oh what a brilliant book to dive into and a joy to do so.i love the modern and lovely take on soulmates. we dont see that and that shocked me slightly as it worked so well.
Beatrice and Ben as characters both had me rooting for them. there scenes and interactions had me both smiling and emotionally involved, lol.
the layout and pacing is spot on and i loved seeing the different points of view for this book. it truly got us the full scope of the characters and helped us get to know them. that again felt like a unique way to write this book and it was done once again really well. this isn't always the case with multiple POV and so it made me enjoy the book even more.
i connected with a few of the characters but loved reading them all and it only added to the story. i of course was purely rooting for Ben and Beatrice overall. they were my focus lol and all the others must do what they must do as long as my pair got a happy ending...please!?
i also loved how we might come across our soulmates. but that doesn't mean that everything else can fall away and we dont need to work or move, support and do all the things you must do to make relationships work.
happy ending aren't a given and so a few times i was anxious this was actually going to be the case in this book.
this is a must read for all. but for those that might know the original you will love this take on it. its sooooo good in relation to that.
a gorgeous read and im so glad i was lucky enough to get to do so.

Much Ado About Soulmates is such a refreshing take on the soulmates trope and weaving it into a Shakespeare classic makes for a fun romcom! The idea of everyone seeing in black and white and only seeing in colour when you find your soulmate is such a fun one! I loved seeing the reactions as people found their soulmates and got to see colour for the first time.

I thoroughly enjoyed the friends/enemies to lovers storyline with Ben and Beatrice, they had the most developed storyline and it showed as their backstory was revealed.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to finish the book when I started, the writing style is quite off putting, there’s a lot of POVs and I’m not a fan in general of reality tv shows so reading about one didn’t really appeal. However I got used to the writing style about 15% in and from then on I really enjoyed the book. I still think there were too many POVs, it just lead to underdeveloped characters which is a shame.

Overall a really fun, modern take on Shakespeare. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

*3.5

This was okay. I completely get that it's based on the Shakespeare play but there were too many povs. I get the friend group but the reporter was a bit much. I did like the romance between Bea and Ben and I wish we had more of them.

I received an arc through netgalley.

A Review: Much Ado About Soulmates by Elsie McLean

Overall Star Rating: 4/5

First Impressions
The preface was choppy to start, seeing that the writing style right off the bat was a little deterring. However, the storyline was great. I enjoyed it. There are some writers’ style things that I’m not a super big fan of, but not every writing style is my cup of tea.

Analysis and Critique
Plot and Pacing (4.5/5)
Characters(4.5/5)
Writing Style and Voice(2/5)
Dialogue (4.5/5)
Structure and Organization (4/5):

Personal Reflection and Overall Impression
Personally, I loved the Shakespeare with a twist. Not being able to see colors (only seeing black and white, monochromatic) until you met your soulmate was a different way of looking at things in romance. I liked that not every soulmate was a perfect match for you; it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. There is a lot of learning to love and compromise.

Conclusion and Recommendation
I would recommend this book for those who love Shakespeare and want something that is different than your typical “perfect soulmate” romance.

Much Ado About Soulmates
An incredibly unique take on the idea of Soulmates and Shakespeare. Pro’s Imogene and Beatrice, sisters who love one another deeply. One a golden retriever and the other a black cat. Spoiler: the world is black and white, until you see your soulmate. Suddenly the world explodes in color. Within that connection is variation- is it one sided? Is it a strong connection that they can still see colors even if they are out of the house or only in the same room? What happens when a soulmate dies ? Or a break up? The neurological talk behind this seemed convincing. Con’s a lot of perspectives was confusing. The lack of communication between Beatrice and Ben would’ve saved lots of heartache. And, the injustice done to Imogene , she was robbed of her happy ending that was present in the original play. Not only does she lose love through no fault of her own, BUT the color that comes with it and that made me incredibly sad. It felt disingenuous to the story.

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ 3.5 stars
Received this ARC ahead of release.

