Customer Reviews

Saving Juliet

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Seventeen-year-old Mimi Wallingford seems to have it all. A famous Broadway name and the part of Juliet in a family production.

But she doesn't want to act. What she really wants to do is go away to college to study medicine like her aunt in California. But her mother wants none of that. Mimi feels trapped in her life.

Then both her and the lead of the play, heartthrob Troy Summer, are transported to a place where Romeo and Juliet really exist. Mimi wants to save Juliet from her fate but in rewriting the story will she end up stuck in Shakespeare's Verona?

I really enjoyed this twist on the whole Romeo and Juliet story. Who hasn't wanted to escape their life? This engaging tale will keep the reader turning the pages. I don't remember much of the Shakespeare tale but Suzanne Selfors does a great job weaving in the story. A must read for anyone who enjoys a good YA historical tale. Who knows? It might make you want to go and reread the Shakespeare tale.

This is a cute book that may actually encourage adolescent girls to read Shakespeare, or at least to watch the Claire Danes Romeo + Juliet. I'll take it.

Mimi Wallingford is a teenaged stage actress, and the granddaughter of a famed Broadway actress and producer, who really wants to quit her day job and become a doctor. Her mother won't hear of it, though, and has gotten an admissions officer from a prestigious acting school to come and see Mimi play Juliet in her family's production of that most famous of Shakespeare's plays. Mimi has a panic attack before she sets foot on stage, though, and ends up getting transported back in time (along with her co-star, a Zac Efron type) to Romeo and Juliet's Verona.

While there, she does her best to help the star-crossed couple - and herself - achieve a happy ending, with plenty of humorous mishaps along the way, and all is right with the world. This book is a little dorky, and I'm not convinced by all of the characterizations of Shakespeare's characters (Benvolio and Mercutio mystified me, in particular), but the book was a lot of fun, so I won't be critical. If you've read this summary and are still considering reading the book, you'll probably enjoy it.

I loved this book--for myself and my young teen daughter. Selfors writes a quick-paced, humorous and inventive tale that still gets a great message across. Loved her sense of humor and characters you'd like to invite home with you. Highly recommend this for pre-teen and early teen girls.

This was really a FUN read! Loved the author's style in delivering the story.

I absolutely loved this book! The cover is what first caught my attention. The story was a great idea. When i first found out what it was about it reminded about the movie "Pleasentville" and i laughed when Mimi made a referance to it.

*SPOILER WARNING*
I actually really liked how I switched between liking Benvolio and Troy. I think it was clever of the author to have the "you can't judge a book by it's cover" with the two guys. Also i'm so glad that Romeo and Juliet still end up together and that they get a happily ever after.
**

Great read. It kept me interested. <3

Saving Juliet is funny endearing energetic and very readable. A story about how powerful two different girls from two Very different worlds can become once thay make a choice to control their own futures. The page count makes this a great book for a rainy afternoon. HIGHLY ENJOYABLE!

For all of you who were depressed by Romeo and Juliet's sad ending, here's a new take that's full of laughs. Mimi gives a modern teen's take on Renaissance feuds, masquerade balls, and young men in tights. Perfect for young adult readers.

This is one of the funnest book Ive ever read. Its a fun twist to Romeo and Juliet. I loved this book. It was amazing. If you were sad about Romeo and Juliet and how it ended, then read this book and you will love it. And there is no sad ending to it at all.

I love the author and I really liked this book, too, but the Kindle edition is a disaster. Ther are so many typos (apparently the text was scanned and the programme screwed up a lot of words. For example "I'm" becomes "Fm" and there are missing white spaces everywhere, up to five typos per (Kindle) page! I rally wish publishers would check the ebook editions better.

At seventeen, when her future should be full of possibility, reluctant actress Mimi feels trapped by her mother's plans and expectations. Despite starring in Romeo and Juliet opposite heartthrob Troy, a role that is the envy of all aspiring young actresses, Mimi feels humiliated by Troy, is paralyzed by stage fright, and her plans for the future are being thwarted. When she's waiting for her cue to go onstage for the final performance, the most important of her life, she decides she can't take any more. Through a couple of events (no spoilers here) she winds up in Juliet's Verona, and decides that even if she can't save herself, she can at least save Juliet. What follows is a delightful mish mash of Shakespeare's characters and plot, lots of danger, action and romance.

Mimi's development as a character is very well done, as is her relationship with the self-centered Troy. At times she speaks directly to the reader, addressing concerns such as how she can understand Italian and why the characters aren't speaking Shakespeare's words. A variety of issues are addressed as Mimi interacts with the fictional characters; the low value Veronese society placed on women, personal hygiene or lack thereof, even food preparation. Saving Juliet is a fun time travel caper. Ms. Selfors neatly defuses skepticism and steps around inaccuracies by making it clear that the time travel elements are in Mimi's imagination only, though she never explains how vestiges of the experience return with Mimi and Troy. That doesn't make it any less fun, but might be important to readers who need to have everything explained. I enjoyed it.