3.75 stars

Such a great coming of age story!!!
The things our main characters had to go through, the ups and downs. The heartbreak and happy moments. Everything was so wonderful.
I loved her family dynamic, her sister was such an adorable character, also her parents were amazing and so supportive! It was a lovely story to read.
The only thing I didn't like was the drama teacher... what a crappy teacher!!!! Everything else was super enjoyable.

This is a truly wonderful book. The characters had a wonderful backstory and a few had quite surprising secrets.

Alison Green, a wannabe school valedictorian takes on the role of "Co-Producing" the schools play 'A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM' only when the teacher she is supposed to be co producing the performance pulls out. Alison is left to pick up the pieces of crew fallouts, keeping the set artist happy, dealing with her crush on Charlotte (one of coolest people in her year) and helping Ben who reveals a surprising secret to everyone. As well as trying to produce the show on meer peanuts, due to an issue with the director/fill - in actor., and accidentally saying yes to a date with her best friend Jack, when one of Alison's other friends actually really likes him, just to complicate everything by 1000x.

Overall a truly wonderful read and one of the most fun and light hearted books I have read in a while. High praise to Dani Jansen.

This is a cute and relatable book about an anxious over-achiever who gets roped into producing a school play, and the antics (including a cute f/f romance) that ensue. She learns to stretch herself and accept imperfection in herself and others, and it’s really sweet along the way.

The MC’s anxiety and stress is v well-done. The depiction of the time spent by an anxious person during the time between technically coming about and feeling ok actually really dating/being emotionally vulnerable was, whew. Very relatable to me.

Unfortunately, it is also very stressful. It’s very in the spirit of Shakespearean comedies — it’s basically a comedy of errors, but I was STRESSED every time the MC made a plan to do two things at once or did a ridiculous and cringey set-up. Luckily that kind of stuff peaked around the middle, and the last 25% or so it was very sweet and cute, and the stakes weren’t actually THAT high, so I’d still ultimately recommend it.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

As a theatre kind turned theatre teacher and professional, right when I saw this title I knew I had to read it. The cover is also really cute as well!

Overall I thought that this was an easy and fun read, if not a bit predictable. I personally really enjoyed the friendship dynamic between Alison, Annie, and Becca as well as the fact that Alison and Annie, even though a few years apart, were very close sisters and clearly cared a lot about each other. I always enjoy books where there are good and realistic portrayals of family bonds and I feel like the bond between Alison and Annie was just that. I think that the strength of the book lies in their relationship as well as their relationship with Becca.

I thought that the friendship between Alison and Jack was nice, but could've been developed more. They're supposed to have known each other for years and be very close friends and yet they hardly interacted outside of rehearsals. I also felt like Charlotte was completely undeveloped, we really did not know anything about her. We knew that she had a sister, that she was out to her parents though her dad didn't seem to be super supportive, and that she liked to perform and that was it. With Charlotte being an underdeveloped character, her relationship with Alison was also underdeveloped. They had some really cute moments, I loved the back and forth about corgi's (totally on Charlotte's side on this one, corgi's are absolutely adorable) but I felt like the majority of their relationship was just Alison being unsure as to why Charlotte liked her but enjoying their time together and dropping pretty much everything because she was so focused on her.

The entire book Alison talks about how her entire life she's been so focused on becoming valedictorian and how hard-working she is but I truthfully felt the exact opposite. While she obviously spent a lot of time working on the play, a lot of that time was actually her not knowing what to do and not actually bothering to figure out what it is that she should be doing. For someone who was supposed to be so into school and research, I felt like she didn't do her research on how to produce/stage manage a show (those are also two completely different jobs which is not gone into in the book and they should not be done by the same person). While I know that Alison really was just doing this to have another thing to put on an application and give her a leg up on getting valedictorian, her constantly putting down pretty much everything they were doing got really tiring. I fully understand that theatre kids are totally weird, we really really are, but the way that she just dismissed everything they were doing in warmups and in rehearsals as silly or weird was just annoying after the like 3rd chapter of them in rehearsals. She also hardcore judged everyone who went along with any of the warmups and exercises except for Jack and Charlotte as if because one of them is her friend and the other she had a crush on and then became her girlfriend, they were immune to what she thought was weird about the rehearsal process. Additionally, I got tired of her referring to them as "lovable weirdos" every time the actors were clearly enjoying what they're doing. I know that it's meant to come off as adorable and her realizing how much she enjoys working on the show, but it honestly came off as very condescending and I found myself rolling my eyes every time it was mentioned.

