Juliet’s nurse is a pretty interesting character (when you are not jealously listening to the Juliet scenes, that is), and the upcoming novel Juliet’s Nurse by Lois Leveen explores this character’s life. We all know the basic story of Romeo and Juliet, but this retelling focuses on the relationships and loyalties, and explains some of the odder plot devices in wider context of Verona.

Full review contains some spoilers, if it's possible to "spoil" a play from the 1590s. ( )

A solid if unimpressive first half quickly morphs into a disastrously bad second half once the plot catches up with the Shakespeare play. The Shakespearean dialogue jars in the mouths of the characters, sounding utterly unlike the rest of the lines they deliver. It also makes it painfully obvious when it's Shakespeare's writing or Leveen's. In addition, Leveen weaves so much explanation around every Shakespearean speech, feeling the need to explain her characters' thought process for every line. She also attempts to shorten monologues by throwing away random hand waves such as "she delivered a speech," which is awkward and clunky. The narrator, the Nurse, somehow manages to catch all the important moments in the play, even the ones she wasn't present for. ( )

I enjoyed this retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story until the book's last third, which was essentially a retelling of the Shakespeare play from the nurse's perspective. Before that, however, the author builds a rich backstory around the nurse's character, how she came to be Juliet's nurse, and hints at a few unspoken things about Juliet herself. But once the book arrived at the traditional Skakespeare plot, my interest began to wane. Still, this is overall a very interesting and original take on a tale told many times. ( )

I honestly don't really have much to say about this book, I enjoyed it but my overall feeling was "meh". Maybe this one was just not for me, or it could be that I find the story of Romeo and Juliet "meh" as well. Either way I do think focusing on the nurse character from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet then giving that character a deep and quite sad background is clever and gives you a bit more perspective when reading the play again.

My favorite part is the relationship between Angelica and her husband Pietro, Pietro is such an amazing character. He is a caring and loving husband that you can tell by how Angelica talks about him throughout the book that she truly loves him. The reason why I like this so much is because in a lot of media and even within this book, husbands get a bad reputation as idiots or overbearing dictators of the household, Pietro is neither of these. He comes off as the most "normal" and the most fun-loving of all the characters. The ending of book is also done very well (no spoilers don't worry) with the whole bee situation, I think it was charming and realistic how it ended.

This probably is another reason why I didn't really enjoy the book as much as I wanted to, but I think Angelica did get very creepy sometimes. From what she has been through in her life I understand the attachment to Juliet but there is a line between motherly love and creepiness. She would in my opinion cross that line very quickly. One minute she would be talking about Juliet like it was her own daughter then the next she would be talking how she can't live without her and how she needs her. That did make me cringe a few times, but maybe its my lack of being a parent that distorts my feeling towards this, maybe if I had children I would understand more...maybe.

That was my little review, it was good but I just couldn't get into it.

I received this book through a Good Reads First Reads giveaway ( )

Seeing the story of Romeo and Juliet through the Nurse's eyes becomes unexpectedly more touching. Angelica, the Nurse, becomes real instead of a comic cipher. And the events of the play are more real and a deeper, frankly stranger, tragedy with more context. ( )