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by Susan Metallo
As World War I rages, a seventeen-year-old English feminist with a penchant for thrashing men at cards finds herself stranded on an enemy-controlled island and tangled in the last mess she'd ever expect: love.
Violet is used to winning—with her mathematical mind, no one stands a chance of beating her at cards, or much of anything else. So, when her wrathful father threatens to marry her and her trans twin brother Seb to the highest bidders, she's certain they can escape England, even with a war on. But before they reach safety in Italy, a U-boat sinks their ship, and Violet washes up on a small island, on the wrong side of enemy lines, desperate to find her missing twin.
To earn passage to the mainland, where she hopes Seb has landed, Violet disguises herself as a man and accepts a job delivering love poetry for melancholy pacifist Teo, the island's irritating golden boy. The object of his affection, fair Olivia, is less than enchanted, but she is intrigued by the handsome delivery boy—Violet in disguise. While Violet struggles to sidestep Olivia's attentions, she's vexed by her own inconvenient but undeniable attraction to Teo.
Add a mysterious newcomer, who converts the love triangle into a square, and Olivia's autistic sister, who's concocting a devilish revenge against the island's biggest bully, and odds are things will only get messier.
Fortunately, playing the odds is Violet's specialty.
In a twisty transformation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, populated with queer, trans, and neurodivergent characters, Violet's bold prose alternates with verse chapters from the perspective of autistic musical prodigy Faustina. Susan Metallo's whip-smart writing and the fresh wartime setting make for a witty, elegant, and high-stakes exploration of love, loss, friendship, and identity.
"This fun, historical retelling of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night will keep readers wanting more. This book is a must-have on YA shelves." —School Library Journal (starred review)
"In well-built settings that exude sensory detail, the author expertly weaves a complex web with strands that include wartime events and historical attitudes towards queerness, women's rights, and autism... . A masterful reimagining of Shakespearean characters." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Metallo ... offers a clever retelling of Twelfth Night... . outspoken Violet proves a winning protagonist whose wily fierceness inspires adoration. Intermittent chapters narrated by Olivia's younger sister Faustina ... injects lyricism and heart into this inventive Shakespearean adaptation." —Publishers Weekly
This information about Hearts on the Table was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Susan Metallo is a neurodivergent author and youth services librarian. Reasons To Hate Me, her debut novel, was an Indies Introduce Selection for Summer/Fall 2025. She serves as regional advisor for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators in New Mexico. "My intentions for Hearts on the Table," she writes, "were to honor the neurodivergent and LGBTQIA+ experiences of the early twentieth century with a balance of accuracy and hope, acknowledging the challenges and discrimination while focusing on agency and joy."
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