Falling For Shakespeare

by Erin Butler

The funny thing about high school is, one day you can be the meanest girl at the top of the food chain and then the next, your pregnant sister makes you a class A loser.

Katie's life was perfect. She was dating the captain of the football team, had a BFF for life, and every girl at school wanted to be her. But then her sister’s pregnancy changes everything, and suddenly, Katie's all alone. No friends, no boyfriend, no social life. She may as well be a leper.

Nic's a straight-A student and self-professed Geek who’s had a thing for Katie since middle school. He needs a date for the winter formal, and Katie needs something to take her mind off her misery. So, she puts her years of popularity and dating to good use. His plight is now her personal pet project.

However, Nic has other plans. If he can take Katie’s advice and become more confident, he might just find a way to mend her broken heart and take himself out of the friend zone for good.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

140 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 8, 2015

About the author

Erin Butler is lucky enough to have two jobs she truly loves. As a librarian, she gets to work with books all day long, and as an author, Erin uses her active imagination to write the kinds of books she loves to read. Young Adult and New Adult books are her favorites, but she especially fangirls over a sigh-worthy romance.

She lives in Central New York with her very understanding husband, a stepson, and doggie BFF, Maxie. Preferring to spend her time indoors reading or writing, she'll only willingly go outside for chocolate and sunshine--in that order.

Erin is the author of HOW WE LIVED and LAST WISH, contemporary NA novels, and the YA contemporary romance titles, FINDING MR. DARCY: HIGH SCHOOL EDITION and FALLING FOR SHAKESPEARE. Find out more about her at www.erinbutlerbooks.com or @ErinButler on Twitter! You can also sign up for her newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/bylfx9

Reviews

[Kristie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Normally, I try to write long complicated reviews for books when reviewing them for blog tours. However, I feel that this book doesn't need it, for when it comes down to the basics, it is a love story.

Falling for Shakespeare is one for every romance reader at heart. You have high school friends; one who realizes that they like the other person, the other not realizing it. But you read as the painful friends try to figure out this water. Then there's also the very accurate setting of high school. Both Nic and Katie are considered the bottom feeders of the school; though Katie wasn't always in that position. Katie was the mean girl, top of the chain in the popularity pool, until her sisters pregnancy throws that down the drain.

Erin's writing is true to a high school students voice, which I felt added a realness to the story. She also writes her characters as though they're standing right beside you. You feel like you'd know their favorite color, whether they're a dog or cat person, and what type of music they listen to just by looking at them.

Reading about Katie and Nic's adventure for getting Nic a date was painful. Mostly because the whole time I just wanted to yell at them and make them kiss. But at the same time, i loved that aspect because that's what humans do. We don't dare take risks when it comes to our hearts.

Love, Shakespeare and high school all make this love story for a great afternoon sitting by the fire with a coffee or hot chocolate in hand.

[Tammy Gould · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not the biggest fan of romance. I just loved this book so much. It is a romance but not that much of a romance. There is just enough in there that you want everyone to be happy and get the girl at the end.

The book was written really well. This is definitely a book that young and old can read and fall in love with. The story just flows along and you don't want to put the book down. I think I read the book in a couple of hours.

You will want to route for the underdog here. You see how Katie tries to understand how to live at the bottom of the pack now. How she deals with being unpopular. There are some good lessons in the book for the young adult crowd. The book shows that no matter where your on the social ladder in a school you can make it and still be able to be your own person.

I am really happy that I decided to read this book. It was a fabulous read and I believe the author has made a new fan here.

[Jamie (Books and Ladders) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on Books and Ladders as part of the FALLING FOR SHAKESPEARE Blog Tour!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Taking this one at face value for a contemporary ya romance, it was pretty good. It had all the elements there that'd you want in it. I just think that some of them could have been highlighted more if the pacing had been a bit better.

Part of the problem is that I didn't connect to any of the main characters and Nic bothered me. He was all "oh she only sees me as a friend" and to change that he changed himself. I'm not really okay with that. I also thought it was a bit of a cop out to have Reese be the bad guy instead of Katie owning up to all the bad things she did. I wasn't a fan of their relationship.

I was a fan of Jer though, in the brief moments we got to see him. He actually wanted to make a change and to have Reese be a better person. I think I would have enjoyed this story more if it had been about Katie reforming herself into the person she wanted to be and falling in love with Jer again.

