Beatrice Quinn is just 16 years old but has already been finished with homeschooling for a couple of years. She’s ready to move on with life, which means her dream of attending Oxford University to study statistical genetics. She secretly applied and got accepted. But her parents don’t feel she’s ready to leave home; she’s not exactly had a normal childhood or teen life and has shied away from socializing with kids her age.

So Beatrice and her parents work out a deal. If she can accomplish a list of normal teen activities and milestones at a six-week theater camp across the country, they will allow her to attend Oxford. It sounds like it should be easy, but it seems like a high summit to climb for the math-inclined Beatrice. However, she’ll do anything to go to her dream school.

Her first hurdle is to make friends, and she accomplishes that; her roommate, Mia, and a boy in the costuming section of the camp take her under their wings. That’s particularly helpful since she comes up against the popular, and talented, and gorgeous, son of the camp owners. Almost everything about him rubs her the wrong way. And while the camp performs Shakespeare (and this year’s end-of-camp production is Romeo and Juliet), Nik is rather the Darcy to her Elizabeth. She knows how to be annoyed at someone, but not exactly how to handle being attracted to that someone as well.

As it becomes clear to everyone else that Nik and Beatrice have chemistry, it certainly isn’t clear to Bea (as her friends decide to call her). Why can’t relationships have simple rules to follow, like math?

This cute story follows Bea as she learns how to navigate the tricky territory of friendships and romance, as she comes out of her shell and finds new parts of herself she didn’t know could exist. It’s fun and sweet and features a nice romance, as well as plenty of Shakespeare quotes. A solid debut.

Long Story Short
by Serena Kaylor
4.5 stars
Beatrice was homeschooled and never really had any teenage experience so when she drops the bomb on her parents that she has gotten accepted into Oxford, her parents are worried about how she will act around social groups. They devise a plan to send her on a little experiment to theater camp to branch out and try some teenage stuff.
Beatrice isn't thrilled to go camping and socialize but she will do anything to go to Oxford. As Beatrice gets to camp and starts to make friends and have fun she realizes it's fun to do stuff out of your comfort zone sometimes.

This book is a YA little romance and growing into your own, it is adorable. I enjoyed reading about Beatrice growing into her skin and learning more about herself. The beginning was slow at first then once she got to camp it picked up and I couldn't put it down. She learns so many experiences along the way and just blossoms. It's enjoyable to read it all and the enemies to lovers between Beatrice and a cutie at camp, even though the cutie at camp comes off a little mean at first he does try so hard to show that he made a mistake and he wants to make it better and he also has a crush on Beatrice.
Thank you, Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC for an honest review

I will have to come back to this book at a later time when life isn't busy. I did want to read it though and will sometime in the future. I'm sorry work is busy with deadlines.

For now it's a will come back to later.

I was so excited when I found out I got an ARC of this book from NetGalley (thank you, thank you, thank you!)

The main character of our story is Beatrice, a 16-year-old girl. She has been homeschooled her whole life, and has a lot of difficulty being around other people to the point where she’ll just retreat into herself and stay silent. She graduated high school early, and secretly applied to Oxford. Beatrice finds out that she was accepted, and fearfully tells he parents that she plans to go (which would require a cross-continent move). Her parents are stunned and end up giving her an ultimatum: prove to them that she can exist on her own without their support and she can go to Oxford. They decide that Beatrice will attend a Shakespeare theater camp to check of the boxes. The list for The Teenager Experience Experiment has items:
1. Make a friend
2. Share a secret
3. Walk up to someone and make small talk
4. Accept an invitation you don’t want to
5. Do an outdoor activity
6. Pull a prank
7. Execute a dare
8. Hug three people
Beatrice ends up befriending her roommate, Mia and Nolan, and finding rivals in Nik and Shelby. Bea, Mia, and Nolan bond quite quickly, and eventually add some more items to the checklist.
9. Flirt with someone for the sheer hell of it
10. Dance with abandon
11. Kiss someone
This story continues with lots of adventures for our trip from shopping to lake swimming to Shakespeare quote competitions and learning how to flirt. Bea continuously grows throughout her adventures, finding friends and someone to care about.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. There were certain points where characters would talk and act in very strict, stereotypical ways, which occasionally made it difficult to dive deeper into the story. However, they all had so much heart and were so lovable that I could breeze right past it. Seeing the mental illness rep was wonderful, and I thought having her therapy sessions even while she was at camp was a great touch. Watching Bea transform into someone who is comfortable growing and changing while still being true to herself was probably my favorite part. Bea is such a charming MC, and I found myself cheering her on at every turn. The story is certainly a little predictable (which I enjoy in stories like this), and the payoff that happens at the end left me with a full heart. I honestly can’t believe that this is Serena Kaylor’s debut, she has made a fan out of me!

