I admit the premise intrigued me, but the execution ended up feeling lacking, leaving me feeling unsure how to rate & review this book.

In the book, the author imagines if Shakespeare got it wrong, and Rome & Juliet ended in a different way. Romeo is cursed to live forever, meeting and falling in love with Juliet, who is reincarnated, forced to die young, often tragically and unpredictably. The novel picks up with Juliet's most recent life as Helene, a young woman, escaping to Alaska to write her novel while in the process of divorcing her asshole es-husband. Sebastian, as Romeo goes by in this lifetime, is a crab fisherman in Alaska, horrified to learn that Juliet has found him, despite his best efforts to evade the curse.

The book initially read quickly for me, and I loved the chemistry between Helene and Sebastian, but at about 50% of the book, once they decide to fall in love despite the curse and the threat of imminent death for Helene, it starts to drag quite a lot. To me it felt like the author wasn't sure where to take the book. And the conclusion, and how they "defeat" the curse was so quick and lacking in my opinion. As mentioned, I was left feeling conflicted about how to rate & review this book. It started off so strong, and engrossing, but fizzled out.

After thinking it over for 2 days, I've decided to land on 3 stars. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either, and although overall enjoyable, it wasn't memorable either.

Thank you to Random House Ballantine books and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

Wow! What a unique and satisfying retelling The Hundred Loves of Juliet ended up being. I wasn't sure after the first few pages but fortunately I pressed on and am glad I did. Retellings can go very wrong, so I'm wary with many. This one was a win!

I absolutely adored this story!

I am typically not a Romeo and Juliet kind of gal. However, this author did SUCH a good job with it.

She took a completely different approach in this story. Romeo and Juliet are cursed. Romeo becomes immortal and cannot die. Juliet CAN die. But when she dies, she gets reincarnated and is drawn to Romeo as she grows up. It explores all of their love stories into present day, Helene and Sebastian’s, love story.

This is beautifully written. I laughed and cried throughout the entire thing. It was also interesting. The entire concept kept me reading wanting to find out if the curse is ever lifted. It was truly a 5 star read for me!

What a beautifully written retelling of a timeless classic..

Sebastian is your grumpy Alaskan crab fisherman. He wants nothing to do with a honey kissed woman who storms up to him and says she insists she has seen him before. Thus the lie of having to go home and feed the dog is made. He would rather spend an enteral life alone then speak to the one girl he feels a strong connection with.

Helen is your typical woman who moves to Alaska to start fresh. She just filed for divorce from her cheating ex, wants to write a novel, and live her best life as the new Helen would want. She has nothing better to do when she arrives then to go to the only bar she sees. There she sees the man of her dreams not to mention her imaginary friend growing up.

Now the story does start off very slow, almost to slow that I was close to not finishing the book.. then we started figuring out who Sebastian is doing everything in his power to not be in the same area as Helen or why he goes out of his way to make her mad. A few chapters in you read about the century old curse of Romeo and Juliet, he lives and immortal life while watching his only love die a hundred times. Her death ranges anywhere from a simple sickness to dying after living an empty life full of drugs and bad decisions. Going into this book I knew it was going to be a retelling of Romeo and Juliet so I had an idea of what this book was going to be life. However this book was way beyond my expectations, it told us a different ending to what we grew up reading. I loved the idea of the curse because to me it taught a lesson of self forgiveness. Sebastian (Romeo) lived his life of self hate and self blame. He could never really be present and love the reincarnated soul of Juliet until he fully forgave himself. Once he could do that, with a little help of Helen, he got to have his happily ever after over 700 years later.

Helen's persona was probably my favorite in this book.. Rather then helping solve the curse, or wanting things for herself, she helps Sebastian. She sees a man that is unhappy and filled with grief and wants to figure out why. Even though she finds out about how she recognizes him and that she will eventually die from the curse, she doesn't care. She never stops trying to make him happy and teaches him about forgiveness and to have a pure heart. Such a beautiful character.

Ill end by saying that the ending could have used more. All of the work Sebastian's team put into it to only get the "he signed the papers" was kind of a let down. I wanted to know more about what when through her ex and Aarons head when they found out what they did to them. Overall I did enjoy this book.

