For the Love of the Bard

For the Love of the Bard- Jessica Martin

Berkley

Release Date: June 28, 2022

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Literary agent and writer Miranda Barnes rolls into her hometown of Bard’s Rest with one goal in mind: to spend the summer finally finishing her YA novel, the next installment in her bestselling fantasy series. Yet Miranda’s mother, deep in the planning stages for the centennial of the town’s beloved annual Shakespeare festival, has other ideas. 

Before you can say “all’s fair in love and war,” Miranda is cornered into directing Twelfth Night—while simultaneously scrambling to finish her book, navigating a family health scare, and doing her best to avoid the guy who broke her heart on prom night. 
 
When it comes to Adam, the veterinarian with a talent for set design and an infuriating knack for winning over Miranda’s dog, the lady doth protest too much. As any Shakespeare lovers knows, the course of true love never did run smooth, and soon Miranda realizes she’ll have to decide whether to trust Adam with her heart again.

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Miranda is a great lead, and one we can all find within ourselves. Mostly confident, but hiding behind a pen name as a writer, and humor/snark when uncomfortable, Miranda isn't the most outwardly social person but is loyal to those she lets in her circle. Suffering from middle child syndrome, she always wants to be the peace maker and please everyone, and this summer that means taking on more and more of Bard's Rest's major Shakespeare festival instead of hauling her sisters in to help so she can work on her book. She also has to decide on her feelings for Adam, the sexy vet in town for the summer and helping her dad with set design. Can she get past the fact that he was her high school crush and broke her heart on prom night? There's clear chemistry between them, but a tricky past history makes her wary.

 

I loved that this wasn't just a story about two people falling in love. Yes, it is a second chance romance, a delightful slow burn and sizzle. But it was also about family, the love and dynamics and bonds the sisters share, and rebuilding their relationships after missteps along the way. And it was about Miranda (and Adam) re-discovering what it is they love about their jobs and their lives, for themselves as individuals as well as part of a possible couple.  

A mix of light and serious, this book does have its moments of serious. There is a parent health scare and a hospital scene, so if that's something you're sensitive about, head's up (spoiler alert, things seem ok by the end of the book). A bit of tighter editing in some places might have helped, and I wasn't a fan of the overuse of metaphors Miranda's mental ramblings often take, but that aside, I ended up really enjoying this book. 

Bard's Rest is one of those quirky little towns you wish you could visit, or possibly live in, with humorous Shakespeare twists on everything. The secondary characters flesh out nicely and become full fledged supporting roles of their own, and I am very much hoping sisters Cordy and Portia get their own books down the line so we can keep coming back to Bard's Rest and the delightful world and people Jessica Martin has created.

Fans of Jen DeLuca's Well Met series and romantic comedy in general will enjoy a trip to Bard's Rest to meet Miranda, Adam, and Jessica Martin's delightful For the Love of the Bard.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review