ARC Review: Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George

Title: Speak Easy, Speak Love Written by: McKelle George Published: September 19, 2017 by Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins) (Amazon / Goodreads) Synopsis: Six teenagers’ lives intertwine during one thrilling summer full of romantic misunderstandings and dangerous deals in this sparkling retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.  After she gets kicked out of boarding school, seventeen-year-old Beatrice goes to her uncle’s estate on Long Island. But Hey Nonny Nonny is more than just a rundown old mansion. Beatrice’s cousin, Hero, runs a struggling speakeasy out of the basement—one that might not survive the summer. Along with Prince, a poor young man determined to prove his worth; his brother John, a dark and dangerous agent of the local mob; Benedick, a handsome trust-fund kid trying to become a writer; and Maggie, a beautiful and talented singer; Beatrice and Hero throw all their efforts into planning a massive party to save the speakeasy. Despite all their worries, the summer is beautiful, love is in the air, and Beatrice and Benedick are caught up in a romantic battle of wits that their friends might be quietly orchestrating in the background.  Hilariously clever and utterly charming, McKelle George’s debut novel is full of intrigue and 1920s charm. For fans of Jenny Han, Stephanie Perkins, and Anna Godbersen.

Some of my favorite retellings lately have been Shakespeare retellings. So I was incredibly excited to find one that is a historical fiction book set in a period I love reading about and based on one of my favorite Shakespearean comedies, Much Ado About Nothing. This is that book and I was so excited to read it. And I really enjoyed it. It had great characters, an interesting historical setting, and an exciting plot.

My favorite thing about this book was probably the characters. I absolutely love the characters in Much Ado About Nothing and was really excited to see what the author would do with them. Our mai characters here are of course Beatrice and Benedick. I absolutely loved both of them. Beatrice is too smart for her own good, Benedick too stubborn, and both of them too outspoken. The original play did a great job of playing with gender stereotypes and that is definitely something the author did here with all the characters but especially Beatrice. I loved how the author made Beatrice ahead of her time and the kind of woman who was unabashedly herself despite what others thought of her. In contrast, Ben is the sensitive one. He's got a heart of gold and I loved him for it. Plus as expected their banter was amazing and the love to hate romance totally had me rooting for them to get together in the end.

But this book had more characters beyond Beatrice and Benedick. As the synopsis informs you, there are six main teenagers here. Beyond the two main characters we have Hero, Prince, Claude, Maggie, and John. All six of those characters are connected in some way or another and at first it was kind of hard to keep straight. It helped that I had knowledge of the play and knew who they were supposed to represent but without that I would have gotten very confused. I definitely think as far as these secondary characters go, the women is where this book shined. I really liked Hero and her desire to follow in her mother's footsteps running the speak easy and Maggie, the jazz singer, was a fantastic character. I would have liked a little more from the male characters though. I think John and Prince blended together in my mind and Claude was just not around much at all. In general I thought the characters were good but there may have been to many perspectives for my taste.

And those many perspectives did make for an interesting but slightly confusing plot development. There is a lot going on in this book. The plot of the original play lends itself well to a lot of different things and so does the setting of the 1920's. And this book definitely explored all of that. Jazz, party scenes, prohibition, mafia, and more. It was all incredibly interesting and made me want to read it to find out what was happening. But I also had to pay very close attention because there just wasn't enough attention placed on each of these plot threads. When certain things came out that was it, it just came out and then the book moved on. So I don't think the big reveals didn't hit as much as they could have if there was a bit narrower of a focus. I think just maybe this book bit off more than it could chew when it came to the plot.

But a lot of the plot I think was redeemed by the retelling aspect. You can tell that the author is super familiar with the play and has strong love for it. But you can also tell that there are some aspects about it that she didn't really enjoy. It's not a shot for shot retelling which honestly I enjoyed. I usually prefer retellings that take the original and expand on it in some creative way. This creative way was the historical setting. I feel like the period worked so well with the play. It was an equal balance with fun and dark, with lots of real history thrown in. It made for an interesting setting and a good retelling.

On the whole, Speak Easy, Speak Love was a fun and interesting read. it had great characters, an interesting setting, and an exciting plot that made for a good retelling. I do wish it was a little narrower perspective so some of the plot wasn't as confusing but in general I really liked it.

I give Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George 8.5 out of 10 stars

Buy/Borrow/Bypass: Borrow. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a Shakespeare retelling. If you like Much Ado About Nothing definitely check this book out or if you are a fan of historical fiction set in the 1920s.

Have you read Speak Easy, Speak Love? What did you think? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!

Speak Easy, Speak Love Blog Tour: Guest Post and Giveaway

Hi Everyone,

I'm so excited to be a part of the blog tour for Speak Easy, Speak Love. I've wanted to read this book ever since I first learned about it. Not only is it historical fiction set in the 1920's but it involves bootleggers, speak easies, and all kinds of fun stuff from the era. But on top of that it's a Much Ado About Nothing retelling which involves a hate to love relationship and plenty of laughs. I love Shakespeare retellings and I'm excited for this one. 

