The Juliet Spell
Douglas Reese
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Pages: 304

I wanted the role of Juliet more than anything. I studied hard. I gave a great reading for it—even with Bobby checking me out the whole time. I deserved the part.
I didn’t get it. So I decided to level the playing field, though I actually might have leveled the whole play. You see, since there aren’t any Success in Getting to Be Juliet in Your High School Play spells, I thought I’d cast the next best—a Fame spell. Good idea, right?
Yeah. Instead of bringing me a little fame, it brought me someone a little famous. Shakespeare. Well, Edmund Shakespeare. William’s younger brother.
Good thing he’s sweet and enthusiastic about helping me with the play…and—ahem—maybe a little bit hot. But he’s from the past. Way past. Cars amaze him—cars! And cell phones? Ugh.
Still, there’s something about him that’s making my eyes go star-crossed….

Shakespeare retellings are usually among my favorite books. I love theater, so whenever I can find one, I am happy. The Juliet Spell sounded really great, but in reality just lacked some of the qualities I was hoping to find.

I loved the idea of this book. The whole idea just blew up a little bit too big for me and I had a hard time taking it seriously. The last quarter of the book is really what made me sit there in disbelief, everything just went too far.

The first red flag for me was how quickly Edmund adapted to modern day life. It was instantaneous, and I just had a bit trouble believing that. He would make a comment like “What witch craft is that”, Miranda would explain it, and then he would pretty much be okay with everything.

The theater experiences in this book felt a bit off. I’ve been in tons of shows, and that was something that put me a bit on the edge. In addition to that, this book was a prime example of the “Love at first sight” and it drove me batty, especially since the main character had a perfectly good guy rooting for her!

The characters were an interesting.mix. Drew was hands down the best character of the book. He was SUCH a great guy, and there were so many scenes were I just sat there thinking “aw”. A lot of the other characters while they had good qualities, I found the negative over powering them. No one really stood out from one another in my mind. A lot of their language felt really forced, and it wasn’t natural.

The cover is absolutely gorgeous. I quite adore it. This book had some good qualities, but overall, it really just wasn’t for me. While I wasn’t a huge fan, make sure to check out Verb Vixen’s review!

This review is cross-posted from YA Books Central