Why I Love The Order of the Phoenix | Harry Potter Month

It's Harry Potter Month!

Throughout July Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows Reviews and Faith @ GeekyZooGirl are hosting Harry Potter month, and I just couldn't resist signing up and joining in. I mean, come on, it's Harry Potter!

I'm a very proud Ravenclaw this month, and if it weren't so warm I'd be wearing my Ravenclaw scarf to show off my House pride, but if I put it on now I think I'd spontaneously combust.

So this month I'll be posting several Harry Potter themed posts. For those of you who aren't fans of Harry Potter or who just aren't interested in it, I will be posting other things as well but I'm not going to apologise for my Potter enthusiasm. I really love this series.

Within the Potterhead fandom there are a few questions that tend to arise quite regularly, one of which just happens to be: Which of the books is your favourite?

Though I love all the books - I don't dislike any of them - I do have a favourite: 

The Order of the Phoenix.

As much as The Goblet of Fire is the book in which the series begins its descent into darkness, it isn't really until The Order of the Phoenix that shit gets real. Harry's coping not only with Voldemort's return and Cedric Diggory's death, but with PTSD, being attacked by dementors, being subsequently expelled from Hogwarts for repelling said dementors, having to go through a trial led by a mentally unhinged politician, being called a liar by the media and half the school when he's cleared of all charges, being tortured by the latest DADA teacher, thinking he and Voldemort might not be so dissimilar after all... Basically, the kid struggles with a lot.

I've seen a few people over the years saying that The Order of the Phoenix is their least favourite of the series - which is fine, by the way, we're all different and we all have different tastes! - but it's always been my favourite. Despite the fact that it's the book in which my favourite character dies.

I'm still not over it.

So, why is The Order of the Phoenix my favourite?

I'm not sure I could sum up everything I love about this particular book in the series in just one blog post, but there is one person in this book that meant it was inevitable it would be my favourite:

Now before you start to worry about my sanity, I can whole-heartedly assure you that I do not like Dolores Umbridge. In fact in terms of villains I probably hate her more than I hate Voldemort, and that's saying something.

What I love about The Order of the Phoenix is how the students fight back when Umbridge takes over Hogwarts. There's something so satisfying about seeing Harry and co. take justice into their own hands, especially when it's clear that nobody else is going to help them, and when I was 15-16 -around the same age as Harry and his friends in Book 5 - this story was just what I needed.

I don't want to turn this into a sob story, but when I was in school I was very lucky in that I was never bullied by any of my fellow students. During my GCSEs, however, I was bullied by a teacher. To this day I still don't know what I did to irritate her so much, and looking back I wish I'd been brave enough to stand up to her and tell her that how she made me feel was not acceptable. It got to the point where I would pretend to be ill so I didn't have to go into school on the days when I had her lessons. It wasn't good.

She seemed to take pleasure in belittling me in front of the rest of the class. She'd punish me for things other students did, knowing that other students had done whatever it was she was dishing out a punishment for, and she never passed a chance to snap at me and make me feel like an idiot. I already had low self-esteem during my teens, and she made me feel so unbelievably small.

The worst thing was there was no one I could tell. Who would the school believe, me or one of their teachers? Eventually I couldn't take it anymore and I broke down in front of my dad, and though I initially didn't want him to for fear it would only make things worse, he rang the school and spoke to my Head of Year. After that she left me alone, to the point that she just passed me on to another teacher, but not before she'd made it seem like it was the lessons I was struggling with, and not her, in front of the whole class.

In summation: she was vile, and I don't know why she became a teacher.

Real life isn't like books. Sometimes the people who wrong us pay and sometimes they don't. I didn't have enough confidence to stand up to that teacher, but Harry and his friends did have enough courage to stand up to Umbridge, and for me reading The Order of the Phoenix feels like justice. When Harry fights his Umbridge, he fights mine, too.

Review | Darkhaven by A.F.E. Smith

Darkhaven

by A.F.E. Smith

My Rating:

Ayla Nightshade never wanted to rule Darkhaven. But her half-brother Myrren – true heir to the throne – hasn’t inherited their family gift, forcing her to take his place.

