Fair Rosaline
by Natasha Solomons
Beautifully played out secondary story form the original play from a different point of view. The book is remarkably human, using all the faults of society, and the power of wealth that is woven into the story. Giving men some of the darker reasons in the story of Romeo and Juliet and the tragedy. The girl power of protecting another from the bad done to you gives motivation to the main character.
The vocal presentation may be the best way to hear this story. The interview at the end of the story really brings the story to life, and why the author wrote this story.

I really loved this book! I love the concept of a Shakespeare "untelling", especially about a typically forgotten female character. It was an easy read/listen, but the writing was beautiful and propelling. I highly recommend it!

4.5 stars. This absolutely gorgeous re-telling of one of Shakespeare's tragedies, comes from the perspective of Juliet's older cousin, Rosaline, who, you will remember, Romeo was in love with first.
This novel is brave and bold and dares to challenge this "love story". Because after all, all told this was a 3 day affair between a very young girl and a much older young man, that ended in the deaths of 4 people. I promise that this story has a much better ending than Shakespeare's.

*Thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for this audio e-arc.*

Thank you to NetGalley, Natasha Solomons and RB Media for an audio arc of Fair Rosaline in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own & may not be reproduced (except quotations).

“Romeo Montague is handsome and charming, and the first time he sees young Rosaline Capulet, who has secretly snuck into his family’s masquerade summer ball, he falls instantly in love. With her father determined that she join the nunnery, Romeo offers her the chance of a different life.

And so begins the story of Romeo and Rosaline. These star-crossed lovers must keep everything hidden from Rosaline’s family, at least until they are wed. But when a destitute young girl appears, claiming to be carrying Romeo’s child, Rosaline starts to doubt all that she has been told. And as whispers of more girls reach her ears, what once felt like a courtship begins to feel more like a pursuit. As Rosaline recognizes Romeo for the villain he truly is, his gaze turns suddenly towards Rosaline’s adored and beautiful cousin, thirteen-year-old Juliet. Can Rosaline save Juliet, who falls under Romeo’s spell just as quickly as she did? Or can this story only ever end one way?”

I was extremely excited to listen to this story as I am a huge fan of the retellings and the cover is absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, that where the good part ends.

This story was so extremely SLOW & BORING! I absolutely should have DNF’d it, but held out hope that something good would come out of it. It did not.

I will not be recommending this one. I am generously giving it 2 stars because of the gorgeous cover, but I wish I hadn’t wasted time with this one. It was a good idea – the follow-through was just WAY off.

I found this reimagining of Romeo & Juliet really interesting. This book asks what if Romeo was a sleazy manipulator and Rosaline had to try to save the day? The most enjoyable part of this book was the added story around Rosaline and her life. In most ways she is smart and capable. This however is a little offset by how almost cartoonishly bad Romeo is. There are so many ignored red flags. Overall I had a good time. The audiobook has an amazing narrator and I enjoyed listening.

This was an excellent retelling of Romeo and Juliet. While the story is very different from the beloved play - it is told in such a way that you could plausibly see the story playing out in this way. This story takes Romeo's fickleness to a whole new level. Rosaline is a smart and capable heroine. I have read retellings of this story before where they change the ending and I have not been a fan - but the way Solomons ends this one was quite satisfying!
Thank you to Netgalley and RB Media for an advance listening copy of this book for review purposes. My opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this one!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for my advanced copy of Fair Rosaline.

This book took me completely by surprise.
I'm not a huge Shakespeare fan- I mean he's alright but it just takes me back to English class where we had to analyze everything and that's no fun.
I'm also not a huge fan of retellings.

All of that being said- I'm really glad I gave this book a chance.

Fair Rosaline is narrated by Sheila Atim and she did a fantastic job.

I really appreciated Natasha Solomon's twist on the romance we know as Romeo and Juliet.
I LOVED Rosaline as a character and was invested in her part of the story.
I also enjoyed the bond between Rosaline and JuliI really enjoyed this one!

A huge thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for my advanced copy of Fair Rosaline.

This book took me completely by surprise.
I'm not a huge Shakespeare fan- I mean he's alright but it just takes me back to English class where we had to analyze everything and that's no fun.
I'm also not a huge fan of retellings.

All of that being said- I'm really glad I gave this book a chance.

Fair Rosaline is narrated by Sheila Atim and she did a fantastic job.

