Juliet Dove, Queen of Love (Magic Shop #5) by Bruce Coville
Release Date: September 1, 2003
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
208 Pages
Received: BookMooch
Format: Paperback
Rating:
3.5 Nuts
Description: Shy Juliet Dove leaves Mr. Elives’ magic shop with Helen of Troy’s amulet–a virtual man magnet. Juliet doesn’t know what she’s got, but soon every boy in town is swoony for her. Yet, much as she’d like to lose all the unwanted attention, she can’t: The amulet won’t come off!
Review: This book belongs to one of my favorite book series from when I was a kid. This book came out after I was already on to reading larger and more complicated books so I didn’t even know there was a 5th book until the last few years. Of course I had to read it, just because. I like a good middle grade or children’s book once in a while.
So did this book live up to the awesome that was the previous books in the series? Yes and no. It certainly wasn’t a bad book. I was entertained, I laughed, I needed to know how it would turn out. BUT I think the previous books were better. This isn’t because the books aren’t meant for my age, I went back and read the previous books and they hold up really well. So I thought about why I didn’t like it as much as the previous books.
Well, for one, the book is about love and the main character is named Juliet. Can we stop perpetuating that Romeo and Juliet is romantic? It’s not. But it’s more than that. This book doesn’t have the kind or urgency that the others do. A dragon isn’t going to set people on fire, a skull isn’t going to force the hard truth out of everyone nearby, and the character isn’t going to get stuck as a monster. It’s a shy girl who gets followed by some very insistent boys. The danger isn’t as immediate. It was also pretty weird that Mr. Elives wasn’t really in the book. I mean, it’s his magic shop and all.
That being said, I loved all of the references to Greek mythology. I’ve been a fan of mythology since I was little so I’ll always appreciate intelligent uses of it. I think it was my favorite part of the entire story. I’ll always love Coville’s books. They’re so creative and fun. I don’t care if I’m “too old” for them.
Did you ever read Coville’s books? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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