When You Were Mine

When you were mine  by Rebecca Serle 
Simon Pulse 2012

Rosie (Rosalind) Caplet and her best friends  Olivia and Charlie (Charlotte) are entering their senior year.  They are rich, spoiled, and ready to be on top of the school social strata.  In addition, Rosie knows that she and Rob Monteg will finally become more than just
friends. 

Rob does return from summer camp to tell Rosie that he too feels they were meant to be- that is, until her cousin Juliet arrives and so easily captivates Rob.  This is the part where I ask if the story seems familiar; but it doesn’t.  The story is purported to be a retelling of Romeo (“Monteg”) and Juliet (“Caplet”), told from the point of view of Rosalind Caplet. As we look for the references that link this with the Shakespearian story, we find that we have little in common with these rich, spoiled Southern California kids.  We do look forward to seeing the ever-in-trouble Len, who lends comic relief and a quirky personality (personality being the factor lacking in the other two-dimensional characters).

The idea of using Rosalind as the narrator is a nice plot device, and Rose evolves in the second half as a character we can care about, even though she rambles on and on when she is remembering some incident(s) from childhood (filler for the author?)

The mystery of the family estrangement adds an interesting dimension.   A quick, light, summer read with a little romance thrown in.

Kissing; references to suicide; 12 up.