Julie and Romeo: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Made my long drive shorter
Review: I just picked this off a library shelf and it was the audio cassett edition. I am not even a fan of fiction. This might now be catagorized as "chick lit," but for me, a guy, the book was fun, interesting, and thought provoking. My own position as a 60 something widower might have had something to do with my enjoying the book. Nevertheless, I think most people looking for a funny, kind of suspenseful, and original story will love this book. If you happen to be listed in the Personal Online Ads as "mature" you will like it even more. If your parent(s) are in that catagory you will enjoy the book. If you have adult children you will love the book. This is a love story between a divorcee and widower. Nothing new there, but when you meet the two stars and then their strange families you will find out that there is a big difference between the average love story and this one. jeanne Ray also has a great knack of understanding and describing both Jewish and Italian families and their generational gaps. Underlying the story is a mystery of why two families feuded for generations and how hatred is carried from generation to generation almost without any thought being given to why. Read or better yet listen to Jeanne Ray read the book.

Rating:
Summary: The second time around
Review: Finally a romantic story (not a bodice ripper) about 2 people older than twenty-something, a man and a woman who thought all the major decisions of their lives had been made and accomplished. Surprise! In a reworking of Shakespeare, very different from West Side Story, Ray takes her readers through the agonizing choices Julie and Romeo have to work through before allowing themselves to succumb to love the second time around. This plot is refreshing and real, reminiscent of the stories of Rosamund Pilcher only American. Ray's style is lucid, intelligent, and flowing. The incorporation of some bits of old Italian folk customs is colorful and amusing. This novel is a little gem.

Rating:
Summary: Jeanne Ray Can Write!!!!
Review: I loved this book and I love this author! When you read her books, it's like you're talking to your best friend. I read Step Ball Change first and knew I'd HAVE to read everything Jeanne Ray's written. So I read Julie and Romeo next. This is a small, simple book - nothing heavy, nothing ponderous here - just total enjoyment. So enjoyable, that I'm currently reading -and loving - Eat Cake. The bad news is that she's only written 4 books - the good news is that her fifth - Julie and Romeo Get Lucky will be out June 1st! Read this book - you won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: More fun than Shakespeare!
Review: Julie is a 60-year-old divorcee who spends her time running the family flower shop, babysitting for her two live-in grandchildren, dodging the barbs of her two critical daughters, and hating the Cacciamani family. She has been taught from an early age that Cacciamanis mean trouble, and when her daughter Sandy had the temerity to fall in love with one, she and her then-husband dutifully broke up the teenage romance.
Julie's business is floundering and she again meets Romeo Cacciamani (father of Sandy's ex-lover) at a seminar for small business owners. She is amazed to find herself falling in love with Romeo, as he is with her. What follows is one hilarious scene after another as the two senior citizen lovers try to dodge their disapproving offspring. Things come to a head when Julie's daughter Nora invites her father into the picture to try and disuade Julie from pursuing her affair with Romeo. Ray's humorous and self-deprecating heroine is a delight and the author hits all the right notes in this hilarious romance, patterned after the Montagues and the Capulets.

Rating:
Summary: COTTON CANDY
Review: Here's your beach read...nothing to tax your sun-drenched brain. If you liked Moonstruck the movie, you'll enjoy this.