Speak Easy, Speak Love

by Charles Turner

Overview

Six teenagers’ lives intertwine during one thrilling summer full of romantic misunderstandings and dangerous deals in this sparkling retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.

After she gets kicked out of boarding school, seventeen-year-old Beatrice goes to her uncle’s estate on Long Island. But Hey Nonny Nonny is more than just a rundown old mansion. Beatrice’s cousin, Hero, runs a struggling speakeasy out of the basement—one that might not survive the summer.

Along with Prince, a poor young man determined to prove his worth; his brother, John, a dark and dangerous agent of the local mob; Benedick, a handsome trust-fund kid trying to become a writer; and Maggie, a beautiful and talented singer; Beatrice and Hero throw all their efforts into planning a massive party to save the speakeasy. Despite all their worries, the summer is beautiful, love is in the air, and Beatrice and Benedick are caught up in a romantic battle of wits that their friends might be quietly orchestrating in the background.

Hilariously clever and utterly charming, McKelle George’s debut novel is full of intrigue and 1920s charm. For fans of Jenny Han, Stephanie Perkins, and Anna Godbersen.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062560940
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/19/2017
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	302,032
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

McKelle George hated reading Shakespeare in high school. But then she spent a summer abroad seeing productions at Stratford-upon-Avon and the Globe in London. She fell in love with all the different ways the same play could be interpreted. She now lives in Salt Lake City, where she mentors young writers with Salt Lake Teens Write and works as an editor and reference librarian. Speak Easy, Speak Love is her first novel. www.mckellegeorge.com

Editorial Reviews

The vibrant, dangerous atmosphere of a Roaring Twenties speakeasy is clever setting for this debut, a reimagining of Much Ado about Nothing. ...for fans of an enemies-to-lovers romance, this biting comedy is always a classic.

Booklist

Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing bears up uncannily well . . . readers will be fully immersed in the excitement, glamour, and danger of a culture tipping into rebellion and making way for change in more ways than one.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Speak Easy, Speak Love is a book nerd’s dream. With the vivid hedonism of the 1920s, a cast of exquisitely drawn characters (with snappy chemistry, and sexual tension that makes you want to smash their faces together), and wit to rival Will himself...loving, fresh, and unputdownable.

Mackenzi Lee

George’s debut novel is a retelling of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing set in 1920s, Prohibition-era Long Island. Seventeen-year-old Beatrice Clark is kicked out of boarding school and sent to live with her uncle and cousin, Hero, at their estate on Long Island. Named Hey Nonny Nonny, this estate is more that what meets the eye. Late at night and on weekends, it is transformed into a speak-easy where jazz acts sing, patrons dance, and the illegal liquor flows freely. The bootlegging business is running dry, however, and poor but tenacious Prince is determined to find a way around his brother, John Morello, and the rest of the Italians so that he can become the ultimate supplier to the bar. Boarding at the estate alongside Prince and Beatrice is the trust-fund enabled Benedick who has left school against his father’s wishes to become a writer. Once their paths cross, the witty banter between Beatrice and Benedick is deliciously enjoyable, and the modernized cast of characters is so colorful that the entire novel seems to do the Charleston right off of the pages. If readers’ interests are piqued by this Prohibition-era retelling full of stories of Italian gangsters, the Cotton Club, jazz music, and speakeasys, George has done her research: she includes an author’s note full of information about the nonfiction elements of the story and what was aggrandized for the novel. This is sure to delight fans of Anna Godberson’s Bright Young Things (HarperCollins, 2010) and Shakespeare’s writings alike, leaving a taste for much more of the Roaring Twenties and much more from George. Reviewer: Stephanie Wilkes; Ages 15 to 18.

VOYA, August 2017 (Vol. 40, No. 3) - Stephanie Wilkes

2017-07-02
In this 1920s-era retelling of Much Ado About Nothing, young Benedick Scott has decided once and for all to leave Stony Creek Academy, defying his father, to pursue his dream to be a writer. While making one last climb out of his dorm room window, he is discovered and then joined by his aristocratic, British classmate, Claude, who decides to latch on to Benedick's adventure. Then there's Beatrice, who's kicked out of a home for wayward girls and picked up by her cousin, Hero, who drives her to her uncle Leo's estate on Long Island. Beatrice quickly learns that Uncle Leo's mansion doubles as the Hey Nonny Nonny speak-easy by night, run by Hero and her merry band of teens. Also living at Hey Nonny Nonny is Maggie, the black singer whose voice draws the upper-crust crowd the speak-easy needs to stay in business. (The other principals are white.) Naturally, romance blossoms between Beatrice and Benedick, with the help of a few friends. This 400-plus-page retelling will likely disappoint readers who haven't encountered the original. As a stand-alone plot, it loses steam over its length, and placing teenage characters in the very adult positions of running a speak-easy and acquiring illegal booze stretches credulity. The characters feel out of place and never fully come to life in this 1920s time period. Ambitious but a miss. (Historical fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews