I took this story at face value, viewing it similarly to The Other Bennett Sister, in that it is a retelling of a beloved classic from a different PoV.

It fleshes out and gives voice to a character who plays such a small part in the original tale.

If you are a Shakespeare purist then I would not recommend this to you.

I enjoyed Rosaline for the most part, she had a quick witted mind and stood up for herself in a manner of ways even with the so much going against her.

The author took well known scenes or lines and tilted it through a different lense, giving it a more sinister tint.

My favourite scenes were those showing her relationships with both Tybalt and Juliet, the familial banter and protectiveness towards them felt real.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher
4/5 ⭐️

I really enjoyed this retelling of Romeo and Juliet. I thought it was very clever and really made me rethink so much of the classic story. It was very well read!

I enjoyed the audiobook, it was different from what I normally read. I liked the new take on the classic Romeo and Juilliete and thought it was an interesting perspective for the story that I hadn’t thought of.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an audiobook ARC of this title.

Everyone knows the story of Romeo and Juliet, but what about Rosaline? In this Shakespearean retelling, Natasha Solomons takes a background character who is often overlooked in modern adaptations, and twists the classic tale of star-crossed lovers into something wholly new. It's still a tragedy, but from a whole new perspective. Solomons paints Romeo as a predator, and I have to say I'm here for it!

Romeo and Juliet is heralded as the perfect romance, but in reality the entire premise of the story (especially the fact that Juliet is only 13!) is rather problematic and full of red flags. I really enjoyed how these issues are explored in Fair Rosaline, including the age gap; Romeo's gaslighting and manipulation; and Juliet's naivety. It's a fresh take on a story we all know, and while the earlier chapters were kind of painful (knowing what was coming had me mentally screaming at Rosaline to wake up!), it felt so rewarding in the latter half when things started to come to light!

I had high hopes for this, but it ended up landing somewhere between blatant riffing on Shakespeare's lines and a dreary mimicry of them. The result is a stilted kind of prose overfull of flowery language whose similes and metaphors feel forced yet also pale in comparison to that which they seek to reproduce.

On the audiobook, I found Sheila Atim’s voice a touch too high-pitched for my liking. It comes across as overly earnest; I found almost no fluctuation in tone or variation in volume to hold my interest, every phrase narrated like a gavel coming down, tunelessly.

Solomons’s writing is haunted by anachronisms, teetering on the edge of the sixteenth century, too purposefully boxed-in by imitating Shakespeare to come across as anything but unconvincing.

Many thanks to Bonnier UK Audio for giving me the chance to listen to the digital audiobook.

I read romeo and juliet when I was in school. Everyone fell in love with romeo but I just found him creepy! Finally someone who agrees with me!

This prequel paints romeo as a controlling, abusive love rat. Set in the weeks leading up to his first meeting with Juliet. It's throughly enjoyable and well worth a read. That ending...........wow

"Revenge was not sweet, it was rotten"

This is a feminist untelling of epic proportions - I've never experienced such a well known tale to be turned on its head so drastically.

We all know Rosaline as the girl Romeo ditches for Juliet - but in this version, Rosaline is won over by Romeo's charms due to a chance meeting at a party, and facing a future in a nunnery decides to take a chance on love.

As time goes on (and there is a lot of world building and lounging around in a very hot summer in Verona which felt as oppressive to read as it must have felt before the action gets going), Rosaline realises that her older suitor is a predator taking advantage of much younger girls, and her young cousin Juliet is in his sights.

What is chilling and also probably fairly accurate for Rennaisance Italy was how much men of power and those that served them were complicit in Romeo's actions, and how women were powerless to intervene through formal channels.

The last part of the story in particular was gripping, and I enjoyed Solomons' twists and turns as Rosaline races to save Juliet. I also really enjoyed how the source material was woven into the story and how Solomons kept Shakespeare's voice throughout in the prose.

I received an audiobook ARC for an unbiased review and have to give Sheila Atim the narrator and actress such high praise. A really enjoyable listen and I thought it was perfect for the "dark skinned and moorish featured" Rosaline to be voiced by such an accomplished Black Shakespearean actress!

I will post on socials the week before release.

A feisty, modern, feminine retelling of Romeo and Juliet, which really shows a darker, quite sinister side to the story we all know. Gosh what a nasty piece of work Romeo is! And what terrible norms existed back then regarding marrying off young girls in their early teens. This is almost a ‘Me Too’ version of the story, with a courageous Rosaline understanding the immorality of the situation and determining to protect her cousin.
I enjoyed listening to this audiobook and thought the production was very good. The narrator kept the pace going for me and brought the characters to life. I gasped many a time as I was listening and willed good to triumph over evil.
With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Bonnier UK Audio for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for a review.