Much Ado about something - Elsie Mclean

This was a fun twist on a classic Shakespeare – Much Ado About Nothing! (bare with me the last time i read the original was over 10 years ago) The soulmate twist was a really cool concept and felt refreshing. I haven’t read anything quite like it before.

Beatrice and Ben had so much history and tension, which made their scenes feel authentic. I usually struggle with multiple POVs (i get lost), but this one was easy to follow and flowed nicely.

Some of the characters didn’t feel as fleshed out as I’d have liked, but it’s a short book and there was so many POV's, so I get that there probably wasn’t the space or time to really hit that sweet spot.

Overall, a fun, fresh read, it was a nice pallet cleanser between the bigger books i usually read.

If you’re into romance with a bit of Shakespearean flair and a unique concept, give it a go!

Thank you to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this modern day take on Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing, especially the magical realism twist.

Set in a world where people can only see in black and white, until they meet their “soulmate” when the world erupts into full colour, this story looks at several different possibilities of what happens next after you’ve met your soulmate. Including what if you’re seeing colour, but they’re not.

This book was a really fun read, I loved seeing all the different relationships and the one week timeline that it followed meant that the story moved along quickly. And although it roughly followed the plot of the Shakespeare play there were enough little differences to make sure that it wasn’t too predictable.

All in all, this book was a fast-paced, light and fluffy, good time read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read an eARC of this book.

This was such a cute, slightly chaotic romance with a fun twist on the whole soulmates concept. It had major romcom energy with a little magical sparkle that made it feel fresh and different. The characters were super lovable and the banter gave me that giddy, grinning-while-reading feeling. I really liked how it played with fate versus choice without getting too deep or heavy. My only small gripe is that a few plot points felt a little rushed, especially toward the end, but honestly I didn’t mind too much because the vibe was just so fun. If you’re into quirky romances with heart, charm, and a dash of magic, this one totally delivers.

This book is such a clever and thoughtful retelling of Much Ado about Nothing. I haven’t read a book with a soulmate trope before, so I’m not sure if the color idea is new, but it certainly strikes me as unique. The idea of doing MAaN as a televised wedding with social media streamers is SO insightful, as MAaN is all about seeing and being seen (or what people *think* they’ve seen). This adaptation also captures both the humor and pain of the original, especially with Diego.

This was close to being a five-star read for me. However, Diego’s soulmate subplot and the Oliver-Imogen fake-cheating scandal were both underdeveloped and rushed.

Overall, this was still a very entertaining read and a fantastic adaptation!

Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing CoOp for the free eARC! I post this review with my honest opinions.

Content warnings: swearing, non-explicit references to sex including a character watching a faked sex tape

I was so happy to read this book! It was such a cute little romance. I loved the retelling of Shakespear's story Much Ado about Nothing! I was so excited when i saw that it was a retelling i signed up for the arc! Much Ado about nothing was one of my favorite Shakespear stories

I really hope Mclean continues to write retellings of some classic like this! I loved the enemies to lovers, I loved how you could really see how they incorporated the original story into it. I love the ending so much!

Thank you to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the advanced copy.

I will definitely be rereading this one and rereading the original which i highly recommend you read as well!
Thank you to the Authors for this amazing story and i look forward to reading more by them!

I love a good Shakespeare adaptation/retelling and this was a fun read! having them be actors/in the public sphere really helped translate the more comical bits of the original play I feel like. the not seeing color until you meet your soulmate is an interesting addition to make it diverge and develop the plot quite a bit

overall it’s a very lighthearted read and i enjoyed the multiple POVs

Much Ado About Soulmates by Elsie McLean is a fresh, funny, and heartfelt twist on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, and I absolutely loved it!

The story follows Beatrice Massey, a strong and witty woman who is not thrilled to be reunited with her soulmate, Ben Thackary, the man who broke her heart seven years ago. Their connection is undeniable, but love is never simple, especially when soulmates are involved.

Meanwhile, Beatrice’s sister Imogen is about to marry her own soulmate, movie star Oliver Black, in a dreamy wedding in the Italian countryside. As old friends gather for the celebration, emotions run high, secrets come out, and everyone learns that soulmates don’t guarantee a perfect love story.