I wanted to like this book but I just couldn’t. It felt too rushed but I also didn’t feel like I got to know the characters at all.

Reincarnation is just one of those subjects I find fascinating - so pair it with classic Shakespeare in a romance novel? Sold. The way this book was written was excellent: with the main characters as an author herself searching for the story we were reading. I loved it and even though it ended in a good place, I would love to see Evelyn Skye maybe write us a few novellas or short stories about Helene's past lives.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC of this title in exchange for my honest feedback.

I adored the premise of this book, as pretty much anything that involves magical realism, especially as it relates to time, has my immediate attention. The pacing of the plot, however, felt a little anticlimactic in that nearly the entire book was spent trying to puzzle out the main issue, then it was resolved within a page or two without much fanfare. The writing itself also felt a little clunky and I was never really able to just lose myself in its pages without remembering "I'M. READING. A. BOOK". All in all, this would be a good enough beach read but nothing incredible memorable.

This was a very unique story and i loved it. The premise alone captured my heart.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I’m gonna be honest and say this book wasn’t for me. I would have liked to read the backstory of the author and her husband instead. That little summary was heartbreaking and gave all the feelings and emotions that this book lacked. Helene is a character who is pushy and likes cakes and books, (that’s all I got) and Sebastian had a wicked case of emotional trauma that made his run from his fear/love so it was hard to focus on the romance in the story. Between Helene who wasn’t all that memorable and Sebastian who continued to gush his love for a woman he’s running from, I had a hard time seeing the chemistry between them. There wasn’t dialogue that showed them growing closer or getting to know each other. They just already were in love….. because of the past. So it just sort of became two ppl who go places together and talk but we don’t actually see the love build so it felt hard to feel. The big, bad ex was unnecessary and cliche. I wasn’t really a fan of the ending but there are plenty of people who liked it. Overall, I wish it offered more of a connection between Helene and Sebastian and was more creative with the lives. ( Can we get more diversity besides raven vs blonde hair? I mean, this character was in other countries and still was nearly the same person.)

I always love a retelling and this retelling of Romeo & Juliet with a twist didn't dissapoint!

Sebastian and Helene are star crossed lovers who keep having to find themselves over and over again. This was a cute, quick love story for any hopeless romantic out there.

“I missed her as much as the stars would miss the sky if they ever fell to Earth.”

“And in that single, fiery moment of detonated stars when time ceases to exist, I know for certain: He is Romeo, and I am Juliet.”

5/5⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this ARC.

Bravo. I feel speechless. I definitely sobbed more than once lol.

I am a huge Romeo & Juliet fan. (I even have a tattoo!)
In 9th grade English class Shakespeare was what made me fall more in love with literature. So it’s only natural that I’d pick up a retelling.

This was a brilliant display of a classic retelling & mixed in are some amazing bits of historical fiction. I loved the vignettes throughout the book, it added an extra layer to our characters in the story.

If there was one book that needed to be a movie or series within the next few years; this is it.

I seriously did not want this book to end. I’ve been dragging out reading it just to savor every word on every page.

The dual POV was also amazing. I sometimes struggle in books with more than one POV because I can’t snap into the other characters fast enough but this was effortless.

The Hundred Loves of Juliet was awe inspiring & had me on the edge of my seat.
Thank you Evelyn for an amazing read. 🩷


I’ll be posting my Goodreads review and instagram review immediately!

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Romeo and Juliette meet each other again and again in this novel.

What if Shakespeare got it wrong and Romeo and Juliet didn’t end as we’ve been taught? What if Romeo lived, but was doomed to keep meeting reincarnations of Juliet? 🎭

I had such high hopes for this one! I thought the premise was so unique, but unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite work for me. The core of the story was great and I liked the mentions of Sebastien (Romeo) and Helene’s (Juliet) many past lives, and had the book focused on this alone, I think it would have been enough, but it seemed to fall victim to trying to add “more” until it was simply just too much. There is an entire sub-plot revolving around Helene’s divorce, which while it was the catalyst of her move to Alaska, it felt too front and center, and for me, was an unnecessary distraction from the main plot. I also struggled with the overall character development. For Sebastien, his backstory fleshed him out as a character, but Helene felt juvenile and more surface level, making her more difficult to connect to and I then struggled to buy into them as a couple. The book also took a turn around the 85% mark and became a bit too outrageous in my opinion. Overall, I thought the book was just okay, but I’m bummed because it had the potential to be so much more. 😕

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an advance copy of this eBook, out 8/1/2023.

