Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills ~ 320 pages ~ published 12/5/17 by Henry Holt 

Goodreads Synopsis:

A contemporary novel about a girl whose high school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream leads her to new friends—and maybe even new love.

The day of the last party of the summer, Claudia overhears a conversation she wasn’t supposed to. Now on the wrong side of one of the meanest girls in school, Claudia doesn’t know what to expect when the two are paired up to write a paper—let alone when they’re both forced to try out for the school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

But mandatory participation has its upsides—namely, an unexpected friendship, a boy band obsession, and a guy with the best dimpled smile Claudia’s ever seen. As Claudia’s world starts to expand, she finds that maybe there are some things worth sticking her neck out for.

What I Thought:

I received this book in my OwlCrate months ago, and while I thought the cover was gorgeous and it sounded cute, I put off reading it because I thought this book seemed just kind of meh. I was so wrong! I read this book in one day, and I stayed up until 1:30 a.m. to finish it because I needed to know what happened! 

I absolutely loved Claudia. I thought she was charming, and I enjoyed that her quirk (as all female protagonists in contemporary YA must have at least one quirk 😉 ) was that she had absolutely no filter and said whatever ridiculous thing came into her brain. It was a nice departure from the typical “clumsy girl” quirk. She was a fun character to grow with and get frustrated by. 

I also enjoyed that this book was just as much about friendship love as it was about high school crush romance love. Claudia has a life-long friendship in Zoe and has to figure out how to include her in her separate life. But, she also has to figure out if that friendship is one that will grow with her or not. Claudia’s friendship with Iris is interesting in that she needs to figure out if she is willing to deal with a new friend who is going through a crisis and might not be as open as Claudia would like her to be. And, of course, I loved Claudia’s growing relationship with Gideon. He is a precious starfish, and I love him! 

I also felt like the LGBT representation in this book was very well done. The basis of the plot is that the “it” couple of Claudia’s school is between two females. And no one questions this or makes a big deal out of it. It seems to be accepted as the norm, and I love it. I found this to be a breath of fresh air. 

Bonus: A Midsummer Night’s Dream is my favorite Shakespeare play, so it was great fun to see the plot of this novel woven through with pieces of the play. 

My Rating: 

5.0/5.0

I gave Foolish Hearts 5 STARS! You will love this book if you like a fun, clean, contemporary romance with a little bit of friendship love and strife, as well as a dose of Shakespeare, thrown in!

Are you interested in learning more about this book? Check out the links below! 

Emma Mills’ Website/YouTube

Emma Mills’ Twitter

Foolish Hearts on Goodreads

Purchase Foolish Hearts on Amazon

Have you read Foolish Hearts? What about any other books by Emma Mills? What did you think of it? Let me know down in the comments! 

Love and happy reading,