I really appreciated Natasha Solomon's twist on the romance we know as Romeo and Juliet.
I LOVED Rosaline as a character and was invested in her storyline.
I also enjoyed the bond between Rosaline and Juliet.
The author really kept me engaged while listening.

Why This Book Lost a Star- As much as I loved this retelling I felt like Romeo's character took a bit of a dark turn. I just wasn't a fan.

Overall- Definitely recommend. I look forward to reading more by this author.et.
The author really kept me engaged while listening.

Why This Book Lost a Star- As much as I loved this retelling I felt like Romeo's character took a bit of a dark turn. I just wasn't a fan.

Overall- Definitely recommend. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an audiobook arc!

I’m usually hesitant to read books that are true retellings of a classic, using the same characters and similar plot lines, but I made an exception for this one for a few reasons. For starters, look at the cover!! Absolutely beautiful!! Secondly, I remember reading Romeo and Juliet in high school and being curious about Rosaline, the woman who broke Romeo’s heart. Naturally, a book focused on Rosaline instantly intrigued me.

Rosaline is not your devastatingly gorgeous, angelic, perfect heroine who is admired by all. Instead, she is a seemingly average girl who is a bit mischievous and overlooked. After Rosaline’s mother passes away, her father decides he will send her away to a convent to be a nun for the rest of her life. Rosaline does not want this fate and tries to delay her departure. She has no plans of how to escape this doom, until she meets Romeo.

Rosaline is a Capulet, Juliet’s cousin, so Romeo is completely off limits to her due to the rivalry between their families. However, she falls for him anyway, and they are to be wed-until she realizes the darkness that lies underneath all of his beauty. Romeo’s next conquest is sweet, naive 13 year old Juliet-much to Rosaline’s horror. As Rosaline fights to save her cousin from Romeo’s grasp, tragedies ensue, putting everyone in danger.

I really enjoyed Fair Rosaline! It was very interesting to get a fresh perspective of such a beloved classic, and I think it will surprise readers. I thought the narrator was great for this book and I really appreciated the author’s attention to detail and the storyline that she made her own. It was also fun to read about Romeo as a villain instead of a romantic love interest. It really made me think back to the original Romeo and Juliet and wonder why we hold that as such a symbol of love.

I definitely recommend this book to lovers of Romeo and Juliet, retellings, and just fiction/historical fiction lovers in general. I believe that even if a reader didn’t enjoy Romeo and Juliet, they could still enjoy this book because of Rosaline’s unique storyline. Plus, who doesn’t want this cover on their bookshelves?!

This was a wonderful “untelling”, as the author put it, of Romeo & Juliet through the POV of Rosaline, Romeo’s fancy before Juliet. The author did a great job of capturing the voice, setting, and timeline of the original and making it completely new. Instead of it being a love story between Romeo and Juliet (Romeo is actually quite the creep!), it was a story of Rosaline triumphing over the sting of Romeo’s true nature and saving Juliet from the beguiler himself. Self-reliance, true friendship, sacrifices, and female empowerment are on full display here and I loved it. The narrator of the audio was fantastic.

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for the advance listener copy of Fair Rosaline.

Fair Rosaline is an "untelling" of Romeo and Juliet. Rosaline is Juliet's slightly older cousin who has 12 days before she is sent to a convent following the death of her mother. Rosaline Capulet uses the first night of her freedom to sneak into a Montague masquerade where she meets Romeo and he instantly sweeps her off her feet. After a quick romance he promises to wed her and save her from life as a nun. But Rosaline begins to piece together that Romeo is not the dashing gentleman she believes him to be.

Wow, this is an incredible story! All of my friends on Instagram have given it great reviews and I agree. This story flows so seamlessly with the original Shakespeare play in tone and language while completely flipping it on its head. Romeo is so abhorrent and Juliet is so young! And oh sweet Tybalt! He was too perfect to survive (400 year old spoiler alert).

The audio of this was flawless. I really enjoyed the author interview at the end as well.

3.5 stars. Fair Rosaline is a retelling of the events of the Romeo and Juliet tragedy as we know it. Rosaline is Juliet's cousin, and Romeo was first head over heels for her, before switching it up and setting his sights on Juliet at the Capulet ball. If you know the play at all, you will recognize some classic lines and scenes, all told with clever tweaks and twists!

I really enjoyed this book, especially in the beginning, but I think it was dragged out a bit too much in the middle. Rosaline is a great character who is at first incredibly naive, but she is, after all, only sixteen years old. I definitely appreciated Natasha Solomons' familiarity with the original story and the way she wove her fictional account to include those threads, even as she changed so many things. A must-read for fans of Shakespeare!