This one just didn't work for me -- I hope it finds its audience, and I'm grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read it.

I love books about reliving lives, so I couldn’t resist a book about Romeo and Juliet where Romeo is immortal and Juliet is reincarnated over and over.

Juliet and Romeo meet and fall in love every time Juliet is reincarnated, but it always ends in tragedy. We follow Helene (Juliet) in modern times as she meets and falls for Sebastien (Romeo). We also get insights into their past lives through vignettes that Juliet writes. In this timeline, Sebastien is trying to keep away from Helene. He thinks they can avoid tragedy if they don’t fall in love this time.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t work well for me. I did like the beginning, although the writing was not my favorite. I didn’t love the way their past lives were told through vignettes. I wanted to know more about their pasts. The part that I disliked the most though was the ex-husband side plot. I didn’t think it added anything to the story, and I actively hated what was happening in the last 20% of the book. I found it a bit ridiculous and overly dramatic.

If the synopsis of this book sounds intriguing to you, I’d recommend you pick up A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers instead. It has a similar premise but is done better in my opinion.

2.5 stars rounded up for Goodreads

I loved the synopsis of this story, and the book has such a beautiful cover. Romeo and Juliet are cursed. He is immortal and meets his Juliet again and again throughout the years only to lose her when she dies young in each reincarnation. I was excited to see Helene come into his life.

After the first couple of vignettes, I started to feel disappointed as more and more were revealed. I felt most of these short stories were unnecessary and broke the continuity of Sebastien and Helene’s own story. Because of this, I didn’t feel the developing deep connection and unending love I wanted to feel from them.

The evil ex-husband part added interest. And the Author’s note was poignant and beautiful. 3/5 Stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group, Ballentine for this complimentary ARC. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

absolute perfection. the writing was so beautiful and it’s a ROMEO AND JULIETTE RETELLING? yes.

such a unique concept and it was such a compelling read, i simply never wanted to put it down. my heart still hurts in the best way

After a terrible divorce, Helene moves to a small town in Alaska to write a novel. When she meets Sebastian, a handsome fisherman, he is the personification of all the dreams she ever had of her perfect man.

Helene is determined to find the truth about her instant connection to Sebastian, but he’s determined to keep it from her. I don’t want to spoil exactly how this Romeo and Juliet retelling is connected to the original story, but it’s a lovely romance with many mini-romances scattered throughout.

This was cute and had potential. It's a very sweet and simple love story. I loved the premise - the story of Romeo and Juliet was based on real star-crossed lovers but the ending was wrong. Romeo is cursed with immortality, and Juliet is reincarnated many times throughout the years. The pair are always drawn together and then tragedy always strikes, killing Juliet after a brief and passionate love affair. Romeo, of course, is fully aware of what is going on. Juliet, in her various incarnations, has no idea she is repeating a love story with Romeo over and over.

Present day Helene and "Sebastian" (Romeo changes his identity periodically to hide his immortality) meet, only this time Helene has been dreaming about Sebastian for most of her life, so is aware something strange is going on when she comes face to face with her lifelong imaginary friend/boyfriend.

Sadly, after the pair meet and slowly get to know one another, the story starts to fall apart. It felt scattered and I didn’t care for the ending. I think hopeless romantics out there will still like this, and anyone who appreciates a fated love story will likely enjoy it. For me, there was unfulfilled potential. That said, the author's note and explanation of why she wrote this story was moving and did make me see things a little differently. It's a sweet and loving tribute to her husband and their strength as a couple and I am fully behind that.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I started this book, with there being so many adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, but I was so surprised by how good this book was. First the writing was so enjoyable to read, with the development of the characters being masterful. The idea of soul mates is obviously not new but the way the author write this story about Helene and Sebastian was one of my favorites.

Thank you Netgalley and to the publishers for allowing me to read this advanced copy.