Elsie McLean brings humor, romance, and emotional depth to this modern retelling. The soulmate twist adds a magical layer to the story, and the characters are full of personality and heart. I’m already a fan of McLean’s writing, and this book just made me love her more.

If you enjoy clever dialogue, second chances, and stories that mix romance with real emotion, this one is a must-read!

Review: Much Ado About Soulmates by Elsie McLean

I’m a total sucker for soulmate tropes and anything tied to Shakespeare, so this book felt like it was written just for me. A modern, swoony, and smart take on Much Ado About Nothing with a fun twist—soulmates bring color into your world. How could I not be all in?

Beatrice and Ben’s dynamic had me hooked right away. Their banter, tension, and history felt so real—messy in the best way. I loved how this story didn’t make the soulmate connection feel easy or perfect; it really leaned into the emotional weight of second chances, hurt feelings, and personal growth.

And the Italian wedding setting? Absolutely dreamy. The whole book had this gorgeous, warm vibe while still making space for complicated friendships and relationships. It was heartfelt and funny, with just the right sprinkle of Shakespearean drama.

If you love second-chance romance, witty dialogue, or soulmate stories with actual depth, Much Ado About Soulmates totally delivers. I adored it!!

Much Ado About Soulmates is a modern day retelling of Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing with an interesting twist. Everyone sees the world in black and white, and once they meet their soulmate, they begin to see everything in color. 

This book caught my attention due to its uniqueness. I’ve heard of soulmate AU writing prompts on social media and seen TikTok skits but I have never read a full length book with one, so I was interested in checking it out. 

In line with Shakespeare’s style, this book had a lot of characters and perspectives to track. Sometimes that can be overwhelming but the POV switches are clearly marked and there is a character list at the front to reference, which I found helpful. I wish there was more substance to their friend group though. There were too many instances of “Remember that time we….. Remember when we….” for me to feel the cohesion. I felt like the newbie friend who doesn’t know any of the inside jokes. 

In terms of the romantic connections in the story, I like that the soulmate AU premise added insight into different types of relationships. There’s a fresh new relationship, a current relationship that’s burning bright, and an older relationship that’s fallen into “disrepair,” each with their own types of problems. But I feel the ending (which does not follow the ending of the original play) contradicted the book’s own statements about love and soulmates, and it left me wanting more closure than we actually got. 

Lastly, on a completely different note, I wanted Stacy to fall off the boat or for Ben to get sick on her! 

All in all, an interesting book that captures Shakespeare’s style with a modern twist! 

Thank you to Victory Editing and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!! My review on StoryGraph is already live and my Amazon review will be live as soon as Amazon approves it.

disclaimer: i never read shakespeare's much ado about nothing.

i wasn't expecting so many povs! i thought the story's focus would be divided by the two couples, but instead we have 8 povs—beatrice, imogen, ben, oliver, diego, aisha, tony, and donna.
i wasn't a fan at first, but halfway through, i resigned myself to it and ended up not minding it at all.

the soulmate thing? loved it. we get a world where it's black and white from the moment you're born until you meet your soulmate, at which point you finally see colours. if you never meet your soulmate, you will remain in a colourless world. if you do find them and then your soulmate dies, you also go back to a colourless world. this is a concept i've read for years on ao3, so it's pretty awesome to find this book.

ben and beatrice were interesting because none of their friends or family knew their story. to everyone else, they have always been friends. ones who bicker and seem unsupportive of one another, but friends.
for the past eight years, they've kept it quiet, and it worked because they didn't spent a lot of time together—at least until the wedding. misunderstandings played a huge role in their relationship.

the second couple oliver and imogen, seemed perfect on paper, but immediately you know that's not true. i did get frustrated with their relationship at the beginning, particularly with oliver. he wasn't a bad person, and he definitely cared and loved imogen, but. well. let's just say, i think the ending was perfect. then there's imogen. out of all the characters, i definitely felt the most connected with her. she loved oliver, but his world wasn't hers and it slowly wore her down—the fact she knew this, and tried anyway, hurt my heart.
becoming soulmates doesn't guarantee that everything will be rainbows and sunshine. it's easy to forget how important communication and compromise are in any relationship, and i love that we see the roots of these issues in an already established couple.

all in all, the writing was easy to read, if a little clunky, and while the romance was nice, the humour was not. i did not laugh once.

fyi stacey needs to be buried alive.

thank you Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the arc. my opinions are my own.

