Juliet
This retelling of the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet has the young lovers living in Siena (not Verona) one hundred years earlier than Will Shakespeare’s doomed couple. By using the clever device of telling a story within a story, Ms. Fortier compels our interest as she unfolds a contemporary mystery first.
Our modern heroine is Julie Jacobs, a wisecracking young woman who arrives in the medieval city of Siena wearing flip-flops. There to retrieve a treasure left in a safety deposit book by her deceased mother almost two decades earlier, she soon encounters a rather incredible cast of characters, some friend and some foe. Within days she believes herself a descendant of the ill-fated medieval Giulietta and that a curse still haunts the surviving three families.
Although Julie and her twin sister Janice were born in Italy, they were orphaned as toddlers and subsequently raised by an elderly aunt. Initially only interested in her family inheritance, Julie soon turns sleuth and unravels a series of mysteries surrounding a valuable treasure. Then, when her personal safety is threatened, she seeks help from the very handsome Captain Alessandro Santini – a man whom she does not completely trust and whose true identity is clearly hidden.
Ms. Fortier based her well-told medieval story on the very real, generations-long, blood feuds of prominent Italian families. Her contemporary search for a lost treasure – in addition to having likeable characters – is well paced and often funny. Although we know the fate of the earlier lovers, we are very interested in the outcome of the story of the modern Romeo and Juliet.
It takes a very talented writer to manage such a difficult and complex narrative so successfully. This book is destined for the bestseller list and very likely a movie.