I did like the notes from Romeo but I didn't think they were well used for the plot. I thought they should have been highlighted more in the beginning to bring it full circle.

I think the background characters could have been better developed but they were just pieces to the Katie and Nic puzzle and not that important. However I do think the story should have had maybe a prologue about how Katie fell from grace to give us some back story before diving into what was currently happening.

Overall: 3.5/5 for me if you look at it as just a romance novel.

[Gisele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nada del otro mundo, pero cumple las expectativas.

[Ester · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es una tierna historia que ayuda a pasar la tarde :)

[Desi · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARGUMENTO:

Lo curioso de la preparatoria es que un día puedes ser la chica mala en la cima de la cadena alimenticia y de repente, tu hermana embarazada te convierte en la perdedora de la clase.

La vida de Katie era perfecta. Salía con el capitán del equipo de fútbol, tenía una mejor amiga para toda la vida, y cada chica en la escuela quería ser como ella. Pero entonces el embarazo de su hermana lo cambió todo, y de repente, Katie estaba sola. Sin amigos, sin novio, sin vida social.

Nic es un estudiante perfecto y un autoproclamado friki que ha sentido algo por Katie desde la secundaria. Necesita una cita para el baile de invierno, y Katie necesita algo que le quite de la mente su miseria. Por lo tanto, le da a sus años de popularidad y citas un buen uso. Ahora hará de él su proyecto personal.

Sin embargo, Nic tiene otros planes. Si puede tomar el consejo de Katie y sentirse más seguro, podría encontrar una manera de arreglar el corazón roto de ella y salir de la zona de amigos para siempre.

********

Nic me gustó.... más bien me daba cosita por que se pasaba de tonto.... tonto-enamorado al fin!!

y Katie... Uff sí q me cayó mal, fue iiinsoportable!! En sus PoV cada vez que hablaba de su hermana, su sobrinita, quejándose de su vida, de su exmejor amiga.... ay no, que insufrible... y en muchas partes del libro fue muy mala!!

Lo bueno es que se lee rápido, no hay mucho drama y las que hay se solucionan rapidísimo y sin muchas complicaciones.... pero esperaba más de esta historia... y la protagonista fue una plasta de m*****!!

[Adricrisuruta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved. A very beautiful story

[Priss Reyes · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5
Lectura amena y rapidísima pero muy olvidable.

[Nicole Aroca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book because it portrays us more realistic as is adolescence, I liked it and I think I will deserve a better rating

[Holly Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I saw the notice about the blog tour for this book, I jumped at the chance to participate. The book just sounded so adorable! I am a sucker for a good best-friends-turned-lovers book, and Falling for Shakespeare seemed to fit that bill. I was also very intrigued by the idea of Katie’s sister having a child while still in school and wanted to see how the author handled teen motherhood as well as the impact on Katie as the younger sister of a teen mom.

So, I snatched up the ARC and began reading pretty much as soon as I received it. I flew through the book, both because it’s an “easy” read and because it was just so good I didn’t want to put it down! Let me explain the “easy” part – I mean this in a positive way, no negative connotations attached. I certainly don’t mean that the writing was juvenile or that there were no difficult words or concepts. When I say it was an easy read, I mean that the writing was mature and the story had a great flow, such that I wasn’t constantly thrown out of the story by bad dialogue, sentences that didn’t make sense, plot twists that didn’t make sense, etc. So this was an easy read because Ms. Butler told the story flawlessly!

Katie was a great main character, very easy to relate to and someone I could imagine being friends with myself (at least in her current incarnation - probably not as she was before her sister’s pregnancy!). I enjoyed her “voice” immensely, and it was gratifying to see her grow throughout the book. When we meet her, she’s already estranged from her ex-boyfriend and her “best friend,” who basically dumped her when her older sister became pregnant in high school. It’s been about 3 years, if I remember right, and we see how Katie has already grown during that time. She helps her sister and mom with the care of her niece, albeit begrudgingly at times, and she seems to have mostly moved on emotionally from her friends’ betrayal. She has come back to her friendship with Nick, which had been strained during the time she was one of the queen bees in high school. Since being tossed down low on the totem pole, she has discovered that Nick was always there for her, no matter what, and they have cemented their friendship into a rock solid bond. Katie continues to grow and mature through the rest of the book, too, and I was happy to see her reconnect with her sister and realize how important their bond is, as well as how much she truly loves her little niece.

