Blog Tour ~ ‘Othello’ by C.E. Wilson.

Sale Alert ~ ‘Undeclared’ by Jen Fred... Book Blitz ~ ‘Tattoo’ by Cambria Hebert.

Blog Tour ~ ‘Othello’ by C.E. Wilson.

‘Othello’ by C.E. Wilson

(Shakespeare for Everyone Else #2)

Release Day: December 23, 2013

SYNOPSIS

Shakespeare’s work features some of the most memorable stories and

characters ever created, yet for too many curious readers the

combination of ultra-dense dialogue and unfamiliar historical settings

make tackling the Bard’s work something between a tedious chore and a

confusing mess of bird-bolts and quondam carpet-mongers.

While it’s nearly impossible to replicate or improve on these works,

it is (thanks to their timeless nature) possible to make them more

accessible to a wider audience.

In this Young Adult retelling of one of William Shakespeare’s most

memorable plays, join C.E. Wilson as she breathes new life into

Othello, the second book in her series Shakespeare for Everyone Else.

When Archer decides that he’s had enough of Orion and Devony running

what he thought was going to be his school he takes desperate measures

to ruin everything. Through lies and betrayal, deceit and deception,

Archer will stop at nothing to get what he wants, and he doesn’t care

whose lives he has to destroy in the process.

Can anyone stop one of William Shakespeare’s most villainous

characters in this YA retelling of the epic tragedy of Othello?

~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon US ~ Smashwords ~

“Orion, I’d like to think that we’re friends now. We’re friends, right?”

“Of course. You helped me out when Micah was drunk and making an absolute ass out of himself. You’ve proven on more than one occasion that I can trust you with school events and I know you care about the school’s reputation as much as I do. Please…tell me what you think you saw.”

“Micah’s a good guy. I think I’m looking too much into things.”

“Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I don’t see a reason to get you riled up this close to the tournament.”

“Why would I get riled up?”

“Because you’re stressed. I’m worried you’ll start to see things that aren’t there. There’s going to be a lot of pressure. The media’s going to be here.”

“I know about the damn tournament. What I want to know is if Micah is trustworthy.”

As he fumbled with his fingers, Archer could feel Orion’s heavy gaze. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“You’re lying.”

Book Review ~ ‘Othello (Shakespeare for Everyone Else #2)’ by C.E. Wilson ~ 4 Stars!

Any author who re-writes any well known classic to make it more relatable to people today, has a huge feat ahead of them, none more so than authors who rewrite Shakespeare. C.E. Wilson took on an incredibly difficult challenge, and not only succeeded, but also wrote the story so well, that the emotions that are more difficult to experience whilst reading Othello in script form, just flew off the page and I really connected with the characters and storyline.

Being a huge Shakespeare fan, I have read all of his known plays, and Othello is one of the more difficult ones to read and understand. C.E. Wilson did a fantastic job in brining Shakespeare’s characters alive in the 21st century, and made their motives, feelings and struggles seem very much relatable to real problems that young people face today. I liked how it was set in a school, which made an excellent way for all the characters to know each other, and have jealousy issues related to school related drama.

I particularly loved how the characters were introduced to us. I really felt the connection between Orion (Othello) and Dev (Desdemona) and I could see the love that they had for each other so clearly that it broke my heart to see Orion’s descent into jealousy. The pacing of the story was also perfectly in line with the way that Shakespeare’s original work was paced. Whilst many may feel the ending is very sudden and not much closure is given, I loved how C.E. Wilson tackled this tragic ending, as it was very much in line with how Shakespeare’s plays do end very abruptly after the final dramatic scene, with less prominent characters speaking the final lines.

I gave this book 4 stars, as there were a few moments in the book where I felt the dialogue was a bit stilted, almost as though it were written for a play and not for a novel, but in the grand scheme of how well-thought out and produced this book was, this was really only a little thing.

This is one of the best Shakespeare retellings I have read, it is incredibly well-thought out and was extremely relatable to young adults, and I feel that this sort of book would have helped a lot of my class-mates when I was studying Shakespeare at school.

A clever, unique and intriguing young adult adaption of Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’.

4 Stars!

C.E. Wilson

C.E. Wilson is 30 years old and currently living in Pittsburgh,

Pennsylvania with her husband and her two dogs and two cats. They are

all the loves of her life. When she’s not writing young adult fantasy

novels, she enjoys writing short stories to post on DeviantArt. She

loves to write stories involving giants and little people (a genre

also known as GT) and nothing helps her to write more than a strong

cup of coffee with a sweet creamer and taking time at the end of the

day to watch some classic movies with her husband.