When this gift leads to Ayla being accused of killing her father, Myrren is the only one to believe her innocent. Does something more sinister than the power to shapeshift lie at the heart of the Nightshade family line?

Now on the run, Ayla must fight to clear her name if she is ever to wear the crown she never wanted and be allowed to return to the home she has always loved.

I received a copy of Darkhaven from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'll be honest, it was Darkhaven's gorgeous cover that first drew me in. Just look at it. Isn't it beautiful?

I wasn't sure what to expect going into this. It's been so long since I immersed myself in high fantasy that I've become a little intimidated by the genre; sometimes I find it difficult to grasp entire new worlds and remember everyone's strange names, but I've been eager to get back into high fantasy because I loved it so much when I was younger. In Darkhaven I found a good ol' fashioned high fantasy meets whodunnit, and the combination of the fantastical with a murder mystery is a lot of fun!

The Nightshades have ruled Darkhaven for years, for they possess the ability to transform into great and powerful creatures. Overlord Florentyn Nightshade has the ability to turn into a firedrake, and given that he can literally burn villages to the ground if he wants to it's no wonder than no one dares question his rule. No one, that is, aside from his daughter, Ayla. Though Ayla possesses the gift to change, the creature she transforms into is a peculiar hybrid of fantastical creatures due to her mother being only human. Her older, half-brother Myrren, on the other hand, cannot change at all despite being a full-blooded Nightshade. Florentyn is embarrassed by both his children, but as Ayla is the one child who can change it is she he intends to bestow the crown upon after his death. Ayla, however, cannot bear to take that away from her beloved brother.

Then Florentyn is brutally murdered by another Changer, and when all fingers point to Ayla it's only Myrren who believes she is innocent.

If I'm completely honest I've never really been a big fan of stories involving shapeshifters, but these I liked; I loved the idea of the royal family having this gift which meant they were literally lethal, and how the Nightshades' desperation for purity has led them to breed with another so much that now only Florentyn, Myrren and Ayla remain.

I would have liked to know a little more about how the people felt about the royals, though. I could never quite tell if the Nightshades were popular or not; many of the people seemed to dislike Ayla because she had a human mother, but I was surprised that so many of the population would have held that against her. Wouldn't they have been pleased to see someone a little more like them within the royal family?

There were a few things about Darkhaven that I found a little off, the tone being one of them. Parts of the story felt as though it was aimed at a YA or younger audience - there was quite a bit of blushing when people were accused of liking someone else - and then suddenly BAM! Sex scene. It was a little jarring, though I did appreciate that Smith didn't shy away from the darker aspects of her world and the people in it; particularly the scene in which the villainous Travers visits a brothel.

I also sometimes felt as though the narrative and the characters were at odds with one another. The narrative would say something about one of the characters, such as how strong and capable they are, and then the character would be... useless. The character I probably had the biggest problem with was Ayla herself; she had real gumption when she stood up to her father, but then as soon as she teamed up with Caraway she became nothing but a damsel in distress and lost a lot of her agency. In fact Ayla spent a lot of the novel, which I assumed was mainly going to be about her, just sitting around and waiting for other people to solve her problems. The woman could literally turn into a powerful, fantastical creature and I wanted to see her defend herself a little more.

I did quite like her brother, Myrren - particularly how he refused to believe his sister was guilty, even when so much of the evidence pointed at her - and I really enjoyed Sorrow and Elisse, two side characters who find themselves caught up in the world of the Nightshades. I was pleasantly surprised to find queer characters in this book, one of whom is a queer sellsword no less, and I loved that Smith didn't make a big deal about their sexuality. It was treated as perfectly ordinary which is wonderful, because so many queer characters' stories seem to revolve around the fact that they're queer. I hope Smith explores these two more in future. I'd love a story about the two of them wreaking havoc and becoming pirates together, or something along those lines.

All in all Darkhaven isn't the best fantasy I've ever read, but there's a lot of potential in this world that Smith has created; in fact this book as a whole almost felt like the prequel to a book that hasn't been written yet, if that makes any sense. If you're a fan of shapeshifters and books that follow an ensemble cast of characters then I recommend checking this one out, and I hope Smith decides to flesh this world out in future!

Monthly Wrap-Up | June 2015

It's time to wrap-up another month - where is 2015 going? We got some lovely weather here in the UK throughout June, so I've been enjoying the sunshine.

Somehow I managed to read twelve books this month, which I definitely wasn't expecting - in fact I even ended up completing my Goodreads challenge of reading 40 books! I can't wait to see how much more I can read this year.

There were some graphic novels, a dash of nonfiction, a couple of modern classics and a childhood favourite amongst my reads this year. A good month!

Lolly Willowes

by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Reviewed here!

How To Be a Heroine

by Samantha Ellis

Reviewed here!

Stargirl

by Jerry Spinelli

Reviewed here!

Jane, the Fox & Me

by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault

Reviewed here!

The Magic Finger 

by Roald Dahl

(re-read)

The Night Bookmobile

by Audrey Niffenegger

Lumberjanes, Vol.1

by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis and Brooke Allen

Reviewed here!

Medieval Monsters

by Damien Kempf and Maria L. Gilbert

American Vampire, Vol.4

by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Jordi Bernett

Reviewed here!

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

Ms. Marvel, Vol.3: Crushed

by G. Willow Wilson, Elmo Bondoc and Takeshi Miyazawa

Darkhaven

by A.F.E. Smith

I discovered a new favourite show in June: Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

I know, I know, it started back in 2o13, but I only just got around to watching it in June, and I couldn't stop. I marathoned the first season and loved it. I usually struggle with comedies; I know it makes me sound really miserable, but I get bored of laughing. That sounds ridiculous, I know, but I hate those shows with canned laughter (apart from Friends, which I will always love) that just continually make fart jokes and boob jokes, but Brooklyn Nine-Nine was so much fun. I laughed out loud more than once, and I can't wait to immerse myself in season two!

I also continued to watch Penny Dreadful, and season 2 is almost over! I loved Angelique so much, and I continue to adore Ethan Chandler who is just adorable.

And Hannibal returned in June! And then revealed season 3 would be its last because NBC have decided not to renew it...

Why is it always the best shows that get cancelled? Hannibal is such a fantastic show - how can it not be with Bryan Fuller at the helm and that fantastic cast? - and us Fannibals are all hoping that Netflix will pick the series up. I don't want this series to end! But, if it must, I trust that Bryan Fuller has created a brilliant finale. #SaveHannibal

How Do You See Cinder?

Should Our Books have Trigger Warnings?

From Screen to Page #1

Don't Judge a Book by its Author

As much as June has felt like another month that's gone by quickly, I also feel like I've packed a lot more into June!

In the middle of the month I ended up returning to Lancaster, where I went to uni, for the night because the publisher I work for published a short story collection written by one of the Creative Writing professors there. I helped to organise the book launch because I have contacts up at Litfest, so I travelled up there with Penny, our fiction editor, and then went out to dinner with two of my friends from uni who are still in the area. We had a lovely dinner at Bella Italia, and I completely forgot to take any photos because I'm rubbish, but it was so nice to be back in the city I love, even just for a night.

One of my friends was lovely enough to offer me a room for the night, and then I got back on the train down to south Wales the next morning. I also received some pretty cool news while I was up there; it turns out the portfolio I worked on for my MA last year is up on the uni's website for the current MA students to look at because it was one of the best from last year - I was so surprised!

I strayed into England twice in June; first to Lancaster, and then to Glastonbury. I moved around quite a bit while I was in primary school, and for a few years I lived very near Glastonbury in a little village in Somerset. I love Glastonbury; it's a fun, kooky little place that also claims to be the place where King Arthur is buried, in fact people still journey there every year to leave flowers for him at Glastonbury Abbey!

He and Guinevere have been missing since the dissolution of the monasteries (we have good ol' Henry VIII to thank for that) though it's doubtful that he was ever really there at all, as the monks happened to discover him at a time when the Abbey was in need of money. Still, it's nice to believe in things like this, isn't it? And he certainly means a lot to people; while we were there someone left him a rose.

If you ever have the chance to visit Glastonbury then I recommend going, especially if you've never been! It's a beautiful part of the world and Glastonbury Abbey is well worth a visit if you're a fan of history - in fact it's worth a visit even if you aren't! There are lots of fun little shops in Glastonbury, too, selling jewellery and incense and all sorts, and if you'd rather do something more outdoorsy you can always visit the Tor!