So... because of my enjoyment of Shakespear retellings, I had to ask the author about Shakespeare. So scroll down for McKelle George's response when I asked about Shakespeare's comedies but first a little bit about the book.

Speak Easy, Speak Love

by McKelle George
Publisher: Greenwillow Books/ HarperCollins
Release Date: September 19, 2017

Genre: Young Adult, Retellings, Historical

Synopsis:

Six teenagers’ lives intertwine during one thrilling summer full of romantic misunderstandings and dangerous deals in this sparkling retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

After she gets kicked out of boarding school, seventeen-year-old Beatrice goes to her uncle’s estate on Long Island. But Hey Nonny Nonny is more than just a rundown old mansion. Beatrice’s cousin, Hero, runs a struggling speakeasy out of the basement—one that might not survive the summer.

Along with Prince, a poor young man determined to prove his worth; his brother, John, a dark and dangerous agent of the local mob; Benedick, a handsome trust-fund kid trying to become a writer; and Maggie, a beautiful and talented singer; Beatrice and Hero throw all their efforts into planning a massive party to save the speakeasy. Despite all their worries, the summer is beautiful, love is in the air, and Beatrice and Benedick are caught up in a romantic battle of wits that their friends might be quietly orchestrating in the background.

Hilariously clever and utterly charming, McKelle George’s debut novel is full of intrigue and 1920s charm. For fans of Jenny Han, Stephanie Perkins, and Anna Godbersen.

GUEST POST

I asked McKelle to tell us a little bit about the Shakespearean comedies because we tend to just learn about the tragedies and some of my favorite Shakespeare is the comedies. Here's what she said:

Okay, I’m going to try and keep this short and not turn this into a massive academic essay, but I actually have a lot to say about this. In high school, I hated Shakespeare: mostly because I couldn’t understand it. We studied Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello (all tragedies). It wasn’t until a, I was introduced to comedies, and b, I saw Shakespeare performed the way it’s meant to be, that I started to truly it.


Students tend to study the tragedies more because, as scholars and critics judge, the Bard’s most complex and beautiful writing appears in the tragedies. Likewise, people tend to adapt the tragedies more and retell them because there seems, at first glance, to be more substance: more emotional depth and realism to play around with.

But hear me out:

The tragedies are beautiful and complex and great, sure, but I believe some of Shakespeare’s most political writing is found in his comedies. In fact, several of the so-called comedies are billed as problem plays because while initially billed as such, there’s a lot of dark, psychological drama sprinkled into the laugh-out-loud funny.

Consider The Merchant of Venice and Taming of the Shrew. The first has an antisemitic premise (casting the Jewish Shylock as the villain), and the second is sexist (setting up Kate to be ultimately “tamed”),and yet, it is to Shylock that Shakespeare gives the humanizing and beautiful speech that contains the famous line, “If you prick us, do we not bleed?” At the end of Shrew, when a beaten Kate addresses the women of the audience and says, “Come, come, you froward and unable worms,” it is chilling.

Both of these monologues are chilling and uncomfortable. It’s hard to know what Shakespeare intended because he famously gave very few stage direction, but it’s also hard not to think carefully and critically about what’s being said between the lines.

Shakespeare was no dummy. He was popular as his plays were being performed—often in front of nobility and the Queen—and anything too radical might have gotten him executed. Likewise, preaching didn’t do much good either. I like to think Shakespeare was entertaining people into change, weaving empathy and forward thought into the plays with jokes and marriage—not death and gore.

Much Ado About Nothing gets one of Shakespeare’s finest feminist characters in Beatrice. Beatrice is independent and smart, and even though she doesn’t want a husband,it’s for the sake of her own independence, not because she hates men (of whom she is gently teasing in the beginning of the play). Unlike Kate, Beatrice isn’t made to change who she is to be with Benedick, and unlike characters like Rosalind, she also doesn’t ditch her female friendships once a man comes along.

This is one of my favorite Beatrice’s moments:

BENEDICK

With no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest I love thee.

BEATRICE

Why then, God forgive me!

BENEDICK

What offence, sweet Beatrice?

BEATRICE

You have stayed me in a happy hour. I was about to protest I loved you.

BENEDICK

And do it with all thy heart. BEATRICE I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.

BENEDICK

Come, bid me do anything for thee.

BEATRICE Kill Claudio. (4.1.293-303)

She’s like, I love you! Kill your best friend. Like, yeah fine I admit it, but that doesn’t change the situation, pal.

To me, the 1920s was a uniquely feminist decade and that was why I set Speak Easy, Speak Love in that setting . . . and then tried to make people laugh. Hopefully I succeeded.

