The Hundred Loves of Juliet by Evelyn Skye
Publication Date: August 1, 2023
Summary from Goodreads:
When Helene was young, she dreamed of the perfect man and filled her notebooks with stories about him and about love in its purest form. But after a messy divorce, she has let go of such naive fantasies. She has moved to a small town in Alaska, where she is ready to write her novel and build a new life without romance. Fate has other plans, though.
Helene soon meets Sebastien Montague, a handsome fisherman who is her invented hero made flesh, down to the most idiosyncratic details. But how can a man she created possibly exist in the real world?
While Helene tries to discover the truth behind his existence, Sebastien is determined to keep that truth from her, for he is a man scarred by serial tragedy, hiding a secret that has broken his heart time and again. Yet the shadows of the past emerge, endangering Helene and Sebastien’s future before it even begins–and it becomes clear that it won’t be easy to forge a new ending to the greatest love story of all time.
A woman fleeing her disastrous marriage discovers that she is part of a legendary love story that spans lives, years, and continents in this modern-day reimagining of Romeo and Juliet.
Confession:
I really liked the premise of the book, Romeo has lived forever, while Juliet is reincarnated over and over again with no memory of her previous lives. But no matter how hard Romeo tries to change the curse, she is destined to die over and over again. Until we get to the present day and something has changed and maybe the curse has finally been broken.
I really liked both of the characters as individuals, but never quite felt their connection or the passion that they supposedly shared for each other. Helene was a great character whose husband is very controlling and refuses to let her go. She is tough and such an optimist, and wants to start over and change her life. She also has a nice support base with her mother and sister, and I enjoyed seeing their relationship. Sebastian was also a very caring person, especially with his crew on the fishing boat. He would do anything to protect them and keep them safe. He was tormented by his past relationships with the various Juliets and was really determined to either break the curse or at the least avoid meeting the newest Juliet. They really had a nice sunny vs grumpy dynamic at the start but that didn’t quite carry over once they come together.
The plot does tend to jump around a bit. We have the present day story of Helene and Sebastian, but then we have these short vignettes that Helene has written about her memories of their past lives together. Her versions are very light and fluffy and usually were about their first meetings and the beginnings of their love story. We also get Sebastian’s versions of the same stories, that are far more tragic and usually included how that Juliet died. The transitions between these narrative sometimes didn’t quite work and for me at least, I think it made it harder for the present character to connect. The story line with Helene’s soon to be ex husband was also a tad over the top, especially towards the end. I really did like the ending, although it was a bit more open ended than I would have liked.
Overall, while I did like this story and all of its interesting twists, I didn’t love it as much as I hoped I would. I still think it is an interesting retelling of the Romeo and Juliet love story, it just sort of fell flat for me. I never quite felt the connection between the two characters which was sort of the point of the story. But there are tons of people who loved this story, so you should also maybe give it a chance. It might be the perfect love story for you.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 
I agree about the lack of connection between the characters but what really lost it for me was the last part with the all powerful Swiss banking house. It all seemed very over the top and didn’t fit with the earlier part of the story at all.
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That was certainly over the top and was where I really lost interest in the story. Although I did finish it! 😄
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