Adoring Addie - Review

I often pick up books that are retellings of familiar tales. It is fun for me to see how a well known plot can be placed a new time, local, and circumstances and still work.  Leslie Gould has taken Romeo and Juliet and put in Amish country in her book Adoring Addie . 

Since I already knew the story and how it ends the fun of this book is to see how the author fits the different elements of the orignal plot into the new setting. I really enjoyed the first book Gould wrote in this series. Courting Cate is a retelling of Taming of the Shrew and was very well done! I was excited to get to review this next installment in the series and even get to revisit some of the characters.

Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's tragedies. It is a romantic tale but doesn't have a very happy ending. So I was surprised by the choice of this story to be the basis for an Amish romance.  Gould does veer a bit from Shakespeare's tale to give her story a happier ending (not to spoil the story for anyone).

I enjoyed getting to know Addie and could understand why she had such a hard time going against the wishes of her family. But I was so happy she finally decided to do something for her own happiness and not just to please her parents.  The book also plainly illustrated how a misunderstanding or a small lie can lead to so many bitter years and trouble between people and how the bitterness can be passed on to the next generation so easily.

It has been a long time since my freshman high school english class when I last read Romeo and Juliet, perhaps I should break it out again to compare the two.