Juliet
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
Stunning debut dual timeline novel about the real Juliet, who inspired the story of Romeo and Juliet. Perfect for fans of Barbara Erskine.
When Julie Jacobs inherits a key to a safety deposit box in Siena, she is told it will lead her to an old family treasure. Soon she is launched on a precarious journey into the true history of her ancestor Giulietta, whose legendary love for a young man named Romeo inspired Shakespeare's unforgettable story.
As Julie crosses paths with the descendants of the families who turned medieval Siena upside down, she begins to realize that the notorious curse – 'a plague on both your houses!' – is still at work.
Spanning centuries, Juliet is an unforgettable adventure that hopes to rewrite the fate of the star-crossed lovers, and reunite them at last.
Reviews
Praise for Juliet:
‘Fortier clearly knows Shakespeare back to front and makes this a faboulous read’ Woman and Home
‘A truly fabulous book. We will never see Romeo and Juliet in quite the same way again.’ Alison Weir
‘Ingenious, intriguing, a thrilling story that keeps you turning the pages. This is a wonderfully textured novel of history and imagination that brings Italy, past and present, beautifully to life.’ Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth and Sepulchre
About the author
Anne Fortier grew up in Europe, in Denmark mainly, and studied for her PhD there, including spending a year at Oxford, where she met her husband. After university she moved to the US, where she worked in film and television before writing Juliet, inspired by the very first Romeo and Juliet story, which was set in Siena. While completing her Ph.D. Anne spent two terms as an Associate Graduate Member of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and this is where she met her husband.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fortier bobs and weaves between Shakespearean tragedy and popular romance for a high-flying debut in which American Julie Jacobs travels to Siena in search of her Italian heritage and possibly an inheritance only to discover she is descended from 14th-century Giulietta Tomei, whose love for Romeo defied their feuding families and inspired Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Julie's hunt leads her to the families' descendants, still living in Siena, still feuding, and still struggling under the curse of the friar who wished a plague on both their houses. Julie's unraveling of the past is assisted by a Felliniesque contessa and the contessa's handsome nephew, and complicated by mobsters, police, and a mysterious motorcyclist. To understand what happened centuries ago, in the previous generation, and all around her, Julie relies on relics: a painting, a journal, a dagger, a ring. Readers enjoy the additional benefit of antique texts alternating with contemporary narratives, written in the language of modern romance and enlivened by brisk storytelling. Fortier navigates around false clues and twists, resulting in a dense, heavily plotted love story that reads like a Da Vinci Code for the smart modern woman.
Customer Reviews
Amazing!!!
This is a brilliant book!!! I couldn't put it down!!! It's quite simply amazing! :-)
Potentially so much more
I loved the whole idea and the enjoyed the first quarter of the book enormously, I was really looking forward to the rest of the book.
Unfortunately for me the story just tailed off into another adventure/chase novel. Too many villains hiding in the woodwork, too many surprise revelations and unexpected happenings. If the book had been half as long I would have enjoyed it much more, in this case more was less!
Five stars for the first 150 pages, two stars for the rest, but strange to say even with all the extra (and to me unnecessary) whodunit, treasure hunt material I would recommend Juliet to anyone to read for the sake of the excellent idea and the first part of the story.