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Kay B. (Lake Jackson, TX)
Great Historical Fiction
Juliet's Nurse is a very enjoyable and creative read! Lois Leveen fills in the back story of Romeo and Juliet in an imaginative and easy to read story that makes it hard to put the book down. Anyone who like historical fiction will find this a delightful read!
Erica M. (Chicago, IL)
Juliet's Nurse explores life beyond Romeo and Juliet
This is a book to savor. Leveen gives nuance and depth of understanding to Shakespeare's setting of Romeo and Juliet in a way that the play itself could never give you. Angelica's perspective on the relationships she had with Juliet and the Cappelleti family, as well as the loves and losses of her own life is so well-drawn. Leveen suggests a back-story that gives deeper meaning to the story we know so well. Perfectly pitched, I can't think of anything that was missed or could have improved this story.
D.J. K. (Maquoketa, IA)
The Mysterious Wet Nurse
JULIET'S NURSE is a uniquely plausible tale put together in a creative manner. The contrast of the love stories pitting Angelica and Pietro's wedded bliss against Lady and Lord Capelletto's wedded non-bliss by the author, Lois Leveen, is cleverly contrived. Amidst these contrasts we have the open and obvious love relationship between Angelica, the wet nurse, and her charge, Juliet, the daughter of Lord and Lady Capelleto. Juliet grows from new-born to adolescent, growing into her sexual womanhood, as the tale is told.
The character development of Juliet through the eyes and actions of the wet nurse dominate a
…more good portion of the tale. Juliet becomes a beautiful, lovable and sometimes flighty young lady. The reader grows to love her. When we meet Romeo, the reader may be taken aback by his character development. Culmination comes predictable per Shakespearean thoughts, but with a creative twist from Lois Leveen.
Pietro's bees and his meticulous bee keeping habits embellish the tale of constant love. This is the underlying essence of the book and its characters. Bee keeping is fascinating and lends its fascination to this book. (less)The death of a newborn infant is always devastating. When an opportunity arises for the woman to become a wet-nurse for another newborn infant, she accepts the opportunity to ease her discomfort. This is how Juliet got her wet-nurse.
The wet-nurse fell in love with the beautiful Juliet and vowed to give her all the love and happiness she and her husband Pietro bestowed on each other and the six boys she lost to the plague. The story is told from the wet-nurse's point of view. Juliet is head-strong and her lover Romeo is determined to wed her. It is the night before the wedding when Juliet learns that her cousin
…more Tybalt and Romeo are both killed in a fight and she is devastated. She cannot imagine being married to someone other than Romeo, but will obey her father, Lord Cappeletti. By now you may have guessed this Juliet and Romeo are the same as the Romeo and Juliet from Shakespeare's play ROMEO AND JULIET.
JULIET'S NURSE is romantic, funny and full of action during this time in history. Award winning author Lois Leveen has a few surprises for her readers and her style is most enjoyable and readable. (less)Angelica and Pietro lost all their children to the plague. Pregnant again only to bear a still born daughter, Pietro sends Angelica off to the household of the rich and powerful Cappeletti family to become the wet nurse for their newborn Juliet.
This is a wonderful book about love and devotion between Juliet and her nurse Angelica who is more of a mother to her than Lady Cappeletti. It also has jousting, rivalry, feasts and suspense. If you liked Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, you will surely enjoy Juliet's Nurse. It is a wonder read.
Rory A. (Henderson, NV)
Verona Unplugged
Lois Leveen is a grand, sweeping storyteller, whose passion for the 1300s, particularly the late 1300s in Juliet's Nurse, makes her seem like a time traveler who stayed in Verona for the three years in Part One, and then traveled to the fateful year that makes up Part Two, all from the perspective of a grieving devoted nurse to one Juliet Cappelletti, the very same that some English scribbler named Shakespeare had a crack at.
Leveen has made the late 1300s deeply engrossing, not only through these characters we already know a fair bit about, but also the details of plague-ridden lives in Verona, and the
…more seemingly untouchable wealthy families with ancient, bloody grudges aplenty. One thing's for sure, besides the absolute necessity for time to be set aside for this novel: Pregnancy in the 1300s, as portrayed here, will engender new fascination with nature's process, certainly in wide-eyed, surprised discussions, and most likely a lot of laughter to spare at how much we've progressed. (less)I remember stumbling through Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet in high school and watching the movie on the big screen. Juliet's Nurse really made the story so much easier to read than Shakespeare's version. I found the book very interesting and I looked forward to having time to pick up the book to continue reading. The book held my interest all the way to the end with a lot of surprises. The book did contain a lot of Shakespearean language but it was not so much that I felt bogged down trying to interpret the words. I felt I was reading true literature. I would highly recommend this book.
Dorothy T. (Victorville, CA)
A honey of a novel
I really enjoyed this story of Romeo and Juliet told from the point of view of Juliet's nurse. Lois Leveen has done an amazing job of setting the scene, portraying the atmosphere of the place and time (making me grateful that I was not born into that time period and especially that I did not give birth then), and fleshing out the backgrounds of some of Shakespeare's characters. The twists the plot takes kept me totally involved. Leveen also uses the language of Shakespeare in her dialogue, some lines actually borrowed from the original play. There is much of the sensuous here and much to be savored. This novel
…more does not detract from the original, it enhances it. (less)
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