🔊Song Pairing: Shakespeare - Miranda Cosgrove

💭What I thought would happen:

Pink cover. It’s all I needed. I am such a pink slut 😂💞

📖What actually happens:

Bea is a product of her environment, a homeschooled recluse teen who just got into Oxford at 16. However, her parents don’t think she’s properly socialized and will be back on a plane to Cali before she’s even unpacked.

Bea is off to a Shakespeare camp to prove to her parents that she’ll be okay with a list of teenage tasks she must accomplish - hug 4 people, prank someone, etc. The beauty is not only does she makes true friends but she discovers much more about herself than she had ever dreamt.

🗯Thoughts:

The secondary characters truly make this book what it is, dramatic in the best way. That being said, Bea was also a delight and winning MC.

This book is for fans of young adult novels and Shakespeare! I think if my parents would have sent me to Shakespeare camp I would have never lasted. I barely survived Christian camp (or Lordy the stories)

“Despite some of the more frustrating or confusing aspects of this summer, I knew deep
down that something had irrevocably changed.”

Math genius Beatrice Quinn has her heart set on going to Oxford University, but her parents
worry about Beatrice living alone. To prove that she can get out of her comfort zone, Beatrice’s
parents pose a challenge: go to the Connecticut Shakeaspearen Summer Academy, complete a
list of social tasks, and live like a “normal teenager.” Soon enough, Beatrice is roped into the
camp’s production of Romeo and Juliet and also finds herself an enemy of the resident Romeo.
Long story short, Beatrice must face the drama head-on and just maybe start to see herself in a
new light, too.

Serena Kaylor’s debut novel made my book-loving, theatre-kid heart so happy. I mean, what’s
not to adore about a socially awkward and lovable main character being thrust into a
Shakespeare summer camp? The diversity in the cast of characters, especially in their
backgrounds and future aspirations, added a lot of depth to the story. I don’t often see theatre as a
career talked about in YA books, so I really enjoyed reading conversations between characters
who love acting and design and want to translate their passions into a profession. I also greatly
appreciate the fact that Beatrice has a therapist and addresses her anxiety openly. While
Beatrice’s relationship with therapy and her mental health doesn’t take center stage in this book
completely, the two are definitely present and impactful components of the story.

The last thing I just have to talk about is the enemies-to-lovers romance between Beatrice and
Nik (the resident Romeo). I thoroughly enjoyed their banter, as well as the way the two casually
and unintentionally became vulnerable with each other. Also, you can’t really go wrong with a
Shakespeare quote-off between a hot theatre prodigy and a nerdy, stubborn protagonist!
Finishing this book was such a sweet sorrow, and now I am eagerly anticipating Kaylor’s next
project!

(Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for sending us an ARC in
exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject
to change upon final publication.)

A fantastic coming of age story about a homeschool brilliant girl who needed to experience what life is like for teens that are different from her.

Beatrice is a statistical genius who dreamed of adding Oxford University to study math. But when she gets in her dream seems impossible to reach due to her parents thinking she is not ready at 16 to go live in another country by herself, due to her lack of real human interactions throughout her life. They come to an agreement that she attends a six week Shakespeare acting camp and if she completes certain tasks she will be able to attend Oxford in the fall.

Beatrice rises to the challenge and learns a lot about herself along the way, including that her parents may have been right.

I loved how the narrators brought the story to life making it possible to feel like I was right there through it all.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance listening copy of this book. This is my honest voluntary review.

I'm not going to lie I didnt think I would love this story. I'm not reading as much YA as I used to. But the premise of the book is a Theater summer camp where Beatrice must go to prove she can go away to Oxford. What could go wrong. Or in this case right?

