Fair Rosaline

by Natasha Solomons

Was the greatest ever love story a lie?

The first time Romeo Montague sees young Rosaline Capulet he falls instantly in love. Rosaline, headstrong and independent, is unsure of Romeo's attentions but with her father determined that she join a convent, this handsome and charming stranger offers her the chance of a different life.

Soon though, Rosaline begins to doubt all that Romeo has told her. She breaks off the match, only for Romeo's gaze to turn towards her cousin, thirteen-year-old Juliet. Gradually Rosaline realizes that it is not only Juliet's reputation at stake, but her life .With only hours remaining before she will be banished behind the nunnery walls, will Rosaline save Juliet from her Romeo? Or can this story only ever end one way?

Shattering everything we thought we knew about Romeo and Juliet, Fair Rosaline is the spellbinding prequel to Shakespeare's best known tale, which exposes Romeo as a predator with a long history of pursuing much younger girls. Bold, lyrical, and chillingly relevant, Fair Rosaline reveals the dark subtext of the timeless story of star-crossed lovers: it's a feminist revision that will enthrall readers of bestselling literary retellings such as Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell and Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance, Retellings, Fiction, Historical, Shakespeare, Adult

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2023

About the author

Natasha Solomons is a writer and the New York Times bestselling author of The Gallery of Vanished Husbands, The House at Tyneford, and Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English. She lives in Dorset England, with her husband, the writer David Solomons, and their two young children. Song of Hartgrove Hall is her fourth novel.

Reviews

[Marquise · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a character that's described with only one word ("fair") in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the Rosaline in this book sure gets a personality and quirks and looks . . . that don't really belong to her.

For a character that merely exists to be the butt of jokes aimed at Romeo by his chums, the Rosaline in this book sure gets an entire backstory . . . pulled out of thin air and presented at the expense of what Shakespeare wrote for the rest of the characters in his play.

For a character that was put there to be a catalyst for Romeo to sneak into Juliet's house, the Rosaline in this book sure gets to be the heroine that white-knights and "saves" Juliet both from herself and from Romeo . . . through becoming a murderer.

For an author that confesses to have loved Romeo and Juliet in her youth and, hilariously, reveals she thought the play was a realistic portrayal of what love is like and what men are like in relationships (talk about out-of-touch youngsters), Natasha Solomons sure has evolved into acquiring the opposite view with just as little support for her adult opinion as her younger self had.

Spoilers ahead, so read at your discretion.

In Fair Rosaline, we get to meet Rosaline Capulet, a whiny 16-year old that her wealthy widowed father thinks is useless and unruly, and wants to send to a convent so he can save up on her dowry (incidentally, why do so many authors resort to this trope so much as if it's the omnipresent truth?). But Rosaline wants to live a little before and so she crossdresses as a man to sneak into a party at, you guessed, the house of the Montagues. There, she's waylaid by Romeo, who courts her and, silly girl that she is, she falls in love with him. Romeo does to her the same he does to Juliet in the play, there's even lines lifted from the play that are for Juliet that are given to Rosaline. They court, they fuck, Romeo promises her marriage and elopement to Mantua with Friar Laurence's help, but then he goes to the famous party at the Capulets, meets Juliet, and things go like in the play.

Well, not quite like in the play. Because, in this book, Romeo is a paedophile and the honeypot for a paedophile ring headed by Friar Laurence that includes all the prominent men in Verona (the Friar has a list of men who abuse the girls Romeo lures into their ring) except, naturally, for Rosaline's dad and brother. How convenient.

So, essentially, Rosaline "saves" Juliet by discovering this paedophile ring, sabotages Romeo's coming to the tomb of Juliet when he hears she's died by poisoning Juliet's lips, thus killing Romeo when he kisses the girl. And then she and Juliet flee into freedom with the aid of a nun. It's essentially Romeo & Juliet with a happy ending and Rosaline in place of Romeo. The End.

Are you laughing yet?

Well, if not, let me show you the funniest part. In the author's notes, Solomons says this:

So, in order to build my Rosaline, I decided to turn to Shakespeare’s other Rosalines.

There is a Rosaline(d) in As You Like It (the name is essentially the same, spellings varied during this period) and also Rosaline in Love’s Labours Lost, and I use both characters to create my version of Rosaline, to both give her a voice and imagine what she looks like. Rosaline(d) in As You Like It is strong willed, witty and is defined by her fierce love of her cousin, Celia. Rosaline is banished and the two girls retreat into the forest of Arden, a liminal wood at the edge of the city, which I’ve borrowed and placed at the edge of Verona. Like many Shakespearean women, Rosaline(d) dons breeches as a disguise.

The Rosaline from Love’s Labours Lost is one of Shakespeare’s most brilliant, powerful, and clever women. It’s an odd, sad play where life and art get muddled. Also, this Rosaline is definitely a woman of colour. She is as “beauteous as ink” and a “beauty dark” who is “born to make black fair / Labours Lost in both temperament—her delight in words—and in her physical appearance.

Romeo and Juliet has a sister play, the comedy A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream. The set-up is almost identical: a young woman refuses to marry the man her father chooses for her, and the punishment if she persists is either the nunnery or death. The shadow of each play is felt upon the other—the darkness in “Midsummer” and the echo Romeo and Juliet contained in the play-within-a-play of Ovid’s “Pyramus and Thisbe.” The lovers run mad within the wood. In Romeo and Juliet in the intense July heat—the play takes place over four days the end of the month—the wild heat stirs the blood, provoking “mad” temper, fighting, and passion.

In other words, instead of creating an original Rosaline, inventing her by herself since just one line and Mercutio's teasing (that Solomons prudishly calls "obscenities") give authors total freedom to be creative, Natasha Solomons chose to create a pastiche of women from other Shakespeare plays, stealing scenes, lines, and character traits from every other play, and call it Rosaline. She not only copied the Rosalines from the plays in the quote above, but she also stole scenes from Romeo himself, no less. You know how Rosaline met Romeo in this book? By doing exactly what Romeo did in R&J. Only that for Rosaline it's fine and dandy to house-break into the Montagues but for Romeo to do the same is being a paedophile and a creep. No wonder her Rosaline is a whiny, self-martyred, embittered, hypocritical, and vindictive brat who thinks she knows best and Juliet and everyone else in Verona don't know what's good for them.

And then, the author goes on to share with us her opinion about the play and Romeo in particular:

Only, Romeo is no teenager, it’s just how he’s usually cast in modern versions. There is no evidence in Shakespeare that he is actually a boy. Shakespeare does not specify his age. Romeo could be in his twenties or even thirties (men courted and married much later than women)—he just likes young girls. The word “boy” in the play is frequeother. It doesn’t mean they necessarily are boys.

As a teenager, I believed it was the doomed love between Juliet and Romeo that made the story a tragedy. Rereading the play as an adult—alongside my sister who works in child protection—I understand it very differently. The real tragedy is that none of the adults protects the children. The Capulets are all culpable. Like all groomers, Romeo has a pattern, a predilection for young girls, and Juliet is the youngest of them all. He chooses girls who are vulnerable and desperate for an escape, and then fills their need with sex, empty promises, and ultimately violence.