I also could not get over the lack of competence in all of the adults at that school. The teacher who talked her into "co-producing" and then is literally never to be seen again? Mr. Evans, the completely unreliable drama teacher/director? Honestly, what director doesn't go to their own auditions? The VP who made a few appearances and was unhelpful every single time? The way that no one who worked in the school seemed to help at all and just let the drama teacher and a high school senior do everything? It honestly was baffling to me.

In general, it was a fun read, but I definitely think that there were improvements that could've been made.

It was an overall enjoyable read, though I expected a bit more. I really liked the portrayal of the high school experience, and I really liked Mr. Evans and the humor as well. I also loved the short chapters in it because I found it much easier to get invested in a book with short chapters.

I found the ending a bit anti-climactic and rushed, but it wasn't too bad in my opinion. I liked the amount of representation, but it's still a bit frustrating to see the amount of YA books that refuse to use the word 'lesbian' to describe their lesbian characters. It was used a little in this book, but it was barely used by the main character herself. Of course, it's up to individual people to use labels however they like, but the lack of use of lesbian in fiction is a bit extreme. It's almost completely absent. There were a lot of opportunities to use it in this book, but the book didn't take those opportunities.

Another thing that didn't sit right with me was how the book kind of pushed the idea that you can't be with someone if you're not out and that it's not enough if you're only out to one person. There are also straight people in this book insisting that she comes out to her parents like it's anyone's choice when you have to come out.

I liked the main romance in this book, but it didn't really stand out to me.

It's a solid book and I did like it, but I have too many problems with it to give it a higher rating. It wasn't really memorable to me, but the best thing about it was the amount of representation.

i'm not the biggest fan of high school centered stories, since those days are long gone for me and i usually find the characters either too immature and annoying, or unrealistic. but i did enjoyed this quite a bit. it was a fun -and funny- quick read that i think a variety of readers would enjoy. some humor, some seriousness, some representation and sweet moments. great combination.

When Alison gets tricked into directing the schools show this year, she bites off more than she can chew. She bribes and cajoles friends and acquaintances to make up her cast and crew, and tries to do it all whilst not messing up under the gaze of her newest crush, Charlotte.

What I loved most about this story was how realistically the protagonist Alison was written. Whilst I was in her corner, she wasn’t perfect and she made some HUGE mistakes over the course of the story - she was flawed in a way that was believable, but not unlikeable.

Another strength of the book is the great cast of supporting characters. Each one is given a defined personality contributes to immersing the reader in Alison’s life. The description is great and doesn’t veer into being overtly wordy.

On the whole this book was a light, charming, easy read and I was left eager to pick it up whenever I had some spare time.

"The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life" is a cute, contemporary YA set during high school. Allison struggled to juggle so many things - producing the school play, which she 'volunteered' for, keeping up her grades because her goal was to be valedictorian, writing scholarship essays, being present for her friends and family, and trying not to embarrass herself in front of her crush. Allison and her friends felt real and their interactions authentic. I disagreed with several of her decisions, but I realize they were necessary in order to show her growth over the novel. She learned a lot, and I appreciated the lessons she learned. They were things I wish I'd known in high school. The only thing that bothered me was one character's ridicule of a performance of Little Women, which featured men playing a few of the sisters. The theater has a long history, including Shakespeare's time, of featuring male actors playing the female roles because women were not allowed to act, yet no one brought that up. Overall, this was a quick read, had diverse rep, and I enjoyed it. Also, many mentions of corgis, which I loved.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Second Story Press in exchange for an honest review.
There is a recurring trend I've noticed in YA fiction recently where queer female characters get involved in running plays. It's actually a really fun trend and it's one of the reasons The Year Shakespeare Ruined my Life caught my eye. Our main character is Alison, a high-achieving queer girl desperate to be valedictorian. She gets coerced into directing a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and her life gradually begins to fall apart as she juggles the stress, friend drama and a budding relationship with cool girl Charlotte.

