ARC Review: The Dane of My Existence by Jessica Martin

The Dane of My Existence
Author: Jessica Martin
Series: A Bard's Rest Romance (Book 2)
Publication: Berkley (July 4, 2023)

Description: When the history and character of her Shakespeare-obsessed hometown is threatened, a powerhouse lawyer goes toe to toe with a commercial developer in a hilarious rom-com from the author of For the Love of the Bard.

Portia Barnes is the youngest managing partner in her law firm’s history, and she and her stilettos are poised to step into the role of her dreams—leading the firm’s new Boston office. But first she’s taking a summer sabbatical in her hometown of Bard’s Rest, New Hampshire, where she discovers something’s rotten in the midst of the town’s annual Shakespeare festival.

Hotshot commercial developer Benjamin Dane is sniffing around Bard’s, and while Portia isn’t necessarily a Shakespeare fanatic like the rest of her family, she’s not about to let him bulldoze the town’s beloved outdoor theater. Yet to Portia’s dismay, Ben proves as skilled as she is when it comes to outworking, outmaneuvering, and one-upping the competition. While she’s never hesitated to wage war against hyper-successful alpha males, Portia is caught off guard by Ben’s openness and lack of arrogance. As her own long-constructed walls start to come down, Portia begins to wonder if he might be more than an archnemesis.

With her heart on the line and the future of the town hanging in the balance, Portia faces an impossible decision—Ben or Bard’s?—unless she finds a way to broker the merger of her life, and ensures the curtain falls on a happy ending for everyone.

My Thoughts: THE DANE OF MY EXISTENCE was an engaging and humorous contemporary romance. It is the second set in Shakespeare-obsessed Bard's Rest. While the town and Portia's family are obsessed with William Shakespeare, Portia is not. Portia Barnes is a lawyer for a high-pressure law firm in New York. She has just received a promotion to be a managing director at the newly established Boston branch of her firm. But first she is required to take a sabbatical...

Since Portia's mother is dealing with breast cancer, Portia decides to spend her sabbatical in Bard's Rest helping with the annual festival. First assigned to looking over the contracts for the festival and then recruited to play a part in the dinner theater, Portia is getting involved.

Then Benjamin Dane, a property developer from Boston, comes to town looking for opportunities. The two meet and sparks fly. But when a deal over one particular piece of property - Will's Island - comes up, it threatens to destroy their budding relationship. Ben wants to develop the island where the main stage of the festival has been for years, and Portia is working with the town and the town's merchants to find some way to stop him. 

Portia also has a chance during her enforced sabbatical to take a look at her life and career and decide if she made the correct choice. Things she learns about her mentor at the law firm shake what had been her certainty. That and her new relationship with Ben strongly encourage her to make what one character in the story describes as a "pivot." 

This was an entertaining story with characters a reader wants to root for. I really enjoyed it. 

Favorite Quote:

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, I reasoned. A summer of pro-bono. For a bunch of half-crazy, Shakespeare-worshipping cultists.

Despite a childhood steeped in Shakespeare, I didn't get the hype. He was prolific, sure, assuming one believed he's written everything attributed to him, but c'mon, he wrote the equivalent of romantic comedies and melodramas with plot twists that would make a teenager roll their eyes. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.