Reviews
This is one of my favorite books. I remember when it first came out, I read it in a day and a half (because work & sleep got in the way) then turned around and read it again immediately.
Romeo & Juliet get their proper due in Anne Fortier’s wonderful tale. Where Shakespeare’s version is equally loved and loathed as to whether it’s truly about love, or it’s about impulsive children who have no real sense of love and die foolishly, this story actually gives them some agency in their own tale.
Juxtaposed between the past and the present is Julie Jacobs, who is trying to make sense of the complex puzzle that her mother has left behind in regard to the story. Turns out, Julie and her sister are part of the real Juliet’s bloodline, and that is just the beginning!
As our present day Juliet tries to solve the riddle, she wonders if the handsome Alessandro,with whom she’s both sparring and flirting, could be her Romeo after all.
Mystery, puzzles, shady gangster types, clues, escapes, ancient grudges- it’s all here in a book that’s romantic and mysterious enough that even Shakespeare might rethink that original ending. 🌺
a work of art.
3.25 stars http://readwatchlistenrun.blogspot.co...
This is one of my all time favorite books! I love Romeo & Juliet so the premise intrigued me. What I was wholly unprepared for was the way this particular story was to unfold. I found myself racing along with the characters of both past & present day to the storeys' end. So breathless was I, that I had to turn around & read it again immediately! I have since that time told anyone within shouting distance how marvelous a read it is! Beautifully told & surprisingly refreshing for a story we think we know by heart. Just wonderful.
Great job with the parallel storylines.
** spoiler alert ** To be honest, I found Julie really unlikeable. I understand why the author wanted there to be tension between her and her sister, but it felt very contrived. It seems like Julie only doesn’t like her sister because her sister likes men and has agency over her sex life. Also this book is LONG. Nothing wrong with that but I felt like I was waiting an eternity for anything to happen. I enjoyed the history of it. Siena is an incredible place with a very interesting history and I enjoyed that part a lot. That’s the only reason I didn’t put 1 star. I think she’s a good writer but the concept was lacking. I just couldn’t decide if I liked the book for the first 222 pages, which probably means I didn’t like it. So I stopped reading. Spoilers ahead . . . I asked a friend how it ended and I got the feeling that the idea was to make Julie and Romeo basically Romeo and Juliet reincarnated, and she ends up with him, even though I was literally over 200 pages in and he hadn’t been introduced beyond the creepy dude on a motorcycle who follows her around Siena in the dead of night and (potentially) breaks into her hotel room. Not cute. I’m glad I put it down when I did.
