ROMAN AND JEWEL
BY DANA L. DAVIS ‧ RELEASE DATE: JAN. 5, 2021
A teenage girl learns fame and money cannot buy you true love.
Jerzie Jhames is a teen with a destiny is to be a Broadway actress.
Jerzie loves Broadway. She has spent most of her 16 years preparing for this career. She has taken music theory classes. She has taken singing lessons. She has poured her heart into learning everything she can about the world of theater. She is super excited to be a part of the cast that will do a retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The retake on Romeo and Juliet gives the book a nice twist. You feel you are right there with Jerzie. You can feel the pain she feels with each moment of her love triangle with Zeppelin. You love each moment that she experiences with him. You are excited to learn his real Italian name. You cringe when she feels the sadness, he feels with the surprise twist of the play that causes Zeppelin to leave temporarily. You feel the love and tension that the two have. Jerzie James and Zeppelin Reid come off the page. You leave the book feeling as if you know the two of them. You enjoy the banter that goes on between the two. Sure, there are moments that feel contrived, but you do not care because the characters are so well-defined that you look over it. Davis makes you root and care for both Cinny and Jerzie. The two girls are rivals, but you do identify with them. Yes, there are lots of scenes where Cinny comes off as a cliché celebrity, but you forgive it because Davis works hard to make Cinny a character the reader will relate to. For any teen girl, it is a nice read as there are cute lessons about life, love and the limits to money and fame when it comes to true love.
