Puck’s best friend is getting married, and Puck is sure the wedding is a mistake. They should know – after all, they have a successful career as a director of a messy reality TV show and can predict exactly which couples will fail. They decide to put their skills to use to stop the wedding before the marriage will make everyone miserable down the road. You can guess how well that goes…

I’ve never seen/read A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but I think this is meant to be a loose retelling of the story? I’m not sure, though. In any case, it reads like a reality TV show, only with greater stakes, and some inevitable fallout. On the plus side, I loved the sapphic romance that happens alongside the messy wedding bits. Since I’ve started culling any sapphic romances that immediately slot into a “Hallmark movie meets chick-lit, but make it gay” type of story, I’ve been finding more nuanced versions, which I love.

Unfortunately, on the negative side, I really disliked Puck. I know the whole point is that they need to grow up and start to treat people like people, rather than pawns in a game. I know that most likely this is all to do with the Puck of Midsummer. Still, I didn’t like them, not even after they started to become a bit more self-aware. I loved so many of the other characters, but the story was told from Puck’s POV, which made it harder for me to enjoy generally. It wasn’t a bad book – I think it was quite well-plotted, remaining far more believable than I would have expected given the outlandish tricks involved – but I always suffer a little bit of meh when the narrator is personally unlikeable.

Performance: This audiobook was read by Dani Martineck. For the most part, it was a good performance, though every once in awhile, Puck’s voice would go strangely “fifteen year old boy” and that was jarring every time.