This book is basically the story of the original Romeo and Juliet and their descendant's love story in the present. 
 (Found it very interesting that Shakespeare in fact did not originally come up with this story and that he based it on the Italian tale "The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet.") 
 I loved reading the story about Romeo and Juliet in the 1340's. I did not enjoy reading about them in present time as much. (I found it a little much that they were direct descendants AND also had the same name.) I was able to get sucked into the romantic world of 1300's with out all of the half page descriptions Fortier used when describing the present Italy. I found my self getting so disappointed when the story would switch time and story lines and I would be stuck reading all the Italian descriptions and names of places and people when all I wanted was more of "Romeo Romeo... " I did enjoy the end of the book when all the twists and revelations started to come together with the Romeo and Juliet of the 20th century. Some parts of the plot were a little cheesy though. 
 3 stars.