My mum explores Glastonbury Abbey...

These tiles are 800 years old!

I'm going to be doing some more exploring in July, a little further afield, as my friend Elena and I are off to Rome!

Becky Albertalli wrote a guest post @ Pop! Goes the Reader for Ladies in Literature month all about Body Positivity in Literature

Kat @ Murder of Goths wrote a guest post @ She Might Be Loved about Taking Up Space

Tonyalee @ Lilybloombooks wrote a great post all about Fitting In in the blogging world

Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows announced Harry Potter Month!

Cristina @ Girl in the Pages discussed Parents in YA Literature

Georgina @ She Might Be Loved talked about her Blogging Journey

How was your June?

Top Ten Tuesday | Best Books of 2015 (So Far!)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Books I've Read So Far in 2015'. I didn't know if I was going to get to ten at first because, while I read plenty, there are only a few books each year that really, really stick with me. Or at least that's always been the case before. This year, however, has been a great reading year so, and I hope it continues that way!

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent: This was the very first book I finished this year, and it's just stunning. If you're a fan of quiet, emotionally bruising historical fiction then this novel is most definitely worth checking out. It's gorgeous. (You can check out my review here!)

Rat Queens, Vol.1: Sass and Sorcery by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch: This graphic novel is a miracle. It's like someone took everything I ever wanted to see in a high fantasy story, gift-wrapped it and then handed it to me. It's fun and funny and fantastic - read it! (You can check out my review here!)

My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland: This book was such a pleasant surprise. I expected to like it, but I didn't expect to love it. And I loved it. Angel is such a refreshing heroine in the world of urban fantasy, and I love her. (You can check out my review here!)

Fairest by Marissa Meyer: I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was disappointed when Winter's release date was pushed back to November, though I'd much rather wait for a book Marissa Meyer is happy with, and I was a little wary of a prequel starring Levana for the simple reason that I very rarely come across villain stories that I like. I'm not interested in villains with sob stories; give me villains who just relish being unforgivably villainous. That being said, I thought Levana's story was fantastic. It was so twisted and believable, and while it made me empathise with her a little it didn't make me dislike her any less, which is just what I want from a villain's story. (You can check out my review here!)

Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Probably my favourite book of 2015, I just fell head over heels in love with it. I wasn't alive in the '80s, but this book is one of the only books I've read that's reminded me of how it felt to be a teenager. I found reading this book so emotional, in a wonderful way, and I can't recommend it enough. Also it's witchcraft with '80s music in Mexico City, how could you not want to read it? (You can check out my review here!)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson: After reading The Haunting of Hill House last year I wanted to pick up some more Jackson, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle was the one that most appealed to me. I just loved it. There's something about Jackson's writing style that creeps under my skin and takes root there, and I love that.

American Vampire, Vol.3 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Sean Murphy: I've really gotten into this series this year, and I just loved Volume 3. I loved both of the stories, I loved the characters... I just loved it! (You can check out my review here!)

Jane Eyre's Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine's Story by Jody Gentian Bower: This was my first non-fiction read in a long time, and I bloody loved it. If you're a fan of heroines, you'll enjoy this book, and if you're a fan of the way stories are written, you'll enjoy this book. For any students out there who are currently writing essays or dissertations around heroines and women writers then this book would be great for you, but it's an enjoyable read as much as it has the possibility to be an academic one. As a reader I enjoyed this, and as a writer I found it really useful!

How To Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis: Jane Eyre's Sisters whet my appetite for more non-fiction, and as I already owned How To Be a Heroine and it was also about heroines I decided to pick it up. Whereas Jane Eyre's Sisters focuses more on how we write heroines, How To Be a Heroine focused on how we read them. It's a delightful book. (You can check out my review here!)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: I didn't pick this book up for the longest time because so many people told me to read it, and I'm always wary of hype; books are never as good as you want them to be when you hype them up. Then this month I decided to pick it up and went into it with no expectations whatsoever, and I really enjoyed it. Some books really are beloved classics for a reason, and this is one such book. I'm so glad to finally have it under my belt.

