A Daughter of Fair Verona, by Christina Todd

With all the craziness and stress going on in the world right now, my decompression activity has been playing video games and listening to cozy audiobooks. But coming off my reading of the Family Medici, I was in the mood for something vaguely renaissance-adjacent, and A Daughter of Fair Verona fit the bill nicely. It’s a mystery, it’s a romance, and it’s a must-read for anyone who enjoyed the play, Shakespeare in general, or even the 1996  Baz Luhrmann film Romeo + Juliet.

The premise is: Romeo and Juliet didn’t actually die at the end of the play. Their passion and love inspired a truce between the Montague and Capulet families. They married and started a family, and their first daughter was named Rosaline after Romeo’s first love to remind her of OG Rosaline’s chasteness. It kind of worked too well, as Rosie is now in her early 20’s and still unmarried (an elderly spinster by the culture of the time). She’s being married off to the dastardly Duke Stephano, who is best known for murdering all his wives to take their dowries. But when he turns up murdered at their betrothal party, it’s up to Rosie and her family to uncover the real killer.

I enjoyed this much more than I expected to. I enjoy Shakespeare as much as the next English major, but sometimes “Willy Shakes humor” can be a little much (and a little cringey). This book dodges that entirely, and instead delivers some of the best modernized Shakespearean humor I’ve read in a long time. The references are noticeable but not overbearing, and made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion.

Rosie is a delightful, upbeat, willful, and intelligent protagonist who makes her positions clear while balancing the needs of her family. Her trick of avoiding a betrothal by finding “someone better” for her potential suitor is brilliant, but the way it backfires in the premise is pure Shakespeare. She makes the entire book really come to life.

Daughter also does an impressive juggling act, attempting to be a murder mystery, a romance, a historical piece, and a love letter to Shakespeare all in one go, and it succeeds on almost all counts. I didn’t see the mystery coming at all (but should have! The signs were all there!) but I was disappointed with how the romance story turned out. I also thought there was a missed opportunity for a “love interest in disguise” twist, but that’s not the author’s fault. There’s no way to give every reader their ideal ending.

In the end, I was really on edge for Rosie during the final confrontation, and that’s always a sign of a successful story. Definitely recommended.