This book is a real snarkfest, in fact I kind of wish someone other than me was reviewing this right now, I have a good many friends who could really go to town on this one. The author successfully manages to be sexist to both men and women, indulge in a bout of slut-shaming, and completely miss the point.

I actually really like Shakespeare most of the time, but I think that Romeo and Juliet is one of his weakest works - or one of my least favourites, anyway. The greatest love story of all time? More...

See more of my reviews sooner on The YA Kitten! I received a copy through Simon & Schuster's Galley Grab.

My "ladies can't fucking swear my ass" shelf? Is attached because this book made me swear a fuckton lot.

When You Were Mine boasts a problematic premise that originally warded me away from it. In Romeo and Juliet, the infamous play this book is a modern retelling of, Romeo is a fickle dickbag who dumps the woman he is supposed to love for someone else he met while trying to see her. He is More...

Nobody knows this, but Simon and Schuster has built a YA fiction robot, Codename: Rebecca Serle. All they need to do is feed pages of existing works into the bot’s built-in scanner, and it will automatically process the data and import it into its memory. The technology is very new and very sophisticated. To date, they’ve only tried it with one work: William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

How does the bot work, you ask? It’s very simple on the surface: it analyzes the imported data for character More...

Sometimes a book calls out to you, be it for all the right or wrong reasons. When it comes to re-imaginings of age-old tales and classics of the literary pantheon, one must tread lightly, particularly when entering the realm of William Shakespeare. It’s important to remember the cultural and historical context of his work when applying it to a modern day setting. It’s possible to remain faithful to the source material while still adapting it to fit today’s moral & societal changes. A good ex More...

It's no secret the greatest love story ever told is no love story. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy—a tale of bigotry, and murder; a story about a thirteen year old girl and a fickle, capricious boy, ending in suicide and tragedy for all. But what if it was wrong? Or not the whole story? Turns out... it’s every inch as heartbreaking, and if Rebecca Serle does one thing magnificently, it’s laying on the heartbreak. Grab your tissues and your comfort food, and prepare to fall in love... You know what More...

2.5 stars

When I first heard about this book I was quite intrigued with the idea of telling the story of Romeo and Juliet from Rosaline’s point of view. The girl before the girl. So I was a little disappointed when I started reading and realised that this was actually a contemporary novel, based on the famous play.

For one thing, the little we know of the original Rosaline was that she rejected Romeo (I’ve always doubted she was the first girl Romeo had proclaimed his undying love to) and Romeo la More...

3.5 stars.

I liked this much more than I thought I would.

Initially my interest was piqued by the new take on Romeo and Juliet - a modern adaptation from the point of view of Rosaline, the girl Romeo was desperately in love with until the moment he spotted Juliet. Having recently rewatched Romeo + Juliet and being put in an angsty teen mood, I decided to give When You Were Mine a go. But Rose was soon driving me nuts; she had basically no personality and depended upon her best friend, Charlie, to More...

Gentle reader, I wish to spare you my suffering. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury this book, not to praise it. When You Were Mine is awful. It is not simply awful it is bitter, stupid, sexist, and above all a lie.

Actually, no. The worst part really is how grossly sexist and simplified it is. The author says she had her own heartbreak and "turned the experience into this book," which shows because Rose's bitterness is very authentic. There are times, brief and fleeti More...

Retellings for me are a hit or miss, and this was a hit. I enjoyed the plot and the twist of seeing everything from a new view. Rosie had a voice and story that helped me to feel for her and care about what she's going through.
Her relationship with Rob is so new and tender and I just wanted to root for them even though I knew what was coming. They made a cute couple, and seemed to be really into each other.
It was hard for me when Juliet came onto the scene. There was so much talk about 'the More...

[review originally posted on Rather Be Reading]

After I finished Insurgent, I wanted something 180 degrees different. What better to pick up than a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story - except this time from the perspective of the girl Romeo (or Rob, in When You Were Mine) discarded, Rosaline? I have to admit I was a little unsure of how closely the story would follow Shakespeare’s masterpiece. I don’t want to get into the details of the ins and outs of what happens because you should experience th More...

****MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS****

This book had my full attention as soon as I read the description. Finally! Someone who remembers that Romeo was all in love with someone else at the beginning of that horrid play!




What this awesome author does is take The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet and set it in modern times, telling the story from Rosaline’s perspective (the girl Romeo was all in love with until he set eyes on the wonderful Juliet and fulls in lust love with her). My excitement could not be conta More...

3.5 stars
I almost gave up on this book after reading Act Two, because the whole part pissed me off. Now I'm glad i pushed myself to finish the book, because I was quite satisfied with the ending. From the start I already like Len for some reason (of course I didn't realize Len must've been the modern version of Ben until they were getting close... i know, Len=Ben... idiot). Now for the other characters: Rosaline...Rosie... Rose, whatever. I like her character except for her superb martyrdom. I g More...

I have to admit - I went into this book thinking it would be an easy Gossip Girl-type of read. An airy read. A beach read. After all, I'd just read a beachy girly read before this, so why shouldn't this one be the same?

With that said, I was pleasantly surprised. Rosaline's story begins off as "high school" as you can get and I was sure that, although I was going to finish it, I wouldn't LOVE the story. I was mistaken. By Act 4, I was fully invested. Yes - the story is set up by Acts and Scenes More...

Rosaline Caplet lives in South California with her parents and she's a senior at San Bellaro High School which she attends with her best friends Charlie, Olivia and Rob. Rose hasn't seen Rob in 8 weeks but it's the first day back at school and she's nervous about seeing again as she's realised she has feelings for him and there's a chance he feels the same way about her. But then her cousin, Juliet, returns to town and moves in on Rob, leaving Rose heartbroken.

When You Were Mine by Rebeca Searle More...

Have you ever had one of those out of body experiences where you can see yourself stabbing yourself repeatedly, but you can’t stop it? Okay, maybe not stabbing, but a situation in which you can't seem to stop yourself from doing something self-destructive. That was how I felt while reading When You Were Mine. I knew it wouldn’t turn out well, I had no idea why I was reading it, but I did it anyway. It’s the lackluster story of Rosaline, who, if you remember your Shakespeare well enough, was the More...

The first time I heard about this book my imagination ran wild with possibilities, a retelling of Romeo and Juliet from the point of view of Rosaline in a contemporary setting, you say? How intriguing. Will there be a controversial age difference between Romeo and Juliet? What kind of party will serve as the setting for Romeo and Juliet's first meeting? I was looking forward to re-visiting characters like Mercutio and Tybalt. Then I read a review on Forever Young Adult that compared it (in passi More...

** Got it from Simon & Schuster Galley Grab. Thanks!**

I have yet to read Romeo and Juliet. I know, I know, it’s inexcusable that I still haven't read the book yet. But I saw other—several adaptations, maybe that count for something. I remember every time our English teacher asks us to choose a classic book; I always end up picking anything from Mark Twain and Frances Hodgson Burnett or any classic children book. The tragic love story doesn’t appeal to me.

So why the heck am I here reading (re More...

Reading the description off the back of this book made me think it was about Romeo and Juliet, but it wasn't. It was better. The story follows Rosaline, Rob's best friend and next-door neighbour. Following a long summer without Rob, Rosaline develops real feelings for Rob, and without any explanation, Rob finally makes a move, and the two start dating. Their senior year of high school start and with that comes the privilege of hanging out in the lounge where it’s exclusive to seniors only.

Now I More...

The classic tale of Romeo and Juliet is thrown on it's side with When You Were Mine. In this telling of the classic tale Rosaline is the main voice in the book, she is the one who was with Rob (Romeo) first. They have been best friends their entire lives and have just started to move into something new and exciting and deeper when Rose's cousin Juliet comes back to town. Juliet has been gone twelve years and she and Rose are no longer friends. Though this is not the Juliet that everyone has come More...

