Explore a playful reimagining of Romeo and Juliet in A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd. Rosie’s sleuthing in a house full of secrets promises a comedic, murderous twist!

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Romeo and Juliet survived and are happily married with seven children. Rosie, the oldest, is now 20 and has been betrothed several times. And each time she’s managed to find them their one true love instead. The latest match, Duke Stephano, isn’t so easy to deal with though. He’s had three previous wives, all of whom died under mysterious circumstances, and has a reputation as a bad person. At their betrothal ball he winds up dead. There are many people with motives, but Rosie needs to figure out who the murderer is before she meets her own untimely death. 

First off, the concept for this story is great. I love reading retellings, as well as reimaginings, and this take on what happened after the end of Romeo and Juliet is really fun. Rosie is intelligent and interesting and the story really let us get a taste of her world. The mystery was also intriguing and kept us guessing throughout the story. 

In my opinion, the biggest struggle was the focus on the ages of the characters. In the original Romeo and Juliet story, Romeo was 16 and Juliet was 13. This story takes up with Rosie being the result of the night of the balcony scene, meaning that her mother is only 13 years older than her. We repeatedly are told about how Rosie’s parents are 33 and 36, and therefore very old. Rosie reflects on multiple girls who are 11-13 as possible matches for men in her life. While this is realistic for the 14th or 15th Century Verona setting of Shakespeare’s story, the modern language of this book makes the ages feel a bit gross due to modern understandings of adulthood. I wish we just didn’t have Rosie’s parents’ ages talked about or have her try to marry off these girls and instead focused on actual adults and the mystery. I realize this is maybe minor, but it was very distracting from the story. 

Overall, if you can ignore the ages of some of the characters (or remember that you’re in a Verona of 500+ years ago), then this is a fun mystery and a great summer read. 

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