Title:  Juliet Immortal [indie bound] [amazon]
Author: Stacey Jay [website] [twitter] [facebook]
Genre:  Paranormal, Romance
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Series: Juliet Immortal
Format: Paperback (ARC)
Source: Amazon Vine
Reviewer: Michelle
Parental Advisory: language, violence, criminal activity, death
Teachable Moments: loyalty, freedom of choice, trust

“He has to be safe. What will I do if he isn’t? What will I do if I’m too late? What if Romeo has — “

Summary (from the publisher):
Juliet Capulet didn’t take her own life.  She was murdered by the person she trusted most, her new husband, Romeo Montague, who made the sacrifice to ensure his own immortality.  But Romeo didn’t anticipate that Juliet would be granted eternal life as well, and would become an agent for the Ambassadors of Light.

For seven hundred years, Juliet has struggled to preserve romantic love and the lives of the innocent, while Romeo has fought for the dark side, seeking to destroy the human heart.  Until now.

Now Juliet has found her own forbidden love, and Romeo, O Romeo, will do everything in his power to destroy their happiness.

Opinion:
I loved this book!  Loved, loved, loved it.  So very well written in a poetic yet straightforward prose.  The dialogue was modern and succinct but still provided that air of Shakespearean romance of the original.

So lets start there.  The concept of re-visioning the story of Romeo and Juliet in a more modern time but in a paranormalish way.  Now, for those of you who aren’t paranormal lovers don’t worry it’s not overwhelming.  It’s really just a means to an end.  This is a character driven read and an interesting one at that.  To see Juliet as a modern day savior of love while Romeo is the evil foe who is bound and determined to ruin it is a fantastic twist on their story.  They travel over time again and again to battle against each other — Juliet to bring soul mates together while Romeo is charged with keeping them apart.

In this story Juliet is a high-schooler who is setting forth to bring together her best friend and the boy she presumes to love.  The problem is that Juliet herself is falling in love with the same boy. Naturally this makes Romeo angry for a variety of reasons. One because he needs to keep the boy away from the girl but two because his best way to do so is to encourage his former wife and lover to be with the boy.  Jealousy ensues.

But there is a sub-plot as part of this as well.  Because the two of them are trying to finally find eternal peace where they no longer have to serve their supernatural masters.  Romeo (who Juliet doesn’t trust) has a plan to get them out of their respective purgatories.  Only it requires a lot of faith and trust on Juliet’s part….both of which are in limited supply where he is concerned.

There is romance and passion.  Plenty of it from a variety of sources and there is mystery and intrigue that kept me guessing as I was reading.  Basically this is a great action filled story with originality and fantastic characters that don’t lose their original essence while being modernized.

Fantastic read that I highly recommend.