Finding Juliet

by Dale Lisa Flint

Overview

For 17-year-old foster kid Alex Riddle, life has been a series of unhappy endings... until she meets her Romeo, the handsome star of the high school play. What could possibly go wrong? For starters, a malfunctioning cell phone that propels Alex 400 years into the past. Now, stuck in 17th century London, Alex must find her way home, navigating a world of conspiracy and danger, all without Wi-Fi. Is Alex destined to become like Juliet, a victim of life's tragic circumstances? Or can a star-crossed girl write her own ending?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781947536203
Publisher:	Turtle Cove Press
Publication date:	05/01/2025
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.66(d)

Editorial Reviews

2025-03-21
A troubled teenager travels back to the medieval era in Flint’s YA fantasy novel.

Seventeen-and-a-half-year-old Alex thinks she’s seen every variety of foster mom. Her latest one, Monica, seems to be the overly earnest and anxious type. Alex has always been an urbanite, residing in San Francisco and other cities, so living in rural Jefferson, California, with Monica is an adjustment. (There is dial-up internet, and many cows.) In drama class at her new high school, Alex meets Ryan when they kiss as part of a play rehearsal. After skipping school together and getting into trouble with police, Ryan proposes that they flee to Los Angeles. Torn between well-meaning Monica and persuasive Ryan, Alex is just about to call Ryan when lightning strikes, followed by darkness. Alex awakens in an alternate world resembling a Renaissance fair. She’s now in London, and worse, it’s no longer the year 2013, but 1613. Mistaken for a missing actor who’s supposed to play Juliet in a performance for the King of England, Alex is forced to conceal her gender (only men could act) while searching for the real actor and trying to somehow get back to her own time. Flint breathes new life into the tired concept of time travel. The characters are uniformly engaging, from the leads to the minor players. Damaged Alex (her biological mother overdosed) never loses her sense of humor, whether getting peed on by a “Decidedly Well-Hydrated Cow” or tipping over in bottom-heavy clothing during the medieval era. A large cast, including a lisping oarsman, a prisoner named Moll Cutpurse, and a pimply, sarcastic drama classmate, also add dashes of flavor. London in 1613 is vividly described, with “dusty children” watching a sadistic marionette show, fleas, stockades, stalls selling produce, and live chickens. The depiction of small-town life in 2013 Jefferson—a place with “fallow fields and ancient tractors,” Western wear stores, a Super Kmart, and bowling alley—also rings true. Flint keeps the story moving briskly, and it’s so much fun that the improbable aspects shrink to insignificance.

A deft balance of pathos and humor.

Kirkus Reviews