Juliet an ambitious utterly engaging historical novel on the scale of The Thirteenth Tale and The Birth of Venus follows a young woman who discovers that her family’s origins reach all the way back to literature’s greatest star-crossed lovers. Twenty-five-year-old Julie Jacobs is heartbroken over the death of her beloved aunt Rose. But the shock goes even deeper when she learns that the woman who has been like a mother to her has left her entire estate to Julie’s twin sister. The only thing Julie receives is a key—one carried by her mother on the day she herself died—to a safety-deposit box in Siena Italy. This key sends Julie on a journey that will change her life forever—a journey into the troubled past of her ancestor Giulietta Tolomei. In 1340 still reeling from the slaughter of her parents Giulietta was smuggled into Siena where she met a young man named Romeo. Their ill-fated love turned medieval Siena upside-down and went on to inspire generations of poets and artists the story reaching its pinnacle in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy. But six centuries have a way of catching up to the present and Julie gradually begins to discover that here in this ancient city the past and present are hard to tell apart. The deeper she delves into the history of Romeo and Giulietta and the closer she gets to the treasure they allegedly left behind the greater the danger surrounding her—superstitions ancient hostilities and personal vendettas. As Julie crosses paths with the descendants of the families involved in the unforgettable blood feud she begins to fear that the notorious curse—“A plague on both your houses!”—is still at work and that she is destined to be its next target. Only someone like Romeo it seems could save her from this dreaded fate but his story ended long ago. Or did it? From Anne Fortier comes a sweeping beautifully written novel of intrigue and identity of love and legacy as a young woman discovers that her own fate is irrevocably tied—for better or worse—to literature’s greatest star-crossed lovers.
