Born Literária
Romeo & What’s Her Name
“Understudies NEVER get to perform… which is why being the understudy for Juliet in the school’s yearly Shakespeare production is the perfect role for Emily. She can earn some much-needed extra credit while pursuing her main goal of spending time with Wes, aka Romeo, aka the hottest, nicest guy in school (in her completely unbiased opinion). And she meant to learn her lines, really, it’s just:
(a) Shakespeare is HARD;
(b) Amanda (the “real” Juliet) makes her run errands instead of lines;
and (c) there’s no point, since Amanda would never miss her chance to be the star of the show.
Then Amanda ends up in the hospital, and Emily, as the (completely unprepared!) understudy, has to star in the most famous scene from Romeo and Juliet opposite the guy of her dreams. Oops?”
Informations:
Publishing house: Swoon Reads
Author: Shani Petroff
1st edition: 2017
This edition’s year: 2017
Genre: Romance
Pages: 202
“Things worth having aren’t always meant to come easy.”
Welcome to the very first literary review in English of this blog! I hope you enjoy this and the others already posted here - but in Portuguese.
Well, let’s start: To introduce you to this story, we will need first to acknowledge the main characters…
There is Emily, our sweet Juliet (cough understudy cough); Wes, the Romeo; Amanda, the queenbee of the school casted as Juliet; and Emily’s best friends, Jill and Kayla.
The story kicks off with the teens coming back from winter break and the news of the newly single Wes Rosenthal. He is Emily’s neighbor and they grew up together, as friends… Although they always had a good relation, her crush on him makes her stumble through her words and she always embarass herself somehow.
But one little decision might change everything and open Wes’s eyes to what has been in front of him this whole time: true love. Every year, their school holds a “Shakespeare in the Heights” night. A chance for the highschoolers to show their talents be it directing, designing, acting or helping with the production. The pros? It can help your grades and you might learn something you never knew. The cons? It’s in front of the whole school.
As soon as Emily learns that Wes is going to try out for Romeo, that’s it. She realizes that this is her moment to show him they are meant to be. One little problem: she can’t understand Shakespeare to save her life - with all those thy, thee, doth and wherefore… is it really English? Why would Shakespeare write those complicated words when there are others so much more simple…?
Still, she gives herself a pep talk, get cheered on by her bffs and does the best she can. Unfortunately, her best is not even close to Amanda’s worse. Not only is she the most popular girl in the school, she’s also the theatre diva. Jill’s the director for the balcony scene and has no other option but to cast Wes and Amanda. Emily, though, doesn’t give up and - with a little help from her friend - gest casted as Amanda’s understudy.
Our heroin thinks all is well in the world when not only she manages to get a job in the production - which gives her the extra credit she desperately needs -, but also gets to spend time with Wes. If only Amanda wasn’t in the way. The girl uses Emily’s position as an excuse to make her run errands every single time she gets alone time with the boy.
It could be worse, really. At least Emily won’t actually have to perform, right?
“He was my Romeo. Now I just needed us both to land the parts.”
Wrong!
At the day of the presentation Amanda gets sick and has to go to the hospital. Now, Emily needs to put up her big girl act together and be the Juliet to Wes’s Romeo. The problem is: with all the errands Amanda put her up to do, she didn’t get time to actually memorize her lines.
It’s correct to deduct that it was a complete mess - a funny mess if I can say so myself!
After the whole fiasco, Emily and Wes get to bond over their moments together. And amongst all of this, there is the semiformal coming. When our protagonist thinks she will get to ask him and have the best night of her life, Amanda throws a bucket of cold water on her plans - figuratively speaking, of course! Wes is actually going with the queenbee and Emily is left heartbroken.
It’s time to move on - she decides. But how can you move on from the love of your life? Emily spent her entire life crushing on Wes and waiting for him to realize that she is right there, by his side. How can she move on from that?
Well, if she can’t move on… at least she can give payback to all the “rub on her face” that Amanda does. And what better way than to flirt with Amanda’s ex, Cody? That’s right, flirtation, physical contact, a little date - that’s all it takes to push Amanda’s nerves… and make Wes a little jealous as well - better kill two birds with one stone, correct? The downside? Cody is a self-centered, egotistical jerk who doesn’t know how to be a gentleman and neither be considerate of others feelings.
After blowing her chance and finding out that her Romeo previously had feelings for her, Emily needs to fix the mess she created. It’s time to make the big gesture that Wes mentioned he always wanted. But for that she will need to pull out her inner Shakespeare and crash the show once again in front of the whole school.
Well, after many encounters and disencounters, lots of misunderstandings and big gestures… will Emily finally get the guy?
“And just like that, my tragedy turned-eth into a love story-eth.”
I must say this: I am in love with this story. I literally read the entire book in less than 24 hours!!!
Emily’s character is so funny and the messes that she gets herself into are hilarious. I loved it so much and had so much fun reading it that in many scenes I found myself laughing so hard I had to stop reading for a while to collect myself and then get back to reading.
Jill and Kayla are such sweet characters as well. Their friendship with Emily is wholesome and very inspiring. The way they support each other - even in their craziness - is very enchanting. I love the way that no matter Emily’s near obssession with her crush - a very normal feeling that we all went through at one point in our teenage years -, they still let her vent out, theorize, but never overthink or doubt herself. It really is the type of friendship that every girl needs.
Wes’s character had me hooked at first, but by the end of the story I got a little annoyed with him. I mean, he liked Emily, but never actually made any move. He spent the entire novel giving her mixed signals - how was she supposed to know that he liked her as well when he let Amanda be all over him all the time? He was really sweet, I will give him that. But I still think he could have done more, he could have proven to Emily that he liked her as much as she liked him - c’mon, guys, she was literally IN LOVE with him since they were children, he could do a little more for her too - or at least given limits to Amanda.
I get that the point was for the girl make the big gesture this time, but I don’t think it would change that narrative had Wes decided to be clear with his feelings concerning Emily.
Overall, it was a very lovely and funny story. I had a really great time - and laugh - reading it and at the end still wanted more.
If you want a light reading, easy going book… that’s the one for you!
“But I had to be brave. Risks could pay off. And even if they didn’t, they were a lot better than living with the ‘what ifs’.”
Shani Petroff
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