Kissing Shakespeare
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A romantic time travel story that's ideal for fans of novels by Meg Cabot and Donna Jo Napoli--and, of course, Shakespeare.
Miranda has Shakespeare in her blood: she hopes one day to become a Shakespearean actor like her famous parents. At least, she does until her disastrous performance in her school's staging of The Taming of the Shrew. Humiliated, Miranda skips the opening-night party. All she wants to do is hide.
Fellow cast member, Stephen Langford, has other plans for Miranda. When he steps out of the backstage shadows and asks if she'd like to meet Shakespeare, Miranda thinks he's a total nutcase. But before she can object, Stephen whisks her back to 16th century England—the world Stephen's really from. He wants Miranda to use her acting talents and modern-day charms on the young Will Shakespeare. Without her help, Stephen claims, the world will lost its greatest playwright.
Miranda isn't convinced she's the girl for the job. Why would Shakespeare care about her? And just who is this infuriating time traveler, Stephen Langford? Reluctantly, she agrees to help, knowing that it's her only chance of getting back to the present and her "real" life. What Miranda doesn't bargain for is finding true love . . . with no acting required.
Customer Reviews
Entertaining
This novel is a play with in a play, a history within fiction. The mystery of Shakespeare's life allows for a lot of speculation, which Mingle handles deftly by recreating something from Shakespeare's shadowy life. The best question this novel asks, what would the world be like if Shakespeare never wrote a play or sonnet?
Lots of fun—and time travel!
Miranda is the teenage daughter of a pair of Shakespearean actors. She loves the stage, but how can she ever hope to live up her mother, let alone excel? Does she even want to? When her first performance as Katherina, in The Taming of the Shrew, doesn't go well, Miranda can hardly bear to attend the cast party. She has let her parents down—and herself. So when a fellow cast member calls on her to join him in a strange and mysterious quest to save Shakespeare and his works, Miranda plays along, only to find herself transported to the 16th century, where views of women are only some of the challenges she faces.
Mingle's touch is deft, the cultural clashes alternately humorous and dramatic, and the characters both believable and appealing. Definitely one for the keeper shelf.
Note that this book is marketed as YA. Also that I interviewed the author regarding a later book, which I did not rate or review as a result even though I loved it. But this review reflects my honest opinion, and I did purchase the book.