Romeo and Juliet are gone. Will love live on? Despite the glooming peace that's settled on Verona after the recent tragedy, Montagues and Capulets are brawling in the streets. Faced with more bloody battles, Prince Escalus concludes that the only way to truly marry the fortunes of these two families is to literally marry them together. Everyone is skeptical, but none more so than the pair selected, for the most eligible Montague bachelor is Benvolio, Romeo's best friend, still anguished by the loss of his companions, and the chosen Capulet maid is Juliet's older cousin Rosaline, the girl Romeo first loved and whose refusal of Romeo's affection paved the way for bloodshed. Contrary to their late cousins, there's no love lost between Benvolio and Rosaline, yet they forge a bond to end the renewed feud not only to escape their forced betrothal, but to save their lives and the city of Verona itself.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Can we get a sequel to this sequel to Romeo and Juliet?
By L. Rawles
Full disclosure: I knew Melinda when I was about 17 and she was about 13. She was a pretty cool 13-year-old, but since it's been a decade and a half since I last saw her, I feel like I can be impartial about this book.And my impartial opinion is: I love this book. Love it to pieces. 4.75 stars, for me.Still Star-Crossed is the sequel to Romeo and Juliet, and tells what happened after the Capulets and the Montagues swore to the Prince that their deadly feud died with their children. Slight spoiler alert: It didn't go great. "If generations could not cure their ire, will a summer of murder really do so?" asks the Prince.The heroine of Still Star-Crossed is Rosaline, the girl Romeo first lost his heart to, the girl who turned him down. The girl now wracked with guilt that had she accepted him, both he and her cousin Juliet might still be alive. Not to worry, though; she does not spend her time languishing. Because there is plenty that she is called on to do to save Verona from further bloodshed.Including marrying Benvolio Montague, Romeo's dear friend, at the order of her beloved prince, Escalus. Marry the man who holds her to blame for the death of his friends, a Montague brought up to hate her as a Capulet descendant? Not terribly appealing. But don't worry; she has a plan....I don't claim to be a Shakespearean scholar, but I've read quite a few of his plays and enjoy them very much. Melinda made the choice to keep the dialogue true to the way his characters spoke in his plays, using "thee" and "thou." I had no trouble with this, and I think that if you give yourself a chapter or two, you won't have a problem either. I loved the evocative language, and I think it keeps you in the right headspace.Melinda weaves in characters and references from other Shakespeare plays, but never overdoes it. Instead, they are like delightful Easter eggs, visible only if you're looking for them. She takes CERTAIN LIBERTIES with the characters you may be familiar with from your freshman English class, but it's all to the good.Rosaline, her sister Livia, Benvolio and Prince Escalus are wonderful characters, and I was happy to see the old crew as well. Friar Laurence! Dear, sweet, stupid Nurse! It's been so long. And the scene with a gravedigger made me chortle with glee.Still not sold on Still Star-Crossed? Let's ask the grandfather from The Princess Bride. What can we expect from this book, Grandpa? Has it got any sports in it?"Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, [no] giants, [no] monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles..." All this and more.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.Move over Romeo and Juliet!
By Wchen25
Though I enjoy most of William Shakespeare's work, I am not a fan of Romeo and Juliet. However, I was interested in the premise of Still Star-Crossed and how it would play out. And wow, was I impressed. Not only was the writing excellent and the characters well-developed, but Melinda Taub re-created the world of Shakespeare's Italy in wonderful detail and vision. What I loved about the relationship between Benvolio and Rosaline was how their story wasn't the typical love-at-first-sight plot. Rather than falling in love within five minutes and getting married hours later, the two protagonists couldn't have been more repulsed upon their first encounter. Benvolio is filled with grief over the death of his best friend and loathes Rosaline for rejecting Romeo and making him turn toward a doomed love. Rosaline is mourning the death of her own beloved cousin and does not care for Benvolio's blatant dislike of her. Despite their differences, Benvolio and Rosaline are forced to work together in order to uncover who is trying to stir the age old feud between the Capulets and the Montagues again in order to save themselves from a forced marriage. Along their journey, however, the two end up developing a true affection for each other that becomes threatened by scheming forces.Many characters from Romeo and Juliet appear in this book and play an important role, such as Friar Lawrence, Lady Capulet, and Prince Escalus. Melinda Taub explores many of these characters in greater detail and presents a new side to them that is both unique and interesting. Though she employs Elizabethan dialogue in the book, it's still sufficiently simple to understand what the characters are saying and never takes away from the enjoyment of the book. So if you like romantic stories filled with sharp, witty dialogue, political intrigue, action, adventure, and an ending that makes sense, then I would definitely recommend Still Star-Crossed by Melinda Taub!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.Adheres to the Spirit of Shakespeare, if not the letter
By Amazon Customer
The taciturn peace that the double suicide of Romeo and Juliet imposed on the citizens of Verona is tentative at the best of times as the tension generated by the long-standing feud between the Montagues and the Capulets continues to permeate the atmosphere - seeping into to everyone’s bones and tainting all that it contacts. Burdened by the responsibility of leadership and desperate to save his city, the young Prince Escalus concludes that the only way to truly squelch this nonsense is to SUCCESSFULLY marry a Montague to a Capulet. Unfortunately, the betrothed – Benvolio and Rosaline – are not the paragon of peace that he had hoped for. However, in banding together to undermine the fate they loathe, the couple not only broker peace and save the city but also discover that they are far more willing than either would have anticipated. This lovely blend of romance and mystery adheres to the spirit of Shakespeare’s writing, if not the letter. Taub breathes new life into the well-traversed world of thirteenth-century Verona as the Bard depicted it by developing the characters of Rosaline and Benvolio and contextualizing them in a setting where the characters of both Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing came of age at approximately the same time thereby allowing her to borrow Don Pedro of Arragon (and his plight) for a clever Deus ex machina. Taub’s tale truly offers something for everyone: for those who have become disillusioned with the original tragedy, it is reinvigorating; for those who have previously found Shakespeare’s writing oblique and impenetrable, it is quite accessible; and for those who fell in love with the original star-crossed lovers as they fell in love with each other, it is heavily laced with allusions that cheekily pay homage.