This book was a lot of fun and there were several elements I enjoyed. The general writing was good and the plot was serviceable. Unfortunately I found the whole thing just a little bit tropey. Our main character is incredibly passive, which works for the play subplot but not for the romance. I never really bought that Alison cared for Charlotte because Charlotte was the driving force for the relationship throughout. This meant I found it a bit hard to relate to Alison as she came across as a bit flat. I did really like the sibling relationship and Alison's sister was a pretty interesting character. I just wish Alison had played a bigger role in her own story.

Having said that, this book is still a fun, light YA read. It was nice to read a queer story where the main character was already fully out and that side doesn't play a huge role in the story. Alison was also very relatable in parts, mainly when her anxiety is clearly the driving force behind her passivity. Overall, this is by no means a bad book and if you want a quick and easy read with some nice rep, look no further.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Have you ever had a big goal that you felt was attainable and you decided that one more extracurricular would look great for that goal/application?  But then everything starts to go wrong despite your best intentions and hardwork.  

As if high school isn't hard enough as a transition period in your life.  But add in navigating relationships, feelings, schoolwork, studying, friendships, influencing teachers to vote for you as valedictorian and produce a school play.

We get to watch Allison co-produce a Midsummer Night's Dream and what she thinks will be an easy addition to her application is proving to be so much more work when the other co-producer falls back leaving her in charge.

I always wanted to be in a school play but was too intimidated by our theater group, they were amazing. Getting a backstage look at productions is always fun for me, I did get into a couple of productions eventually outside of school. I was more on the jock path and those two departments weren't lenient with eachother.

I enjoyed this coming of age story of friends making mistakes, putting their foot in their mouths, flirting awkwardly, first crushes, first dates in the midst of pressure of high school of coming out and being out fully.

This was a fun little contemporary read. It had some great representation in it and was definitely cute. That being said while I do enjoy picking up some younger YA and middle-grade fantasy reads I think this one just didn't really do it for me. I think it was maybe a bit too young and that as a reader if I'm going to read contemporary I prefer a new adult age/ adult age group as its just more relatable for where I am right now in my life.

I had high hopes for this book. It didn’t really cut it for me. As a YA book I think it hit the mark. However I would maybe dive a littler deeper into the characters. I felt like I was lacking a connection.

I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life spoke to teenage me, as I was a theatre kid in the last two years of high school, and our class did performances of a few Shakespeare plays, including, as it happens, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It also spoke to me today on a much more personal level, in terms of figuring out how to define one’s sexuality.

I enjoyed seeing the whole technical side to being a play manager through Alison’s eyes. I loved seeing all that could go wrong, and in some ways, it did remind me of my own HS theatre experience. And the instructor, Mr. Evans was hilarious and really added to the comedic tone.

I did appreciate the way it grappled with the concept of being “out,” and that while some characters use labels, there isn’t always the need to define oneself that way. I can see why it might be an issue for some, but as someone still figuring things out myself, I appreciated seeing that spectrum and gray area.

However, while the story was great with getting concepts across, I didn’t feel really connected with the characters. Alison was annoying more times than not, and aside from her not-date, who I got the obvious impression of awkwardness, I didn’t really feel connected to anyone.

I do think it has its charm, especially in appealing to a nostalgic part of my high school experience. And I do think theatre folks will love this, if only for that reason.

Why I requested this: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Misadventures. Crushes. It sounds like a good transition into fall type of book.

Pros:
“Ye Olde Shakespearean Disaster.” Okay, I know I took this out of the plot synopsis, but it really was a highlight of the book for me. I went into this book in part for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and this story solidly delivers on that front.

