Everybody knows Juliet, the teenaged paramour of the fickle Romeo. But she serves a very different purpose in Anne Fortier's "Juliet," a feminine thriller about a young woman who finds that the tale of the "star-cross'd lovers" is hitting a little too close to home. The heroine is kind of weak, but the medieval conflicts and their modern counterparts are intriguing. 
 When her aunt dies, Julie Jacobs finds that -- like all successes in life -- every penny of the inheritance has gone straight to her obnoxious twin sister Janice. The only thing she inherits is a key to a safe-deposit box in Siena, which has clues to a possible treasure. Wow, her aunt really didnt care, huh? 
 It turns out that one of her ancestors was Giulietta Tolomei, who fell in love with a young man named Romeo, and their love ended up causing some massive unrest in Siena. Yes, they were Romeo and Juiet. 
 As she goes through the typical ugly-duckling-becoming-a-swan routine, Julie is taken under the wing of a wealthy woman and even falls for the woman's hunky carabiniere nephew. But it turns out that the shadows of 14th-century can stretch to the present, as she searches out the modern branches of Giulietta's story. 
 "Juliet" is a story I really, really wanted to like. And it succeeds wildly in the portions set centuries ago -- the prose is lush, and there's a bittersweet, classical atmosphere that hovers over the text. It's also intriguing to see a retelling of Shakespeare's classical story that really feels like a historical story. 
 Unfortunately that means that the contemporary parts DON'T succeed wildly. It's almost like the 14th and 21st-century parts of the story were written by different people, since the present-day narrative is clumsy and melodramatic. 
 The biggest problem is Julie. I think Fortier was trying to make her a vulnerable, underdog heroine, but she ends up being so pathetic and limp that the contemporary parts read like "Bella Swan does Venice." You end up wanting to smack her most of the time, especially when her sister randomly shows up and their longtime feud just sort of... vanishes. 
 Also, she doesn't end up overcoming her low self-esteem and many issues because she TRIES to, but because God apparently decided to lavish good luck on her after 25 years of misery. She stumbles into a treasure hunt, a fairy godmother, and a hot boyfriend without any kind of effort on her part. Blech. 
 "Juliet" would have been a brilliant novel if Anne Fortier had stuck to the historical parts of it, and just forgotten about Julie. Too flawed, but hopefully Fortier will improve.