What a sexist pile of hogwash! Solomons' claims are entirely inaccurate, and show that:
a. She hasn't studied the history of the play. Romeo as a young man is far from a modern interpretation. She should've read about the history of the play beforehand, and who Shakespeare himself had in mind when he wrote Romeo & Juliet.
b. She clearly has missed the clues Shakespeare DID give about Romeo's age, particularly one line that clearly says what age range Romeo is. And no, it's not "boys" as Solomons disingenuously tries to argue as if that was the clue. And no, Ms Solomons, if you don't know what line Romeo's age is revealed in, I'm not going to tell you. Find it by yourself, since you're speaking with such confidence.
c. Solomons has blatantly misrepresented and cherry-picked statements here:
- The discomfort with Juliet's age is because marrying girls at that age was RARE, so rare to marry girls that young even Lord Capulet is uneasy. Contrary to what you believe, marrying girls so young wasn't common. It has nothing to do with grooming nor implies paedophilia. The rare cases when girls Juliet's age or younger were married, it was for political expediency, and they waited till the girls were older to consummate, so the marriage was on paper till then.
- Solomons says that in the other versions of R&J prior to Shakespeare, Juliet is older. She's 16 in Arthur Brook's poem, which Solomons mentions, but what Solomons doesn't tell you is that in the other versions, Romeo's age is given too. Oh, ho, ho! What a nice little omission to not say Romeo's age, maybe because then your whole Paedo Romeo argument falls apart?

Honestly, this wasn't even necessary. Rosaline could've been given a full story of her own with no need to villainise Romeo and infantilise Juliet and cast every man in Verona as a paedo and groomer save Rosaline's kin. We know absolutely nothing about her, after all, and absolutely nothing about her relationship with Romeo either. For all we know, Romeo might've met Rosaline just the day before, and as any hormonal boy, got infatuated with her but quickly forgot her when he met the next girl. How many of you have had crushes on more than a boy/girl growing up? I'm sorry you were such a bubble-dweller as a teen, Ms Solomons, but some of us had more normal adolescences. At Juliet's age, I was crushing on a 18-year-old boy that wouldn't give me the hour of day due to my age (what a paedo, ha!), and at Romeo's age I had a crush on three boys my own age. Flitting from one to another isn't rare, isn't pathological, and isn't a sign of grooming. Youth is inconstant, immature, we goof up terribly, teen pregnancies happen, suicides for bullying and unrequited love happen, trying weed happens, crashing dad's car happens, having sex in our rooms whilst the parents are away happens... It's part of adolescence. The adults do try to protect us, but Teenagers Gonna Teenage, and if you think a 13-year-old girl sending nudies and/or having sex with her 16-year-old boyfriend implies the boy is a potential groomer, you need to educate yourself on adolescents. "Romeo and Juliet laws" exist for a reason, you know.

So, yeah, Solomons made up a whole tale of grooming out of thin air, and she's the one to accuse the traditional interpretation of teenagers doing stupid things and the adults being obtuse and selfish as based on "no evidence."

Bottom line: Romeo and Juliet is a play that has worked as a blank canvas throughout the centuries for people to project themselves on, their politics, their life experiences, even their sexual frustrations on. And due to that, we have books like Duncan's book in which Juliet is the height of enterprising feminist character that takes charge of her fate to this book by Solomons in which she's infantilised and stripped of what little agency she has and needs to be saved by others. And in both opposite-of-the-spectrum takes, the misandry of casting Romeo as a fickle seducer (Duncan) and a paedophile (Solomons) is quite striking. I have to wonder if it's because it's women who confess to not having enough experience with young males that'd show them the whole range of their behaviour instead of pathologising male adolescence whilst excusing female adolescence.

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Mai H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who wavers between loving and hating ROMEO AND JULIET, and Shakespeare in general (very sorry to my Not Husband, Tom Hiddleston), I have to say I was drawn in by this beautiful cover. Retellings are hit or miss for me, and this reads more like glorified fanfiction in parts, but I was certainly more amused than Marquise.

Who is Rosaline? Do you, like me, not remember? That's because she is seen but once at the beginning of the original, when Romeo sneaks in to a Capulet party to look upon her, only to fall for thirteen year old Juliet instead. Even if that age is "normal" for the times, I feel as if I have to reiterate this. Juliet is thirteen. And Romeo's love is fickle. My favorite part of the original is often wondering if their love would have stood the test of time, had they both survived. I don't think it would have.

In any case, this book isn't about Juliet. Or even Romeo. It is about Rosaline, and her fervent desire for Romeo, and the way she so easily gives into him. She's young. And she's certainly not the only one. He ruins her, as he ruins so many in this story.

This didn't really begin to pick up for me until after Rosaline decided she was done with Romeo, which for her, came far too late. At this point, it almost turns into a bit of a feminist manifesto where she tries to save Juliet from making the same mistakes as her. As we all know, she fails.

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark

🎧 Thank you to NetGalley and Recorded Books

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

I know that I cannot resist a Romeo and Juliet-inspired novel. In her upcoming September release, Natasha Solomons gives Shakespeare fans a well-developed back story of Rosaline Capulet. You remember, right? The girl that Romeo Montague was enamored with before falling in love with Juliet Capulet.

As the story begins, Rosaline is mourning the loss of her beloved mother, the latest victim of the plague that ravages most of Europe. On the heels of this, her father declares that Rosaline is destined for a life in the nunnery and her days at the family estate are numbered. But when Rosaline falls in love with the seductive Romeo, she wonders if she can escape her fate. But nothing can prepare Rosaline for discovering who Romeo really is.

LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. Once I began this story, I became immune to all my surroundings. Breakfast dishes idled, laundry waited impatiently, and the man and dog of the house wondered what could be more important than them.

I was originally going to give this a 4 star but because of the ending of the novel I am bumping it up to a 5 star.

Expected Publication Date 12/09/23
Goodreads Review 04/09/23

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s no doubt that Shakespeare’s use of Rosaline offers us an opportunity to see Romeo as something other than a hero. But it’s not necessarily subversive to frame him this way and unless your English teacher was really shitty, you’d know that this is a morally complex tragedy not a pure love story. Centuries of misguided romanticism have blinded people to the flashing neon signs Shakespeare put in the text. Romeo has always been the one to watch, everyone’s problematic fave. He’s the kind of boy you’d swipe left to avoid on Tinder - far too many photos of himself out partying with the aggressive ‘I’m not looking for a pen pal’ bio.

Still, that’s not to say Rosaline doesn’t deserve her time to shine. She does. Except that’s not what we get here. Her character is buried beneath the author’s weird language choices, one minute Shakespearean, another minute modern, all written at a YA/NA level of lightness, with over described emotions and zero flow.

This story yearned for darkness, but what it got was something resembling a subpar tv drama. Imagine Elena stropping around for several seasons of the Vampire Diaries. Sure, there were some hints of darkness but it’s still overwhelmingly teen. Think what it could have been if it had been framed for an adult gaze. That’s the vibe this book gives off. And it doesn’t even have Damon Salvatore.

If you’re actually a teen, go for it. Otherwise, you might be left wanting more.

ARC via Netgalley.

[Maria Clara · Rating 4 out of 5]

AY, ROMEO, DE MIS TENTACIONES🔥...

🌸Y es que, esta historia, es un retelling de la famosa obra de Shakespeare: "Romeo y Julieta".

🌸Y, ojo, porque es un verdadero retelling!🤩

🌸¿Qué quiero decir con esto🤔?

🌸Pues que aquí vivirás todo el esplendor de esa época: sus duelos, sus amores y miserias, así cómo el poder de la amistad y hasta ese amor salvaje y desmesurado capaz de todo! Ojo, tanto de lo bueno como de lo malo...🤭

🌸Pero no solo es una historia de amor, sino también de pasiones y crimines, de la necesidad de que alguien nos vea, nos reconozca y nos ame, y de no ser solo un objeto hermoso e inservible, un estorbo que hay que sacarse de encima. Porque, seamos realistas, en esa época, ¿qué eramos las mujeres, sino?

