Long Story Short

By Serena Kaylor

Here we have a girl who is not only too smart for her own good, but lives in her head 24/7. When she is accepted at Oxford in England after having been home schooled most of her life, her probably too mellow parents who are sex therapists, belatedly realize she’s far from ready to enter the real world.

Despite her outrage at their concerns, Beatrice has some well-buried worries along the same line. After all, she has no friends, has never been on a date, and must make a list of tasks to complete in order to convince her parents and herself that she could survive in another country.

Her parents’ solution is for her to attend a Shakespeare summer camp on the east coast. Following her navigation through that is fun to read. She’s adopted by two veteran campers, one with real acting ambitions, the other intent upon a career in high fashion and costuming.

They alternately love her and kick her in the tail as needed. Add in a mean girl with her own fears about her future, and a very handsome and talented boy with acting aspirations who creates some scary feelings every time he’s with Beatrice, and you have a great cast for a very satisfying story.