I Spy Book Trends: Shakespeare

I Spy Book Trends is a little random feature I do when I spot "trends" in YA fiction. This edition is Shakespeare. I haven't seen too many, but Shakespeare is such a well known playwriter (as well as all of his plays) that they just jumped out at me and I immediately thought of the other books when I read the blurb.

Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle 
Expected Publication: August 14th 2012 by Random House

Miranda has Shakespeare in her blood: she hopes one day to become a Shakespearean actor like her famous parents. At least, she does until her disastrous performance in her school's staging of The Taming of the Shrew. Humiliated, Miranda skips the opening-night party. All she wants to do is hide.

Fellow cast member, Stephen Langford, has other plans for Miranda. When he steps out of the backstage shadows and asks if she'd like to meet Shakespeare, Miranda thinks he's a total nutcase. But before she can object, Stephen whisks her back to 16th century England—the world Stephen's really from. He wants Miranda to use her acting talents and modern-day charms on the young Will Shakespeare. Without her help, Stephen claims, the world will lose its greatest playwright.

Miranda isn't convinced she's the girl for the job. Why would Shakespeare care about her? And just who is this infuriating time traveler, Stephen Langford? Reluctantly, she agrees to help, knowing that it's her only chance of getting back to the present and her "real" life. What Miranda doesn't bargain for is finding true love . . . with no acting required.

 
Falling for Hamlet by Michelle Ray
Published July 5th 2011 by Poppy

Sometimes love can make you crazy.

Meet Ophelia, high school senior, daughter of the Danish king's most trusted adviser, and longtime girlfriend of Prince Hamlet. She lives a glamorous life and has a royal social circle, and her beautiful face is splashed across magazines and television screens. But it comes with a price--her life is ruled not only by Hamlet's fame and his overbearing royal family but also by the paparazzi who hound them wherever they go.

After the sudden and suspicious death of his father, the king, Hamlet spirals dangerously toward madness, and Ophelia finds herself torn, with no one to turn to. All Ophelia wants is to live a normal life. But when you date a prince, you have to play your part.

Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay
Published August 9th 2011 by Delacorte Books

The most tragic love story in history . . .

Juliet Capulet didn't take her own life. She was murdered by the person she trusted most, her new husband, Romeo Montague, a sacrifice made to ensure his own immortality. But what Romeo didn't anticipate was that Juliet would be granted eternity, as well, and would become an agent for the Ambassadors of Light. For 700 years, she's fought Romeo for the souls of true lovers, struggling to preserve romantic love and the lives of the innocent. Until the day she meets someone she's forbidden to love, and Romeo, oh Romeo, will do everything in his power to destroy that love.

(Sequel, Romeo Redeemed, out October this year)




In school, I just finished studying Othello. I've also studied Romeo and Juliet and the Merchant of Venice. I have absolutely no experience with Hamlet's story other than the fact that Shakespeare wrote it, but these all sound really amazing! The only Shakespeare-influenced novels I've read (that I can remember) are The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa which featured characters from A Midnight Summers Dream. There is also the Theatre Illuminata series (which I also haven't read).
But your opinion, guys! Which one would you reading addicts read? (Has anyone read these three or the books mentioned in the paragraph above? If so, what did you think?)