Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev

[description from Amazon]

All her world’s a stage.

Bertie Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.

She’s not an orphan, but she has no parents.

She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own.

That is, until now.

Enter Stage Right

NATE. Dashing pirate. Will do anything to protect Bertie.

COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARD SEED, and PEASEBLOSSOM. Four tiny and incredibly annoying fairies. BERTIE’S sidekicks.

ARIEL. Seductive air spirit and Bertie’s weakness. The symbol of impending doom.

BERTIE. Our heroine.

Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the actors of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book—an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family—and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.

Lisa Mantchev has written a debut novel that is dramatic, romantic, and witty, with an irresistible and irreverent cast of characters who are sure to enchant the audience.

Open Curtain

Review:

Some of you (probably very few of you) may remember that I did a preview kind of thing for this book way back in February when the ARC scavenger hunt thing was going on. I still stand by all the things I said in that preview thing: It's original (Find me a book with premise like that. I dare you.), it's written wonderfully (So many festive descriptions!), there's mystery (How will Bertie find a way to stay in the Theatre? Stay tuned to find out!), and it has a pretty cover (*stares* So loverly.)

I'm sure you've at least seen, if not read, a bazillion reviews of this book already, so you know everyone is buzzing about how awesome it is. Everyone who is buzzing is right- this book is awesome. I'm not a big Shakespeare fan*, but I loved the way Lisa brought his characters into her book and really brought them to life. For example, I didn't particularly care about the fairies in Midsummer Night's Dream when we performed it in 5th grade, but in Eyes Like Stars, I loved them! They have spunk and are adorable, and add some humor to the book with all their bickering and dessert eating. Similarly, Ophelia is given a new personality and some other Shakespeare characters show up as well.

Lisa's own character creations are fabulous as well- Bertie is a super fun main character. She is mischievous, but extremely likeable, and not afraid to go after what she wants. All her crazy antics make for quite an entertaining plot- she's always got some plot up her sleeve, and plots are always being revealed. Her romantic adventures are quite entertaining too, as there are two wonderful boys to choose from.

My only real complaint about this one is that I never really felt connected to the story. It's written in third person, and for some reason it disconnected me from the story more than third person usually does. It didn't feel like I was in the story- just that I was watching it from afar.

Eyes Like Stars deserves a standing ovation. It's fun, everyone in it has personality, and it's ending, while not a huge cliffhanger, makes me want to read the sequel quite badly.

9/10

*Do I really have to analyze more plays of his next year? *cries*

Congrats on your release today, Lisa!

Links: Lisa's website/blog/twitter/my interview with Lisa/the Theatre Illuminata series website

Feiwel and Friends/Hardcover/$16.99/Amazon/B&N/Borders/Indiebound