Cons:
The writing style. The story is supposed to take place in high school; however, it reads as if this is a middle school at times. It would have helped if there were more distinctions in the writing.
Our protagonist. I felt at odds with her in this. Again, this could boil down to writing, but I could not understand her at times.
The romance. Part of the reason I went into this was our protagonist’s crush and well…in the romance category this kinda feels like a flop to me.

Overall: This is more fun for the Shakespeare elements, not so much for everything else.

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This was such a fun read! I really have no other words for this book than fun haha!

I really enjoyed our main character Alison. She is doing her best to become the valedictorian, and so far it was going great. Until her Drama teacher asks her to produce this year’s school play, Midsummer Night´s Dream. She&nbsp; really wanted to do this and was very excited to start. She then realized her Drama teacher was not going to help her, and she needed to do a lot!

She now has to study for her classes, fix every thing for her school play, while also crushing hard on Charlotte. And of course keep her friends!

Besides seeing the main character struggle with all of this, I also quite enjoyed the side characters. They really added something to the story, without being annoying or anything!

I really enjoyed the authors writing, and would definitely be interested in seeing what she will write next!

I know this is a really short review, but I really recommend this book if you want a fun, queer romance!

I really enjoyed this book. It was so funny and such a light read. I enjoyed the main character and her coming of age adventure. She spent the whole year really trying to figure out who she was while being a senior in high school. The book flowed really well and kept me highly entertained. Can't wait for the release day.boo

this is such a sweet summer read. i'm really glad i read this one and got to read it earlier than everyone else. thanks netgalley for supporting me!!!

Reading this book was really interesting for me, because so often it’s hard for me to see myself in books. It’s one of the reasons I avoid contemporary stories. But this book sounded too cute to pass up on and I’m so glad I got to read it. This is definitely a book I could have used when I was in high school.

What I like most about this book is how little drama there is when depicting the queer relationships that help shape most of this book. So often it feels like when I read queer stories, the characters have to go through some sort of drama, or pain, or heart-break, before they can be happy, before they can have their happy ending. Jansen doesn’t do that to her characters. Yes, there’s drama, but it’s not completely rooted in fear and anger. These characters simply want to be themselves, and yes coming to terms with that is hard for some of them but their experience is based on hope, and love–not overcoming some great obstacle like they have to prove they’re worthy of love and acceptance.

Jansen writes a positive, and hopeful queer experience that is exactly what I as a queer reader needed. It always wonderful to read well written queer experiences, but to read one that doesn’t involved pain and anger, was truly wonderful. I feel like as publishing continues to move forward, not only are we getting more Queer stories, but we’re also getting stories that aren’t rooted in pain and characters having to prove their worth to those around them.

The first quote I selected from this book was the moment that this book hit so close to home for me. Like the main character Alison I’m not closeted, but I’ve also never felt the need to have this big moment where I tell everyone I’m queer. And because I didn’t want that, because I just wanted to be myself and not make a big deal about my sexuality, I’ve often felt like I don’t belong in the LGBTQIA+ community. So to see a character who feels the same, who doesn’t want anyone to make a big deal about their sexuality, felt amazing.

While this wasn’t a five star read for me I have no complaints about the book either. It was well written, the characters were interesting (though not all that different from characters you’d find in any other YA book), and the plot moved along at a good pace, making this a quick, fun read. I’ll definitely be recommending this one to readers looking for a more light-hearted Queer story and those love high school theater.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for supplying an e-arc for an honest review.

2.5 stars.

A quirky, diverse, fast-paced contemporary. This was fun, a tad dramatic, and a little bit unrealistic at times. I think my problem is that I might be getting too old for these types of stories and that at no fault to the author by any means at all.

A fun, quick contemporary read. I loved how diverse the main cast of characters was. Some of the plot points were a tad dramatic, but I think it fell within the bounds of the genre. I do wish we'd seen a little more of the girls interacting and their relationship rather than just Alison's worries about it. It did feel a little like the only important thing about Charlotte was that she was "cool." What we did get to see of their relationship was very cute though. (I fall 100% on the pro-corgi side of their debate.) And I liked that there was no miraculous moment in which the show magically came together.