Martin, Jessica. For the Love of the Bard. Berkley, 2022. ISBN 978-0593437438. $16.00

*****

Miranda is back in her hometown for the summer to finish writing the final installment of the popular fantasy series that no one knows she authors. Mortified to run into her ex, hunky veterinarian Adam, she is frustrated by how much her dog loves someone she really wants to avoid due to a long-held grudge. Her mother is in poor health and Miranda ends up having to direct a production of Twelfth Night for the Shakespeare festival, where of course, she keeps running into Adam.

If you love Gilmore Girls, the small town feel of this novel will hit you in all the warm and cozies. I think the author even REFERENCES Gilmore Girls. At first, all of the Shakespeare allusions and puns were groan-inducing and eyeroll worthy… and then I started to really appreciate how the characters developed into solid, real, complex people. The sister dynamics evolved as well.

I received a free advance reader’s review copy of #ForTheLoveOfTheBard from #NetGalley