Classic teen rom-com fare!

Although we have many of the classic YA romance tropes, it was definitely interesting to experience it all through the lens of a neurodivergent heroine. Bea was awkward at times, but also endearing. While she genuinely did not see or understand things the way neurotypical individuals tend to she was willing to learn and grow, albeit reluctantly at first. But luckily she found a pair of friends who were willing to walk arm and arm with her while she navigated this wholly new experience.

The book was short, sweet, and easy to read.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I'm gonna try to keep this short (haha, I'm so funny) but overall, I didn't really have the best time with this book.

Funny enough, I was so hyped for it that I preordered it and requested it on NetGalley the second it became available. Maybe my hopes were too high because of that, but still.

In this story where our MC Beatrice is supposed to learn how to navigate friendships, socializing and love for the first time, I found that everything and everyone felt extremely forced and flat. The two friendships she makes right off the bat are extremely hard to believe, as Beatrice does not put in nearly as much energy into them as they are putting into her. Even when the MC was interacting with the love interest, it felt like she did not want to be talking to him. I know the plot of the story is that she's forced to go to camp, but it felt like everything that Beatrice did was done against her will, even the things that were supposed to be moving the story foward. At this point, just let her go back home or something, you know?

For that reason, I could not see any chemistry between her and Nik. I am still trying to understand how I was supposed to root for them. I love enemies to lovers and I love opposites attract, but... Seriously, there was nothing about their relationship that felt plausible to me. There is no way that they'd last more than 15 minutes in the real world.

All in all, I think this book had a lot of potential and I really wish I had loved it as much as I thought I would. But I didn't end up caring enough about the characters or the plot to be completely immersed in the story. This was a really big disappointment, to be honest. ☹️

As always, don't hesitate giving a book I didn't love a shot if it sounds like something you might still like! Book opinions are subjective and this is just mine! Hopefully you'll get a better experience with it than I did!

I've been obsessed with this book for literal years, and am so excited for it to debut into the world this week! Such a fun, charming, heartwarming read. One of my favorite things about this book are the side characters, who are so unique, lovable, and real- particularly Mia and Nolan. As a protagonist, Bea is so relatable and easy to root for, and I love being inside her head. The Shakespeare scenes are SO well done, and will be killer when this becomes a movie. This novel is just absolutely the most perfect summer escape, and all of you who get to read it for the first time are in for a treat!

This book was super cute! I rally identified with the main character, Beatrice because she is a total nerd but also like theater. I felt like this was a really good debut novel from an author.

Beatrice Quinn is shocked when she gets into Oxford, but not as surprised as her parents! They didn't even know that their intelligent, shy daughter who loves routines (she eats the same meals on the same day every week) applied and they cannot imagine sending their sixteen-year-old overseas. So they strike a deal: if Beatrice goes to theater camp and completes a series of tasks (make a friend, accept an invitation, get hugged by three people), they'll agree that she's experienced teenage life and is ready for Oxford.

This is rather charming YA story about coming of age and finding yourself. Beatrice is absolutely adorable and a wonderful, feisty, intelligent, heroine that I could get completely behind! I was a little wary about this story because I'm not a huge fan of books where we need to take the plain intelligent girl and transform her into a beautiful person who no longer focuses on the intelligence that she cared about before. Luckily, STORY does not seem to want to change Bea too much, though it hovers on a little too much for me at times.

Bea completely lucks out in meeting Mia, her roommate, who takes her under her wing and has no problem that her shy and awkward roommate is at camp with a checklist. She embraces it completely, as does Mia's friend, Nolan, who is a total sweetie. Like much of STORY, there's a lot of good luck and a bit too much cheeriness, because, let's face it, kids can be cruel. And don't worry, there's plenty of teenage bullying for poor Beatrice, but it's isolated to a couple of kids. Still, I loved the friendship between Mia, Nolan, and Bea, and they are so cute.

Bea's love interest, Nik, offers a great love/hate relationship and they give us palpable (YA appropriate) chemistry. Things drag a small bit as Bea wonders maybe one or two too many times about his intentions and her place in the world. Overall, though, it's a sweet romance and a lovely story. The themes of finding yourself, friendship, and first love are presented in a unique and fun way. And, seriously, Bea is pretty amazing for surviving theater camp--I honestly thought her parents were monsters for that touch.

Overall, this is a fun, touching, and poignant YA rom-com.

Because I’m a nerdy math teacher, my review as an equation:

intelligent homeschooled teenager - social skills + Shakespeare theater camp + enemies to lovers = wonderful read!

