Calling Romeo

by Alexandra Potter

[Leah]

It’s fair to say that I’m a big ol’ fan of Alexandra Potter. I’ve read most of her novels and on the whole I do enjoy them. However, I do find myself prone to not liking certain aspects of some of her novels. I enjoyed Who’s That Girl? but I didn’t like how it ended, for example but on the other hand her latest book You’re The One That I Don’t Want was fab. So when I received Calling Romeo to review, I was intrigued. It’s a re-release and originally came out in 2002 before she started adding the magical elements to her novels and the cover just kept calling to me – honestly, it is so beautiful – so I eventually caved in and began reading. Unfortunately, for me, the cover is the only good thing about it.

I must admit, I dislike writing bad reviews, particularly for an author I usually enjoy but I just couldn’t get into Calling Romeo. I mean, it starts well enough with Juliet being stood up by Will before being drenched by Sykes, but after that the pace slows down a lot and the book just begins to drag as Juliet faffs over whether to stay with Will or be with Sykes. Throw in a wacky American best friend, and that’s the book in a nutshell. It’s just… nothing happens. Throw in the fact that I’m mostly anti-cheating (only for it in the Emily Giffin novel Something Borrowed) and this book just wasn’t going to work for me at all. For me, Will didn’t offer enough reason for Juliet to warrant going off with Sykes. He didn’t do anything terrible (the Valentine’s Day standing up not-with-standing as he forgot) and he wasn’t a horrible partner, it just seemed that they’d both got themselves into a rut and Juliet just wanted out instead of trying to fix things between them.

I don’t really know what I made of Juliet. I was sympathetic towards her at the beginning, then when she was contemplating an affair I just tuned out of her and wasn’t interested any more. I’m of the school that if things aren’t working in a relationship you end it before going off with someone else and unfortunately that philosophy also carries on when I’m reading fiction meaning that I just couldn’t care what happened to Juliet and Sykes because they deserved it for doing that to Will. Not to mention how blase Juliet was about the whole thing telling Trudy she didn’t care that she was playing a dangerous game because she loved it. Because, like I said, Will wasn’t a bad guy, far from it, and because the book is told in the third-person we got Will’s life from Will’s perspective and to see somebody happy in his relationship and trusting his girlfriend while she flits off here and there with Sykes made it even worse it has to be said. As you might expect, I didn’t like Sykes, at all. As for Trudy, the wacky American, I did like her. She added a bit of colour to the book. I also liked Will’s friend and business partner Rolf, again, he added colour to the book.

Calling Romeo appears to have been re-edited before being re-released as iPhone’s are mentioned along with Mad Men and other pop culture references that weren’t around in 2002. I must admit, I would like to see what was originally in place of things like that, just out of interest! As I’ve mentioned the book is told from the third-person perspective and switches between Juliet, Trudy and Will, but I think I may have been able to be more sympathetic to Juliet if it had been told entirely from her perspective because at least that way we wouldn’t have been aware of Will’s thoughts on his relationship because like I said it’s sad to see someone thinking their relationship is going OK when in reality it’s not and you’ve got no idea. So unfortunately I wouldn’t recommend the book, I’d tell you start with a different one of Alexandra’s, probably You’re The One That I Don’t Want. Calling Romeo is one you should wait to read, unless you’re already a die-hard Alexandra fan. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t for me, and I am sad to have not enjoyed it.