The Juliet Club -- Suzanne Harper

High school junior Kate Sanderson has sworn off love.  She has good reasons for doing so -- her parents, polar opposites, got divorced when she was eleven, and much more recently, she had her heart broken by a total dirtbag* named Jerome.  Even though she's just won an essay competition and is headed to Verona, Italy, hometown of the world's most famous star-crossed lovers, she has no doubts that she will have no trouble adhering to her new No Romance Lifestyle.

Unbeknownst to her, part of the seminar she's taking part in involves working closely with the other students (two more Americans and three teens from Verona), answering letters sent to Juliet herself.  In such an environment, how could romance not flourish?

It reminded me less of Romeo & Juliet and more of The Taming of the Shrew and some of the other comedies (lots of secret plans, spying, rivalry, extreme drama (especially from Kate's father, who I got a huge kick out of) and even some swordplay, though there was sadly no cross-dressing).  Knowledge of Shakespeare isn't at all necessary.  The characters don't have much depth, and they sometimes seem to experience jarringly rapid changes in emotion/personality/objects of affection, but overall, The Juliet Club is quite fun. 

My favorite thing about this book was learning that the Juliet Club is a real thing -- the lovelorn and confused all 'round the world send letters to Juliet!  (And they get answers!)

*Okay, I admit it.  That's me editorializing.  But he IS a total dirtbag!  He gives her a ruby ring and then dumps her, asks for it back, and gives it to his new girlfriend!  DIRTBAG!  I suspect that the pinkness of the cover is affecting my use of the exclamation points.  !!!