Bubbling up with Helena

• Title: Fair Rosaline
• Author: Natasha Solomons
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
• Release Date: 9/12/23
• Genre: Historical Romance
• Age Range: Adult
• Rating: ★★★★★
• Publisher’s Summary: Was the greatest ever love story a lie? The first time Romeo Montague sees young Rosaline Capulet he falls instantly in love. Rosaline, headstrong and independent, is unsure of Romeo’s attentions but with her father determined that she join a convent, this handsome and charming stranger offers her the chance of a different life. Soon though, Rosaline begins to doubt all that Romeo has told her. She breaks off the match, only for Romeo’s gaze to turn towards her cousin, thirteen-year-old Juliet. Gradually Rosaline realizes that it is not only Juliet’s reputation at stake, but her life. With only hours remaining before she will be banished behind the nunnery walls, will Rosaline save Juliet from her Romeo? Or can this story only ever end one way? Shattering everything we thought we knew about Romeo and Juliet, Fair Rosaline is the spellbinding prequel to Shakespeare’s best known tale, which exposes Romeo as a predator with a long history of pursuing much younger girls. Bold, lyrical, and chillingly relevant, Fair Rosaline reveals the dark subtext of the timeless story of star-crossed lovers: it’s a feminist revision that will enthrall readers of bestselling literary retellings such as Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell and Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese

From the first time I was introduced to Romeo and Juliet nearly 20 years ago (YIKES!), I found it odd how quickly Romeo moves on from Rosaline when he meets Juliet. When I heard about Fair Rosaline, I was so excited to read a version of the story that dives into her perspective.

You could certainly read Shakespeare’s play as disturbing on several levels. As Solomon points out in her author’s note, Shakespeare goes out of his way to point out how young Juliet is, which is not true of his other characters. As Juliet says in & Juliet, “On my next birthday, I’m going to be 14.” The audience/reader does not learn how old Romeo is, which makes this emphasis on Juliet’s youth especially disconcerting.

Solomon’s highlights this predatory element of the story by positioning Romeo as a serial romancer and manipulator of young women. She turns the way Romeo moves on so quickly from Rosaline from a sign of true love for Juliet into a sinister pattern.

I know Romeo and Juliet like the back of my hand. I’ve taught the play, studied the play, and seen the play many many times. Despite that, Solomons managed to keep me in suspense about what was going to happen next at every turn.

As a Shakespeare nerd, I loved Solomon’s nods to both the original text of Romeo and Juliet and to his other plays. Rosaline references “Pyramus and Thisbe,” which is the play that the Mechanicals in A Midsummer Night’s Dream put on at the wedding at the end of the play. It made the story feel driven by a real knowledge and appreaciation of Shakespeare’s work.

Solomon’s prose is lyrical and poetic, painting vivid images of everything in Rosaline’s world. She writes of Rosaline’s early feelings for Romeo:

Her pulse was a bead in her throat, as tight beneath her skin as the fluttering wings of a moth. She wanted to reach out and touch his hand, feel the rough fingertips worn from the leather of his horse’s bridle and the solid muscle of his thigh. Was this impulse, this need to touch, love?

The language is so precise that the reader can help but be drawn into Rosaline’s thoughts and feelings.

Rosaline in Romeo and Juliet is quite literally not given a voice. I loved that Solomon turned her into a strong and determined young woman, who is willing to fight against the wrongs she sees around her. It makes me happy that there are so many pieces of art in the world today (like Fair Rosaline and & Juliet) that are giving agency to Shakespearean women like this. The ending of Fair Rosaline reminds me very much of where & Juliet begins (if you know, you know), and I’d love to see a sequel to learn what happens next.

Fair Rosaline enthralled and entranced me as I read. It was one of those books that I put down and immediately needed to tell everyone about. I highly recommend picking it up, but I will warn you that it is a very dark version of what is already a tragic story.