Romeo and Juliet is one of my least favourite Shakespeare plays. There's a lot of things playing into this, but one of them is how terrible I find the "romance" - there are so many red flags for me that makes me find it coercive and predatory. I was therefore very happy to find a book that looks at the play this way.

Romeo is an predator, going after young girls. The play states Juliet is 13 but never gives his age, and this book leans into that, placing him potentially in his 30s. It's an immediate red flag, first with Rosaline who's 15/6, and sets the stage for what's to come. He is smooth and wants things from the girls, and I appreciated that it showed how he pressured her into things she didn't want to do - and then used it against her or conveniently forgot about it, using these things for the next girl.

I also really liked the scenes from the play retold with an unexpected twist, seeing them through Rosaline's eyes with the perspective of her trying to save those she loves. They are fun subversions of the well known play, giving more agency to the characters - and more revenge.

Sheila Atim narrates, bringing the drama of the world to life. I also really liked the interview between her and the author at the end talking about the book, its inspiration, and what it means to adapt Shakespeare.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

This was a refreshing retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story and, while some parts were certainly straying away from the original source material, most of this was a welcome change.

Having Romeo so much older was certainly a questionable choice however it did suit the story well.

The narrator did a great job with the Shakespearean style and kept pacr throughout.

Ultimately it was an enjoyable listen however I feel it relied too heavily on the understanding of the original text while simultaneously diverting from it.

Thank you for letting me listen to this audiobook. I very much enjoyed listening to this story. I do enjoy when characters from classics get a more elaborate story. Esspecialy Characters that are onely mentioned in the original stories.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons an audiobook narrated by Natasha Solomons and Sheila Atim is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet. At the same time, this book isn't about Romeo and Juliet, it is about Rosaline!
I enjoyed this book, I enjoyed the language they used and both narrators were amazing! The voices fit the story so perfectly! I loved the storyline and the angle it was presented, I loved how Rosaline was presented as naïve at the same time capable of using her judgment and listening to her mind not just her heart!

It's weird how it's presented that an adult man marrying a 13 or 15-year-old is the norm but yes in this story Romeo is a manipulative adult and Juliet is a naïve 13-year-old who believes in everything, just not common sense.

Romeo whose only interest is rich girls uses his charm and good looks to wrap them in his web or promises. He knows how to make them lose their mind and Rosaline is no exception. Rosaline is absolutely in love and ready to do anything that Romeo says. Rosaline believes that they are destined for each other. Things go wrong the moment when she starts to realize that she is not the only one. Once she starts to ask questions Romeo turns his back and is up to the next victim.

Thank you, NetGalley and Bonnier UK Audio for this copy!

This was such a surprising read. We all know the story of Romeo and Juliet and yet this was a new and fresh take. It really showed Romeo in a new and villainous light and I really enjoyed this portrayal. Rosaline has a really strong character arc and I loved seeing her growth. She blooms from a young and naïve love interest to a fierce woman hell bent on opening the eyes of the other characters and avenging the women that Romeo has wronged. It was true enough to the source material and yet Solomons still created something new and addicting. I would love to read more from this author!

Romeo and Juliet retelling from the perspective of Rosalind, who was the one Romeo apparently loved in the first scenes of the play and then "forgot" once he met Juliet.

I always enjoy a retelling. The audio conversation with the author (in the interview at the end of the audiobook) describes this more as an unselling and I think that description is apt. The story follows the general shape of Shakespeare's story, even borrowing direct language at times for Romeo (in an ironic and very effective way) and similar scenes throughout but with a very different undercurrent and outcome.

This is a darker and grittier version. The Romeo we see here is not the Romeo we know from Shakespeare, or Zeffirelli, or Luhrmann. It paints him in a far different light and not one that does him any favors.

Rosaline has a great narrative voice and protagonist. It is fascinating to the see Verona through her eyes: the restrictions on the women, the ravages of the plague, the animosities that seethe throughout the city, the vivid sights and sounds of Verona at that time.

I think what I loved most about this story was the version of Tybalt we have here. I could have read more of him. He was so sympathetically written and so dear. His fate hurt even more than it ever did in the original. I also liked the nuns and was so curious to know more about their apparent joy and freedom behind their cloistered walls.

my thanks to net galley and the publisher for this audio ARC. This is my personal opinion.

🎧Audio Book Review🎧

Fair Rosaline
Natasha Solomons

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Over the last year or so, I've really got into reading re-tellings and have so far only really ventured into that of myths/legends and gods etc.
So this book really appealed to me as something a little bit different.

