Kissing Shakespeare

July 15, 2012
The only thing that's not predictable about this time-travel romance is its exceptionally silly premise. Stephen Langford, a 16th-century time traveler, has a vision that the 17-year-old William Shakespeare may opt to join the priesthood instead of going on to write his plays and sonnets. So he travels to 21st-century Boston, where he plucks Miranda Graham, scion of a Shakespearean acting family, to go back to 1581 Lancashire with him to seduce Shakespeare. Mm-hmmm. Posing as Stephen's sister Olivia, Miranda infiltrates the household of Stephen's uncle, a closet Catholic who is housing both fledgling schoolmaster Shakespeare and enemy of the state Edmund Campion, leader of a Jesuit mission to convert England's Protestants. Miranda/Olivia adjusts to 16th-century life with ludicrous ease, despite its hygienic idiosyncrasies (public use of toothpicks) and her frequent lapses into 21st-century diction. Though she finds the idea of losing her virginity to Shakespeare titillating (and enjoys helping him write The Taming of the Shrew), it will surprise no one that she falls in love with the hunky Stephen instead. The tepid mystery revolving around the Privy Court investigation of Campion's whereabouts is likewise underwhelming in its suspense. Vague waves of the authorial hand attempt to "explain" Stephen's visions and time-traveling ability, but only the astonishingly incurious Miranda will accept them. Despite the author's obvious love of Shakespeare, this offering achieves only inanity. (Fantasy romance. 12 & up)

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August 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-Kidnapped after her opening-night performance in her high school production of The Taming of the Shrew, Miranda finds herself transported back to 1581. She was chosen by Stephen Langford, a fellow cast mate who turns out to be a time traveler visiting the current century. He has prophetic visions and his latest one informed him that William Shakespeare is dangerously close to joining the Jesuits, thus depriving the future of his influential plays and sonnets. Stephen is convinced that Miranda, with her acting skills and presumed promiscuity-after all, contemporary advertising and TV would lead a man from the past to think all modern-day girls are promiscuous-is the only one who can keep Shakespeare from the priesthood by seducing him. Reluctant at first, Miranda, who is the daughter of Shakespearean actors, agrees to his plan. What they don't bargain for is falling for each other. Mingle skillfully weaves historical realities of late-16th-century England with what little is known about Shakespeare's early life. Although it's difficult at times to believe that Miranda, despite her accomplished acting skills, could fool anyone into believing that she is a 16th-century young woman, this novel is definitely a cut above the typical teen romance. A delightful story about star-crossed, time-traveling lovers.-Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's School, Brooklyn, NY

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2012
Grades 7-12 It's a far-fetched premise even for the most seasoned time traveler: sixteen-year-old Miranda is spirited back to Elizabethan England by fellow actor Stephen Langford to rescue William Shakespeare from joining the priesthood. If they are successful, the world will know the sonnets and plays of the Bard; if not, Miranda will return to a very different modern-day Boston. The plan? Miranda, acting as Stephen's sister, Olivia, will seduce a teenage William Shakespeare, thus convincing him that he is unfit for the priesthood. Debut author Mingle makes good use of Shakespeare's lost years as she weaves an improbable but no less fascinating story of a contemporary young woman coping with the harsh yet courtly conditions of rural sixteenth-century England. Olivia, Stephen, and Shakespeare all play a rather predictable romantic cat-and-mouse game, but there's just enough violence, intrigue, and suspense to keep readers on their toes. Although she takes certain liberties with Olivia's involvement in Shakespeare's writing process, Mingle remains true to the history and events of the era, thus revealing the challenge of living in a time of religious persecution and suppression of women.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2013
Modern-day teen Miranda, daughter of famous Shakespearean actors, finds herself whisked back to Elizabethan England by a hottie named Stephen who can travel between his own era and the present. Miranda's mission: seduce young Will Shakespeare to prevent him from joining the Jesuits and giving up writing. The story's love triangle is a stretch, but Mingle's historical details are spot-on and intriguing.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)