I really loved this book and the main character Rose.

Rose is meant to be with Rob. They've grown up together as best friends but lately things have started to change and it seems like their friendship is going to develop into something more. They've been on one almost perfect date and kissed andRose is just waiting for Rob is ask her to be his girlfriend. That is until Juliet arrives.

Juliet is Rose's cousin whom she hasn't seen in 10 years. She sweeps in and takes Rob from Rose before Rose even More...

Review originally posted on Heise Reads & Recommends

I was really excited to see an advanced reader copy of this book at the convention because I had heard about it/seen the summary, and it sounded really good. It ended up not being exactly what I was expecting from the summary that I had read, but I did like it; although, I was a little bit unsure in the beginning. We all know Shakespeare's version of Romeo & Juliet, but this book says Shakespeare may have gotten it all wrong because it' More...

I finished it about two hours ago. And my head still kinda hurts... I think I'm leaning towards dropping my rating to 1 star. Maybe 1.5? Ugh. My feelings can only be articulated via gif at this time...



Edit 08/21/12: Now that I've slept on it, I'm going with 1.5/5 stars.

I'm always slightly hesitant to read books based on other events or stories because it takes away a bit of the allure when I already know the major plot points. Thankfully(?) I have been negligent with my study of Shakespeare, so while I knew the really really basic story of Romeo and Juliet, I didn't know much else. After I finished the book I was pretty sure I would have enjoyed it just as much had I known the story because it's told from a different point of view, so that's good too.

Full Revi More...

ahhh this Romeo x Juliet twist sounds so intriguing! Can't wait to start it!!

Let's start from the beginning when I I HATED EVERY CHARACTER, with the exception of LEN... and I thought:




And then, Juliet enters the picture and I think:





So, this book ss a re-telling of Romeo & Juliet, I cannot say I didn't like the plot, although I didn't like HOW Serle made it all work, all the little changes she did... I felt like:




Also, I was expecting a Shakespeare to be here... right? Like, Rose complains that Shakespeare got it wrong, but if he did, WHERE IS HE IN THE STORY? WHERE IS More...

The original review for this title can be found HERE on The Book Hookup.

Christina's Review:

The Lowdown: Growing up, all Rosaline (Rosie) knew was happiness and days spent with her best friends Rob Monteg and her cousin Juliet Caplet. They were close as any trio could be. That is until around age seven when suddenly Juliet’s parents whisked her away to LA because there was bad blood brewing within the family. Rosaline never quite filled the void that Juliet’s absence left, but Rob and she defini More...

This only gets two stars because I feel bad for giving any book one star.

I was so excited to read this book. The girls over at Forever Young Adult, who I agree with about 90% of the time on their reviews, said it was awesome. I had it on my Amazon wish list for a few months and last night, as I'm on winter break, I finally decided to buy it and read it.

I wish I hadn't.

I have a love/hate relationship with Romeo and Juliet. I think it's a fascinating, yet super annoying story. It's even more annoy More...

You guys--this book was pretty disgusting.

Good things!: It was a fast read. If it was a movie, I could see it easily being one of those movies I love to hate that I watch every weekend on ABC Family (get on that, ABC Family, and you're welcome). It gave me some joy to talk about how bad this was to other people. The writing itself isn't bad.

Bad things!: This seems to be how the author healed and got over her own bad break-up (I think the author bio says something about that). I then spent most More...

Last year I got into a pretty heated (twitter) argument with a lady about Shakespeare. My stance: Shakespeare is the root of all evil. Her’s? Shakespeare is the definition of love. Now, I could go on and on, stand proud and tall on my soap box and list the many reasons her statement is complete and total bull-crapology. But I have a feeling I’d only be opening up the flood gates (aka my comment section) to a pack of rabid Shakespeare fans, so instead… I’ll let Rebecca Serle (author of “When You More...