[Constantine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Historical Fiction + Retelling

This version of the well-known love story of Romeo and Juliet is a retelling, but it is presented from Rosaline's point of view instead of Romeo and Juliet's. Rosaline is a headstrong and self-reliant young lady who engages in negotiations with her father in an effort to dissuade him from sending her to join a convent. Things begin to turn around for her after she meets Romeo Montague, and the assurances he gives her give her the hope she has been searching for in her life until now. However, will he be able to keep each of his promises?

Even though I have never read Shakespeare's original play, I am well familiar with the tale and how it resolves. It was fascinating to read the story from a point of view that was distinct from that of the story's primary protagonists in the source material. Despite the fact that I had a hard time empathizing with the main character, I respected the author for imbuing her with several admirable qualities. It was fascinating to observe how she responded and conducted herself in each of the diverse and challenging circumstances that she encountered.

The story of Fair Rosaline is an honest one. It's not a terrible narrative, and it has some interesting characters. My gut tells me that the extent to which you will enjoy it depends entirely on your individual preferences and, possibly, the degree to which you are willing to divert from the novel's central love narrative.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Read: May 2023, Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Second Read: May 2025, Rating: 4/5 stars

An entirely new spin on Shakespeare's well-known Romeo and Juliet, that paints each character in an entirely new light, all told from Rosaline's perspective.

I adore Shakespeare's original and so when I received an arc for this retelling I dropped all my other reading plans to start this, straight-away. I did not read any of the synopsis and so feared it might be too accurate a revisit to the original, and so provide the reader with nothing new, but I need not have feared.

Rosaline is given life, rather than being a female who hides off page, and through her insights we start to see both Romeo and Juliet for who they are, which is very different from the star-crossed and ill-fated lovers we already know them as. All characters feel far more human here and I loved this new take on such a beloved tale. It remained a sinister tragedy and I mourned the events that occurred just as much as I did the conclusion to this tale, that meant my time with these characters was done.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Natasha Solomons, and the publisher, Manilla Press, for this opportunity.

[Marilyn (not getting notifications) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Natasha Solomons did a great job at retelling the classic Shakespeare play of Romeo and Juliet in her book, Fair Rosaline. I particularly enjoyed the way she exploited Romeo’s character in Fair Rosaline. She depicted Romeo as a womanizer who preyed on young innocent girls with trickery and deception. As the title implies, Rosaline, a very minor character in the original Romeo and Juliet play, played a crucial and major role in Fair Rosaline. With the untimely death of her dear mother, Rosaline’s father had declared that Rosaline would spend the rest of her life in a nunnery. Rosaline determined to buy herself more time before she was subjected to the dreaded life her father had chosen for her, Rosaline dressed up in her finest ball gown and made her way to a ball. She wanted to experience life and love before she was forced to leave her only home she had ever known. It was at the ball that Rosaline Capulet and Romeo Montague met and fell in love. Romeo was handsome, seductive and off limits to Rosaline. There was no love lost between the two families. They were indeed rivals of one another but Rosaline was instantly drawn towards Romeo and she ignored the family rivalry. He totally swept her off her feet and promised to save her from the life her father was planning for her. The more time Rosaline spent with Romeo getting to know him, though, the more she discovered about the type of man Romeo really was and what he was capable of. Then to Rosaline’s disgust, she discovered that Romeo had put his sights on her young thirteen year old cousin, Juliet. Rosaline knew she had to do everything in her power to stop this union between her innocent young cousin and Romeo. Would Rosaline prove to be clever enough to save her cousin Juliet from the fate that awaited her? Would Rosaline be able to accomplish this feat before her father sent her off to the nunnery?

I listened to the audiobook of Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons. It was narrated very well by Shelia Atim. Thank you to Recorded Books for allowing me to listen to the audiobook of Fair Rosaline: A Novel by Natasha Solomons through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I recommend this book if you enjoy reading about a new perspective on an old and well known classic.

[Avery Liz Holland · Rating 2 out of 5]

«Quel gaglioffo di Romeo»

