Hello besties !!!

Today I am so excited to review LONG STORY SHORT by Serena Kaylor! When I heard there was a neurodivergent main character I ran to request this book, and it is safe to say I am not disappointed at all. Also special mention to Nikhil??? Best desi love interest— I speak the truth. Wait one more thing— can we talk about the fact that the title of this book is a Taylor Swift song? I screamed when I realised !!!

Let’s get on with the review 🤍

Long Story Short by Serena Kaylor

SYNOPSIS:

Growing up homeschooled in Berkeley, California, Beatrice Quinn is a statistical genius who has dreamed her whole life of discovering new mathematical challenges at a school like Oxford University. She always thought the hardest part would be getting in, not convincing her parents to let her go. But while math has always made sense to Beatrice, making friends is a problem she hasn’t been able to solve, so her parents are worried about sending her halfway across the world. The compromise: the Connecticut Shakespearean Summer Academy and a detailed list of teenage milestones to check off. She has six weeks to show her parents she can pull off the role of “normal” teenager and won’t spend the rest of her life hiding in a library.

Unfortunately, hearts and hormones don’t follow any rules, and there is no equation for teenage interactions. When she’s adopted by a group of eclectic theater kids, and immediately makes an enemy of the popular—and, annoyingly gorgeous—British son of the camp founders, she realizes that relationships are trickier than calculus. With her future on the line, this girl genius stumbles through illicit parties, double dog dares, and more than your fair share of Shakespeare. But before the final curtain falls, will Beatrice realize that there’s more to life than she can find in the pages of a book?

In this sparkling debut from Serena Kaylor, Long Story Short is a YA rom-com about a homeschooled math genius who finds herself out of her element at a theatre summer camp and learns that life—and love—can’t be lived by the (text)book.

Out July 26th 2022!

RATING

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Summertime vibes, Shakespeare quotes, banter, perfect rivals to lovers— this book had it all!

Beatrice Quinn is a mathematical genius and I love her because of that, amongst many other reasons. She is smart, she is a girl in STEM, she knows what she wants— we honestly love to see. She wants to go to Oxford, but convincing her parents is the hardest part.

It was nice that her parents wanted her to try something new— such as theatre camp, but I was just so annoyed with her mom. She wanted to completely change her daughter— and that made my blood boil. Yes, she was better towards the end of the book, but pushing your child so much to be “normal” is not okay. Moving on.

Long story short (see what I did there hehe) Bea is made to go to theatre camp, to prove she can handle herself and do something new— only then can she go to Oxford University. Over there Bea makes new friends and has a crush on the son of the owners of the camp! I loved Bea’s camp experience so much and I want to talk about that a little bit.

Usually in the books I have read or the movies I have seen— this new person just comes into a play/show and is SO AMAZING that the people who have been working for it their whole entire existence and shunned away, and this new person is given all the opportunities. This happened in High School Musical, and guess what? I was not happy™. But, in LONG STORY SHORT— this doesn’t happen! Bea is given her own importance, she has fun in her own way, and in a way she feels comfortable. There was no pushy-ness about being “normal”, because what is normal anyways?

I loved the friends she made at camp, at first they came off as a little pushy to me, but later on they realised that letting Bea have fun in the way she wanted to, and was okay with, is the best thing to do! I also loved Nikhil Shah my best boy— he was honestly so amazing. The Shakespeare quotes? The banter? The always (well after he got over his superiority complex) supporting Bea? It was all so great, and I loved Nikhil and Bea together! Not to mention the whole Shakespeare quotes competition they had— that was so *screams*.

In conclusion, honestly this book had such a great vibe— it was so summer romance at theatre camp-esque I absolutely loved it! It had friendships, Shakespeare (I hate that old white man, but eh at least he was good for something in this), theatre camp, and a summer none of the characters would every forget!

Is this book for you?

PERFECT FOR: Readers who love theatre (summer camps + theatre kid vibes), summer romance, bonding over Shakespeare’s plays.

THINK TWICE IF: You do not like contemporary books, or theatre.

GENRE: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Coming of age.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Panic attacks/disorders, mild alcohol use, bullying, cursing.

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Thank you so much for reading, I hope you all enjoy LONG STORY SHORT as much as I did !!!