everything time I’d see him, butterflies would flutter in my stomach, I’d make sure I smiled at him. There wasn’t an emotion that didn’t rush through my mind and heart. Alison was a very relatable character.

There was a romance subplot, which I always love. There are some reviewers who don’t think every story should have a romance. However, I’m different. I truly love when someone feels such a powerful force for another person that he/she/they go after their “true love”…it’s magical! I do have to say that Charlotte wasn’t as fully developed as Alison, BUT I still enjoyed her character. Alison and Charlotte made me think of Simon and Bram from LOVE, SIMON.

I was very happy to see some LGBTQIA+ representation in this book. There is a lesbian main character, a pansexual love interest, and other characters who are a part of the LGBTQIA+ community. There’s also Korean-American and Moroccan-American characters. I loved the diversity in Dani’s book. If you’re looking for a fun, easy read, and you enjoyed LOVE, SIMON, then you should pick up a copy of Dani’s book THE YEAR SHAKESPEARE RUINED MY LIFE. The book links are listed below!!!!!!

The story of Alison Green is a fun one that cheered me up big time! Mixing teenage struggles with a production of A Midsummer Night´s Dream and young queerness brings this fun book to readers. The teen characters in this book acted like teens and came off as natural and mostly relatable to young readers. Though I didn´t like Allison herself for most of the story, I enjoeyed her relationship with Charlotte and Zack, but all in all I wished they would have developed Allison more and digged deeper into her character. Nonetheless, this book is very enjoyable!

"I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."
This was a cute middle grade story. Well written and humorous. I liked the growth of the main character and the value of friendship.

In this book you will find:

✓ YA fiction novel⁠
✓ fairly diverse characters⁠
✓ valedictorian wannabe heroine⁠
✓ LGBTQ+ ⁠love story
✓ high school theatre play
✓ best friends drama
✓ corgis


The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life was definitely not my book but I’m thankful for having had the chance to read it and finally realising that I’ve kind of outgrown YA. I don’t know if any of you know what I’m talking about but I’d love to share the experience with someone and talk about it.

The high school drama was a bit too much for me, the insecurities and Alison’s hero journey felt overused. By the end of the book, I was annoyed by her behaviour. I feel like I’ve read too many books already with the same plot (which could be the reason why I didn’t like this one much). The only thing that was different this time was the lesbian relationship. That alone is not little, but still not enough to make the book worthy for me. The writing was not that exceptional. I kind of felt like the supporting characters were all more mature than Alison & I think I liked most of them. It may sound like I’m being mean or hating on the book, but that’s not what I’m trying to do. I just really wasn’t impressed by almost anything and was literally in a rush to finish it, so I could start something interesting. I hate not finishing books.

To end on a positive note, there were a few things I liked, but beware! they include spoilers:

- Charlotte(‘s vibe)
- The development between Jack and Becca
- Princess Sunshine the corgi
- Alison’s supportive parents

though a bit juvenile, a good fun time!!! very cute and definitely something I would recommend to a younger reader who hasn't read a lot of young adults. All Shakespeare references were very fun!

I am sad that this book did not resonate with me. The word choice was my main issue. It felt like the author sat there with a thesaurus and just threw in words that are not commonly used. To me this is off putting, I would prefer common words with a good plot to than unusual and a boring plot. This sadly fits into that second group. I love the cover though.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

When I started this book it was a little slow paced for me but, it certainly picked up quickly and I fell in love with all the characters.
Al is a perfectionist who can't seem to stop getting in the way of other peoples personal lives and makes quite a mess out of her own life. Overtime she learns that she can't keep hiding things from others and needs to come out with it when she makes a mistake because not everyone is perfect.

I love ALLLLL of the LGBT+ rep in this book, there was a lot more than I thought there was and it just wove in and out of the book so well.

I am left with a question though....does she become valedictorian!?! I need to know!!!

Alison Green, desperate valedictorian-wannabe, agrees to produce her school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. That's her first big mistake. The second is accidentally saying Yes to a date with her oldest friend, Jack, even though she's crushing on Charlotte.

To hop on the trend of fluffy YA contemporary, sometimes with an added sprinkle of LGBT+, I decided to give this book 'The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life' by Dani Jansen a go. It didn't disappoint in that aspect! In fact, I think it was just that. A kind of cute contemporary that dramatises what high school/senior school is supposed to be like aimed at a lower YA audience.

This book is about a high school girl with a goal, and how she overcommits in order to achieve it ending up with a Shakespearean play on her hands. It’s fun and the author clearly understands how to make the interactions just the right kind of awkward. I adored the sweet relationship Alison has with her sister and her best friend (she is kind of different, not all touchy-feely but still caring in that grumpy way I swear only teenagers can be). I also really appreciated how Alison changed and learned from her mistakes during the arch of the book, promptly making other mistakes thinking she knew better.
The only thing I felt was off, and that may be of less importance for other readers, is how little in the end I understood or knew Alison’s love interest. The set up was cute but honestly, a cute dog can’t be the whole premise of a possible relationship.
I would certainly recommend this book to someone younger, maybe in their high-school years.

I like that it include LGBT but it is very middle school vibes. It’s not the best written as it is just middle school ish and I feel like I could write something like this. I like the characters they’re very stereotypical but it’s not too bad.

I can not comment on this because of my Florida Teens Read Committee but I did recommend it for our list for consideration.

Content/Trigger Warnings: Anxiety, racism, toxic masculinity, internalized homophobia, cultural insensitivity

This is Dani Jansen debut novel m, and I really enjoyed it. I love that this is a retelling of one of my favorite plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The story follows Allison, who will stop at nothing to be valedictorian. When a teacher asks her to produce this years theatre production, she jumps at the opportunity. She soon finds out that producing a play is much more challenging then she anticipated.

There is actually a lot of diversity in this book. The main character Allison is lesbian and she has her first sapphic relationship. The romance was actually really sweet. We also have a pansexual side character, along side a Korean-American side character and a Moroccan side character. I do think the characters could have used a little more fleshing out, like what are there interests and give me some reasons to root for them.

I really love how friendship played such an important role in the story. Allison has such amazing friends who will give up there free time to help her with projects.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel. For a debut it was a super cute story, and I recommend if your looking for fun quick read.