Beatrice is a bright gifted student (who is also home schooled) She has the dream of going to Oxford to school her parents kind of think its just a wish not a full on want until she applies and gets it. They are shocked and think now is not the time for her to go. She's only 16. She also doesn't interact with kids her age and after a bad encounter with a group of kids when she was younger she's fine with not having ay friends. She also has a schedule she does not veer away from from what she eats every day of the week to what she wears. Her parents come up with a plan for Beatrice to attend an acting program of Shakespeare theater camp. Where she will go with a list to make friends and put herself out there. If she completes the list will Oxford become a reality? .

Bea is someone you want to root for she's easy to root for in this story. What makes it real for me is her finding a true friend in her roommate Mia who understands Bea and her list and helps her through it and teachers her not all kids her age are assholes. I think we all had Mia in our life or was a Mia. And I can not forget Nolan he is just as important to her story as Mia.

Together they help guide her through camp and helps her open up and REALLY try new things.
Also can't forget the mean girl Shelby Nolan's twin sister. and most importantly the popular camp founders Son Nik who challenges Bea in all the best ways.

Their interactions and banters are entertaining as hell. I loved the enemies to friends(ish) to lovers troupe between the characters.

This book was so much more than I expected! I laughed I cheered and got sad for all these characters especially for Bea. I loved the story didn't change her but helped her grow as a person and helped her get out of her head.

Also I absolutely loved the Audio of this book the narration was great and I felt all the emotions through her voice.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for sharing this Audio Arc in exchange my honest thoughts.

5 BIG stars for me!

Beatrice is me in a book, shy and anxious to try new things and make new friends. She is absolutely smart and has her eyes set on a goal of going to Oxford University, with nothing to stop her..except maybe her parents approval. They set out and give her a list that she has to complete over the course of a summer at a Shakespeares Summer Camp. The banter and cute friendships are so true to life to me. Summer camps are just scary but can be filled with so much fun.

I don't know how I should start this review, but I'm just gonna go for it.

First off, I love reading anything about Shakespeare and summer camps, so this was great.

Bea was hands down the most relatable character I've ever read. I just connected with her so much as I have a lot of the same struggles she goes through. Though I will say, this book heavily implies that Bea's autistic, but it's never explicitly stated on page. But I feel as though the way this was handled made Bea an ordinary introverted teenager despite the plenty of quotes and examples to prove she's clearly autistic. And I'm gonna be honest, I didn't totally appriciate that.

I also feel like I'm going to have an unpopular opinion on this: but I don't think a romance was needed. The book focused so much on Bea's self-discovery, her coming of age and character growth, that I felt like the romance didn't add much to the story. Nick didn't do anything for me as a love interest; kinda thought he was a dick--not gonna lie.

Overall, I still really enjoyed my time reading this. It was a fun, lighthearted read, and it was the perfect book to end off my summer reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Disclaimer: I received the Audiobook version from NetGalley.

I really enjoyed the extra life that was brought to these characters by the narrator as I feel like I could have stronger feelings about the characters based on their tone, cadence, and accents!

Overall I really enjoyed this YA romance, I found it relatable, fun, and fairly accurate to the (Theater) Summer Camp experience. I very much liked the balance of internal Beatriz dialogue to external conversations. The characters seemed developed enough to be invested in them. Wit, sarcasm, new experiences, friendship, and an unexpected summer make this an fun and easy read/listen.

Would recommend.

4.5 stars! THIS WAS SO CUTE WHAT THE HECK!!!!! Omg I drooled over this book. As a kid who went to theatre camp in the summer this book totally spoke to my soul. I loooooved B’s growth and the friendships she made. The YA romance was so perfect and actually developed in a way that made sense and wasn’t rushed. Yes yes yes 100% everyone should read this. Also if you’re a Shakespeare nerd like me you’re gonna appreciate this book so much!!!

I loved this audiobook! The narrator was great. Such a fun listen. I’m a huge audiobook fan. This was a great one.