Dovrebbe essere un retelling femminista di Romeo e Giulietta: racconta, infatti, della storia d'amore tra Romeo e Rosalina, cugina di Giulietta, facendo di Romeo un manigoldo di mezza età che insidia le ragazzine. E quando gli riesce si improvvisa pure ladro. Rosalina, sedotta e abbandonata, apre gli occhi sulla vera natura di Romeo e si imbarca in un'avventura per salvare la cuginetta più giovane dalle grinfie di questo molestatore seriale impenitente.
Ultimamente retelling e reinterpretazioni varie di vicende già note, che siano classici, favole o miti, sono di gran moda e io sono del parere che l'autore o autrice sia libero di cambiare le carte in tavola, inventando, tagliando, aggiungendo, modificando come più gli piace. Se il risultato sarà apprezzabile o meno non dipende dal grado di fedeltà alla storia originale. Romeo e Rosalina, però, annienta in modo così assoluto l'opera madre che già durante la lettura sorgono non poche perplessità.
Il problema serio arriva alla fine, con la postfazione dell'autrice. Solomons afferma di aver sempre considerato la tragedia shakespeariana come il trionfo dell'amore, fino a quando non l'ha riletta con sua sorella che si occupa di diritti dei minori. A quel punto, non si capisce bene in che modo, ha realizzato che la vera interpretazione di Romeo e Giulietta è un'altra. Infatti, prosegue, l'età della protagonista è indicata espressamente nel testo, quella di Romeo no. Quindi, dal momento che nulla afferma con chiarezza il contrario, possiamo supporre che «quel gaglioffo di Romeo» abbia più di 30 anni (addirittura nel romanzo lo descrive con ciocche grigie nei capelli!), il che fa di lui, da una prospettiva contemporanea, una specie di pedofilo, poiché Giulietta di anni ne ha 13 e Rosalina solo un paio più di lei.
Ma che modo di ragionare è questo? Allora io posso immaginare che Giulietta sia in realtà una pianta di basilico e Romeo un barboncino, tanto nel testo non viene mai detto esplicitamente il contrario! È vero che non conosciamo l'età precisa di Romeo, ma tutto ciò che lo riguarda fa pensare che sia giovane quanto Giulietta o comunque poco più grande di lei. Le sue parole, i suoi gesti e il suo modo di comportarsi e concepire l'amore sono quelli di un ragazzo. Romeo e Giulietta è considerata dai critici la tragedia dell'amore adolescenziale per eccellenza, perché è il linguaggio dei due protagonisti a farcelo capire, nonché la loro contrapposizione al mondo degli adulti, dominato dalla logica del denaro e dell'interesse. Romeo e Giulietta, invece, giovani e innocenti, seguono la legge del cuore. Forse la Solomons non ne è a conoscenza, ma il contrasto generazionale è un tema cardine delle opere shakespeariane e in Romeo e Giulietta trova una delle sue massime espressioni. Tutto questo non avrebbe senso se Romeo fosse invece un losco figuro di mezza età che si diverte a inseguire le ragazzine. Shakespeare avrebbe scritto qualcosa che contraddice i suoi stessi temi: vi sembra possibile?
Per di più, l'autrice afferma che all'epoca gli uomini si sposavano più tardi delle donne, perciò non deve stupirci che il suo Romeo sia ancora scapolo. Ciò è plausibile, perché gli uomini non avevano il problema della fertilità. Ma è assolutamente irrealistico pensare che un uomo di famiglia nobile come Romeo, erede di suo padre, arrivasse a oltre 30 anni senza sposarsi, perché aveva l'obbligo di generare figli e assicurare la continuità, tramandare il nome e il patrimonio. Lo stesso principe di Verona non lo avrebbe mai consentito e lo avrebbe trascinato all'altare tenendolo per il collo: i Montecchi sono suoi amici e alleati e se Romeo non avrà eredi una delle famiglie più importanti della città si estinguerà, almeno nel suo ramo principale (infatti Romeo ha un cugino, Benvolio). Vi sembra una cosa realistica? È realistico supporre, invece, che i ragazzi si sposassero al più tardi intorno ai 20 anni, quindi è quella l'età massima che possiamo immaginare per Romeo.
Oltretutto, la scrittrice afferma che «non va bene» che Giulietta si sposi a 13 anni. Certo che non va bene, ma è un dramma ambientato nel Rinascimento! Non possiamo giudicarlo con i nostri criteri, se no è chiaro che possiamo soltanto disapprovare. È così difficile capire che bisogna contestualizzare? Ai tempi di Romeo e Giulietta nessuno si sarebbe scandalizzato per un matrimonio tanto precoce: era la norma, perché la vita era molto più breve e fragile di oggi, si moriva prima e più facilmente, quindi per far andare avanti la specie era necessario iniziare a fare figli il prima possibile.
Senza contare che la cara Rosalina in questo libro predica bene e razzola male: si critica la volubilità di Romeo, che passa da una ragazza all'altra, ma lei stessa perde la testa per lui nel giro di un unico incontro e pochi giorni dopo, scoperta la vera natura di Romeo, subito passa a baciare Tebaldo e immaginare un futuro con lui. Queste non sono leggerezza e volubilità? Per non parlare di quanto si sdilinquisce sulla bellezza di Romeo, ribadita e sottolineata con un gran fiorire di luoghi comuni fino alla nausea. Il povero Paride invece viene subito etichettato come un marito inadeguato per Giulietta, ma in realtà né Rosalina né Giulietta lo conoscono minimamente. Non scambiano mai mezza parola con lui e lo reputano inaccettabile solo perché è in sovrappeso e poco avvenente. E meno male che Rosalina dovrebbe essere il personaggio che contesta la superficialità di Romeo.
Ma le sciocchezze proclamate da Solomons non finiscono qui. Sempre nella postfazione, dichiara che Romeo è «aggressivo e violento nello spingere le ragazze a fare sesso» e segue uno «schema di comportamento» che prevede di sedurre ragazzine indifese come Giulietta, come Rosalina e una lunga sfilza prima di loro, per poi abbandonarle addirittura alla morte. Onestamente mi chiedo cosa abbia letto Natasha Solomons credendo di leggere Romeo e Giulietta, perché non riesco proprio a capire quali punti del testo le suggeriscano simili idee. Romeo sarebbe un seduttore seriale solo perché prima di Giulietta era rimasto affascinato dalla cugina di lei? Quindi chiunque passi a un nuovo amore è un disgraziato? Se ti piace una persona sei obbligato ad amarla per tutta la vita? Non è comprensibile che un ragazzo si prenda un'infatuazione? E dove mai vediamo un Romeo violento e aggressivo con una donna dal punto di vista sessuale? Dove mai si citano, nel testo, le altre ragazze che Romeo avrebbe abbandonato prima di Rosalina? Spoiler: da nessuna parte. È un'invenzione di Natasha Solomons, sono tutte discutibilissime opinioni personali, ma lei le presenta come se fossero verità obiettive e inconfutabili che scaturiscono dal dramma di Shakespeare. Chissà quale sostanza alcolica si è abbondantemente scodellata prima di prendere la penna e scrivere certe assurdità.
E qui torno al concetto da cui sono partita: l'autrice era liberissima di modificare la storia a suo piacimento. In questo caso credo che il risultato non mi sarebbe piaciuto lo stesso, ma lo avrei accettato senza troppi problemi. Far passare i suoi cambiamenti come la lettura autentica dell'opera originale no, è inaccettabile, è disonesto nei confronti dei lettori e mostra soltanto malafede. Scrivi una storia originale, allora, e scrivila come ti pare, invece di sfruttare la risonanza offerta dal rimando a Romeo e Giulietta per poi insultare l'opera originale in questo modo.
Salvo lo stile, che mi è sembrato molto curato e gradevole, anche se a volte usa troppe similitudini (pure un po' troppo fantasiose) e ripete spesso gli stessi concetti. Ma il fastidio e lo sconcerto suscitati dalle affermazioni di Solomons e la noia che ho provato per gran parte della lettura, dato che già conosciamo l'esito della storia, sono quasi tutto quello che mi rimane di questo retelling forzatamente e ridicolmente "femminista".

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not a big Shakespeare fan in general but this version was SO good! Where the original evoked very little emotion from me, this story gave me all the feels..Romeo! What a ba&@%rd! Excellent- a thumping good read. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

[Sylvie {Semi-Hiatus} · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75 stars.

[Eva Gavilli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trama/Plot ⭐⭐⭐
Personaggi/Characters ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Stile/Style ⭐⭐

Una sorta di prequel alla tragedia di Shakespeare, che narra di come Romeo, perdutamente innamorato di Rosalina, finisca per amare e spostare Giulietta, fino ad arrivare ad un finale del tutto diverso da quello che tutti conosciamo. Nonostante lo stile non sia affatto moderno, anzi, rammenti molto quello shakespiriano, il racconto ha ben poco a che vedere con l'amore tra due giovani, contrastato dalle famiglie rivali: è una storia che narra di amori tossici, di sfruttamento, di avidità, di dolore e morte. Rosalina, personaggio completamente in ombra nell'opera del Bardo (praticamente non compare mai in scena), qui è inizialmente una ragazzina ingenua, sola, non considerata da nessuno e destinata al convento dai genitori; una ragazza che cade come una pera cotta tra le braccia del primo che capita, ossia Romeo, il primo uomo – non familiare e non servitore – che le rivolge la parola come ad un normale essere umano. Una ragazzina ingenua che poi, non appena si vede tradita, umiliata e abbandonata da Romeo, si trasforma nella salvatrice di Giulietta e di tutte le giovani donne di Verona. Romeo è un idiota patentato, che si innamora di ogni giovaner donna che vede (e più sono giovani, più attirano la sua attenzione), salvo poi stancarsi in fretta e passare alla successiva. Talmente idiota da non rendersi conto che il suo fidato amico frate Lorenzo lo aiuta a "liberarsi" delle ragazze per cui ormai non prova niente, introducendole in un giro di prostituzione e pedofilia, a vantaggio di alcuni ricchi senza scrupoli di Verona. Giulietta è relegata al ruolo di bambina capricciosa che, dall'alto dei suoi 13 anni, pensa di sapere cosa sia l'amore e non esita a fare qualunque sciocchezza le chieda Romeo, compreso l'avvelenarsi. Alla fine, il personaggio migliore in assoluto è la madre badessa del convento che, venuta a sapere dei loschi traffici di esseri umani portati avanti sotto il naso del povero Romeo ed in possesso di una lista di nomi di clienti del frate, non esita a pianificare la prematura dipartita per avvelenamento di tutti loro.
***
A sort of prequel to Shakespeare's tragedy, which tells of how Romeo, madly in love with Rosaline, ends up loving and moving to Juliet, until reaching a completely different ending from the one we all know. Although the style is not at all modern, on the contrary, it is very reminiscent of Shakespeare's style, the story has very little to do with the love between two young people, thwarted by rival families: it is a story that tells of toxic love, exploitation, greed, of pain and death. Rosalina, a completely overshadowed character in the Bard's work (she practically never appears on stage), here is initially a naive, lonely girl, not considered by anyone and destined for the convent by her parents; a girl who falls like a cooked pear into the arms of the first person who comes along, Romeo, the first man - not familiar and not a servant - who speaks to her as if he were a normal human being. A naive little girl who then, as soon as she sees herself betrayed, humiliated and abandoned by Romeo, transforms herself into the savior of Juliet and all the young women of Verona. Romeo is a certified idiot, who falls in love with every young woman he sees (the younger, the better), only to quickly get tired and move on to the next one. So idiotic that he even doesn't realize that his trusted friend Friar Lorenzo helps him to "get rid" of the girls for whom he no longer feels anything, introducing them into a ring of prostitution and pedophilia, for the benefit of some unscrupulous rich men in Verona. Juliet is relegated to the role of a capricious child who, from the age of 13, thinks she knows what love is, and she does not hesitate to do whatever nonsense Romeo asks of her, including poisoning her. In the end, the best character of all, is the mother abbess of the convent who, having learned of the shady human trafficking carried out under the nose of poor Romeo and in possession of a list of names of the friar's clients, does not hesitate to plan their premature death due to poisoning of all of them.

