Felicity comes to Maine to live with her father's family while her parents go back to Europe during WWII. She waits for letters from them which never come. She wonders what is going on. There are a lot of secrets in her father's family home and she slowly discovers what they are.

I loved this book. I had a hard time putting it down. It is so well written and Felicity is a wonderful character--curious, child-like but growing up, lively, bringing others out of their shells. She gets Captain Derek out of his room. I liked Derek. The secondary characters were different and were hard to know through most of the story until Felicity dug out their secrets. I hope I can find other stories in this series to see what happens at WWII comes to the United States.

Genevieve is going through a divorce after her husband was caught cheating on her.  About the same time, her uncle dies leaving her his locksmith shop in Paris.  She uses this opportunity to return to Paris and maybe take over his business.  She has previously been to Paris to visit her uncle, aunt, and cousin shortly after her mother's death when she was 14.  

This mainly told in Genevieve's POV present tense.  There are also flashbacks to her mother's visit in 1983 and her visit in 1997.  Pasquale (her aunt) also has a chapter dedicated to her POV.  Overall this worked to tell the story; each chapter's POV is clearly marked.

I enjoyed reading about Paris and the neighborhoods with the close-knit community.  I liked reading a little history of WWII and the Algerian War.  I thought it was cool how JB tied the Basques into the story too (with the Embassy bombing).  (Boise, ID has a large Basque population). 

I would have liked more on locksmithing;  it was fascinating reading about the old locks.  I did have a hard time connecting with Genevieve and her mother Angela.  There is no romance in this one.  Angela's secret is easily guessed. 

I read this for Romance-opoly Lady Lane sun track square

Title: Juliet Takes a Breath

Author: Gabby Rivera

Publish Date: September 17, 2019

Publisher: Dial Books

Format: Hardcover

Page Count: 320 pages

Source: Library

Date Read: March 14-21, 2020

Review

I read this book as part of the Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge 2020 prompt "debut by queer author." Ms. Rivera's book was a great YA/NA story of Juliet, a NY Puerto Rican lesbian who earns a coveted summer internship as an assistant to her favorite author (Harlow Brisbane) in Portland, Oregon. Juliet has just came out of the closet to her family the night she leaves for Portland, she has a relationship on the down-low with a college friend (who is doing her own internship with the DNC in Washington DC), and she is very new to feminism. It's a lot, but Rivera really keeps the different strings neatly tied together into the plot without getting tangled up.

Harlow Brisbane is the white, hippy-dippy version of feminism that comes to mind when someone thinks of Portland. She is the book Pussy Power, the book that brought Juliet to feminism and awakened Juliet to the female power within her. However, Juliet soon learns Harlow has no problem using Juliet's brown skin as a shield for Harlow's biased word and actions towards the BIPOC members of Portland's lesbian community. Juliet does make connections with BIPOC lesbians and they come to her rescue when Harlow's overt damage makes Juliet flee Portland to the safety of family in Miami for a long weekend. 

That was my favorite part - seeing Juliet learning about her auntie and cousin, her cousin taking her to a party where Juliet sees herself as just one of the community and not just the brown unicorn, seeing Juliet start to rebuild the bridge toward her mom - it was nothing but joy and color and acceptance. This time strengthens Juliet in a way that makes the reader know Juliet is really coming into her own and that she is going to have a good life with good people around her. The scales fall from her eyes so to speak.

I can recommend this book, but be warned Harlow's microaggression may hit close to home for some readers.

Status #2:

Got another 3 hours and 15 minutes of reading in and finished Juliet. I also listened to the FB Live event for COYER - we are not having a summer edition; instead they are going to go the full year, starting with COYER Quarantine theme, starting in April and going through August. After that, another theme for the next few months. They were planning on going to a full year COYER in 2021, but thought now was the time since some people are home a lot more to read. I'm in!

Also during my social media break from reading I found out my kids' school is moving our Spring Book Fair (which was supposed to start tomorrow) online, so family/friends of students can purchase books as well as parents. Hopefully, we can still meet our goal - we have a new school building being built right now and new books are needed to fill those shelves!

Up next, Golden in Death (In Death #50) by JD Robb. It came in through ILL on Thursday and I picked it up Friday. I need the comfort of the return of the In Death gang but I am not one for re-reading, so this installment came at the right time. And of course it's not in the book database here at BL. *SIGH*

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Status #1:

Woke up and made tea, let the dog outside to do her thing. Got all nice and settled while the house was still quiet. Read for one hour, then took a break to make myself some breakfast and a second cup of tea. Currently reading Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera for the Book Riot Read Harder challenge. It's also due back at the library soon; even though the library is waiving all fines during the isolation period, I just can't shake the rule follower in me and I want to give the book back on time. I'm at 32% read and will probably finish by the end of the afternoon. 

I enjoyed this book. I expected a rehashing of Shakespeare play in novel form. That is not what I got. This is richer and fuller giving not only Romeo and Juliet's story but more background into their families' feud. There is more about Paris here. Juliet is a strong woman. Romeo is more dreamer than realist. Opposites certainly attract here. The parents, especially Juliet's, are more fleshed out. They are typical parents though her father is harsher than expected with an only daughter. Romeo's parents are more like Romeo, more idealistic be and willing to comply with the town leader's orders. The friars are more prominent as is the nurse who is not as flighty as we expect.

The reading by Richard Armitage is excellent. He does all the voices and pulls it off. I especially liked the author's notes at the end, read by the author. He gives a history of the story of Romeo and Juliet beginning with the first recorded version back in the 1400's then through Shakespeare. He also gives some details he used in his story.

This story, though known to us, is worth a listen. It has all and more of the intrigue from Shakespeare's play.