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Summary: Delightfully romantic ~~~ This story will warm your heart!
Review: This is truly one of the nicest love stories I have read in a long time. So many love stories are based on young folks falling in love, getting married, having a family. This book reminds us that true love can happen at any age, at any stage in life! I could not put the book down til I was finished. For anyone who is a rmoantic ~~ You must read this book!
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Summary: This was cute.
Review: I was prepared to not like this book, thought it would be an attempt at rewriting a very old story, but it is a really cute story. Julie and Romeo are old, for one thing, but the whole family feud thing is there. The humor this author places in bits and pieces is fabulous, and really perks up the story. Both Julie and Romeo own rivaling flower shops, and both have families that hate with an intense passion. They meet after many years, neither one really remembering why they hate each other in the first place, and - you guessed it - they fall in love. Their families are horrified and the scenes to follow will have you chuckling. This author is incredibly clever and well spoken, and I recommend this book for a lighthearted escape - very worth it.
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Summary: Typical Siticom Pap
Review: Triteness for triteness sake. So predictable. It's news that there is a life and sexual desire after 60? What great cover art! Think about it.
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Summary: A refreshing, modern-day relationship story!
Review: I bought this book on the recommendation from a bookstore owner who thought this was the book for me! She was right and I've already passed "Julie and Romeo" on to three others. Good reading for anyone, but especially rewarding for those over 40 or 50 or . . .Or for anyone who isn't looking for a relationship, but might consider the "right" one if it came along.
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Summary: quirky, hilarious and tender, completely satisfying!!
Review: The first two pages had me literally laughing out loud. Ms. Ray is probably a family comedian and obviously has good friends with whom she hones her wit and talents. I absolutely recommend this book. It is a romance, but more than the "sappy love story" that so many associate with that genre. It is for all ages--the heroine and hero are in their sixties. I loved it (I am 27) and I passed it along to my mother-in-law. If you enjoy the quirkiness innate to us all, the surreal qualities of your family life and the humor in it all, you will enjoy this book. It reminded me very much of the movie, "Moonstruck," (my all time favorite). Congratulations on a clever, witty, and tender first novel, Ms. Ray!!! Please More!!!!
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Summary: Kept me smiling long after
Review: When love strikes Julie Roseman and Romeo Cacciamani it hits hard. And years of rivalry between their respective florist shops and families does not make the going smooth. This is a delightful and fast paced romp through the rediscovery of love after age 55. The plot line moves quickly, the characters are engaging and believable and you find yourself really hoping these star crossed lovers can find a way to pull things off. This book left a smile with me ....a wonderful read.
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Summary: A delight!
Review: Florist Julie Roseman Roth doesn't remember a time when her family didn't hate the Cacciamani family, but she has no idea what the original feud was about. When she runs into Romeo Cacciamani, the owner of a rival flower shop, at a seminar, she accepts his invitation for a cup of coffee and enjoys his company. When her daughters find out, they are shocked to find their mother would have anything to do with the arch enemy. Despite telling them she won't see Romeo again, Julie has no intention of following through. As the meddling families interfere, all heck breaks lose. Jeanne Ray is a fresh new voice for romantic fiction! This is a new take on a very old story. Having the two main protagonists in their 60s was a stroke of genius! One of the most delightful books of the year. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Delightful, wonderful "feel good" book
Review: I listened to the Book on Tape read by the author. Jeanne Ray is as good a storyteller as she is a writer. I listened to it in the car, at home, at the gym, until I finished it and it totally charmed me. It is a wonderful story of a 60 year old lady who falls madly in love with a man whose family has been her family's enemy for 3 generations. I won't give out the ending, but let's say you will be smiling when it's over.
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Summary: A Bouquet Of Thanks To The Author
Review: Something about that cover -- I too judged this book by it, as some readers also had expressed. To my delight, the contents also enticed. The protagonist, Julie, is a world-weary female with a sense of the absurd. The couple, Julie and Romeo, uplift via their mutual generosity, passion, caring. They are mirror-images, twin-soul florists who face the unreasonable wrath of their feuding families, over their "blossoming" romance. Unlike Shakespeare's version, which obviously inspired Ms. Ray, this novel centers on an older duo. It's a clever switch, intensifying the comic irony of supposedly mature adults forced into adolescent intrigues to hide their encounters. The story aligns with a Shakespearean theme, that of others having too much to say, about one's personal happiness. Whenever Julie seems about to degenerate into self-pity, into a lecture on the cruelty of life, or involve herself in a sensationalist "low-rent" type of sex or violence situation, the author surprises, through humor, altering such a course. She never loses her genuine empathy, insight, compassion, for her characters, for her readership. One soft-hearted misstep by the author, I thought, was at the end, turning the most despicable character to me (clue to previous readers: a "Lexus") into someone of emerging decency. That substory justified at least some comeuppance, repercussion. This work does produce stereotyping per us Italians. At first, it seemed Ms. Ray perhaps was disingenuous. From the first page onwards, she prompted admiration for her honesty: She has the amusing Julie bluntly discuss the joy of prejudice, as if, ironically, to alert readers that she, the author, is truly aware of its dangers. Yet then, sprinkled throughout the whole novel are Julie's confrontations with seemingly dense, uneducated goons -- Mafia types, she calls them. Also, the monolithic Italians clump together, for hospital visits, big parties, they play/listen to the accordion, and know the words to "That's Amore." This is not my reality (e.g., my relatives favor the mandolin, and competitive humming). Still, Ms. Ray gets points for Plummy, the intriguingly individualistic daughter of Romeo. The cumulative effect of the characterizations really ends up seeming rather harmless to me, an Italian-American. The tone, spirit, of the book seems so good-natured, I could overlook the generalizing. (Something I could not do per Frances Mayes travel journals, very inaccurate, even patronizingly so, regarding assumed physical traits, the art, history, geographical facts, about Italy, especially my ancestral Southern homeland). The ending of the story for Julie and her Romeo seems satisfyingly inevitable, with enough of a touch of mystery to it, to gratify further. I'm eager to re-read the book soon.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful, funny, fresh and charming
Review: Jeanne Ray gives us a delightful reworking of the Capulet-Montague feud in "Julie and Romeo" - with, thankfully, a much happier ending! Main characters Julie Roseman and Romeo Cacciamani own rival florists' shops in Boston, and have been carrying on their families' long-standing and bitter feud. They meet at a conference for small business owners, and, you guessed it, something magical happens... but their families are not so easily persuaded to give up the feud (even though no one knows exactly how it all started). The strengths of this book are many: (1) the characters are a little offbeat and incredibly real (I especailly loved Mrs. Cacciamani, who is exactly like the dowager Italian women I have known, and whose antics made me laugh out loud. I could absolutely see my Italian friend Carmela's mother or grandmother doing the same things!); (2) the lovers are also atypical - instead of beautiful people in their 20s or 30s obsessed with career or getting married, they are older, experienced, a little more sober, so that their falling in love is unexpected and sweet; (3) the book is unabashedly romantic in the best sense of the term; (4) there is enough sex and irony and humor to keep things from getting sappy or maudlin -- and to make you laugh out loud (I giggled uncontrollably at the party scene at the end); (5) I enjoyed the way Ms. Ray took the familiar Romeo and Juliet setup and tweaked it in an original way; (6) the author has a fresh and refreshing voice. And, on a more superficial note, I loved the close-up photos of flowers that opened each chapter. As heartening as the first crocus of spring, as passionate as a red rose, as charming and bright as a daffodil, as lush and romantic as a peony... what's not to like about "Julie and Romeo"?
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