[Julie - One Book More · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romeo and Juliet is one of my most-read and taught plays, so I was really curious about Fair Rosaline. A unique spin on a classic tale, Fair Rosaline gives a voice to a glossed-over character in William Shakespeare’s tragedy. Rosaline is the young woman Romeo loved before he met Juliet. But what do we really know about her? The cousin of Juliet, Rosaline is bound for the nunnery, and this story details the months and days leading up to it.

After the death of her mother, Rosaline’s father informs her she is to join a convent and will enter in twelve days. Rosaline is devastated, but she has no other options. In a time when most women had no autonomy, Rosaline decides to make the most of her last days of freedom, and she attends one of their enemy’s parties. The Montagues are known for their lavish parties and gardens, and it is here where Rosaline first meets Romeo.

Rosaline’s relationship with Romeo blooms quickly, but she begins to question his motives after hearing some alarming rumors. And when Romeo’s interest seems to be moving toward her beloved cousin, Rosaline knows she only has hours to save Juliet from Romeo’s clutches. It’s an imaginative and subversive retelling that I won’t soon forget.

The story follows the overall plot of Romeo and Juliet and includes some of the more poignant scenes but from Rosaline’s perspective. It was so interesting to see the scenes from a different perspective and with a darker and more devious spin. I like how the source material was integrated into the story while still feeling new and unique, and I think it’s because the focus isn’t on Romeo and Juliet’s love story. Instead, it’s about Rosaline’s journey of self-discovery, her relationship with her family, including her parents and two beloved cousins, and her desire to be seen and remembered.

Some of the characters’ motivations and personalities have severely changed from the play, which I found intriguing. Romeo, in particular, is characterized in a much more sinister light. He’s certainly not the lovesick puppy we meet in Shakespeare’s version. The Friar is quite different too, and his involvement in some despicable acts contrasts the pious man introduced in the play. And Rosaline is a fully fleshed-out character, fiery and angry and determined to make her days before entering the convent count. She resents the lack of choice in her life and rejects the patriarchal society she lives in. Tybalt’s character also changed a lot and for the better. He was one of my favorite secondary characters in the story, and I liked this kinder, loving version of him.

I enjoyed this reimagining. Fair Rosaline gives a powerful voice to a voiceless woman and includes messages about sexism, the patriarchy, autonomy, and more. Thanks so much to Sourcebooks Landmark for gifting me a copy of the book. All thoughts are my own.

[Natalie all_books_great_and_small · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review as part of the book tour hosted by Random Things Tours.

4.5 Stars.
Fair Rosaline is a must for anyone who loves retellings and the Romeo and Juliet story. What an incredible read ghis was! I honestly couldn't pull away from it.
We all know the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet but this puts a whole new spin on the tragic love story and gives both an insightful view into the build up to the tragedy along with a whole new perspective of Romeos villainary and how taken advantage of young women were back in those times.
Rosaline was such a well written character, and I grew very fond of her throughout the book. Her mother has died, and she is being sent to live at a convent to be a nun against her will. She manages to negotiate a week of freedom before she has to submit to her future, and thus, Romeo appears in her world. My heart broke for Rosaline, and I wanted to scream in anguish over her doomed fate and losses but found the ending to be satisfactory and hopeful for her.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A FANTASTIC feminist Romeo & Juliet "untelling" told from the POV of Rosaline that sees Romeo as a predator who preys on younger women as well as a critique on the society/culture that drove young women into the arms of men like him when faced with few choices.

I loved how the pandemic/plague was a key part of the story, driving the plot in clever ways and how the author sprinkled actual lines from the play throughout the story.

Great on audio with an author interview included at the end and perfect for fans of Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!!

This was my first book by Natasha Solomons and definitely won't be my last!

[Come Musica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Era da quando è uscito che volevo leggerlo: un romanzo ipnotico e travolgente (l’ultima parte l’ho audioletta con mia madre e pure lei vuole audioleggerlo dall’inizio, perché l’ultima parte le è piaciuta molto!), ricca di colpi di scena.

La tragedia d’amore più famosa di Shakespeare raccontata nuovamente da Rosalina, che nella tragedia shakespeariana è personaggio invisibile, nipote dei Capuleti, di cui è innamorato Romeo.

In questo racconto Romeo è un essere ignobile che deduce le giovanissime e promette amore a destra e manca, perché per lui l’amore passa per gli occhi e va e viene come la marea.

“Con il proprio fazzoletto, Rosalina asciugò la fronte di Laura, come consacrata dal sudore della febbre. Poi, mentre la ragazza esausta chiudeva gli occhi, esaminò di nuovo la fiala. «Posso tenerla?»
«Sí, certo».
Rosalina la nascose nella borsa ricamata che portava appesa alla cintura.
«Ho sentito che adesso siete libera da lui». Laura riaprí gli occhi per guardarla. «È vero?»
«È vero che in lui non c’è nulla di vero» replicò Rosalina, incapace di celare la ripugnanza e il rancore nella propria voce.
«Ah, è sincero quando è innamorato, però il suo amore va e viene come la marea».
Rosalina annuí. «Ogni suo bacio è come il bacio di Giuda».”

Avevo bisogno di leggere una storia così: antica e al tempo stesso sempre viva.

Rosalina si darà da fare per evitare che Giulietta fosse l’ennesima vittima di Romeo

“Alzando le mani, Rosalina e Giulietta risero, intrise di pioggia in un momento, i lunghi capelli mutati in serpenti dagli scrosci. Ti ho salvata, pensò Rosalina, guardando Giulietta. Un giorno, se vorrai, potrai tornare nel mondo e vivere. Allora vivrai per entrambe. Questa è la possibilità che ti ho donato.
Nessuno poteva salvare lei, eppure con la cugina aveva salvato in parte anche sé stessa. Il sacrificio era dolore – fissò con occhi bramosi i mulinelli di aghi di pino roteanti nel vento – tuttavia era anche gioia.”

Scrive l’autrice nella postfazione

“Quando ero adolescente credevo che la storia di Romeo e Giulietta fosse una tragedia perché il loro amore era funesto. Quando l’ho riletta da adulta – insieme a mia sorella che si occupa di tutela dei minori – l’ho interpretata in maniera molto diversa. La vera tragedia è che nessun adulto protegge i bambini. Tutti i Capuleti sono colpevoli. Come tutti coloro che approfittano dei minori, Romeo ha uno schema di comportamento, una predilezione per le fanciulle piú giovani, e Giulietta è, fra tutte, la piú giovane. Sceglie quelle che sono vulnerabili, disperatamente desiderose di libertà, poi soddisfa le loro necessità mediante i rapporti sessuali, le vane promesse e infine la violenza.
Rosalina è la ragazza che avrei voluto essere durante l’adolescenza: pronta a battersi contro Romeo, l’unica decisa a difendere Giulietta.”

