Any girl named Juliet is probably going to feel a certain sympathy with Shakespeare鈥檚 tragic heroine, but Juliet Jacobs has dreamed about her for her whole life. She even teaches at Shakespearean summer camps. Then, the wealthy aunt who raised her and her twin sister, Janice, dies, leaving Janice her estate and giving Juliet only a letter, a key, and a ticket to Siena. There, Juliet, after immediately being taken under the wing of a wealthy noblewoman (as part of an adopt-an-American tourist-because-we-can鈥檛-have-them-wandering-around-on-their-own initiative?), discovers that she might be descended from the original Juliet.
Only, she can鈥檛 seem to find Romeo anywhere.
Shakespeare famously borrowed his plots, and, in 鈥�Juliet,鈥� her debut novel, Anne Fortier traces the world鈥檚 most famous love story to its origins in Siena in a novel that reads like a 鈥�Da Vinci Code鈥� for bookish women. The Danish Fortier gets in some downright sneaky plot twists, and Janice is a hoot.
Juliet, however, exhibits unfortunate tendencies toward being Too Stupid to Live (such as not immediately switching hotels when her room is searched and blindly trusting almost everyone she meets), and there are occasional anachronisms and the odd language glitch that reveals that Fortier鈥檚 first language isn鈥檛 English. (I could be wrong, but I don鈥檛 think noble Sienese living in the 1300s would have said things like, 鈥淪ure,鈥� or 鈥淥h, you!鈥� And Juliet talks about turning 鈥減inwheels鈥� instead of 鈥渃artwheels.鈥�)
But romance fans with a taste for the classics and those who wished the tale of 鈥淛uliet and her Romeo鈥� could have ended differently should enjoy Fortier鈥檚 fast-paced debut.
