Book Review: When You Were Mine by: Rebecca Serle

Goodreads Summary: 


In this intensely romantic, modern recounting of the greatest love story ever told, Romeo’s original intended—Juliet’s cousin Rosaline—tells her side of the tale. What’s in a name, Shakespeare? I’ll tell you: Everything.     Rosaline knows that she and Rob are destined to be together. Rose has been waiting for years for Rob to kiss her—and when he finally does, it’s perfect. But then Juliet moves back to town. Juliet, who used to be Rose’s best friend. Juliet, who now inexplicably hates her. Juliet, who is gorgeous, vindictive, and a little bit crazy...and who has set her sights on Rob. He doesn’t even stand a chance.     Rose is devastated over losing Rob to Juliet. This is not how the story was supposed to go. And when rumors start swirling about Juliet’s instability, her neediness, and her threats of suicide, Rose starts to fear not only for Rob’s heart, but also for his life. Because Shakespeare may have gotten the story wrong, but we all still know how it ends…




My Review: 

ReadingNook Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I've always been a huge fan of Shakespeare ever since taking honors Shakespeare in high school, so as soon as I heard this was loosely based on Romeo and Juliet I knew I needed to read it. I'm so happy I had the oppurtunity to read and review this book, because it was phenomenal. I absolutely loved it and ended up reading this in pretty much one sitting, because I simply needed to know what was going to happen (although you kinda knew where the story was going to lead). Although you could guess which way the story was going to end, it still ended up being a shock to my system and brought tears to my eyes. I felt so horrible for Rosealine and felt her pain. I wanted to punch Rob simply because of his stupidity for leaving Rose for Juliet. I felt like Juliet was so coniving in this story, and the fact that Rob couldn't see right through that fustrated me to no end. I wanted to love Rob because he seemed like a good guy that got blindsided by a "bad" girl, but I had a love/hate relationship with him; I hated that I wanted to love him. Rebecca Serle hit the nail on the head with this Romeo and Juliet re-telling. I adored this book from start to finish. Although it could have felt extrememly predictable because of the fact that its a re-telling it didn't to me at all, and still left me guessing a bit which was the story was going to go, which is a sign of a great re-telling in my opinion. This so far for me has been my favorite contemporary i've read so far this year! If you haven't picked this one up yet, and you're a fan of YA contemporarys or Shakespeare re-tellings don't pass this one up!