When
You Were Mine – Rebecca
Serle
Pages: 334
Publisher: Simon
and Schuster
Release Date: 26th
April 2012
What if your love story didn't
have a happy ending?
What is you were the girl Romeo
loved – before he met Juliet?
Meet Rosaline. She’s in love with
her best friend Rob and, when they finally kiss, she knows it’s meant to be.
But then her cousin Juliet moves
back to town. Beautiful, intriguing, and a little bit crazy Juliet – all the
boys love her, and Rob doesn’t stand a chance.
Like her namesake, Rosie is about
to find out that while being written out of your own story might feel like the
biggest tragedy of them all. Being alone isn’t the worst fate of them all.
Because the greatest love story
ever told might not be the right one, but we all know how it ends.
I
had massively high hopes for When You
Were Mine. It promised all of the things I love: contemporary romance, a
twist on a classic story and an a brand new author to fall in love with, and
yet it didn’t quite hit the spot.
Romeo and Juliet is
one of my favourite stories so I was at once extremely excited and slightly
wary of how it would be rehashed in When
You Were Mine. Rebecca Serle took Shakespeare’s classic from a completely
different angle: Rosalind’s story, one I’d never even really considered. It
occurred to me that Rosalind/Rosaline’s story is the one that I’d relate too,
the one that would resonate with people all over the world in a way that the
original just can’t. This was a bit of a revelation and I almost hated myself
for thinking it!
I
have to admit that I was actually able to forget the inspiration behind When You Were Mine and the inevitable
ending and see it as a story on its own. At first, I championed Rose and Rob
and thought Len was a bit if a creep, I soon changed my mind. Rob is the guy we
all know and think we’re in love with; Len is the boy who makes your story. I
really loved Len. But him and Rose were the only characters that I actually did
like. I empathised with Rose entirely. Watching the guy you’re in love with be
with another girl is one of the hardest things ever, especially when he’s your
best friend, and my heart broke for her,
but she was the only character that really elicited an emotional response from
me.
Charlie
was hard and controlling, Olivia was a little bit shallow and rather annoying,
Juliet was just a bitch, no excuses, and I can’t even really remember any
others, let alone have cared about them. This is going to sound a little odd
considering the basic plot that this novel follows and probably for those that
have read it as well, but I just thought everything was a little too perfect.
All the girls are stunningly beautiful and well-off, able to snap up boys left,
right and centre, even if they don’t keep them for whatever reason. I mean,
even Rose managed to find someone to heal her heart after she lost her Romeo –
is that really realistic, or am I just prematurely bitter and jaded?
When You Were Mine didn’t
live up to my staggeringly high expectations, but I will still keep my eye out
for Rebecca Serle’s future works.
Thank
you to S&S for sending me a copy to review.
Sophie
This sounded really interesting but I think I'll hold off for now, fab review :)
ReplyDeleteI'm always a little wary of rewrites of classics, they rarely live up to expectations. Good review <3
ReplyDeleteit sucks that you didn't love this one as Im really excited to get hold of a copy but Im glad you still at least liked it! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm really curious about this one. I have a copy but I keep putting it off for some reason..
ReplyDeleteJust finished this book. I feel the same really It was quite good but just never quite lived up to expectations. R and J and the best love story of all time hence drawing me in but I never really felt it delivered. Was good to read on a long coach journey though!
ReplyDelete