Author: Pamela Mingle
Release Date: August 14, 2012
Published by: Random House Children's Books
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Who doesn’t love Shakespeare? In Kissing Shakespeare this question becomes a reality as Miranda, a modern girl who loves Shakespeare’s plays, must go back in time to save Shakespeare from a dangerous choice. Stephen, the time-traveler, drags Miranda back to the sixteenth century where she plays at being Olivia, Stephen’s sister, as she tries to seduce Shakespeare into forgetting about pursuing a religious path rather than his oh-so-amazing secular one. The question is can Miranda get Shakespeare to fall in love with her before it is revealed that he is helping to hide a Jesuit priest?
My Thoughts: I was really interested in this interesting twist on a typical time-traveling storyline. However, the storyline was not as fun as my first impression. I learned a lot about Queen Elizabeth’s pursuit and conviction of Jesuit priests as she tried to enforce the Crown’s religious choice. There is one terrible scene of a priest being burned at the stake right at the beginning of the story. Needless to say, this is no light-hearted romp through the English countryside. It is a story of intrigue and deceit as Miranda tries to figure out who is telling the sheriff the details about the hidden priest. While I enjoyed the idea of the storyline, I struggled to get through it. I did finish it because I wanted to make sure I was right about what was going on, but the action was often slow and the details redundant. I would have liked more editing—more isn’t always better.
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