The Juliet Spell by Douglas Rees

From Goodreads:

I’m Juliet.

At least, I wanted to be.

So I did something stupid to make it happen.

Well, stupid and wonderful.

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....

Will Romeo steal her heart before time steals him away?

I was torn between giving this book a 2.5 or 3 star rating. I wanted to love this book, really I did. It is such an interesting concept - time travelling Shakespeare? Awesome! William Shakespeare trying to figure out cars, tv and cell phones? Hilarious! Shakespeare skulking around a modern day production of Romeo & Juliet? Too funny! The problem was I really think this book could have been more. There was a lot of missed comedy between Will and his brother Edmund, who were by far the best characters in the book. The story seemed a little rushed, so I felt there was not enough development of some of the supporting characters, which would have been fun.

However, the part of the book I had the hardest time with was the believability of some characters, especially Miri’s parents. I could not suspend reality to believe that Miri’s Mom would just accept that Miri had some guy living with them that she accidentally conjured while performing a spell to make her Juliet in a play. Her Mom did not even question the story and seemingly had no problem with this boy moving into their house or the fact that the two became involved while living together. And then, when Miri’s Dad calls, he just accepts it too! I don’t know about you guys, but when I was a teenager (you know, last year), there is no way my parents would have bought that story without question, yelling and lectures on the idiocy of playing with things you did not understand.

All of that being said, I really did enjoy the book, I just did not love it and I really wanted to love it. In the end, after deliberating on it for a few days, I am going with 3 stars.

We received The Juliet Spell as an ARC from NetGalley.  HarlequinTeen releases this title TODAY, September 27, 2011!

~Shel