Abbiamo più che mai bisogno di tante giovani donne come Rosalina che strappino dalle mani dei tanti Romeo le giovanissime donne come Giulietta.
Oggi più che mai.

[Cecilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un retelling tremendo, que le da la vuelta y nos invita a mirar desde otra perspectiva la clásica tragedia romántica de Romeo y Julieta.
Debo decir que soy fan de esta versión "subersiva", como dice la sinopsis, y feminista de esta historia.

[Cristina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Romeo the Death Eater (Pedo Edition)

These authors’ recent obsession of taking one of the most faithful and constant lovers in all of Shakespeare—and hell, all of literature—and making him into a Renaissance cad and groomer really must be studied. I’m sure there is an academic treatise forming as we speak, if not extant already. But Solomons decided to drag the poor Friar in as well, and that is another line crossed too egregious to tolerate.

Let’s set aside the fact that Shakespeare’s Rosaline never loved Romeo, was sworn to be chaste, and by all accounts did not give Romeo more than a passing thought. Let’s set aside the fact that Romeo’s “love” for Rosaline is portrayed in starkly different terms—much more shallow and weaker—than his for Juliet. Let’s also put aside the fact that Romeo had to be persuaded by Benvolio to go to Capulet’s party, and almost didn’t attend at all even though it would miss him his chance of seeing Rosaline. And let’s put aside the fact that Rosaline is only described as fair, white skin and “scarlet lip” included. Let’s set all this aside.

Romeo is a teenager. His precise age is irrelevant and always has been. Shakespeare’s writing makes it very clear this intention. By contrast Rosaline is coded as a much older teen/woman (“I do love a woman”). To portray Romeo as a predator of young girls in cahoots with a pimp Friar is to demonize a literal minor as a pederastic groomer. And in a predictably rad fem move, it also serves to rob Juliet of her agency and Rosaline of all the smarts she is described to have in the play.

Shakespeare’s Juliet only agreed to be with Romeo if he would marry her and went into a 30-plus line monologue about whether to trust the Friar and all the things that could go wrong with the plan. In one scene Shakespeare’s Juliet shows more caution and intelligence than Solomons’ Rosaline in the whole book. And yet Solomon’s Juliet still plays with dolls and must be persuaded by her cousin of Romeo’s and the Friar’s treachery. Meanwhile Solomons’ Rosaline has no problem sleeping with Romeo before marriage despite the fact that all of medieval literature and culture harped on the importance of protecting one’s virtue from young men’s horniness.

Those who truly hate Shakespeare’s play and his characters by all means should read this as a smart treatise. The rest should and will read it as the laughably ill-conceived rad fem fanfic it is.

[Suzi (Lil Bit Reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine taking the story of Romeo and Juliet and turned it on its head, and that Romeo wasn’t the star-crossed lover of Juliet but instead a serial predator of younger girls. That’s the underlying premise of this fresh, feminist reimagining of Shakespeare’s quintessential love story, which focuses on Rosaline Capulet instead of her younger cousin Juliet.

This is the best way for a retelling to be – faithful to the original in many ways, but completely subversive in others. Much of the framework feels familiar to the Shakespearean version, but the characterization feels fresh and relevant. Romeo is a silver-tongued hottie who takes advantage of naïve teenage girls. I wanted to yell at Rosaline and Juliet not to be taken in by his pretty lies, but of course a young woman of yesteryear likely wasn’t very worldly and would have been flattered and besotted by Romeo. It’s a treat to see Rosaline’s story in the spotlight as she develops into a loyal and fierce protector of her loved ones. The prose is lush and descriptive and totally immerses the reader in fair Verona with just a hint of modern flair.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me an advance copy of this book.

[Chloe (libraryofchlo) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fair Rosaline is a re telling of Romeo and Juliet re told through the perspective of Rosaline - Juliet’s cousin and someone who courted Romeo before the well known love story takes place. Set in a world that’s a hybrid between Verona and Shakespearean England, we follow the story of two households and their grapplings with infatuation and two young people experiencing lust. In this version, Romeo is depicted as a hot blooded man who leaves behind a whole string of women and moves easily from one to the next with little care for their feelings. It also shines a light on the fact that Juliet was just a child when the events of Romeo and Juliet take place.

It’s a little slow in parts for me, as there’s some heavy character study moments but it’s an enjoyable feminist re telling that challenges the original story. I liked seeing the relationship between Tybalt and Rosaline, and revisiting the characters of Romeo, Benvolio, Mercutio etc feels nostalgic as I studied R&J at school.

A fresh perspective on a well loved story with a feminist slanting, Fair Rosaline isn’t perfect but it’s enjoyable.

[Fiona MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE that Rosaline got a voice. I love how gutsy and brave she was. I love that the author based her on two other Rosaline characters from Shakespeare. I love that it was so similar to R&J yet so different. I loved that I recognised so many of the quotes, and that a song sung in the book came from ‘Misummer night’s dream.’ Mostly I loved the end. But I HATED Romeo.

[Caitlyn DeRouin · Rating 2 out of 5]

you can read more of my reviews at https://teatimelit.com/

1.5 stars

Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons is a retelling/reimagining of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet but from Rosaline’s perspective. Who is Rosaline you ask? Rosaline Capulet is the elusive beauty that Romeo is supposedly in love with before he meets Juliet. Not much is known about her, aside from the fact that she is a Capulet, and Romeo’s infatuation with her is what leads him to sneak into the Capulet ball, where he meets Juliet. That is, that’s all we know about her from Shakespeare’s version. With this novel, Natasha Solomons gives voice to the other Capulet girl that is neither seen, nor heard in Romeo and Juliet, but is a catalyst for the events of the story.

Since I will check out anything that is even remotely related to Shakespeare and/or Romeo and Juliet, I had this book pretty high on my radar, and while there were some aspects that I enjoyed, unfortunately, this book as a whole didn’t work for me.

Let’s start with something positive. I love the concept — I love the idea of a retelling/reimagining from Rosaline’s perspective, and I think that the dark and sinister angle Solomons put on the story is incredibly interesting and truly heartbreaking. Reading the way that these young women and girls were manipulated and gaslit had my stomach turning, and each new reveal added to the anguish that Rosaline experiences. I do believe that Solomons succeeds in telling a story of one girl’s resistance to the predatory men of her society and taking control of her life in the only way that she can. What Solomons set out to do she achieved, but to me, she missed the mark on a lot of things.

For the most part, I thought that Rosaline was a well developed character. We meet her just after her mother has died from the plague, and we get to see how that grief and loss affects her, and how it lowers her guard when it comes to Romeo’s advances. She was very determined and strong willed and clearly would do anything for those that she loves, all of which are qualities that I admire in a person. However, I was disappointed to read the author’s note and discover that Solomons admits to creating her version of Rosaline based on the Rosaline/Rosalind’s from Shakespeare’s other plays As You Like It and Love’s Labour’s Lost. With an essentially blank canvas to create this Rosaline, it seems a bit lazy to intentionally pull characteristics from other Shakespeare characters and not develop her otherwise.

While I liked the close relationship between Rosaline and Juliet at the start of the book, I particularly hated the characterization of Juliet as the story continues on. Now, I get that Solomons is telling a different story than what we know from Shakespeare, but the best thing about Juliet as a character is how much gravitas she has. She, like this version of Rosaline, is determined and strong willed. She knows what she wants and does everything within her very limited power to fight for what she wants. Solomons completely erased all of that and she paints Juliet as a much younger character, not in age (she’s still thirteen turning fourteen in Fair Rosaline) but in tone. Juliet reads far younger than thirteen, and while I understand that she wanted to portray Juliet’s innocence and play up the predatory nature of her Romeo, I believe that the author could’ve done so without infantilizing Juliet. In fact, in the 2019 musical & Juliet, they do portray Romeo as a player who has had many prior relationships, but never once did they infantilize their Juliet while telling that story. If David West Read (book writer of & Juliet) could get that across without removing the core of Juliet’s character, Solomons could’ve done the same.