This book! I cannot tell you how enjoyable this debut was! Usually I wait until I’ve finished a book to start telling everyone I know about it, but this was so much fun that I started talking it up to other romance/theater lovers mid-read.
Sixteen-year-old Beatrice has been homeschooled by her relationship therapist parents in Berkeley, CA, and has successfully avoided almost all socialization, learning everything she can from books. She secretly applies to Oxford University, her dream school, and is accepted - but her parents worry that she isn’t ready for such a significant change to her well-established (and well-enjoyed) routine. All three come to a compromise that Beatrice attends a theater summer camp in Connecticut for six weeks over the summer and, if successful there, she can attend Oxford. To help her measure her progress, Beatrice and her parents construct a list of activities on “The Teenager Experience Experiment” for her to accomplish at camp: make a friend, share a secret, accept an invitation you don’t want, etc. Bea, as christened by her new roommate, is embraced by some of the camp participants. The day-to-day summer camp fun mixed with the theater rehearsals made me miss being in high school - but also remember the petty jealousy and other rude behaviors that appear alongside teenagers trying to figure out who they are.
Long Story Short comes out Tuesday, 7/26, and if you’re a theater/math nerd like I am or just want to enjoy a well-written YA novel about the challenge of leaving your comfort zone. I can’t wait to recommend it to my high school students! Thank you Wednesday Books, St Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

Title: Long Story Short
Author: Serena Kaylor
Genre: YA
Rating: 5 out of 5

Growing up homeschooled in Berkeley, California, Beatrice Quinn is a statistical genius who has dreamed her whole life of discovering new mathematical challenges at a school like Oxford University. She always thought the hardest part would be getting in, not convincing her parents to let her go. But while math has always made sense to Beatrice, making friends is a problem she hasn’t been able to solve, so her parents are worried about sending her halfway across the world. The compromise: the Connecticut Shakespearean Summer Academy and a detailed list of teenage milestones to check off. She has six weeks to show her parents she can pull off the role of "normal" teenager and won't spend the rest of her life hiding in a library.

Unfortunately, hearts and hormones don't follow any rules, and there is no equation for teenage interactions. When she's adopted by a group of eclectic theater kids, and immediately makes an enemy of the popular—and, annoyingly gorgeous—British son of the camp founders, she realizes that relationships are trickier than calculus. With her future on the line, this girl genius stumbles through illicit parties, double dog dares, and more than your fair share of Shakespeare. But before the final curtain falls, will Beatrice realize that there’s more to life than she can find in the pages of a book?

This was such a fun, sweet book! It was a bit like reading from a female Sheldon Cooper’s POV. Bea is clueless about so many things, but fortunately she manages to make a couple of good friends who help show her the way. The secondary characters are wonderful, and I loved them a lot. Nik came off as jerk at first, but it was soon easy to see the truth of him (Well, I could see it. Bea definitely couldn’t.). This was such a relatable read, and made me laugh out loud several times.

Long Story Short is Serena Kaylor’s debut novel.

(Galley courtesy of St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.)

this was simply such a delightful read with everything i expected going into this young adult novel of a girl going about her first teenage experiences and socializations out of her comfort zone in a theater camp! bea being a homeschooled sixteen year old who got into oxford, it's pretty reasonable why her parents did this wanting her to get out and experience the real world. she was a bit unbearable to me at times with her overanalyzing, though not as much as shelby was, but bea was definitely understandable due to her upbringing how she expected life to cater to her and thought she could prepare for every possible situation, right off the bat, i adored bea and nik's dynamic instantly. nikhil shah being the resident golden boy whose parents founded the camp and bea basically being the resident genius made for such an electric banter/argument chemistry that was right up my alley. they truly had me reading with the biggest grin on my face. with bea, with a checklist from her parents and her new friends adding to the list making it more daring, this overall story concept is something i think would be such a good romcom movie. long story short is a book i would highly recommend to anyone in need of a quick, teen cliché, leisurely summer read!!

this was so much fun!! shakespearen camp!! the TENSION!!! the flirting via shakespeare quotes was just GREAT

i adored the friendships so much i’m so happy bea finally found herself

this is a quick, fun book perfect for summer!

I absolutely loved this sweet YA romance! I dabbled in theater in Junior high and this brought back memories of that time. I always dreamed of playing Juliet, and it was so fun that the theater camp in this book put on Romeo and Juliet in the summer featured. I always enjoy reading a neurodivergent main character, and appreciated how the crew at camp accepted Bea. Nik was a dreamy leading man and Mia and Nolan reminded me of Janis and Damian from Mean Girls. I would recommend this to anyone who loves a YA romance!

Beatrice has to,prove to,her parents that she can handle living away from home. To gain experience, her parents insist she attend a Shakespeare Academy. She complies and experiences so much more than she ever dreamed. Per chance to Dream.
I am so glad I am long past the adolescent stage of life. Young adult readers can become acquainted with the bard while reading about the trials and travails of a teenage girl.

