Julia (edition 2011)

Once I got past the first fifty pages and some of the dialogue, I thoroughly enjoyed this retelling of my favorite legend. Or is it a legend? Ms. Fortier has used history to infuse the story with freshness. I even pulled out a copy of Ambrogio Lorenzetti's "Good Government" to take a look at the figures in the painting. I enjoy the medieval story in Juliet, more than the modern tale - Julie Jacob's story. I'm looking forward to the rest of the tale and see where it leads my imagination. Aggggh! I cannot believe the dialogue - no 25 year old I know speaks like Julie Jacobs and her sister, and I have sisters aplenty, I cannot believe the editing, or lack thereof. If Ms. Fortier had stayed with the medieval story in Siena she would receive more than one star from ome. ( )

I read this book while I was on vacation last week and was totally engrossed by it---could not put it down! You can read my (slightly spoilerish) review on my website at: http://www.rulethewaves.net/blog/?p=2746 ( )

I actually really enjoyed this book. Not sure about it at the start, as it seemed to drag a bit for my liking, but about halfway through, I couldn't stop listening to it and actually finished it via ebook because I wasn't driving about town.

The storyline switches between present day Siena and Siena in 1340 when the initial Romeo and Juliet met and fell in love. Fast forward down the family tree and you find present day Giulietta who has lost her relatives and travels back to Siena to track down family history/secrets. She does, in fact, meet a mysterious man who is not from her family...you can figure it out from there!

While certain aspects of the storyline are highly predictable, there's enough twists that I was engaged in it throughout. It most definitely made me want to travel and explore different parts of a city, that's for sure!

Worthwhile read - longer than I had originally expected, but good! ( )

Julie Jacobs is stunned the day she finds out that her great-aunt Rose, who raised her and her twin sister Janice, has died. She's even more surprised when she finds out at the funeral that her real name is Giulietta Tolomei and Rose wanted her to go back to Siena, where she was born, and find a treasure that her mother left for her in a safety deposit box. Of course things are never that easy in real life or in fiction. Julie is soon in the middle of a treasure hunt, being pursued by ruthless treasure hunters, and wrapped up in the long ago story of Romeo and Juliet.

Overall, I just loved this. It was full of excitement and suspense and romance and Italian scenery and Siena and gelato, and just so much Italian life. What's not to love?

There are two different storylines, that of Julie in the present and Romeo and Juliet in 1340. Shakespeare got the bare bones right, but the details are quite a bit different, let me tell you. The biggest change is that their story takes place in Siena rather than Verona. I loved the descriptions of the city, and I especially loved that the author worked in il palio, a famous, highly-competitive horse race Romeo rides in. Just so much excitement! He's a hero to win any girl's heart!

In the present day, I mostly liked Julie. She's got a spine and she's not too guilty of being the stupid girl who does everything wrong. I think there might have been one or two things that bothered me, but I can't even remember what they might have been. I was as clueless as she was about what was going on, what the treasure might be, and where it could be located. Edit: Julie in her own past was very irritating. Her sole purpose in life was to be the exact opposite of her twin, even if she managed to hurt herself in the process. She comes into her own in Italy though, and starts to finally get over it.

There's a bit of a mystical element that might bother some readers. I read lots of fantasy too, so something like that would never bother me. Anyone looking for a book set firmly in the rational world might not like this.

The big thing that bothered me is that about halfway through the book, Julie's relationship with two characters completely changes. I mean, complete 180 with absolutely no explanation given. I can sort of explain away one change to my satisfaction, but the other? It was crazy. I kept waiting on this character to show his or her true colors and go back to being a horrible person, but it never happened. So was Julie lying about her relationship initially, was she crazy? I have no idea. Thinking about it bothers me a lot, but I liked the rest of the book well enough that I made the conscious decision to just let it go.

For excitement, romance, action, and an original take on the Romeo and Juliet myth, go ahead and pick this up. I don't think you'll be disappointed. ( )

Very pleasantly surprised ( )