Fair Rosaline

Before Romeo and Juliet, there was Romeo and Fair Rosaline. A fiercely feminist retelling, Fair Rosaline casts Romeo as a villain whose history of seducing and discarding young girls has been hidden for far too long...

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?