Brainiac Beatrice Quinn just wants to go to Oxford, but her parents believe she’s too socially stunted to make it on her own in England. In order to prove she can make it, her parents give her a list of normal teenage activities and pack her off to acting camp. She quickly makes friends… and an enemy: Nick, leading man and English heartthrob.

Enemies to lovers, no spice if that’s important to you.

I haven’t read a YA novel in a long time, but this one was VERY cute. Just an awkward young teen trying to fit in with middling success. You get to see her bewildered by the way “normal” teens interact. As someone who did theater in high school, the least believable thing is that everyone in this story is good looking and affable.

I found Bea to be very engaging. I reviewed the audiobook, and listened to the whole thing in a day!!

You would probably like this book if you’re a fan of Meg Cabot or Sarah Dessen.

Mild criticism:
No spoilers, but some of the plot points were super predictable. There was also some Deus Ex Machina stuff going on to make everything work out.

Narration: The fake southern accent for the best friend was kind of annoying. Didn’t dock points for that, but it’s something to keep in mind if you listen to books.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book to review.

I loved this book. At first, I thought the main character was neurodivergent (she might be, but with no diagnosis from the author, I won't assume), but It's really just a story about a teen learning to function in society again without changing herself and while battling past traumas. It's a very real book with tough life lessons for several characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This book was cute. I loved the use of Shakespeare throughout the story, the use of all the quotes as a backdrop to the story was great. I love how more and more female main characters are highly intelligent because for so long female characters did not get this trait.

Long Story Short by Serena Kaylor

Thank you to @dreamscape_media for the chance to read and review this #eARC ! This is available today (08/23) in print and audiobook. ❤️

Beatrice Quinn has lead a very sheltered and comfortable life. At sixteen, she’s completed high school and has been diligently working on classes at the local community college, albeit mostly online. But since she was young she’s dreamed of attending Cambridge. Against her parents’ wishes, she secretly applies and is accepted. When her parents find out, they cut her a deal that if she can complete a checklist of things outside her comfort zone at summer camp she can to to Cambridge. Will her time at theater camp prepare her for life at college or will she go running back to her reclusive life?

This was a very fun story. Beatrice reminded me a bit of myself in school as I was a bit awkward and reserved. I totally relate to her struggle. Books about self discovery and finding your own strength are some of my favorite and that’s at the heart of this tale. I recommend for those who love tame enemies to lovers tropes!

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 - 3.5/5

This book is a DNF for me at 17.4% or 1/2 of chapter 6.

The main character is 16. Very naive and sheltered. It is a debut novel so I want to give it a chance but I am just not that invested in the book. I think for a teen or YA it could be a good book but all the main characters insecurities is a bit annoying to me. The main character questions things too much. Maybe it would get better if I continued on but right now I just cannot. I may change my mind later and go back and finish the book. But it will not be before it releases or archives.

# of Pages: 336
Genre: Romance, Young Adult
Star Rating: ⭑⭑/5

This novel covers the story of Beatrice Quinn, 16 year old academic with a very specific goal in mind - go to Oxford University. The catch is that her parents don’t feel that she is ready to leave the nest, due to a lack of social skills. They give her an ultimatum - defer for a year, or spend a summer at Shakespeare camp learning how to make friends. Here she meets an array of characters, one of which being the camp’s resident Shakespeare prodigy, Nik, that Bea immediately finds herself drawn to - cue a summer of drama unfolding as Bea tries to navigate her feelings, achieve the tasks her parents have given her and get to Oxford.

There are definitely some issues with the pacing of the plot, where at times I needed to stop and backpedal to understand what was happening. It intends to be a light YA romance and, if you’re prepared to gloss over the ableism directed at the MC, then I suppose that’s been achieved. The narrator, Sarah Beth Goer, mainly was fine, though her narration of Nik consistently reminded me of Marion Ross playing Trix Gilmore - emphasized by dialogue that you’d never hear from the mouth of a teenage boy.