Narration of the audio edition is perfection! Thank you to Natasha Solomons, Sourcebooks Landmark, Recorded Books, and NetGalley for my advance audio copy.

Justice for Rosaline!

Romeo is a villain. A man so often swayed by beauty's tide that it is a shock he still stands. This novel is a brilliant reminder to expand our minds to the stories we've been told. Natasha Solomons does an incredible job blending the story we know with Rosaline's viewpoint. It doesn't feel like a retelling, but instead an expansion. She creates a tale that makes you feel like you missed something in the original play. I had to go back to the original play a few times like "did that really happen in the play?", and 9 times out of 10, it did. Further convincing me that Roseline's perspective is the one we should have always had.

I would recommend this novel for any woman whose had a disloyal partner. For any woman whose been gaslight or had her kindness used against her. This is for us! It ranks with Circe and Clytemnestra. I especially loved the audiobook because the voice actor and author have a great Q&A. The author did a lot of therapy to get us this novel, and it was worth it!

I'm all for a classic retelling and have enjoyed a good amount of these "alternate histories" - I was excited to see a take on Rosaline and was really looking forward to her having some agency. She definitely did have that agency, though I was hoping for a little more throughout. The beginning of the book in particular was so slow, I really think a fair amount could have been cut.

My main issue with this book is that the dialogue is incredibly Shakespearean. "But Stephanie, you are literally reading a Shakespeare retelling....why is this an issue?" It's a good point, but I really think this would have been so much more successful for me if the writing had been more historically accurate vs. being Shakespearean. This book also lists lines and passages from the original text - I think it would have been much more interesting if the author made it her own

I did like the narrator and her narration style.

Thank you to Netgalley and RB Media for the ALC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of “Fair Rosaline” in exchange for an honest review. As an English teacher, I always get excited about retellings. This one…was a lot. I am having a hard time collecting my thoughts on this one. It feels like it’s giving me Maggie O’Farrell vibes but without the depth or accuracy of research that I have felt from O’Farrell’s writing. It was wild. That’s for sure. Read for yourself and see what you think!

i feel like september is going to be romeo and juliet themed😅. now, be aware that if you see romeo and juliet as the greatest love story of all time, this book will disappoint you. this is not my case, i really just see it as 2 horny teenagers who couldn’t wait to get it on so they got married. anyway. here the authors plays with romeo’s f*ck boy persona shakespeare hints at with the mention of rosaline through the play by telling the story. and romeo is a creepy dude with a disturbing preference for young girls. hence why it’s not for everyone💀. and i absolutely loved this new vision on their story. it has the same feelings as those greek mythology retellings from women’s pov like ariadne, circe or the shadow of perseus for example, where we are giving a voice to women who are ignored in the original works which are one of my favorite genre in literature. the advantage the author had here was that we never actually see rosaline on stage in the original play, only hear her being described as “fair rosaline” (hence the title) so she could basically do whatever she wanted. and she absolutely slayed that retelling. she’s forced to grow up really quickly once she realizes what romeo is doing and by the end of the story, her innocence is completely gone (in every sense of the word). were rosaline and juliette both delulu?? absolutely yes, but they’re like 15 and 13 and he’s 20/30 (somewhere there) and it probably resonates with so many other women’s stories which made it feel so raw and real. a 5⭐️ FOR SURE and add that book to my speak now (taylor’s version) book recs for Dear John please😅

Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons, narrated by the enchanting Sheila Atim, offers a compelling and feminist twist to the classic Romeo and Juliet tale. Solomons delves into the backstory of Romeo Montague, painting him as a charismatic, yet deeply flawed character whose history of exploiting young women is unveiled in detail during his seduction of Rosaline Capulet. Atim's narration infuses the characters with depth and authenticity, bringing a gauntlet of emotions to life.

The story unearths the inevitable repercussions of Romeo's actions, questioning the conventional portrayal of the legendary lovers. Solomons weaves a tale of resilience and empowerment as Rosaline confronts the truths of love and death and coming of age in a time of plagues and endless fields of patriarchy. Solomons and Atim together create a lyrical and impactful audiobook that lingers in the mind long after the final words are spoken.

Thank you to RB Media, Recorded Books for the advanced audio copy via NetGalley for a fair and honest review.

Thank you netgally and RB Media for the free ALC in exchange for my honest review. I found it ok but Romeo and Juliet retellings are probably overdone at the moment without doing a great twist or modernize it. It was ok as an audiobook- sadly nothing memorable...