This is (as the author says in the interview at the end) not a re-telling as such, more of an un-telling.
This tells the story of Romeo and Juliet - the classic Shakespeare story we've all at least heard of, read or watched over the years.
What makes this different is that we see Romeo before he meets Juliet - his actions and behaviour and the events which lead up to their meeting - plus, with a few twists along the way, including the end too!

I loved the way this skillfully combines the original Shakespeare that we all know and love, with a modern twist and some great fiction of the time too.
As we read through, it was great to recognise some of the classic lines from the play, but sometimes used with different people or in a different scene or context even.

This book really does paint Romeo in a far different light than I'd ever imagined - I know a lot of my thoughts stem from what we're all taught in school - but that made sense at the time.
Now seeing this different view - this whole new personality and fiction really does work and the story flows beautifully from the events before, to the scenes with Juliet.

I loved Rosaline as a character.
Her relationship with Tybalt was so full of fun, love and loyalty.
Although disobeying her father's wishes - it was great to see her making the most of the days she has left before heading to the nunnery.
I also really enjoyed our visit to the nunnery in this book - we so often hear this threatened or spoken about in the plays, but never actually get to see that as a scene - especially as this scene was a much nicer view than has been depicted or suggested in the past.

A brilliant read which was beautifully and skillfully written.




💕Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my ARC copy - this is my honest review 💕

I’m always here for a Shakespeare retelling. After all, the bard borrowed and copied from his sources excessively (his version of Lear for example was strikingly similar to a contemporary play, just with the ending changed a little), so I think it’s only fair that modern authors borrow from and rewrite Shakespeare.* Fair Rosaline is perhaps one of the darker retellings I’ve read, the first chunk of the narrative follows Rosaline falling in love with Romeo. Honestly, this section carried on too long and was quite boring - I just wanted to reach into the pages and scream at Rosaline to make better choices. The second half of the narrative was more interesting, though the plot felt like it went a little off the rails in places - it all just added to the Shakespeare-esque vibe of the story.

All in all, I think this was an interesting novel and the audiobook is narrated well. I probably wouldn’t reach for it again in a hurry unless it was to try and get my head around the big conspiracy. I couldn’t quite work out if Romeo was truly a villain or just being manipulated by a bigger scheme, and the things that were explained towards the end all fell together a little too conveniently… but that’s how Shakespeare plays often end so I’m happy to take this with a pinch of salt here.

*Granted, the understanding of the term ‘plagerism’ was nonexistent in the early modern period and pretty much every other author was also copying and editing existing works… but that’s a story for another time, not in an audiobook review.

I wanted to enjoy this book, I really, really did, and to start with I did. Aside from a couple of odd metaphors that made me go “huh?” the writing was lyrical and the setting immersive.

I’m actually going to start at the end with this review. At the end of the audiobook there was an interview with the author, and as I listened to it everything started to make sense. Of course this book was written by an adult who read Romeo and Juliet as an adult for the first time, and was scandalised by the violence and hedonistic behaviour of the characters.

I was coming into this book from a completely different angle. Not only is it entirely possible that my school and teachers taught R&J from a more critical angle, I also spent a fair chunk of the early 2010s on tumblr, which is the best way to get a critical and/or feminist reading of literally any classic text. I’m not saying the author should have in fact done an internet deep dive on what teenagers of a decade ago are saying about Shakespeare, but it’s not exactly a new idea that the play is violent, or that Juliet is incredibly young, or that Romeo falls easily in and out of love.

In this book, all these ideas are turned up to the max. Romeo is a love addict, wooing and discarding women left right and centre. He’s almost sociopathic, the detachment he has to any of these women. He’s so coarse and callous that he is barely believable, as a villain, as a love interest, or even as a person. I actually think a more empathetic version of this character would have been more realistic and, therefore, more chilling.

This is where we get the domino effect. If Romeo is a known villain, why does the Friar marry him and Juliet? Because the Friar is, for reasons never explained, Romeo’s enabler. Why does the Friar set up the scheme of Juliet faking her own death? Because he was going to actually poison her, of course! And what about the countless other women Romeo has ruined? Of course the Friar will quietly get rid of them for him!

Which finally takes us to the titular character, Rosaline. An off-stage character in the original, who Romeo has a crush on, here she has plans to elope with Romeo before he sets eyes on Juliet. I did really like her as a character (although a part of me curled up and cringed every time she and Juliet referred to each other as “cuz”). She was strong-willed, independent, but not without her flaws.

