Kathryn Barker

What if Juliet Capulet met someone who made her doubt true love? What if Wuthering Heights was a message to a time traveller? A cosmic reimagining of Romeo and Juliet and homage to two literary classics in a compelling novel about fate, love and time travel from an award-winning author.

Waking Romeo

A spectacularly genre-bending retelling of Romeo & Juliet asking the big questions about true love, fate, and time travel Year: 2083. Location: London. Mission: Wake Romeo. It’s the end of the world. Literally. Time travel is possible, but only forward. And only a handful of families choose to remain in the “now,” living off of the scraps left behind. Among them are eighteen-year-old Juliet and the love of her life, Romeo. But things are far from rosy for Jules. Romeo lies in a coma and Jules is estranged from her friends and family, dealing with the very real fallout of their wild romance. Then a mysterious time traveler, Ellis, impossibly arrives from the future with a mission that makes Juliet question everything she knows about life and love. Can Jules wake Romeo—and rewrite her future?

Caitlin Johnson

Kathryn Barker's Waking Romeo is a spectacularly genre-bending retelling of Romeo & Juliet asking the big questions about true love, fate, and time travel. Year: 2083. Location: London. Mission: Wake Romeo. It’s the end of the world. Literally. Time travel is possible, but only forward. And only a handful of families choose to remain in the “now,” living off of the scraps left behind. Among them are eighteen-year-old Juliet and the love of her life, Romeo. But things are far from rosy for Jules. Romeo lies in a coma and Jules is estranged from her friends and family, dealing with the very real fallout of their wild romance. Then a mysterious time traveler, Ellis, impossibly arrives from the future with a mission that makes Juliet question everything she knows about life and love. Can Jules wake Romeo—and rewrite her future?

Christine

Honestly this was insane in a really good way - I probably should've expected that from the description itself but the magnitude of the pure insanity didn't really hit me until about halfway through. The beginning was a bit slow and confusing for me, but after that it was absolutely incredible - twisting both Romeo & Juliet and Wuthering Heights combined, two of my favorite classics. At first I was thinking I wouldn't like it too much because of the very obvious love triangle coming into play but there was a moment at which I went "OH" and knew immediately that I'd actually like this. I rarely see time travel executed in a manner that ends up working continuously and at least a bit logically (can time travel ever ~be~ logical?) and I really enjoyed the time aspect - "Everything is connected." The characters were also written well - I liked Juliet and Ellis a lot more than I usually like YA protagonists (and Iggy and Henry and Beth !!) - and the relationships, good or not, well-drawn.

Kendi Dockum

What do you get when you cross two classics like Wuthering Heights and Romeo and Juliet? A new, nearly perfect tale so uniquely woven together that is sure to be the next big hit!

First, let me say that I was not planning on reading this book. It just happened. But as they say, the best things in life happen unpredictably, as was the case with this book. Did I understand what was happening throughout the whole book? Not really. But I was caught up easily enough through explanations by the characters themselves. Did I enjoy the dystopian atmosphere mixed with time travel aspect of the book? Surprisingly enough, yes! Normally, I don't enjoy these types of books, so this was a refreshing change of pace for me. Did I enjoy the snarky, witty conversations the characters shared? Abso-freaking-lutely!

Now, all that said, there were some points that I feel should be mentioned. There was a reason I called it "nearly" perfect and not just perfect... Firstly, the pacing. It felt a little fast paced for my liking, but at the same time, it sort of worked for this story. And honestly, all the time jumping made my head hurt, which is my problem with time traveling books. It's just confusing to follow when you go back and forth like that. 

Overall, despite my issues with this book, I enjoyed this one immensely, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who's in the mood to read something different! Because that's what this book is-different, but the most delicious kind of different!

Steph L 

ARC won in a Goodreads Giveaway. 

Characters

I’ve been sitting with this book for a few days, and even dropped my rating down. My favorite thing about this book was the characters. Being familiar with Romeo and Juliet, I already knew about them, and their story. Barker does an excellent job of bringing these characters into a new light and giving them a new story. There are new characters in this story as well, and they were fantastic and had interesting backstories. This book lies in the characters, and their banter and interactions, and I’m fine with that because I enjoyed them. I’m not a fan of Wuthering Heights, but I still really enjoyed Ellis as a character. 

Writing 

The writing in this book is good. It works well for the story being told, and I really enjoyed it. I thought that the scenes that were light-hearted worked well because the tone of the book was lighter. The heavier, or more heartbreaking scenes, were a more serious tone, and I think that worked really well for the story being told. 

What could have been better 

Plot

So, here’s where things didn’t work so well for me with this book. I honestly think this could just be a me thing, and others would enjoy the story more than I did. Here’s the thing: as I said above, I’m not a fan of Wuthering Heights. The story of Wuthering Heights confused me, and I was confused by this story as well. There are time jumps in Waking Romeo, and while I understood where they were going, time jumps rarely work well for me because they take me out of the story. The story of Waking Romeo was good, but the time jumps took me out of the story, and I was lost and confused sometimes. I think the plot of this story would work better for people who are used to the Dystopian genre. This was the first Dystopian book I’ve read in about 10 years. There were some elements of the plot I enjoyed. I loved the overall story of waking Romeo and Juliet, living her own life for her. I enjoyed Ellis as a character, and his love story with Jules. 

Romance 

The romance in the book could have been better. We all know that Romeo and Juliet are a couple, and I thought it would end this way as well. I don’t want to spoil the book, but I just thought the romance could have been better. I enjoyed elements of the love story, but in the end, I just wanted more.

Waking Romeo

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