This potentially silly but actually clever, engaging, funny, and even insightful book was tons of fun to listen to. Rosaline, the eldest daughter of Romeo and Juliet (yes, in this version they didn’t die but lived a long, loving, and particularly fecund life), keeps finding clever ways of avoiding marriage until all of a sudden — she can’t seem to avoid her impending nuptials to a real brute whose wives seem to die rather quickly after marriage. The reader was perfect for the text — I think listening to it really added to my enjoyment.
Full of lovable characters, several dead bodies, surprising plot twists, an even more surprising who-done-it reveal, and plenty of snark, the story is a masterful depiction of how a strong, intelligent, heroine living at a time where only her virtue and virginity “count,” manages to get what she wants from life despite the very real constraints on women at the time. And she does it with the kind of wry commentary that kept me in stitches. I haven’t read Dodd before, but an online browse makes me think she usually writes thrillers. This had many of the plot elements of a thriller, but I had such faith in our heroine I guess I never got too stressed — a real plus in my book.
As an aside, I also appreciated the way the author did not change any of the character’s personalities or any element of the original Shakespeare story (aside from a clever explanation of how they survived), unlike other story extensions I have read (and was greatly irritated by).
Thank you to Recorded Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on June 25th, 2024.
Books to look forward to ... 