After being accepted to Oxford at 16, Beatrice's parents are not sure if they want her to go. They feel she is not socially ready to be on her own, let alone another country. In compromise, they agree to send her to a camp with a list of social tasks to complete. If she completes them, she can go to Oxford.
Unfortunately for her, she is sent to an acting camp and expected to act. Topping her list is to make a friend. For this child who was never around her peers, this seems insurmountable but Beatrice really wants to go to Oxford so she is willing to try. As it turns out, making a friend isn't the hardest task.
Opinion
This is such a feel good book. From start to finish, Beatrice keeps you in her grasp with wanting her to succeed. This book is something we all can relate to. In some way, we have all felt inadequate around other people. This book spotlights it and has Beatrice make a plan to overcome her issues. Her methodical thinking is something to make us all chuckle, because some of what she plans just should not work.
I think my only complaint with this book is that it ended. I really want to know what happened after she got what she wanted. Did she still call her friends? How was England? What happened with Nik (the antagonist?) If I might make a humble request, can we have a follow up story? Perhaps a novella or a bonus chapter? I might find myself with withdraws from this story.
Many thanks to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC of this book.

3.5⭐️ I enjoyed this book, and the idea of it. Beatrice a non social, anxious math genius wants to go to Oxford in the fall, her parents are worried that if she goes, it’s all she’s going to care about. They tell her if she goes to a theatre camp this summer, and learns how to be a “real” teenager, make friends, learn to be social, and check off all the points on the list they curated, she can go to Oxford.

Immediately, I related to Bea and her anxiety and the need to take social breaks. But at one point, the amount of times she literally ran away from her problems and belittled her friends interests of acting and theatre made me feel disconnected. I also adored Mia and Nolan, and felt more interest towards them.

While I did love the idea of a little enemies ti lovers at a theatre camp, I felt as though there was no connection between Bea and Nik, there wasn’t much development and I didn’t understand how they got to one point because all they did was argue, there was probably only one or two times where they actually sat down she had a conversation.

Overall it was a cute story and concept, the friendships were admirable and I loved reading about Bea’s journey, and seeing her come out her shell.

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I think in all aspects of the writing it fit well. I think it was well paced, there was character and plot development, and it was built on a really strong foundation.

Sometimes I feel like in books about teenagers, the author makes it feel like the characters are older than they are. But this felt really normal to me and like something that would actually happen to 16 year olds. I remember going to camp in the summer and I think this pretty well fit how I was feeling then.

Although at times I did find Bea a little insufferable because she refused to believe in anything Nik said. But it wasn’t to the point where I didn’t like her or would stop reading. I liked her character overall and I think she had a certain vibe to her that I kind of felt also.

I would love to have a friend like Mia. Someone who has your back, but would also kick somebody’s butt for you, and they aren’t afraid to call you out and tell you how it is.

I think I would have been happier if there was an epilogue. But conflictingly I’m glad that there wasn’t one. I think the ending was well paced, it didn’t feel rushed. I felt like maybe it was a little too out of character, but overall it was an enjoyable ending to the book.

4.5/5 rounded down

Beatrice learns to get out of her comfort zone!

Home schooled Beatrice Quinn was surprised that she was accepted at Oxford University to study statistical genetics but there is a problem. Beatrice is only sixteen and the only way her parents will let her go is by attending a Shakespeare theater camp and getting out of her comfort zone and learning to make some friends in six weeks. Beatrice planned on hiding in the background at camp but things changed when Nikhil Shah insulted her the first night and she made friends with her roommate.

We have all been there, doing things we aren’t comfortable with or stepping out of our comfort zones but Long Story Short is really about my teenage years and learning to stretch my boundaries with new activities or things I haven’t done before.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Witty banter is my favorite reasons to fall in love with a book, and LONG STORY SHORT has it in droves. I really enjoyed the back and forth between Beatrice, Mia, and Nolan. Also, I loved the verbal combat between Beatrice and Nik. I found it easy to invest in the characters and want them to succeed.

My only criticism is that I felt like Mia and Nolan were kind of too perfect as friends. Beatrice’s awkward inability to connect and her difficulty developing friendships got squished into an almost unbelievably short timeline. I get that the plot needed that, and I wanted to invest in the relationships, so I did. But I couldn’t help asking myself why her parents were so worried? All she seemed to need were two people who were simply willing to give her a chance.

I really liked that she had to go to a Shakespeare camp. The way those stories and quotes were used in the book added a lot of depth. Also, I enjoyed the quote match between her and Nik. I loved the way they used those quotes to trip each other up and as a whole other conversation, too.

On the whole, despite the super quick bestie plot armor, I really enjoyed reading LONG STORY SHORT. I think fans of KATE IN WAITING by Becky Albertalli will really enjoy this one.