3.5 Stars
I can't decide whether to rate this 3 or 4 stars. It truly is a 3.5 star book for me.
Much Ado About Nothing is my favorite Shakespeare play. I've loved it ever since I was young. I think part of the appeal for me was the hate-to-love aspect of the story between Benedick and Beatrice. That has always been and will always be one of my favorite tropes. I also love retellings of my favorite stories, so when I heard this book recommended for lovers of MAAN, I knew I had to check it out.

The first half of the story was 5 stars for me. Now, does that mean that this book was filled with incredibly complex characterizations, intricate world-building, and groundbreaking plot? No. But that's not what this book was supposed to be for me. I already know these characters and how they relate to each other and the world around them. I just wanted characters with wit, zippy dialogue, and that hate-to-love goodness. And the first half of this definitely delivered on that. I loved Trixie and Ben's progression as friends and then more. I loved the way they bonded over their love of all things nerdy. It was utterly satisfying.

However, half way through (I say half way, but it was probably more like 2/3 of the way through) the main conflict of the story arises. That is where this story loses something for me. Now, in the original source material,

Claudio sees a woman he thinks is Hero, his betrothed, being intimate with another soldier. The next day he publicly shames her at their wedding and she collapses as he storms out.

I appreciate the author wanting to update this point of the story, but it still could've worked with just a few minor tweaks. Instead, the author decided to go in an entirely new direction that I didn't think worked at all.

Now,the main conflict arises when Harper (Hero) is framed for hacking her school's computer systems and framing other kids in their year to make it look like they were cheating. And when it starts looking like she's guilty, her boyfriend Cornell (Claudio) breaks up with her because he thinks that she was trying to take over the valedictorian spot in their class, which is his spot.

There are so many things about this that don't make sense. Characters in the story even admit that it doesn't make sense and all the reasons why. But it takes a lot of convoluted deduction and technical jargon to uncover the truth. A truth which, sorry to say, doesn't work for me at all.

Once all of that was out of the way I started to like the story again, but by that point there was just one chapter and an epilogue remaining, so I wasn't left totally satisfied with this, which is a little disappointing. That being said, I did really enjoy the first part of this book and would like to check out more from this author in the future.