As for Nick, well, I absolutely loved Nick from the moment he appeared on the page. I’m a sucker for a sweet geek, a title that Nick proudly claims for himself. He’s not interested in what other people think about him (except for Katie, of course!), he doesn’t get caught up in nasty high school drama, he’s not angsty, he’s just… GOOD. He’s a great character and it was obvious how much he cared about Katie. Although he’s had a crush on her for just about forever, he’s able to remain her friend and be there for her anytime she needs him. He is pretty much the only person at school who is there for Katie when she is dumped by the in-crowd, and he sticks with her through everything she endures at the hands of her so-called best friend (who is just hateful and mean; Ms. Butler did a great job with her character, because I really didn’t like her!!). I loved hearing Nick’s “voice” as much as I did Katie’s - maybe even more! - and his mental kicks at himself when he says what he thinks is the wrong thing during his “dates” with Katie are hilarious!

As for the plot, I can definitely imagine that some people will think, “Oh, this has been done before! Girl friend thinks Boy friend needs to get a date, she’s going to show him how to impress a girl, and in the process they realize they should be together.” And you’re right, it has been done before. And yet… Ms. Butler is just able to take the well-worn trope and breathe new life into it. I believe it’s because of her ability to create characters that I loved so much; had I not connected with Katie and Nick as deeply as I did, it might have come off as ho-hum, boring, or trite. But it definitely was not any of those things! The characters, coupled with the unique situation of Katie’s role as the younger sister of a teen mom, are truly what make this book shine. Ms. Butler has taken the tried-and-true trope of friends-turned-lovers and made me fall in love with it all over again! There’s a reason it’s tried-and-true, after all… Because it works and we love it!

Falling for Shakespeare was an absolute delight to read, and I highly recommend it for fans of YA, contemporary, romance, swoon-worthy geek heros, adorable and personable heroines, true character growth, and, yes, that old favorite story of friends falling in love. I happily give this 4 stars!

[Yenni Sosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Que puedo decir, todo comenzó relativamente bien, sin embargo con el paso de las páginas no podemos evitar mirar todos los errores que esta haciendo la autora, tiene buenos personajes y problemas bastantes interesantes, solo que no profundiza en ellos, todo es demasiado superficial, que parecía que una página te hablaban de él y a la siguiente ya estaba resuelto. 

 "La vida era solo un momento complicado tras otro"

Como digo, los personajes están bien, me gustó la personalidad del personaje masculino protagonista que me hizo sentir identificada en cierto modo, y los demás eran buenos, pero no se hundió en su caracterización, era muy escueta, dejando ganas de saber más.
El romance era una combinación realmente extraña que no combinaba de ningún modo. Empezó tranquilo, bien, hasta que la chica en cuestión tiene un insta-love que no te lo puedes creer, todo el tiempo está diciendo sinceramente que no le gusta y de la noche a la mañana, ya está diciendo que lo ama, después se vuelve todo tan romántico, en un sentido no muy agradable, para terminar en algo sexual, que no me convenció nada.

 "No sé cuál es el problema con tratar de ir bien en la escuela. De hacer algo por mí cuenta. Hago la tarea. ¿Y qué? Prefiero sacar nueves en lugar de sietes. ¿Y qué? Demándenme."

La pluma de la autora es fluida que te hace terminar la historia, solo que no llegó a controlar del todo el desarrollo de la historia. Parecía que quería hacer un cliché, que esto no tiene que ser malo, sin embargo, no le salió muy bien.

¿Te lo recomiendo? No, la verdad no, pero si le quieres dar una oportunidad, adelante.

Calificación: 2.5/5


 "Es solo que no sé por qué la gente solo me ve como una persona estudiosa. También me gusta divertirme."

Atte.LANEYBooks

[Fernanda Leite · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the story of the book, the idea of it and the main characters. Katie suffered so much with all the changes in her life that made me ask some questions that I actually wished was in the book: if they were so closed to each other, why Alissa didn't make an intervention on some things?
There was more questions that I wanted to know but wasn't in the story, like: what happened to Reese? She thought about what she'd done? How Alissa and her family deals with Hannah's father? His family doesn't show up?
I missed more story about Katie and Alissa relationship, development of Jerome - he seemed pretty stupid for his age, the relationship between Katie's family itself - her mother mostly. How is like to have a teenager mother? I know most of it doesn't had to be in the book because they're more like parallel stories, but I think it would make the book more deep.
But beside this, I like it pretty much!