Rosaline is adamant about becoming a healer, a older version of a doctor able to help with regular illnesses and injuries, and she won’t let anyone interfere. Unfortunately, her plans go awry when she gets involved with members of the Montague house, Romeo, Mercutio, and Benvolio. Just when she thinks she’s figured out how to end the feud between the Capulet and Montague houses and continue her work as a healer, her cousin Juliet, a Capulet, confesses her love for Romeo. Now, Rosaline is in a rush to end the feud to avoid an all-out brawl.
In Rosaline’s Story, based on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, we finally get a glimpse of the “rich in beauty” Rosaline of the Capulet house, the girl that denied Romeo at the beginning of the play, and cousin to his lover Juliet.
Rosaline was never revealed in the play except through Romeo’s discussion with Benvolio, so a take on what exactly happened from her eyes during the span of Shakespeare’s work is a treat for anyone familiar with his plays.
In cheesy RomCom fashion, the protagonist’s reasoning becomes tiring with her hot and cold decisions, including her choices and reasoning toward her infatuations to Mercutio and Benvolio.
Most annoying are the plot twists. Like The Maximum Ride series by James Patterson, you are jerked around in the plot. More often than not, a dead character rises again three chapters later. Of course, Fiedler provides very decent explanations as to why the character isn’t dead, but she takes it too far when she kills multiple characters and brings them back multiple times.
If you can look past all this, however, you’ll find that Fiedler is exceptional at keeping the language from the play maintained throughout the entire book. With well placed imagery and symbolism, she draws out the characters and almost makes them real. You learn to love Benvolio more, Mercutio becomes even more mysterious, and Juliet doesn’t seem quite so naive.
Romeo’s Ex: Rosaline’s Story is perfect any and all Shakespeare fans, and for anyone who read Romeo and Juilet and just wanted a little bit more. You can find a copy of the book in Legend’s library right next to Lisa Fiedler’s book Dating Hamlet, which centers around Ophelia from Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars. Despite the plot twists and a friend-zoned Benvolio, Fiedler is a wonderful writer with a good idea.