Solomons wrote a lovely friendship and bond between Rosaline and Tybalt and then had to completely ruin it with Tybalt confessing his romantic feelings for Rosaline. I know it was a different time and inter-familial relationships were common and supported to “keep the bloodlines close/pure” (yuck), this completely came out of left field and ruined a lovely bond between the two Capulet outcasts. Rosaline was also incredibly wishy-washy throughout the entire storyline and it drove me insane. It didn’t add anything to the development of either Tybalt or Rosaline, it didn’t move the plot forward and was utterly unnecessary.

The biggest issue I had was probably the general length and pacing. Fair Rosaline isn’t a long book; in fact, the ebook is 328 pages, and that’s including all the features at the end of the book such as authors note, reading group guide, a conversation with the author, etc. However, when I tell you that this book feels long, I truly mean that this book feels long. I thought these chapters were around 50ish pages each, but it turns out that the longest chapter is only 38 pages — this audiobook is 12 hours long, where is all of this length coming from? It’s truly confusing to me, and furthermore, the pacing feels off. The book quickly got repetitive and after about three chapters, I found myself getting frustrated — yes, we get it, Rosaline does not want to be sent to the convent, which I understand and don’t blame her for, but she says it multiple times in every single chapter. I got the message the first time, it does not need to be repeated upwards of five times a chapter, maybe more and that continues from page one to page 328. The same thing happened toward the latter half of the book in conversations between Juliet and Rosaline; while I understand the purpose of these conversations, they really were just going around and around in circles. In my opinion, there should have been fewer of those scenes, at maximum three, since it was the same result with different tactics each time, and truthfully, it just got boring after the third time.

I didn’t dislike Solomons’ writing style per se, but it definitely felt inconsistent. I found myself getting especially frustrated with the misuse of some Shakespearean language. There’s a moment when Rosaline is waiting for Romeo to come to her and she thinks “wherefore was he?” — wherefore doesn’t mean where as in the location of something or someone, wherefore means the reason behind something. By using wherefore in this instance, what the author is actually saying is “why was he” which sort of works within the context if she means “why was he not sending word”, but that’s not how this moment reads. I happened to be listening to the audiobook while following along in the ebook, and at that moment the audiobook literally says “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” which means “Why are you Romeo? Why are you a Montague?” which is not what the author was intending at this moment, meaning, wherefore was not the correct word to use. This is fairly common knowledge if you read a lot of Shakespeare (which based on the author’s note, it seems that Solomons does/has), and I’m unsure of how this got past editors, especially since wherefore was used twice more and in the correct context. I think the editors needed to spend more time looking at the book, especially since many of the issues I noticed could’ve easily been fixed. This felt especially frustrating since I do think there were moments of really lovely language and prose, but oftentimes I found myself fact checking certain things instead of losing myself in the story.

Additionally, some of the writing just felt lazy. I was annoyed that the author had Rosaline and Romeo meet by Rosaline disguising herself as a man and sneaking into a Montague masquerade ball. This doesn’t even work as a way to show the “moves” Romeo uses when trying to seduce a girl because Rosaline is the one who sneaks in — the two literally could’ve met any other way and it was frustrating that they author simply chose to recycle the meeting of Romeo and Juliet, and then have Rosaline say that him sneaking into the Capulet ball was predatory. I’m not saying that this version of Romeo wasn’t being predatory when he did that, but it very much so felt hypocritical since Rosaline did the same thing. However, I did enjoy the references to other Shakespeare stories and characters throughout the book, that was a nice treat!

As I mentioned earlier, I do think that Solomons achieved what she set out to do with Fair Rosaline and I applaud her for that. I can also see why this book resonates with people, unfortunately, I was not one of them.

---

i really wanted to like this, but unfortunately, it did not work for me. full review to come!

[PlotTrysts · Rating 4 out of 5]

When reading a literary retelling of Romeo & Juliet from the perspective of Rosaline, you expect certain things. Romeo probably doesn't come off very well, for one. Juliet might get her fair share of criticism. But I wasn't expecting to ~feel things~ for Tybalt...

So yeah, this is a retelling of what many consider the "greatest love story of all time" from the perspective of the girl who got dumped right before those lovers met. And, as it turns out, he was a real POS. As the book opens, Rosaline's mother has just died, and Rosaline's father has decided that the best thing for her future is to send her to a convent. He gives her a two week grace period before she has to enter. She decides to cram in all of the living she'll miss out on into those fourteen days, including sneaking into a Montague party where she meets Romeo. The older man seems to have a second sense for sniffing out vulnerable girls. Rosaline is drawn deeper into his machinations, and when she breaks free, he immediately latches onto her cousin, Juliet. As Rosaline desperately tries to save her cousin, the only person she can confide in is their other cousin Tybalt, her closest friend and childhood companion.

If you know Romeo & Juliet, then you know the outlines of the story after this. But, because it is a retelling, the reader desperately hopes for a different ending for the characters we've come to know in a different way. This isn't an easy book to read; Romeo is a predator who's already gotten away with so much, while Rosaline and Juliet are truly 13- and 15-year olds who don't have the maturity or the familial support to push back. That said, it's always worth the effort to take another look at the works of art that form part of our understanding of literature in general.

This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

[Sara Booklover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un retelling su Romeo e Giulietta che narra una versione MOLTO diversa, mantenendo le basi dell’originale, semplicemente guardando la vicenda da un’altra prospettiva.
Il risultato è sorprendente, perché se inizialmente la narrazione parte antecedente ai fatti di Romeo Giulietta e si potrebbe quindi definire come “prequel” ad un certo punto la storia si scontra e si amalgama con le vicende dell’opera originale, sempre però narrando da una prospettiva inedita, quella di Rosalina: una storia nascosta dentro alla storia che rimane sottotraccia.
La narrazione è un mix tra antico e moderno, usa un linguaggio ricercato e teatrale nei termini, soprattutto nei dialoghi, ma è molto semplice e scorrevole altrove. Una narrazione adatta soprattutto a lettori young adult, ma piacevole anche per gli adulti.
Romanzo dissacrante ed irriverente nel tratteggiare la figura di Romeo, da una parte può risultare un po’ estremo, ma dall’altra mostra come la stessa storia può mutare radicalmente con un cambio di prospettiva. E che mai le cose sono come sembrano...
Il finale è pazzesco... non me lo aspettavo!!! XD

[Cheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, with a focus on Rosaline Capulet, cousin to young Juliet.

This begins with a funeral, the funeral of Madonna Emelia Capulet, mother of Rosaline, a funeral that was limited due to the epidemic that was spreading rapidly. There was no gathering except for their family, which now consisted only of Rosaline, her father, and Valentino, her brother. The service was hurried as the friar was eager to remove himself from the proximity of this disease.

’In truth Rosaline knew that fear, pain, and love were all beyond her mother now. She belonged here, among the ghosts of other long-departed Capulets.’

When they return to their home, officers are waiting for them, informing them that since a member of their household had been infected, they were not permitted to leave their home for twenty days.
Their door had already been marked with a red cross to mark the house. Soon, the doors of their neighbors will be marked with the red cross as the plague spreads.

When her father informs her that her mother’s wish was for her to live her life in a convent, Rosaline questions this, but her father is not bending on his conviction that it is in her best interest.

’Rosaline determined to know something of love before she was locked away, husband or not.’

Her father allows her twelve days of freedom before she will be taken to the convent.

