Juliet

Starred review from May 31, 2010
Fortier bobs and weaves between Shakespearean tragedy and popular romance for a high-flying debut in which American Julie Jacobs travels to Siena in search of her Italian heritage—and possibly an inheritance—only to discover she is descended from 14th-century Giulietta Tomei, whose love for Romeo defied their feuding families and inspired Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Julie's hunt leads her to the families' descendants, still living in Siena, still feuding, and still struggling under the curse of the friar who wished a plague on both their houses. Julie's unraveling of the past is assisted by a Felliniesque contessa and the contessa's handsome nephew, and complicated by mobsters, police, and a mysterious motorcyclist. To understand what happened centuries ago, in the previous generation, and all around her, Julie relies on relics: a painting, a journal, a dagger, a ring. Readers enjoy the additional benefit of antique texts alternating with contemporary narratives, written in the language of modern romance and enlivened by brisk storytelling. Fortier navigates around false clues and twists, resulting in a dense, heavily plotted love story that reads like a Da Vinci Code for the smart modern woman.

July 1, 2010

In Fortier's debut, the rights to which have been sold in 29 territories around the world, a descendant of Juliet goes to Italy to search for her Romeo.

As children, twin sisters Giulietta and Giannozza were sent from Italy to live with their great aunt Rose in Virginia after their parents perished in an auto crash. The children were raised as Julie and Janice Jacobs by Rose and her flamboyant butler Umberto. Now Aunt Rose has died. According to her will, Janice inherits Aunt Rose's entire estate. Giulietta inherits a key to a safe-deposit box in Siena, Italy, accompanied by a letter from her aunt explaining that her mother left a treasure for her which relates to her true identity: Giulietta Tolomei, whose family tree goes all the way back to the original Giulietta and her twin sister Giannozza. The Tolomeis and the Salimbenis were the actual feuding families, from Siena, on whom Shakespeare based the Capulets and Montagues. Once in Siena, Giulietta discovers that the rivalry is still roiling. Alessandro Salimbeni, the handsome policeman who helps her explore her past, is descended from the evil 14th-century nobleman who forced Juliet to marry him after he arranged not only for the murder of her entire family but also for her fiancé Romeo's assassination. Romeo was the scion of the Marescotti clan, a military family often embroiled in the Tolomei/Salimbeni wars. Alternating with the present-day story are chapters set in 1340, presenting a far gorier retelling of Romeo and Juliet's doomed love than Shakespeare imagined. And what of Romeo's present-day counterpart? As Giulietta grows closer to Alessandro, after he deters a thug who has been tailing her, she's on the point of deconstructing the family curse, when Janice shows up, claiming that Aunt Rose's will was a scam serving some nefarious Salimbeni plot. The same dark forces were behind the deaths of their parents, which may have been no accident. And who is Umberto, really?

The promising premise bogs down too often in repetition and excess verbiage.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 15, 2010
Most readers are familiar with Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", but not everyone knows that the Bard based his play on an old Italian tale in which the doomed lovers meet and die in the medieval city of Siena. Drawing on this tale, Fortier's historical debut features a plot as complicated as a Shakespearean play. When Julie's aunt dies, she is left with a key to a safe-deposit box in Siena, where her long-dead mother supposedly left a treasure, but finds only old letters and a ragged copy of "Romeo and Juliet". She learns she is directly descended from one of the play's warring families, and her mother left clues to find "Juliet's Eyes," gemstones rumored to be embedded in a lost golden statue. As she draws closer to the treasure, she attracts the attention of a handsome beau descended from Romeo's family line as well as that of a group who make the Mafia look like choirboys. VERDICT While the publisher is comparing it to Diane Setterfield's "The Thirteenth Tale" and Sarah Dunant's "The Birth of Venus", this entertaining historical thriller is more in line with Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" (but much better written!), with its hunt for clues to a secret. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 3/15/10; academic and library marketing; multicity author tour; ebook ISBN 978-0-345-51977-1.]Jamie Kallio, Thomas Ford Memorial Lib., Western Springs, IL

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2010
Fortiers debut offers a beguiling mix of romance, intrigue, history, and Shakespeare. Twenty-five-year-old Julie Jacobs is stunned to find the aunt who raised her has left everything to her self-involved twin, Janice, save for the key to a safe-deposit box in Siena, Italy. Hoping to get some answers about the suspicious deaths of her parents over two decades ago, Julie travels to Siena and learns shes actually a member of the Tolomeis, a powerful Sienese family. Her first acquaintances in Siena are a vibrant woman and her handsome godson Alessandro, who happen to be members of a rival family, the Salimbenis. Julie cant figure out why Alessandro seems to dislike her almost instantly, but shes soon embroiled in the mystery opened up by the safe-deposit box, which contains notebooks and letters belonging to her mother. Soon Julie is engrossed in the historical story of Romeo and his love, Giulietta, and on the trail of a legendary treasure. Lovers of adventurous fiction will lose themselves in Fortiers exciting, intricately woven tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)