I have a new least-favourite trope, which I’m calling “the time-travelling feminist”. It appears exclusively in historical fiction, and happens when the main character, who is inexplicably well-versed in modern feminism, is the lone figure who can see the injustice around her (such as Lessons in Chemistry, for example). Rosaline is a prime example. Only she can see that Romeo (who’s age is undefined but we’re lead to believe he’s older than he acts) has no business seducing the thirteen-year-old Juliet. Regardless of the fact that Juliet is being primed for marriage to someone else, or the fact that 13 was, at the time, considered young but an acceptable marriage age. Her constant outrage at Juliet’s youth was just another reminder that this is a 400-year-old story seen through modern eyes. That’s not to say that this isn’t a theme worth exploring, but the author’s own shock at the story really shone through here.

You would be mistaken for thinking, given everything I’ve said so far, that all of the women are either fiercely feminist or tragic victims, and that all of the men are villainous misogynists. I was delighted in the depiction of Tybalt – of a slightly lost but ultimately good-hearted best friend and cousin to Rosaline. Their friendship was my favourite thing about this novel. Obviously I knew Tybalt’s fate, but it was ruined much earlier than that when – surprise surprise – he was in love with her! Because, as we all know, boys and girls can’t just be friends, even when they’re cousins.

Credit where it’s due to the narrator, Sheila Atim. An experienced Shakespeare actor, she was a huge part of making the audiobook the absorbing, immersive experience it was, and I take my hat off to her!

I was so excited for this book. I’d been wanting to read it for so long, and I was gutted that it didn’t live up to my expectations.

I received a free copy for an honest review.

I listened to this on audiobook. The narrator was excellent. In the original Romeo and Juliet, Rosalind is only a very small character, but in this version of the story Juliets cousin is the main protagonist. It tells the story about how Romeo really is, and is written really well.
A very enjoyable and unexpected story. Thank you to Net Galley for an advanced copy.

Okay, listen. The roses? The bees? Rosaline? This book may honestly have been cherry-picked especially for me. Romeo and Juliet is was the first Shakespeare play I ever encountered and I have now read, watched, and experienced countless iterations of it. My favourite movie of all time, even still, is the 1996 Romeo + Juliet (yes. the Leo DiCaprio/Claire Danes one that you either hate or love). I've read the original (is there such a thing as an original Shakespeare play? No. Let's not get into that here.) endless times. So now that I've bragged about my credentials, let's see what Fair Rosaline had in store for us. I'm honestly not sure I was ready for what Fair Rosaline did, but boy did I enjoy it. Rosaline being a grieving girl who just lost her mother and is now being sent to a convent? Romeo being the ultimate fuckboy? Juliet, ever innocent, at less than fourteen? Honestly, this book took the few lines we get about Rosaline and made her the main catalyst of the play. When it comes to retelling the lesser-developed characters in an established piece of work, it can become tricky to balance their involvement with the story we know and the new story being told, but Solomons did an incredible job at finding just the right part for Rosaline to play in the fate of our well-known tragic lovers. I won't spoil anything, of course, but just know that rooting for Rosaline becomes damn near inevitable towards the middle of this book. Not only is she a multifaceted character, both naïve and bold, but she is a product of her time and of this time combined. It was lovely to see Solomons including values of our time and values of the time the book is set and seemlessly blend the two. And as for Romeo... Well let's just say I've never seen a Romeo portrayed quite as much as a player and – let's be honest – a creep as in this. It was a refreshing take and still very believable considering the source material. When I tell you I was kicking and screaming about the marzipan rose...
I would not be doing my due diligence in this review if I did not mention the narration of the audiobook that was kindly provided for me. Sheila Atim does a great job at capturing the voice of each character, of Rosaline in particular, and of the story itself. Her gentle cadence is one I truly enjoyed (even at my usual 2.5x speed!) and took care to listen to. I particularly liked her line deliverance on some of the more intense chapter endings – they left me wanting more. Let's just say taking out my headphones was my least favourite time of day while this was playing. All in all, Dear Rosaline by Natasha Solomons deserves a high praise from this retelling-enthusiast and it takes an invaluable place in the many Romeo and Juliet​ retellings out there.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is a Romeo Juliette retelling.
Rosaline mother dies and her father plans to send her to a convent (essentially becoming more worthy the. He already is using Rosaline’s dowry money).
Then comes in Romeo!!

Did I like this? It was ok. I’ve never been a massive Shakespeare fan. That being said I did enjoy this more then the actually Shakespeare version.
If you like Shakespeare then you will love this book.

Although this isn’t what I would normally would read it doesn’t take away from the beauty of the writing