In Fair Verona Where We Lay Our Scene: A Review of A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd
Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.
As you may know, I’m not a huge fan of Shakespeare. I hate his comedies with a burning passion, but I do enjoy his tragedies. I have also called Shakespeare a pretentious prick in the past. One time in college I debated writing a paper on him having an Oedipus Complex. Oh, and fun fact, his head is missing from his grave. Needless to say, I have quite the love-hate relationship with Shakespeare and his work. But this did not stop me from picking up today’s cozy mystery.
Please welcome to the stage A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd!
And please welcome back Books&Lewks!
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Now onto the synopsis! As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you’ve read any other review on this site then you will know I simply love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. This is your one and only warning. I also have a content and trigger warning to issue. A Daughter of Fair Verona has discussions of sexual abuse and dubious consent. Please be aware of these topics, especially the latter as it plays a major role in the end, before reading. With that, let’s get to the synopsis.
In fair Verona where we lay our scene, Romeo and Juliet’s stupidity fueled teenaged antics did not end in death. Through a series of convoluted events, the pair survived, the feud between of the Capulets and Montagues ended, and Romeo and Juliet get to spend their lives together; along with their seven kids.
The eldest is who A Daughter of Fair Verona follows. Rosie Montague, named for Romeo’s ex-girlfriend, is a certified spinster at the ripe old age of twenty and she has sworn off love. Every time her parents have betrothed her to someone, she has managed to find them a different bride. Sadly there is one would-be groom she can’t pawn off.
Duke Stephano is a three time widower and not well liked. His previous wives passed away under quite mysterious circumstances. Rosie is very obviously worried that Duke Stephano will be sending her to an early grave next. Those fears turn out to be unfounded. At their betrothal ball Duke Stephano is found dead in the gardens with a knife sticking out of him. Verona quickly points their fingers at Rosie, but nearly everyone in the city has a motive. So it’s up to Rosie to solve Duke Stephano’s murder and clear her name.
While a cozy mystery, and a good one at that, this is a romance first and foremost. Rosie has sworn off love thanks to her parents being menaces and all over each other at all times. But on the evening of her betrothal ball, Rosie meets the beautiful Lysander and falls in love at first sight; the one thing she has vowed never to do. Naturally, there has to be a love triangle. While Rosie and Lysander pine for one another for the majority of the story, Verona’s Prince Escalus is seemingly every single place Rosie is.
The moment Prince Escalus is introduced, and has such great, natural banter with Rosie, I knew I was going to be shipping the pair. Lysander? Don’t know him. Don’t care. He’s just a pretty face. To be fair, the author spends much more time building the relationship between Rosie and Escalus than the one between Rosie and Lysander. It took only one conversation between Rosie and Escalus for me to be twirling my hair and kicking my feet. If these two didn’t get together by the last page, I was going scream. The pair have great chemistry together, and the banter is top tier.
That said, Prince Escalus ultimately gets the girl through some highly questionable means. This is where the dubious consent warning comes in. Rosie and Escalus are very clearly meant to be together. Like I said, I spent the whole book rooting for the two. Then the final chapter involves Prince Escalus entrapping Rosie in marriage by tricking her into thinking she’s with Lysander; an unnecessary and extremely problematic plan considering how well suited the pair are together, their relationship could have easily bloomed with a declaration of love on Escalus's part. The dubious consent comes out of nowhere. Prince Escalus’s actions cause me to view him in a brand new negative light and the whole thing left quite a sour taste in my mouth. I wish a content warning regarding the dubious consent had been included at the start of the book given Escalus essentially assaults Rosie. I don't want to root for him anymore, I'm now Team Lysander.
Aside from the above issue, I had a wonderful time with A Daughter of Fair Verona. The mystery is fun, there are quite a few suspects to choose from and they all actually have motives. I have read many books where the suspects have virtually no motive. I also found Rosie to be a solid main character. She’s very likeable and has good reason to be investigating Duke Stephano’s death as she’s out to clear her name. Her motivations throughout the novel are clear. She wants people to stop saying she killed a man thus clearing her and her family’s name, and she wants to get with Lysander.
I could do without the constant forth wall breaking, though. The story is told from Rosie’s point-of-view, and she talks to the reader like they are in the room with her. Her forth wall breaking also makes me question when this story takes place. I assume the 14th century as that is when Romeo and Juliet takes place and the fashions described by the author fit that time period. But why is Rosie referencing car windshields?
It’s also unclear on if Romeo and Juliet are supposed to be real people, like they lived in the same world William Shakespeare did and he wrote about them upon hearing their story, or if the story takes place in some Shakespearian universe where all his characters are real. I bring this up because during Rosie’s forth wall breaks, she brings up Shakespeare. She mentions multiple times that he wrote about her parents. Rosie also references many of Shakespeare’s other works. Not to mention there are two sisters who are believed to be witches. They run an apothecary shop and the shop's name is a Macbeth reference. So are these women two of the witches from Macbeth? So you see where I am a tad confused about the world Christina Dodd created for A Daughter of Fair Verona. I have many questions.
Despite it all, I love this book. It is cheesy. It is so incredibly cheesy. I’m talking role your eyes and groan type of cheesy. Yet I loved every minute of it. It has the perfect amount of Shakespearian puns and references while also having an enthralling mystery. Verona is full of life, the dynamic between Rosie and Escalus is fantastic for the vast majority of the novel, Rosie’s love for her family is clear from the very first page, and I want to read the sequel as soon as possible. A Daughter of Fair Verona is not necessarily a “good” book, it is not without its faults, but this book put a huge smile on my face which is not something I can say for a lot of the books I read this year.
With that, I shall bid you all adieu. Thank you very much for joining me today, Book Nerds. I hope you enjoyed your stay here at Reading Has Ruined My Life. I will see you all again next week with a fun new post. If you can’t wait that long then I highly suggest giving Reading Has Ruined My Life a follow over on Instagram (@ReadingHasRuinedMyLife). I post there almost daily so come back often to revel in literary goodness. You can also follow the blog on Twitter and BlueSky (@RHRMLBlog). If you want something not related to books, then check out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. The show stars me and two of my dearest friends as we talk about everything and anything. The show is close to celebrating its 150th episode! You can listen to the show on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts. A new episode releases every Wednesday evening.
Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.
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