*Thank you to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book to review*

I’m gonna be honest I don’t really care for Shakespeare and I don’t know the story of Romeo and Juliet that well so I can’t comment on the skill of the retelling, I’m just going to review what I read. And what I read was pretty good.

I completely understand why this book got the reach it did on social media. It was well written, had a great cast of characters, a believable romance and some great witty bits of dialogue. I really enjoyed reading this and the directions it went in plot wise, it kept everything pretty interesting. My main hang ups were the pacing (quite slow and dense) and the worldbuilding (pretty non existent, it was very simple though if you want easy fantasy).

If you’re looking for a cast of very chaotic, morally grey, loveable characters - you’ve found them. I really enjoyed everyone here and there wasn’t ever a shift in perspective I enjoyed less. The characters felt fully fleshed out and realistically flawed, you could understand their motivations pretty well. The relationships between the characters as well were nicely developed. I don’t usually go for a second chance romance but when it’s enemies to lovers, childhood best friends, knife to throat, high stakes, slow burn…. Yeah ok you got me. They were pretty cute.

One thing I could not stand in this book was the repetitive descriptions. Like in one chapter Roma says at least four or five times that he is the leader of the gang, or another character says it to or about him. We get the point. I got in the first time you said it, didn’t need it said again and again and again. It really annoyed me. Same thing with Juliette.

I liked this overall, terrified to see how it plays out in the next book.