🎁 📚 The Hundred Loves of Juliet
4..25/5 🌟

Though truly original, this love story is evocative of Meet Me In Another Life, The Time Traveler’s Wife and My Name is Memory. This adorable romance about a couple who are actually Romeo and Juliet - he lives forever, aging just one year for every 50, and she is reincarnated as numerous different women over the span centuries, meeting her Romeo again and again. She has no memory of her life as Juliet, but Romeo lives tormented by love that is cut short over and over.

Here we meet them in present day, as Sebastien and Helene, where they cross paths in Alaska. She is a writer, he has reinvented himself as a crab fisherman. Sebastien is hesitant to allow Helene into his life, fearing tragedy will follow. Circumstances throw them together and Helene soon realizes that all of the short stories she’s written throughout her life are actually deep-seated memories of her past lives. What follows is their fight against a malevolent force attempting to keep them apart and their persistence to be together.

This is a smart, funny and sweet story of true, undying love with a bit of thrill and intrigue thrown in - I couldn’t stop turning the pages as Skye’s writing is captivating and engaging. If you might enjoy a delightful romance with a framework of reincarnation and a little magic - though somehow throughly believeable ! - check this one out. ❤️ 💫

My thanks to @netgalley, @randomhousebooks and @evelyn_skye for the opportunity to read this ARC in advance of its release on July 31.

Okay, the truth is I don't like romance novels. Rom-coms are okay -- Emily Henry, Abby Jimenez, Mhairi McFarlane sorts of books. But those ones with some dude's abs on the cover? Or Harlequins? Or old-fashioned bodice-rippers about pirates and kidnapped princesses? No thank you.

I DO love a good time-travel or reincarnation story. The Time Traveler's Wife, Outlander, The Fifteen Lives of Harry August -- bring it on. So when I picked up The Hundred Loves of Juliet, that's what I was expecting. A little rom-communism, a little Time Traveler's Wife -- I figured it would be right up my alley.

It wasn't.

But just because I'm not the audience for this book doesn't mean people won't love it.

The Hundred Loves of Juliet does have the soulmate reincarnation thing going on, but the "comedy" part of rom-com is nowhere in sight. Helene and Sebastien take themselves VERY seriously, and speak in overwrought phrases and call each other "my love." Sebastien is the brooding hero, Helene is the damsel in distress, there's a curse to break -- it's all very Dude's Abs on the Cover. Not my cup of tea. But if you're into that sort of thing, you'll probably love it.

It really should be called the Hundred Loves of Romeo. He's lived for centuries, loving Juliet after Juliet, but doomed to lose them all (how many ways can you kill off a heroine? Let's find out!). She's his reincarnated soulmate, trying to make a life with him before the curse kills her too. Not a bad premise. But the execution of it gets a little silly. Sebastien, as any good brooding hero should, has infinite money, made in who knows what mysterious ways over hundreds of years. He lives in a house fit for a prince in the wilds of Alaska, because sure he does, and has a team of Swiss bankers/detectives/bodyguards/mercenaries at his disposal to take care of every issue in less than 30 pages. He speaks every language, excels at a variety of occupations, dabbles in every art form, and takes Helene globetrotting, where they stay in lush homes he happens to own all over the world (even though he was slumming it as a fisherman in Alaska when she met him). He gets them tickets to Cannes, they befriend famous people, he spoils Helene in crazy unbelievable ways -- this kind of romance just leaves me rolling my eyes so hard I give myself a headache.

And then there's the big crisis -- vile ex-husbands! Kidnappers! Ruffians! What's a poor damsel in distress to do? Good thing The Hero has those Swiss bankers on hand to fix it all. And fix it they do, in only eight hours, with mere seconds to spare! They don't even bat an eye when they learn their client is THAT Romeo. All in a day's work for these guys, I guess. <insert eyeroll>

Most annoying quirk of this book: the frequent references to "Juliets," plural. Not to mention the romanticizing of a teen romance that ended in two deaths.

Not my thing at all. But if dark, brooding heroes with all the culture in the world but no personality are YOUR thing, pick this one up.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book.

Well written and enjoying to read, but the end fell flat for me and I wish there had been more details about the past lives.

