Review
The
Juliet Club
by Suzanne
Harper
The
author:
Suzanne
Harper has published two young adult novels, The Secret Life of Sparrow
Delaney and The Juliet Club. She is currently working on a third
young adult novel and a middle-grade series.
She has also written three original novels based on the Hannah Montana
TV series (Rock the Waves, In the Loop, and Swept Up)
and a number of novels (under the pen name N. B. Grace) based on High
School Musical.
Her nonfiction books include: Boitano’s Edge: Inside the Real World of
Figure Skating (with Olympic gold medalist Brian Boitano), The Real
Spy's Guide to Becoming a Spy (with Peter Earnest, executive director of
the International Spy Museum), Terrorists, Tornados,and Tsunamis: How to
Prepare for Life’s Danger Zones (with Lt. Col. John C. Orndorff), and Hands
On! 33 More Things Every Girl Should Know: Skills for Living Your Life from 33
Extraordinary Women.
She earned bachelor's degrees in journalism and English from the University of
Texas-Austin and a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Southern California. She now lives in New York City.
First
sentence:
“Which
one of Johnny Burwell’s eyebrows do you think is cuter?” Sarah asked.
Summary:
Italy . . . Shakespeare . . . but no
romance?
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?
My
opinion:
"In fair Verona, where we lay our scene . . .
"
That is the beginning of William Shakespeare’s
tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” and fair Verona
is also the city where Suzanne Harper’s novel “The Juliet Club” is set.
The story
takes us to Verona
with Kate, a smart high school student who was heartbroken for the first time
by her boyfriend and who now renounces love, and her father, a Shakespeare
scholar and professor. Kate got accepted to a seminar during her summer
holidays for studying Shakespeare and his famous play “Romeo and Juliet”. Her
father accompanies her because he is one of the professors teaching a course
there.
Kate soon
meets the handsome Giacomo, son of Francesca Marchese, organizer of the
seminar, also a Shakespeare scholar and an enemy of Kate’s dad due to the fact
that she seems to be more present in the media and she also wrote a novel about
Shakespeare which he thinks is not acceptable.
The story
is told in five acts and entr’actes and reveals what happens during the
Shakespeare seminar and in the love lives of the seminar participants (thank
god we get to know three boys and three girls better). I like the idea of the
story being told in acts just like Shakespearean plays. It is a nice bonus.
At the
seminar participants are grouped and one specific professor will lecture them
during the whole symposium.
Although
the participants of Kate’s seminar group need to answer letters that were sent
to Juliet, this part of the story – the title giving one – isn’t a major
storyline. I haven’t really grasped why they had to answer those letters when
it was announced that participants will study “Romeo and Juliet” at this
seminar.
I am a
sucker for all books dealing with Shakespeare, his life and his plays so I
basically had to read this book. It tells a wonderful love story and is an
entertaining read but some of it is rather predictable. Nonetheless “The Juliet
Club” is a nice book to read on a sunny day.
The Juliet
Club is available at Amazon for $8,99/ EUR 6,99/ £5,25 and for your Kindle too.
You can also buy it at Book Depo for $8,44/ EUR 6,37/ £5,31.
For more
information and extras on “The Juliet Club” visit Suzanne Harper's homepage.