’If she must surrender the sinful world, then first she’d gorge herself on its pleasure. The thought of the Montagues was frightening, but she had so little time left. She must be brave. If the devil himself was playing host, she would attend with ribbons in her hair.’

Soon after, dressed as a boy, she meets Romeo, who believes her to be a young man. When she loses a duel with him, he unmasks her.

Their romance quickly turns into more, as he sneaks into her room one night, leaving at dawn’s light, lest they be caught. He returns for several nights, convincing her of his love, and talking of marriage. When he gets everything he wants from Rosaline, his attention turns to her cousin, Juliet.

Rosaline now knows she meant nothing to him, that he has done this to many other girls like her, but will she be able to convince Juliet that Romeo will likely do the same to her, or will Juliet ignore her warnings. There is so little time left, so she must act quickly, before her father sends her off to the nunnery.


Published: 12 Sept 2023

Many thanks for the ARC provided by SOURCEBOOKS Landmark, Sourcebooks Landmark

[Thebooktrail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Discover the locations in the novel here


Was the greatest love story a lie? Was Romeo and Juliet never happen? This is EXACTLY the kind of novel that gets me interested from the off. A chance to travel to Verona and see a new side to a story of all time?

Rosaline is actually a charater in the most famous play on earth, but she is a minimal side character. To have her in this novel is a very clever idea as it spins what you always thought you knew right on its Shakespearian head.

Rosaline is around 15 and is going to be sent to the convent as was the norm for young girls at the time if their families decided that was to happen. She is given almost two weeks to have some freedom before she goes inside and uses this to sneek to the Montague family ball where she meets and falls in love with Romeo.

Recently bereaved 15 year old Rosaline, a Capulet but of the very lowest order, is destined to be sent to the convent. She, a mere girl has no say in the matter; as Masseto, her father, frequently reminds her, she is nothing but his property to do what he likes with. Will she still have to go to the nunnery or will Romeo offer her a new way in life?

You can imagine the tension that follows as the two have to keep their relationship secret. But then a woman by the name of Juliet turns up….

This is a very interesting interpretation and exploration of the story of Romeo, Juliet and Rosaline. I found it enthralling and very well written, pacy and immersive.

Rosaline, Rosalinen wherefor art thou Fair Rosaline? In a bookstore near you on August 3rd.

[Nora Currie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have enjoyed most of this retelling that I have read so far but I sadly have to DNF. Also where is Renaissance Marishka Hagartay when you need her?!!!

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you’ve read or seen Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, you’ll remember Rosaline as the girl Romeo was infatuated with before meeting and falling in love with Juliet. We never actually meet Rosaline in the text of the play but her role is still important because she is the reason why Romeo attends the Capulet ball where he sees Juliet for the first time. In Natasha Solomons’ new novel, she gives Rosaline a voice of her own and tells the story of her relationship with Romeo Montague.

Rather than a simple retelling of Romeo and Juliet, Fair Rosaline is what the publisher has described as a ‘subversive, powerful untelling’. It wasn’t really what I had been expecting and I was quite surprised by the way Solomons chose to approach this novel.

First of all, as Shakespeare provides us with almost no information on Rosaline’s appearance and personality, Solomons has taken inspiration from some of his other characters with a similar name – Rosalind in As You Like It and Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost – so that the woman we meet at the beginning of Fair Rosaline is a fully formed character. We join her just after the death of her mother, Emelia Capulet, when her father informs her that she is going to be sent to a nunnery. The horrified Rosaline suspects that he just wants to avoid having to pay a dowry if she marries, but he insists that it was actually her mother’s dying wish.

Granted a twelve day reprieve before being sent to join the nuns, Rosaline is determined to make the most of her last days of freedom. When she meets Romeo Montague and falls in love, she begins to hope that there’s still a chance of a happier future – until she makes a shocking discovery about him and breaks off their relationship. However, it seems that Romeo has turned his attentions to her younger, more vulnerable cousin Juliet. Can Rosaline save Juliet or will she be unable to prevent things from ending in tragedy?

I’ve always loved Romeo and Juliet – it contains some of the most beautiful language in all of Shakespeare’s work – and I’ve never questioned its position as one of the greatest tragic love stories of all time. Fair Rosaline, though, looks at the play through a completely different lens. Here, Romeo is not a romantic hero but a villain, a sexual predator who targets young girls and discards them when he loses interest in them. Solomons uses Juliet’s extreme youth (thirteen in the play) and the fact that Romeo’s exact age is not given, to suggest that he is an older man than we usually assume and to give their relationship a much darker tone than in the play. I think how much you’ll enjoy this book will depend on how much you can accept this new version of Romeo. Personally, I prefer characters in retellings to at least bear some resemblance to the originals and this Romeo didn’t, which was a big problem for me.

I’ve loved some of Natasha Solomons’ previous novels, particularly House of Gold and The Novel in the Viola, so I’m sorry I didn’t enjoy this one more. There were plenty of things I liked, such as the portrayal of Tybalt, who is also quite different from Shakespeare’s depiction – he is still the proud, impetuous and hot-tempered character we know, but seeing him through the eyes of his cousin Rosaline makes him much more sympathetic. I also found the setting interesting; as Solomons explains in her author’s note, there’s no evidence that Shakespeare ever visited Italy so she tried to capture the same feel, writing about Italy as though she had never been there and blending 14th century Verona with the Elizabethan England that would have been familiar to Shakespeare. I just wish she could have found a way to create a story for Rosaline and explore the difficulties facing medieval women without completely destroying Romeo’s character in the process.

[Ric · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ll admit, I really enjoy Romeo and Juliet no matter what people think of it. And this book made sure you knew it was a retelling of it, in both successful and unsuccessful ways. I loved how the chapter titles were actual lines from the play, and the recreation of classic scenes from a different perspective when they popped up were fantastic. But there were also so many lines from the play that were just shoehorned into other scenes that didn’t make sense at all, and the short lived Rosaline and Tybalt romance was super weird. There’s also the mixture of modern and old English that’s a bit jarring, as is someone exclaiming “fie!” in literally every scene.

But I think my main issue was that this was solely focused on love (or lust depending on what you think of Romeo and Juliet), and not the plenty of other themes from the original play that make it great. Things like family pressure vs wanting to live for yourself, youth vs experience, time and life being short, fate vs free will, among so many others. Instead, there was Romeo (possibly knowingly?) being the front for a ring of pedophiles in Verona by seducing a bunch of young girls, Rosaline and Juliet included. Which should be a fake sentence, and my goodness I wish it was.

I think this book had a lot of potential, seeing a classic from a different perspective can be fun and the author had a real opportunity to be creative with a character we know basically nothing about beyond a few throwaway lines said about her in the original. But I can’t say that I enjoyed it.

[Kirsses · Rating 1 out of 5]

ARC provided by NetGalley.

Why must retellings always make villains out of the original story’s characters?

I’m torn. I enjoyed the first half of this novel without much complaint, but the moment Romeo was made to be a “player” I had a sense of doom.

In attempting to make Rosaline the hero of the story, she’s instead more of a fool than Romeo and Juliet ever were. Had she been sent off to the nunnery immediately, no harm would’ve come to anyone. By the 70% mark it was hard to dismiss her actions as naive — by that point, she was nothing more than a destructive mess.

I would hope that to tell a female side characters’ story, to make her the main character, you wouldn’t need to make villains of the original leads to provide her with a story. See Hulu’s Rosaline film for an example of playing into the nativity of Romeo and Juliet rather than completely changing their personalities.

All this to say, if you’d read/studied/enjoyed Romeo and Juliet, there’s a chance you will not enjoy this take on Rosaline. Unless, that is, you have a deep rooted hatred for Romeo Montague.