This was a fascinating concept, coupled with good writing but just wasn’t my favorite. I liked the overall storyline but it just felt too unrealistic and the end didn’t feel fully developed. It wasn’t a book I wanted to constant pick up or just had to know what was happening. I enjoyed it, but feel very middle of the road on it.

I didn’t feel like the ending made complete sense or was explained fully. And the writing itself could have been better.

In putting together this review I realized that I've actually read very few Romeo and Juliet adaptations in my lifetime as a reader. Yes, we have the star-crossed lovers, and yes, we have the families with a bitter feud, but wow - I don't think I've actually picked up an R+J retelling since These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong!

Anyway... I'll start off first by saying that the specific context behind this book is incredibly sweet and heartwarming (might make you misty-eyed). Evelyn Skye put her whole heart into this because it's a love letter to her husband and a way to cope during a very tough time in their relationship. With this perspective in mind, it makes the story between Helene and Sebastian so much more meaningful and romantic. The idea of love being like a curse when you get to love but lose your soulmate again and again throughout time is... OOF!

However, despite a solid premise and swoon-worthy idea, I couldn't help but feel like the last third of the book really betrayed my enjoyment of everything prior. The ending conflict felt unnecessary, and I wanted to throw the book when I got to it. I'm rating this 3 stars, but it's more a 3.25.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this ARC!

I would like to thank Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the opportunity to read The Hundred Loves of Juliet by Evelyn Skye.

Dazzled. I felt as though I was in a trance the entire time that I read this book. On every page I could feel Helen's emotions and Sebastien's sorrow coming through. The concept and execution of this book was beautiful and entrancing. This is the type of book that makes you believe in soulmates.

I can't wait to purchase this book and read it another 99 times.

⭐️ 4/5 | 🌶️ 1/5

This one is for the classic romance lovers, and that's totally ok. As someone who started with the classics, it gave all the leg kickies and then some in a way that many amnesia/memory loss stories go.

Our MC's clearly have chemistry from the get go, and unraveling Helene's past is very satisfying as she realizes who she, and who Sebastien, is.

They are drawn to each other in a way that really reminded me of Hancock (I know, cussing Will Smith and Shakespeare are not exactly on the same level), with the idea that it's a doomed love from the start.

Thanks so much for sharing this ultra-romantic read!

I received this e-book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the author/publisher for the copy!

I absolutely loved everything about this book! It quickly became one of my favorites before I even got to the end!
This was a great spin off of Romeo & Juliet. Although I do not know a lot about the history of them or around them, it seems as if Evelyn Skye did ample amount of research in order to write this novel- which I know she wrote out of love for her husband.

Helene is an aspiring author who has written several vignettes, dated and set in different places and times. Although the male character in each book is written slightly different, she always pictures the same, perfect man that she has always dreamed about. But Helene's real life is different. After she decides to divorce her husband, she flees to Alaska where she plans to hide away and focus on writing a book. Her first evening in town though, Helene spots the perfect man that she has written about for years. Did she really write about a person that was real this whole time or did she write him into existence? Although the guy seems stand off-ish, she continues to pursue him and see what this guys problem is. Is there really a true thing like Happily Ever After or will it end in tragedy like Romeo & Juliet?

This book gave me some "The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue" vibes. If you loved that one like I did, you'll enjoy this one too!

I enjoyed the first half. But the second half somehow was too fast & too slow at the same time. I wanted more of modern day Helene and Sebastien falling in love, but instead got the stories of their past lives which kind of fell flat for me.

I wasn't expecting this to so closely involve Romeo and Juliet [which obviously is on me lol], but just 5 chapters in and the play has been mentioned and discussed several times. I'm more into a retelling that inadvertently or briefly involves the story that inspired it, so I don't think this book is for me.
There is a lot of potential for vast angst and yearning which is wonderful, and I will be talking about it to my audience in a monthly wrap up. But unfortunately the repetitive writing style and the rushed intro didn't vibe with me. Lots of potential for other readers though!

For me this book took a while to peak my interest. That could have been a me problem or it could have been a storyline problem. I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. I've seen and heard all the romeo and juliet stories just like everyone else. While this book had a unique twist on the story it was still interesting to read and became a very fast paced read about 60% into the book. I did enjoy the story and even more so i loved the author's note and why she wrote this story. That meant so much more to me in the end. Overall i would say it's a pretty good read and i did enjoy the book.

