…A Young Adult Challenge Selection
Kate Sanderson inherited her good sense from her mother, a disciplined law professor, and her admiration for the Bard from her father, a passionate Shakespeare scholar. When she gets dumped, out of the blue, for the Practically Perfect Ashley Lawson, she vows never to fall in love again. From now on she will control her own destiny, and every decision she makes will be highly reasoned and rational. She thinks Shakespeare would have approved.
So when she is accepted to a summer Shakespeare symposium in Verona, Italy, Kate sees it as the ideal way to get over her heartbreak once and for all. She’ll lose herself in her studies, explore ancient architecture, and eat plenty of pasta and gelato. (Plus, she’ll be getting college credit for it—another goal accomplished!) But can even completely logical Kate resist the romance of living in a beautiful villa in the city where those star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet met and died for each other? Especially when the other Shakespeare Scholars—in particular Giacomo, with his tousled brown hair, expressive dark eyes, and charming ways—try hard to break her protective shell?
Suzanne Harper’s Secret Life of Sparrow Delaney left me anticipating her next outing, The Juliet Club. And so I settled in with it yesterday, expecting to get caught up in Shakespeare, romance in Verona, and the entertaining rhythm of a sweet story; I did, but not quite as much as I thought I would.
Because the story was well written – and it certainly kept me interested – it came down to the characters. I couldn’t warm up to one of them. And for this story to take on overtones of Romeo and Juliet, well, it just seemed like there should have been a spark there that, for me, was missing. Plus, the resolution came swiftly, with all of the misunderstandings and who was wooing who being wrapped up too quickly; you couldn’t savor all of the professed love, couldn’t slip into the romance. It wasn’t a flaw, per se, and others may have felt more chemistry between all of the various pairings than I did. If I fell in love with anything it was the descriptions of Verona; I was totally tempted by all of the mentions of gelato!
All that said, I think the Juliet Club, which ties a lot of the pieces together to form the plot, is fascinating.
According to their website: “Juliet’s secretaries reply to thousands of letters pouring in from everywhere. They offer advice and support or they just listen to all those who feel the need to talk about love. Juliet’s powerful guidance is a bridge spanning over all geographic and cultural distances.” I knew about the club beforehand, but it’s a really nice topic, one that most people – young adults especially – may have no clue about. And that aspect was handled nicely in the story, too. {I love that image to the right! It comes directly from the Juliet Club’s website and I think it’s lovely.}
