JULIET IMMORTAL by Stacey Jay

Title: JULIET IMMORTAL
Author: Stacey Jay
Release Date: August 9, 2011
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Received: ARC Tour Courtesy of Fire and Ice

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SUMMARY:

"These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which as they kiss consume."

—Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

The most tragic love story in history . . .

Juliet Capulet didn't take her own life. She was murdered by the person she trusted most, her new husband, Romeo Montague, a sacrifice made to ensure his own immortality. But what Romeo didn't anticipate was that Juliet would be granted eternity, as well, and would become an agent for the Ambassadors of Light. For 700 years, she's fought Romeo for the souls of true lovers, struggling to preserve romantic love and the lives of the innocent. Until the day she meets someone she's forbidden to love, and Romeo, oh Romeo, will do everything in his power to destroy that love.

It’s going to be hard to write a proper review for JULIET IMMORTAL by Stacey Jay because I read it in May and have somehow managed to lose all of my review notes, so I apologize now. I could go back and re-read the book since it officially hit shelves this week, but the truth is, I won’t be reading this a second time. For me, it’s a one-time read. That isn’t to say that other readers won’t come back to this story again and again. I think it will reach a lot of people. For me, I had certain expectations of how the story would go and those needs weren’t quite met. I wound up enjoying her other 2011 release, THE LOCKET, much more, despite its smaller publicity budget.

I was anticipating that JULIET IMMORTAL would be lush and romantic, a story of epic proportions. It dealt more with an ongoing war between two immortal factions, the Mercenaries and the Ambassadors of Light. The Ambassadors, of which Juliet is a part, are good and true, dedicated to finding soul mates and bringing them together. They remind me a bit of angels. Romeo, on the other hand, is part of the Mercenaries, and is dedicated to ruining love and keeping soul mates from ever connecting. The way his character is written, he reminds me a bit of a cross between a zombie and a vampire, which isn’t completely surprising giving that Jay has written multiple zombie novels. I do, however, appreciate the way Jay took the fact that Romeo and Juliet are from warring families and mimicked the war by having them on opposite sides in the immortal war for soul mates. It was a unique way to modernize the couple. It was also interesting to see the motivations behind each side and realize that things aren’t always quite what they seem.

The novel begins with Romeo and Juliet sliding into the bodies of two modern day potential soul mates. Romeo is once more set on destroying their love, while Juliet wants nothing more than to save them. She hates Romeo with every bone in her body, and resents the fact that he betrayed her and their love, forced her to kill herself, and made it so that she now finds herself in this situation time and again. Juliet is strongly developed and you really feel for her. Romeo becomes more and more pathetic as the novel progresses, and the end has a revelation that I wasn’t expecting as a reader because it deviates so much from the original play. The original message of ROMEO AND JULIET, that love transcends all, occurs here as well. JULIET IMMORTAL is very much about forever love.

COVER DESIGN

I love this cover. LOVE. It’s what first drew me to this book. The second thing was the word “Juliet” in the title. Was this going to be a book about ROMEO AND JULIET? Then the sub-title pulls you right in: “”ROMEO AND JULIET, the greatest love story ever told, is a lie.” The cover is romantic; I love the flowing font, the way its color matches Juliet’s gorgeous red dress. I love the fact that she’s curled up on a small patch of land, surrounded by the angry sea. There’s a sadness about the cover, something that lets you know something is wrong. This cover has so much ATMOSPHERE. It jumps right off the shelf for me.