Abs loved this one, a retelling of Romeo and Juliet with a modern twist as well as told through diff periods of time. A love so strong that it’s made it’s way through centuries of time I enjoyed this so much and can’t wait to add a physical copy to my bookshelf.

Works building was solid and set us up well for the rest of the book. It felt like a retelling, and I didn’t love the ending, so the second half wasn’t as exciting for me

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Hundred Loves of Juliet by Evelyn Skye!

Oh goodness what a beautiful remix on Romeo and Juliet that I wasn't expecting to love just so much. This book took me a bit to get into, I am not sure what was holding me back in the beginning. (I was reading a couple books at once so maybe that was it.) Once I got into the story though I just feel in love. Of course now I want a Sebastian of my own (these book guys really setting high standards for real men). I will definitely be checking out more books from this author because this one was just to cute.

I have so much to say about this incredible novel! I love a retelling, and a retelling that features the works of Shakespeare? I'm in! I loved every page of this book!

Helene is finally putting herself first. She left her awful husband and her job to focus on herself and to write her novel. She felt that Alaska would be the best place to do this. On her first night in Ryba Harbor, she runs into Sebastien. Helene is shocked to realize that she knows him. She has been writing about him all of her life. He is her ideal man. She has been writing vignettes her whole life, and suprisingly, they feature Sebastien, or rather, a character that looks and acts a lot like him.

Sebastien recognizes Helene too. I want to go into great detail here about how he knows her. But you have to read this book to understand what I cannot properly put into words to do this story justice. I will say that this is a reimagining of Romeo and Juliet because that is part of the book's description. Every meeting between our two main characters is sublime in many ways.

This story is told in the present day as well as through the vignettes that Helene writes and Sebastien's own journals. I loved these stories within the story. They transport the reader through time. I was excited to get to each and every one.

This is a love story with elements of fantasy, science fiction, some historical fiction, and a touch of Shakespeare. It is beautifully written, and I absolutely loved the last line of this book! I will go back and reread it many more times. Also, please read the author's note - it is beautiful and poignant.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the advanced reader copy of this book! I loved it so much that I purchased a hardcover copy for my bookshelf to sit alongside my Shakespeare books. I will be shouting the praises of this book on all of my social media as well. This book is absolutely fantastic, and I cannot wait to read more by this author. I highly recommend this book!

"The Hundred Loves of Juliet" by Evelyn Skye offers a modern reimagining of Romeo and Juliet, weaving in a touch of reincarnation and destiny. The premise had me hooked right from the start - a fresh and romantic twist on the classic tale. The exploration of Romeo's immortality and his enduring grief resonated deeply, and the travel aspect added a delightful summer vacation vibe.

The dual POVs were a smart choice, allowing us to delve into the characters' minds. The book is sprinkled with beautifully crafted quotes on love and loss that made my heart swoon. While the character building was enchanting, the story unfortunately took a bit of a detour in the end. A convoluted subplot involving Helene's ex-husband left me somewhat lost, and the conclusion felt open-ended, leaving me longing for a more defined ending.

This book's charm lies in its character development and lighter romantic moments. If you're in search of a heartwarming story with a happily ever after, "The Hundred Loves of Juliet" might be just the ticket. The concept of an eternal love story across lifetimes is intriguing, and though the execution didn't fully live up to my hopes, the captivating journey is worth the read. Don't miss the author's heartfelt note at the end, where she shares her own inspiration for this tale of love and destiny.

The star-crossed lovers of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet are alive in this retelling, destined to fall in love over and over again and to experience the same devastating heartbreak each time. A novel full of love that is perfect for readers who never wanted the story of Romeo and Juliet to end.

The hundred loves of Juliet was an interesting story about hope in the face of tragedy. I didn't want to put it down for the first half, but by the time the couple got together, I felt they didn't have enough chemistry or foundation in the present timeline for me to root for their relationship. The story focuses more on developing their past than present and that made it hard for me to feel all of the pain and happiness they go through as a couple. I also think the ending was incredibly unsatisfying. Overall this was only 2.5 stars.

A super cute modern retelling of Romeo & Juliet, with a twist! I’m a sucker for time-traveling/many lifetimes/meant-to-be in every timeline love stories and I loved following centuries of love between Helene/Sebastien. This book is well-written, filled with romance tropes, and incredibly sweet.