The Juliet Club [Hardcover]

Suzanne Harper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2008

Kate Sanderson has been burned by love. From now on, she thinks, I will control my own destiny, and I will be reasoned and rational. But life has other things in store for Kate. Namely, a summer abroad studying Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in the very town where the star-crossed lovers met, Verona, Italy. Kate is thrown together with two other American teens and three Italians for a special seminar—and for volunteer duty at the Juliet Club, where they answer letters from the lovelorn around the world. Can Kate's cool logic withstand the most romantic summer ever? Especially when faced with the ever-so-charming Giacomo and his entrancing eyes . . . ?

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up—High school junior Kate is practical and unromantic and, after a relationship gone wrong, has sworn off love. When she wins a writing contest sponsored by the University of Verona, she spends four weeks in Italy studying Romeo and Juliet. The seminar is taught by Francesca Marchese, the academic archrival of Kate's father, a well-known Shakespeare professor. Kate arrives to find that she and the other participants are required to volunteer with the Juliet Club (an actual organization); they will answer letters sent to Juliet by those seeking advice on matters of the heart. But Kate; fellow Americans Lucy and Tom; and Italians Giacomo Marchese, Benno, and Silvia rapidly become involved in romantic entanglements of their own in a plot that combines elements not only of Romeo and Juliet, but of Much Ado about Nothing and Henry V as well. This Shakespearean update is an absolutely delightful read. The characters are believable and appealing, and the complicated romantic plotting never bogs down. Harper's descriptions of Verona and Italian life are wonderfully detailed and evocative.—Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ
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From Booklist

Three American teens and three Italian teens participate in a summer Shakespeare Scholar program set in Verona, where they study and perform scenes from Romeo and Juliet. Each of the three girls and three boys has his or her own particular quirks; of course, they’re bound to end up as three perfect couples, and the reader’s challenge is to figure out who will end up together. Echoing Shakespearean themes, the story has plenty of star-crossed lovers, bickering, and ghost-written love letters. The character development is minimal, but readers probably won’t mind. Harper offers a fun summer read for academically inclined teens seeking light, frothy entertainment. The cover photo (a close-up of a period beaded gown in lush colors) will easily attract YA interest and advertises the contents well: there’s not a lot of depth here, but plenty of pretty trappings. Grades 8-12. --Debbie Carton

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 13 and up
  
• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books (May 27, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061366919
• ISBN-13: 978-0061366918
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,179,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, May 28, 2008

By 

TeensReadToo "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Juliet Club (Hardcover)

THE JULIET CLUB is about six teenagers taking a Shakespeare Seminar in Verona, Italy, which is the same place where the famous Romeo and Juliet is set. The three Americans, Tom, Lucy, and Kate, are winners of a Shakespeare essay contest and have traveled halfway around the world to attend the seminar. They're all excited, for different reasons, to be spending a month in the beautiful country of Italy. The other three teenagers, Benno, Giacomo, and Silvia, all live in Verona and happen to be studying at the seminar.

Each of the teenagers is very different from the rest. Kate is very educated and her father is a noted Shakespeare scholar, who just happens to be the main rival of Francesca Marchese, who will be teaching Kate's seminar. Kate, who's still suffering from a broken heart whether she'll admit it or not, plans to spend the summer studying and discussing Shakespeare even more than before. Lucy, a friendly, bubbly, and beautiful southern, is crazy with happiness about being in Italy. Unlike the girls, Tom doesn't seem interested at all in Shakespeare, but more in playing soccer (football). Benno is happy and ready to work for whoever will pay him. Giacomo, Benno's best friend and the boy all of the girls fall for, is less than thrilled about going to the seminar, but his mother insists. Silvia is an angry but beautiful girl who gives off the vibe to stay away from her. Somehow, these six very different teens end up together in Italy, where romance is always blooming.

During the seminar, they are to act out scenes from the play and to answer letters written from Juliet's point of view, because hundreds of teens throughout the world write to her every year about their love problems. But the teens are not only studying love - they're experiencing it. Their lives are filled with the same experiences of falling in love, heartbreak, and jokes that Shakespeare's plays were filled with.

This book had a fun setting, great characters, and a whole lot of potential. The thing is, it switched points of view so often, and focused on so many relationships, that it was hard to keep track and relate to the characters. But even so, I'm still looking forward to reading Ms. Harper's previous books and any books to come.

Reviewed by: Harmony

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Compulsive Reader's Reviews, May 27, 2008

By 

The Compulsive Reader (Big Rapids, MI, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Juliet Club (Hardcover)

Kate Sanderson prides herself in being sensible. After an unfortunate romantic encounter that ended badly, she's resolved that no one needs romance until after they're out of school and have a career. Her friends despair of her ever falling in love, but for Kate, schoolwork is satisfying enough. So that's why when she wins a Shakespeare essay contest with an all expense paid trip to Verona, Italy to attend a seminar on the great Bard, the only thing she's got on her mind is enjoying her time there and working hard. Kate is stunned to learn that rather that analyzing Shakespeare's text; she's expected to feel the meanings by acting it out with her classmates, and by answering letters seeking advice on love. This is hard enough without pompous Giacomo having to argue with her on everything. And when her other classmates conspire to play a prank on them, she'll have to work with him to outsmart them. But will the joke be on her?

The Juliet Club is a wonderfully fun and breezy read perfect for summertime. The trip of a lifetime comes alive in this cleverly constructed and formatted book that will ensure that readers devour it quickly. Though the first chapter is slightly awkward, but the numerous characters and their backgrounds make this novel appealing to everyone, and keep the story moving quickly. Throw in a few fun twists, Shakespearean sonnets, and a masquerade ball, and you have a light, funny, and uplifting romantic novel that won't soon be forgotten.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Juliet Club, May 28, 2008

By 

Linz - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Juliet Club (Hardcover)

I received this book from Harperteen a few months ago, and I really enjoyed it. Endless plot twists and complex characters never failed to entertain me in the 400-ish pages of the book. What really intrigued me about this book is the originality of the idea, and the amount I could learn from such a book. Few books have focused on The Juliet Club in Italy and out of those few I didn't find any that offered such an enticing plot-line and writing style as the Juliet Club did.

It begins with Kate, a sometimes cynical, reliably reasonable teen. She wins a great opportunity to travel to Italy and attend a prestigious seminar on Romeo and Juliet. After this cliché begins to dominate, first Kate's character is overly done as completely reasonable and doesn't believe in love, so naturally her potential love interest, Giacomo, is completely opposite and a player that argues with her on every point. Anyways through some spurts of creativity and many clichés later, the book culminates in a romantic Shakespearian costume ball that answers all questions the reader may still have and wraps up the book well.

Although the book has so many different plot developments that it's slightly confusing, and a array of predictable clichés, it's a fun summer read. The Juliet Club is riveting, fast-paced, and beautifully written and I never put it down.