(posted on goodreads, storygraph, fable)

This is not my typical read because I usually do not read books under 300 pages, and I usually do not enjoy 3rd person, BUT....I was amazed at the retelling of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing--one of the most underrated of his plays (IMO).

Did I love this because it IS a retelling of my favorite Shakespeare play? YES!!
Did I love this because it is the OG "enemies-to-lovers" story? YES!!
Did I love this because in every scene I was trying to see how the author modernized important scenes from the original story? YES!!
Did I ABSOLUTELY LOVE how the ending played out? 1,000 times YES!!
Did I appreciate how they essentially created another "villain" in the story? YES!!

So, quite simply, if you enjoy Shakespeare or enemies-to-lovers or found family or a good wedding story, then this is for you. It is the story of Imogen and Oliver's on-location nuptials that brings together friends and family. But Oliver just happens to be a big star, so the film crew is there to record the entire week leading up to the big day. Within this story, so many of the wonderful scenes from the Shakespeare play are included, and I was there for every word and every page.
I hope to see more of this type of story from this pair of author sisters! Well done!

I also highly recommend picking up the OG play as well.

Thanks to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the advanced copy.

A modern day retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado about Nothing, with a fantastical twist on soulmates. This story follows an author called Bea, who is hesitant about the concept of soulmates because hers, Ben, broke her heart years ago. When Bea’s sister, Imogen, gets engaged to her own soulmate and plans a destination wedding where Bea and Ben are both invited, Bea has to face her past head on. Will her and Ben come together and finally see the world in all its wonderful colour?

I enjoyed the concept and the fantastical ‘you don’t see the world in colour until you meet your soulmate’ aspect of McLean’s story. I found this very unique and a good addition to a fresh modern twist on a story a lot of people are already familiar with. However, the story did feel a little convoluted for me, especially at the very start. We are introduced to a lot of characters very early on, who all get their own POVs at some point, within the same chapters too. The book is already structured that each chapter is a different day in the characters’ journey. And these chapters could get quite long. So unfortunately, I found myself losing track of who was who. But it was very sweet story, and I’ll always be a sucker for anything to do with fate, destiny, and soulmates (it’s something I firmly believe in real life so I couldn’t not love that aspect). While it did lose me at times at the start, McLean’s story is a uniquely solid idea with cute and funny elements throughout. And let’s not forget the adorable cover 🥰

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read this story early, I am very grateful for the opportunity.

I have long been fascinated by idea of soulmates, so I was thrilled to find this book on Netgalley.
The idea that there is one person in the whole world that can literally allow you to see things in colour is a really interesting premise that this book explores and how the idea that you may be soulmates, but is it enough to base your whole life around?
Bea thinks not, she met her soulmate a long time ago and through a series of miscommunication and misunderstandings chose to carve a life away from him, while her sister believes in it totally, she met her soulmate and turned her life upside down to accommodate his life, but at what cost to herself?
The book progress through a few days and truths are revealed and lives will be changed. I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you enjoy Shakespeare .

My fanfiction loving heart was so excited to see that someone has brought the soulmate trope into mainstream writing (how has alphaverse made it to romance novels and soulmate tropes haven't??), and Shakespeare is the perfect place for it to start.

In this retelling of Much Ado about Nothing, McLean leans into both the comedy of errors of it all (there is nothing more comedy of errors than reality TV) and the difficulties that a soulmate trope would lead to - does knowing you have a soulmate mean that you adjust your life for them or that you will certainly work out?

I'd love to see McLean continue this theme with other classic pieces of literature - and perhaps to see some characters who are left with a bittersweet ending to get a second chance at love. Thanks to Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for the early copy to review.