Review - Romeo Redeemed (Juliet Immortal #2) by Stacey Jay

Title: Romeo Redeemed

Author: Stacey Jay

Series: 2nd (Juliet Immortal)

Pages: 384

Published: October 9th 2012 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

ISBN: 9780385740180

Source: Publisher via Netgalley

Description: Cursed to live out eternity in his rotted corpse, Romeo, known for his ruthless, cutthroat ways, is given the chance to redeem himself by traveling back in time to save the life of Ariel Dragland. Unbeknownst to her, Ariel is important to both the evil Mercenaries and the love-promoting Ambassadors and holds the fate of the world in her hands. Romeo must win her heart and make her believe in love, turning her away from her darker potential before his work is discovered by the Mercenaries. While his seduction begins as yet another lie, it soon becomes his only truth. Romeo vows to protect Ariel from harm, and do whatever it takes to win her heart and soul. But when Ariel is led to believe his love is a deception, she becomes vulnerable to Mercenary manipulation, and her own inner darkness may ultimately rip them apart.  

I Give This ...
 

I liked the idea of real life people who may have inspired the Shakespeare tale of Romeo & Juliet.  It's honestly one of my favorite stories and one of those that I'm more likely to read a twist on.  I liked the first one well enough that I was curious how it would play out.

I like that Romeo was given a chance to redeem himself in modern times while Juliet gets to relive her life in her own time.  At first I didn't like the assignment that Romeo was given.  How is making someone fall in love promoting love?  I think it was more the idea of keeping Ariel out of the hand of the Mercenaries.  However, Romeo sees the problem with this scenario and vows to do all he can to protect her.  However, Ariel's life has been so full of turmoils that she has a hard time trusting Romeo.  But, as the cards play out, Romeo learns what love really means.

While, I know this was Romeo's book, I kind of wish we got more of Juliet.  She's sent back to her time with all the knowledge she's obtained over the centuries.  It puts her in a dangerous position were she must fight for her life.  Here is were I felt the story lost me a lot.  I honestly felt the story tried too hard.  The full back story and reasoning behind the Ambassadors and Mercenaries was complicated and sometimes didn't make sense to me.  I felt myself skimming these parts just to get back to the storyline.  

I was glad that I read this story in the end and it tied up all the loose ends.  However, its not really a series that I would recommend you jump up and go buy.  I've never read anything else by this author, so I have nothing really to compare it to.