McKelle George is a reader, writer of clumsy rebels, perpetual doodler, and associate librarian at the best library in the world. She mentors with Salt Lake Teen Writes and plays judge for the Poetry Out Loud teen competitions (but has no poetic talent herself). Her debut young adult novel Speak Easy, Speak Love comes out from Greenwillow/HarperCollins in 2017, and she currently lives in Salt Lake City with an enormous white german shepherd and way, way too many books.

FOLLOW THE TOUR

Giveaway:

• 1 ARC of SPEAK EASY, SPEAK LOVE by McKelle George
• Pre-order swag including:
• 1 SPEAK EASY, SPEAK LOVE bookmark
• 1 signed SPEAK EASY, SPEAK LOVE bookplate
• 1 signed SPEAK EASY, SPEAK LOVE postcard
• The full set of SPEAK EASY, SPEAK LOVE character cards •

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Thanks everyone for stopping by

ARC Review: The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You by Lily Anderson

Title: The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You Written by: Lily Anderson Published: May 17, 2016 by St. Martin's Griffin (Macmillan) (Amazon / Goodreads) Synopsis: Trixie Watson has two very important goals for senior year: to finally save enough to buy the set of Doctor Who figurines at the local comic books store, and to place third in her class and knock Ben West--and his horrendous new mustache that he spent all summer growing--down to number four.  Trixie will do anything to get her name ranked over Ben's, including give up sleep and comic books--well, maybe not comic books--but definitely sleep. After all, the war of Watson v. West is as vicious as the Doctor v. Daleks and Browncoats v. Alliance combined, and it goes all the way back to the infamous monkey bars incident in the first grade. Over a decade later, it's time to declare a champion once and for all.  The war is Trixie's for the winning, until her best friend starts dating Ben's best friend and the two are unceremoniously dumped together and told to play nice. Finding common ground is odious and tooth-pullingly-painful, but Trixie and Ben's cautious truce slowly transforms into a fandom-based tentative friendship. When Trixie's best friend gets expelled for cheating and Trixie cries foul play, however, they have to choose who to believe and which side they're on--and they might not pick the same side.

*** I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This fact has not change my opinion. ***

I did not expect to be able to read this book any time soon but I had a small window in my reading schedule after finishing something earlier than planned so I squeezed this in and am really glad I did. It was seriously fantastic.

In one respect this is a really fun modern rebelling of Much Ado About Nothing. I'm realizing more and more that I love these Shakespeare retelling and this was no exception. It was an interesting and modern spin on the classic, one of my favorites. I like the comedies so much more than the dramas. But even if you don't know the original story you will appreciate this book. The author does a great job of taking the basics of the original story and not only bringing it into the current period, but putting her own spin on it. It's not a shot for shot retelling but it's pretty close in the best possible way.

The real heart of this book, and let's face it Much Ado About Anything, is in the relationships. If you're familiar with that play then you know the infamous Beatrice and Benedick relationship. Here we have Ben and Trixie. Like their classic counterparts this is a fantastic hate to love romance, a trope that is one of my all-time favorites and I will almost always get behind. Because oh the banter, you guys! When they were competing and fighting I absolutely loved the snarky digs and verbal jabs between them. But then when the love part clicked in, it was so freaking fluffy and adorable I could barely handle it in the best possible way.

But in general I really loved these characters. Part of the modern spin is that the book takes place in a school for geniuses, which worked so well with the quick-witted characters of the original. But they were also fantastic nerdy type characters talking and arguing about pop culture and geeky references that had me seriously fangirling. Trixie and Ben were fun but they also had a great group of friends around them. I loved that Trixie's friends Harper and Meg called her out for being too mean. And while Ben's friends did kind of blend together in my mind, it was great to see a solid group of nerds with shared and varying interests supporting one another. And another great thing about this books was the parents. Not only were they involved but they added something positive to the plot. It's sad that that is refreshing. But I honestly like Trixie's parents, they were fun in a realistic kind of way.

Plus on top of all of that, there was a fun mystery to the book. I wasn't able to predict who the culprit was hear and so I really love this book for keeping me guessing and the subtle clues that it unraveled. But the mystery is also my main criticism. The synopsis kind of gives away a bit too much (you may have noticed that I hid a portion of it, that's intentional) and the actual mystery elements didn't kick in until two-thirds of the book. I honestly thought that there would be more to this aspect of the story but I was perfectly fine with the contemporary romance aspect of the story then suddenly the mystery changed the plot completely. It's not that I didn't like the mystery, because I did, it just felt a little too late. I think more of it throughout the book or just rework the synopsis so it doesn't give away so much.

On the whole I absolutely melted for this book. I flew through it, laughing, fangirling, and swooning along the way. It's an amazing modern Shakespeare retelling with great geeky characters that I think everyone will love.

I give The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You by Lily Anderson 9 out of 10 stars

Buy/Borrow/Bypass: Buy. I really loved this book and I would totally recommend it to basically anyone. If you are a big contemporary fan then definitely get your hands on it. If you are a Shakespeare fan grab it for that aspect. But even if you just want something quick and fluffy then check this out.