This novel is your ultimate collection of trope-y teen YA novel characters - enemies to lovers, smart girl x popular boy, pretty blonde bully, token queer + POC best friends. Though a bit tired, these didn’t bother me much. My biggest gripe with this book is that Beatrice exhibits some very strong neurodivergent traits and every other character in the book shames her for it. Whether this was the intended effect or not, I can’t confirm, but it certainly was the end result.

Throughout the novel, we see Bea “transform” into a “normal teen,” a concept that made me increasingly uneasy. We are initally introduced to Beatrice Quinn as a young woman who is focused on her academic performance and projects, who repeats the same comfort meals, who doesn’t quite grasp social cues and has crippling social anxiety, and wears “unfashionable,” practical clothing. We then follow her “makeover montage” journey as she changes her clothes, learns to flirt, makes friends, and essentially adopts an entirely new identity in order to be allowed to attend her dream university. She is infantilized by her parents, alienated by her peers, taunted by her crush and pressured into participating in activities that make her uncomfortable and cause her distress.

Whether this is an exhibit of “curing” neurodivergence or extreme masking, at absolute best it comes across as ignorant and tone-deaf.

When Beatrice Quinn, a homeschooled genius in statistics, gets accepted into Oxford, her parents want to make sure she can handle a ‘normal’ teenage experience before sending her halfway around the world. That is how Bea finds herself at a Shakespeare Theater camp when she has never set foot on stage before. Equipped with a list of things she needs to check off before her parents will let her go to Oxford, Beatrice jumps into this experiment like she would any other test. But of course this isn’t like any other test she’s faced before, there is nothing predictable about camp. Enter from stage left, Nick, the son of the camp founders and a great actor. When sparks begin to fly between Bea and Nick, Bea finds herself trying to figure out what’s real and what’s all an act.

I absolutely adored this book! The characters were awesome and thoroughly likable, the premise was perfect and the chemistry and slow build between Bea and Nick was riveting. It’s been a long time since I’ve loved a group of characters as much as I did the ones in this book, usually at least one of them rubs me the wrong way, but not this time. There is nothing about this story that I can find fault with or critique, this was the perfect read for the mindset I am in right now. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a lighthearted read about a girl breaking out of her comfort zone.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC audiobook!

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and Dreamscape Media for the ARC and audio ARC of this!

As a homeschooling mom, I love to see homeschooled characters in YA, but I was a little nervous to see Beatrice be so weird and socially awkward because “but how will they learn to socialize?!” is such a common “concern”. That said, I was a weird public schooled kid and I will not be shocked if my kids also grow up to be weird 😂 so I get it. I would’ve sucked equally at those tasks, if my parents had had any inclination to try to make me act like a regular teenager! I found myself identifying to strongly with Beatrice and by the end I was absolutely invested! I really enjoyed these characters and how they welcomed her in and tried to help her without trying to change her. Super sweet, with perfect summer camp vibes.

I really enjoyed the narrator during the parts that I listened to, she definitely made each character sound distinct.

I really enjoyed Bea’s story. Watching her work through her awkwardness and learn more about herself and others was so interesting. Yes, she said some cringe-worthy things in the process but she was quick to apologize and open to change. Sometimes the situations felt a bit repetitive, but overall it was a fun story. And everybody should have a Mia and Nolan in their life! I listened to this book on audio, and the narrator did a fantastic job!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this book!

I absolutely adored this book. This was such a fun, youthful, summer read. I loved the character development and all the relationships made. However, please, no one force me to go to a theater camp. Please! Not even this book could convince me!

This is such a cute rom-com! I loved the characters, the teenage angst, and the growth that the main character, B, makes throughout. I found myself smiling, feeling worried, and empathizing with B throughout her struggles to attend theater camp in order to appease her parents. If she completed their challenges at theater camp, they would consider her acceptance to Oxford, and allow her to attend, after years of homeschool.
I enjoyed listening to this & would recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley & Dreamscape Media for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.