thank you to berkley publishing group and berkley romance for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

a shakespeare retelling with a cozy, fall setting, fake-dating shenanigans, and a mostly queer cast too?? sign me up.

jamie and bea are the kind of fictional couple that make me believe in soulmates. you know how sometimes people will say, “oh i’m not sure that the couple will last past the end of the books’ events”. yeah, not them. i think with everything they went through and worked through together. the conversations, and truths they shared with each other absolutely lead me to belive that they’ll be solid and disgustingly (but in a cute way) in love for the rest of their shared lives.

lets not talk about the incredible rep from this story too. they have easy conversations about sexuality, bea’s autism, jamie’s anxiety and more that i appreciate so much. it’s so candid and refreshing to see queer, neurodivergent main characters be the protagonist. and i think chloe liese did an incredible job giving them life and showing honest struggles with coping mechanisms. as a queer, neurodivergent reader it made me felt seen. made me felt like i deserve these types of relationships too, “met where i am” as bea once said. and i hope it can do the same for a bunch of other readers.

even if you’re not a huge shakespeare reader or even that heavily knowledgable about much ado about nothing, i think this book is still absolutely worth picking up.