Julie and Romeo
A Novel
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- € 8,99
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- € 8,99
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A deliciously funny and wickedly sexy novel of love found (finally!) and love threatened (inevitably) by the families who claim to love us best. Romeo Cacciamani and Julie Roseman are rival florists in Boston, whose families have hated each other for as long as anyone can remember (what they can't remember is why). When these two vital, lonely people see each other across a crowded lobby at a small business owners' seminar, an intense attraction blooms that neither tries to squelch. They're not sure what fate has in store for them, but they're not about to let something as silly as a generations-long feud stand in the way of finding out. That is, not until Romeo's octogenarian mother, Julie's meddling ex-husband, and a cast of grown Cacciamani and Roseman children begin to intervene with a passionate hatred that matches their newly found love, stroke for stroke. Think Montagues and Capulets, think wise and witty and thoroughly modern. Julie and Romeo is a love story for the ages. All ages.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Shakespeare it isn't, but Ray's beguiling first novel succeeds on the level of romantic entertainment. Narrator Julie Roseman is 60, divorced, loving her job running her family's florist business in Somerville, Mass., but uncomfortably aware that it's failing to turn a profit. All her life she's been aware of her father's violent hatred of the Cacciamani family, the town's only other florist; the Cacciamanis have expressed equal rancor. Julie has always wondered about the source of the enmity, which was never explained. The virulence has seeped down to the third generation, especially after Julie's daughter, Sandy, was caught planning to elope with young Tony Cacciamani when the two were in high school. When Julie bumps into widower Romeo Cacciamani at a seminar, however, love immediately blossoms between them. Their offspring react with horror, forbidding their respective parents to see each other again, and, when Julie and Romeo refuse to comply, the children retaliate with serious spite and fury. Despite a reliance on coincidences, Ray handles her material with vitality and humor, and demonstrates a talent for witty dialogue. She's particularly smart and funny in the realm of mother/daughter relationships, as Julie tries to deal with both Sandy, who's divorced and has moved back home with her two children, and her other daughter, Nora, a real estate whiz with a drive for perfection and a dictatorial personality. It's Nora who alerts her father, Mort, to her mother's foolish liaison, bringing Mort and his young new wife back from Seattle to complicate matters. Since it was Mort who walked out in the first place, Julie is justifiably furious. Meanwhile, Romeo enlists his parish priest as go-between and tries to placate his 89-year-old mother, whose malicious antipathy may hold the key to the family vendetta. Ray's charming little bouquet should blossom into an appealing summer read. 75,000 first printing; film rights to Barwood Films; audio rights to Brilliance Audio; rights sold in Germany, Greece, Italy and the U. K. FYI: Ray is the mother of author Ann Padgett.