Which books made your list?

Review | American Vampire, Vol.4 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Jordi Bernett

American Vampire, Vol.4

by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Jordi Bernett

My Rating:

AMERICAN VAMPIRE flashes back to two very distinct points in American history. The first tale comes from the early 1800's with the "The Beast in the Cave" featuring art by the legendary Jordi Bernet (Torpedo, JONAH HEX). Learn about the original American Vampire, Skinner Sweet, and his involvement in the brutal Indian Wars, and an ancient evil hidden in the heart of the Old West. Plus, more about the man Skinner used to call his best friend - James Book!The second tale comes straight from 1950s America, where AMERICAN VAMPIRE is terrorizing the suburbs with hot rods, teenyboppers and fangs! "Death Race" focuses on ferocious new vampire hunter Travis Kidd - but what is his connection to Skinner Sweet? As the story comes to a violent end, a sworn enemy's identity is finally revealed, and lots of blood is spilled!

Considering how much I enjoyed Volume 3 (reviewed here!) of American Vampire I was bound to pick up the next instalment as soon as I could afford to - I love graphic novels and I'm happy to pay a little more for them than I would for any other book, but when you need to catch up on a series and buy three at once it gets pretty pricy pretty fast!

A part of me was hesitant to pick up Volume 4 because I loved Volume 3 so much, I was worried I'd somehow find this volume hugely disappointing because it wasn't the previous one, but I ended up enjoying it quite a lot. After the sheer awesome that was the previous volume, I think Snyder's decision to take a break from those characters was wise; instead our first story in this volume shows us James Book and Skinner Sweet in their youth - it was nice to see a pre-vampire Skinner and a not-dead Book! - the second took us to the '50s and introduced another new character: Travis Kidd, and the third showed us something of Calvin Poole and the racial tensions in mid-20th century America, with just a brief glimpse of Pearl and Henry.

My favourite story in this volume would have to be Travis Kidd's, which surprised me. I was a little wary going in that Travis was going to be a very typical character; a Skinner Sweet in miniature, only with less fangs. Instead he was an interesting character with an interesting set of wooden teeth, and I loved the James Dean, rebel without a cause vibe to his story which really suited the era it was set in. I look forward to seeing what he gets up to next.

I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the first story which explored the history between Book and Skinner. I feel like too many enemy stories start out with two guys who were 'once like brothers', so I was a little disappointed Snyder decided to go down that route for these two, but having said that the two of them once being like family does make their inevitable war against one another all the more bittersweet.

I would like to see more of Mimiteh in future, a Native American vampire who seems like a cool, but lethal, lady. I'd love to know if she and Skinner have ever crossed paths.

I liked the way Calvin's story played around with prejudice, and also introduced us to what seems to be a new species of vampire. Snyder just keeps on expanding this world he's created, and I love how his imagination works.

My main criticism of this volume, and the reason I didn't rate it as highly as the previous, was simply because there weren't enough ladies in it for me. I wasn't too keen on the fate of Piper, Travis's 'girlfriend', and there were times when I felt Mimiteh was rather sexualised, but that could just be me being very picky. Pearl and Felicia usually have quite a bit of 'screen time', so I suppose it's only fair the boys get some, too!

I'm still loving this series, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the next volume!

Don't Judge a Book by its Author

Prepare yourself for a little rant: this is something I've been wanting to get off my chest for a while.

We all have our favourite authors. These are those rare breeds of writers whose books we'll always buy regardless of what they're about because we're certain it's going to be amazing, but of course that isn't always the case. I have a few favourite authors myself - I'd like to read as much of Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire's work as possible and I love a lot of Neil Gaiman's stuff - but for the most part I've never been the kind of reader who will blindly buy something purely because it has that author's name attached to it.

Some readers will buy something without really knowing what it's about, only knowing that they like that author, and that's fine! In many ways I admire their dedication to show their love and respect and admiration for the author of their choice, but what irritates me are the reviews that come afterwards.

