Skip to main content

Still Star-Crossed


The taciturn peace that the double suicide of Romeo and Juliet imposed on the citizens of Verona is tentative at the best of times as the tension generated by the long-standing feud between the Montagues and the Capulets continues to permeate the atmosphere - seeping into to everyone’s bones and tainting all that it contacts. Burdened by the responsibility of leadership and desperate to save his city, the young Prince Escalus concludes that the only way to truly squelch this nonsense is to SUCCESSFULLY marry a Montague to a Capulet. Unfortunately, the betrothed – Benvolio and Rosaline – are not the paragon of peace that he had hoped for. However, in banding together to undermine the fate they loathe, the couple not only broker peace and save the city but also discover that they are far more willing than either would have anticipated. This lovely blend of romance and mystery adheres to the spirit of Shakespeare’s writing, if not the letter. Taub breathes new life into the well-traversed world of thirteenth-century Verona as the Bard depicted it by developing the characters of Rosaline and Benvolio and contextualizing them in a setting where the characters of both Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing came of age at approximately the same time thereby allowing her to borrow Don Pedro of Arragon (and his plight) for a clever Deus ex machina. Taub’s tale truly offers something for everyone: for those who have become disillusioned with the original tragedy, it is reinvigorating; for those who have previously found Shakespeare’s writing oblique and impenetrable, it is quite accessible; and for those who fell in love with the original star-crossed lovers as they fell in love with each other, it is heavily laced with allusions that cheekily pay homage.


  • Still Star-Crossed by Melinda Taub
  • Secondary
  • Delacorte Press
  • 342 pp.
  • Published 2013
  • 978-0-385-74350-1
  • $16.99
  • Romance

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Becoming a Comics Librarian and the Importance of Joining a Community of Practice

  Originally published April 5, 2023 Library Developments Blog |  Library Development and Networking Division Texas State Library and Archives Commission ***** As a freshly-minted librarian, I was hired to serve at THE high school bearing my district’s name alongside an amazingly zany, veteran librarian who knew the current collection inside and out as she’d been the one to revitalize it with bond money just prior to my arrival. To say that I was intimidated about what I could possibly have to contribute is more than an understatement. So when the moment of truth arrived and I was handed a “small” purchase order to get my feet wet, I. Was. Stymied! Her  fingerprints were all throughout that collection, and what  she  didn’t read our assistant  did . How would I ever fit into this team?! What could I possibly contribute?! To be honest… after teaching a core, tested subject for fifteen years, I was just beginning to read young adult literature regularly...

ARSL 2024 Conference Recap

  Originally published October 25, 2024 Library Developments Blog  |  Library Development and Networking Division Texas State Library and Archives Commission Waiting outside Gate 21 where the scent of pizza from the nearby Eastside Pies booth filled the air, I excitedly chatted about the transitional weather with my new teammate – to quote James Hurst “summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born” – the logistics of traveling for work, and our preparedness to attend the 2024 Association for Small and Rural Libraries (ARSL) conference . Neither of us truly knew what to expect, but we had been told that ARSL is THE conference for rural and small libraries, with conference organizers who not only understand the constraints of these libraries but also the unique opportunities for their being chrysalises of change. The conference theme “Libraries are (r)Evolutionary” proclaimed the event aimed to provide an opportunity for exploring the transformative power of rural and sm...

Staff Highlight: Christina Taylor

Originally published July 28, 2021 Library Developments Blog | Library Development and Networking Division Texas State Library and Archives Commission **** As part of our effort to make sure you know who the staff here at the Texas State Library are, we would like to periodically highlight staff members that you may at some point come in contact with! For our next staff highlight of 2021, I interviewed Christina Taylor, Library Development and Networking (LDN)’s new Youth Services Consultant on the Continuing Education and Consulting (CEC) team)! What are your job responsibilities at TSLAC? As the Youth Services Consultant, I will work towards ensuring Texas libraries are knowledgeable about and have the resources to implement youth services that meet the needs of their communities. To that end, I will lead projects for internal, statewide, and national initiatives relating to youth services. What projects are you excited to get started with? As a fervent advocate for comics and graph...