BOOK REVIEW: THE JULIET SPELL By Douglas Rees

Book: THE JULIET SPELL 
Author: Douglas Rees
Publisher: Harlequin TEEN

Category: Young Adult Fiction

Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo?

Is Perhaps the most famous line from William Shakespeare’s Tragedy, ROMEO & JULIET.  The play itself is one that everyone seems to know most.  Well, the story is given a new spin here in the Juliet Spell.

Miranda Hoberman is desperate to play Juliet in their town’s upcoming production of Romeo and Juliet.  So one night she casts a witch’s spell for fame and instead got an unexpected visitor in the form of Edmund Shakespeare, the brother of the bard, William himself.   He took to his new life easily, so easy in fact that in no time at all, he snagged the part of Romeo and got himself a girl, much to Miranda’s chagrin.  Good thing though she got the part of Juliet and starts getting close to other players such as the genius Drew and Bobby, who happens to like Vivian, the girl Edmund was dallying with.  Eventually Edmund drops Vivian and realizes his real Juliet is Miranda all along.  All goes well until time traveling, and life, gets in their way.

Miranda is a great heroine.  She is funny with lots of biting comebacks for Edmund whose ignorance of all things modern does not minimize his skill at  verbal tussles.   not surprisingly, she fell for him really fast…as fast as day 2 actually.  But he is gorgeous with brilliant blue eyes, long sandy hair and the perfect old british accent.  The progression of their relationship is pretty slow.  While Miranda has always liked him, he only realized it in the middle of the book, reluctantly too since he feels like he is betraying the trust not only of Miranda, but her mother as well.  But they get it together enough to have some sweet, special moments, albeit few and far between.  But then there’s also Drew.  Of course Miranda is blind to his affections with Edmund around, but then he proves to be a great friend to her…and maybe more… all I can say is, He is the reason everything comes together…… and ends.

This is a fun read.  it is nicely written and well paced.  Short too, it just took me 3 hours of lazy reading to finish the entire thing.  and even with the number of ayes, nays and old world words in edmund’s end of conversations, everything is easy to understand.  Plus there is a twist ¾ into the book that you shouldn’t miss.  Perhaps after reading this book, you’d go straight to reading the real thing.  Aye? I think so….