Love Disguised by Lisa Klein - OPTIONAL

Klein, Lisa  Love Disguised, 303 pgs.  Bloomsbury, 2013.  $17.99  Content: Language: PG-13 (8 swears); Mature Content: PG-13 (preoccupied with checking out women’s chests, off page sex); Violence: PG-13.  

In this historical fiction, William Shakespeare is tricked by Anne Hathaway and so he takes his distrust of women with him to London to try and clear his father of debt.  As a newbie in London, he is quickly robbed but finds a place to stay at the Boar’s Head where he quickly befriends Meg and helps run a small theatrical play.  As he tries to find money to clear his father’s name he becomes good friends with Meg’s brother (who is really Meg dressed like a boy), the two have many adventures on the streets of London.  

Overall, this book wasn’t interesting and I didn’t ever fall into the story.  The characters were hard to connect with and William Shakespeare was flaky and hard to like.   The historical aspects were interesting, but I don’t think many young adult readers have enough understanding of Shakespeare to find those parts interesting.  Lisa Klein’s book Ophelia was much better.  

HS-OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.