Not 'Harry Potter and the Casual Vacancy'

The best example I can think of is the response J.K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy received upon its release. I haven't read The Casual Vacancy because the premise doesn't really interest me, and it definitely didn't interest me upon its initial release. I will get around to it at some point now because I have a copy which my parents picked up for me when I was ill, knowing how fond I am of J.K. Rowling, but it's not my priority.

I saw a LOT of Harry Potter fans immediately buying this book, and then being somehow surprised that The Casual Vacancy was nothing like Harry Potter. Because of course it wasn't, and Rowling never said it would be.

The Casual Vacancy has ended up getting some pretty shoddy ratings that, to me, seem completely unfair because they're ratings given by people who didn't really seem to acknowledge what the book was about. All that seemed to matter was that it had Rowling's name attached to it.

I'm sure I'm generalising a lot here; there are plenty of people who didn't buy The Casual Vacancy, and then there are plenty of people who bought it because the premise did interest them and it was a story they wanted to read. This is something I've seen happen a few times, however, and it's always grated on my nerves.

If you love an author, that's great, but if you read all of their books expecting them to be just like one book/series then you're always going to set yourself up for disappointment, and you're probably hindering the author more than helping them with a negative review.

What are your thoughts?

From Screen to Page #1

Welcome to the very first instalment of From Screen to Page! If you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about you can find my announcement for this little series here. This series was supposed to start back in February, and then it just sort of... didn't. Oops!

When it comes to historical films most people who aren't big fans of history or historical fiction have usually seen Shakespeare In Love. In many ways it's a rom-com with costumes, and with a cast like that it's no surprise that so many people enjoy watching it.

For any of you who haven't seen the film, Shakespeare In Love tells the story of, you guessed it, Shakespeare and his fictional affair with a young woman named Viola de Lesseps who longs to be an actress in a time when women were not allowed to perform on the stage. In true Shakespearean fashion, she disguises herself as a man so that she can perform and becomes Shakespeare's most convincing Juliet, as well as the inspiration for Viola in Twelfth Night.

In terms of period films it's not one of my favourites - I'm not a big fan of any films or books in which Shakespeare himself is a character, I'm not entirely sure why - but it is a pretty good film. If you're a fan of the film, there's a book I think you just might like!



Maeve Haran's The Lady and the Poet isn't entirely unlike Shakespeare In Love. There are three big differences: firstly, the writer in question is John Donne, not Shakespeare; secondly, our leading lady, Anne More, was real as was her relationship with Donne; and thirdly, The Lady and the Poet is a little more serious than Shakespeare In Love.

At their heart, however, both of them tell the story of an Early Modern writer and his great love. Donne is most famous for his rather saucy poetry - his most famous poem is 'The Flea' - and he lived a very dramatic life. He was a Catholic during the reign of Elizabeth I, and while we might argue that the Catholics were safer under Elizabeth than the Protestants were under Mary, they were never really 'safe'.

He was appointed chief secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and subsequently fell in love with his niece, Anne. They married against the wishes of Egerton and Anne's father George More, who just so happened to be the lieutenant of the Tower. Oh dear...

The marriage ruined his career and landed him in Fleet Prison, but thankfully he was only there a short time when his marriage to Anne was proven valid. It was during this time he wrote the famous words: John Donne. Anne Donne. Un-done.

Clearly their marriage was a passionate one, as during sixteen years of marriage Anne bore John twelve children. Twelve. Anne died five days after the still-birth of their twelfth child, and John mourned her deeply, writing his 17th Holy Sonnet:

Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt
To Nature, and to hers, and my good is dead,
And her soul early into heaven ravishèd,
Wholly on heavenly things my mind is set.
Here the admiring her my mind did whet
To seek thee, God; so streams do show the head;
But though I have found thee, and thou my thirst hast fed,
A holy thirsty dropsy melts me yet.
But why should I beg more love, whenas thou
Dost woo my soul, for hers offering all thine:
And dost not only fear lest I allow
My love to saints and angels, things divine,
But in thy tender jealousy dost doubt
Lest the world, flesh, yea, devil put thee out.

Even if you're not inclined to read The Lady and the Poet, there's no denying that the true story that inspired it is just as romantic as anything penned by Shakespeare. Perhaps even more so.

So if you like Shakespeare In Love, why not check out The Lady and the Poet?