3.5 stars
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for an early release copy of this book!
Based on the interview with the author included at the end (which I thoroughly enjoyed), this novel accomplishes everything it set out to. That being said, I think it will ruffle quite a few feathers, especially those that believe in Romeo and Juliet (hereto R&J) as this ultimate romance (a group which I was never a part of), but to them I would say: while this is not the same as your reading of the play, Romeo as a playboy is a valid interpretation of the play. For my own reading of R&J I think this one went a little too far into a villainous Romeo. To me, in the play he just comes off as an fboy who likes the sound of his own voice and uses the same overly flowery language with both Rosaline and Juliet and moves on very quickly. But here he was a lot more calculating and evil (hence why I think people who find R&J romantic might revolt). What I do think is interesting is that Shakespeare does not often state the exact ages of characters but he does take the time to specify that Juliet is 13. That to me signifies that he wants the audience to know she is only a child, and that Romeo is older. Whether that means Romeo is in his teens, twenties, or thirties is up for interpretation and discussion (I feel like he's in his 20s, this book I think insinuates he's in his early 30s, but I know a lot of people who find R&J to be highly romantic consider him to be 16-18). But what's not up for interpretation is that Juliet is only 13, and marriages of 13 year olds was not super common in the Elizabethan Era/ Shakespeare's time (in his time the average age of marriage was men 26 and women 23 years old). So to me, it's clear that Shakespeare wanted us to see just how young Juliette was, right at the age of puberty.
Rant aside, that's why I have never liked Romeo and never thought R&J to be romantic. Which is why I think I enjoyed this book (and especially the second half of it a lot). The first half, watching Rosaline simper for him was really grating and I almost DNFed but I'm glad I stuck through because of the ending. No spoilers, but I'm really happy with how things ended in this book.
All that to say- I think you should give this a try if you're able to go into it with an open mind. The only thing that I think everyone can always agree on: Benvolio is the best boy lol
P.s. There is an instance of "I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding" in here. It's the year of our lord 2023, please let's do better. Especially since otherwise the writing was really good.

3 out of 5 Stars

It was fun take on the story of Romeo and Juliet that follows Rosaline, Juliet's cousin, through her own relationship with Romeo and then her trying to save Juliet from him.

Definitely worth the read and quick one to get through.

Before Juliet, there was Rosaline. In Shakespeare's famous play, Romeo is nursing the heartbreak of disappointed love with the fair Rosaline when he is persuaded to attend the Capulet masked ball, where he ultimately meets Juliet. This novel imagines the relationship that preceded that of the Bard's star-crossed lovers, and gives life to a character only mentioned in passing. However, it deviates from the source material and gives the familiar story an intriguing twist. The author describes the book as an untelling rather than a retelling, and that's the perfect way to describe what it does.

This book imagines how differently the play would resonate if Romeo were not a lovesick teenage boy, but a mature and calculating seducer of thirty, preying on vulnerable young girls until he gets bored and discards them. It's a bold spin, but it works. It certainly flips the canon on its head, but it also adds an interesting exploration of Juliet's extreme youth and how the men in her life considered her to be a marriageable age. A 13 year old married to a peer seems naiive and ill-advised. A 13 year old married to a fully-grown adult man doesn't just FEEL creepy - it IS creepy. This book takes a closer look at this uncomfortable dynamic, and explores what the story would look like if Romeo was actually a villain.

Rosaline is nearly 16, two years older than her cousin Juliet, but after a whirlwind romance with Romeo she comes to see his true nature and ends their relationship. Within hours, Romeo has moved on and has set his sights on Juliet instead, and Rosaline is determined to save her from the dangerous connection.

I enjoyed the book. The story was intriguing, and the writing was descriptive and engaging. Rosaline was a lively, vibrant character, and I especially liked Tybalt, her cousin and her beloved childhood playmate and friend. Their relationship is marked by warmth and genuine affection. Romeo is handsome, but disingenuous and cunning. When we see him use the same lines on Rosaline that we recognize from the beautiful lines of the original play, their hollowness and insincerity are deeply unsettling.

The prose occasionally seemed more historical and occasionally more modern, but it was consistently vivid, and quite beautiful in places. The setting was well developed and colourfully described. I liked that the author gave us a fresh take on an old story, and breathed life into characters that lived mainly in the shadows of the play. 3.5 stars for the story and an extra half star for the excellent audiobook narration.

Thanks to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.