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cheri_champagne's review against another edition
5.0
Wow! I’ve got to start off by saying that I truly admire Laura Ellen Scott’s ability to create such a detailed and inter-woven plot. I am in awe! Not only was the story told in such a remarkable way, but also, the flow of her sentences and fantastic imagery made this a smooth and enjoyable read.
Laura Ellen Scott’s characters are spectacular. They popped from the pages and came to life; I could swear that even the narrative voice in my mind changed with each character.
I absolutely loved this book! Kudos to Laura!
*I received an ARC copy from the publisher, but I've already pre-ordered my own copy!
Laura Ellen Scott’s characters are spectacular. They popped from the pages and came to life; I could swear that even the narrative voice in my mind changed with each character.
I absolutely loved this book! Kudos to Laura!
*I received an ARC copy from the publisher, but I've already pre-ordered my own copy!
sparkys1stp's review against another edition
5.0
The Juliet is a masterful blend of stories of the unfortunate owners of the ‘cursed’ gemstone called The Juliet tied together by the gemstone’s most recent owner, retired cowboy actor Rigg Dexson. The cowboy actor currently resides at the Mystery House in the former mining town of Centenary, NV. The story jumps from the gilded age on the east coast to 50’s LA noir to Centenary when it was a boom town in the early 1900’s. Laura Ellen Scott masterfully weaves all of these settings plus a few more and the characters that inhabit them into a fantastic narrative expertly striking upon the perfect details for each specific time in history allowing the reader to effortlessly follow The Juliet on its journey through time as the gem seems to discard one owner in favor of the next -- never changing hands without some terrible consequence for the former owner. It felt like I was reading Tarantino mixed with Eleanor Catton. Scott has written perfectly violent and enthralling literary mystery.
gorjessina17's review against another edition
4.0
Where to start…
This was an odd one. Though the description above focuses on only two characters, the book itself is more about the history of the jewel and ALL of it’s owners, not just Rigg & Willie. The entire lifetime of the Juliet is shown, along with all the despicable things people did to each other in order possess the gem.
I will say, the novel hopped around quite a bit in the Juliet’s history, going back and forth between all the owners’ stories at once, instead of running a direct timeline. This made sense in the context of the story, but it was somewhat difficult to follow. The author DID include the dates at the beginning of each section, but I still had some trouble remembering who lived in which year, though not enough to throw me out of the story.
It helped that I really liked the author’s writing style. All the characters seemed completely believable, which, considering the wide variety, was pretty impressive. Even though most of the characters were all similarly greedy, the author managed to imbue each of them with their own sense of purpose and individuality. And, as easy as it would have been to go overboard with the ways in which the characters obtain the Juliet, you never have to throw on the “suspension of disbelief” switch in this novel. Even the most unbelievable of twists seemed entirely believable with this cast of characters.
The author also managed to encapsulate the time periods in which she was writing fairly well, without falling into the common pit of overdoing the accents & dialogue or focusing too much on historical details. The scenes in older time periods were just as easy to follow as the modern ones and, though there was some description of the locations/clothes/etc, the focus stayed where it should, on the Juliet and her devotees.
I ended up really enjoying this book. Putting all the bits and pieces of the story together into one cohesive storyline made me feel like I was also on a treasure hunt, the treasure being the Juliet’s history rather than the stone itself.
This was an odd one. Though the description above focuses on only two characters, the book itself is more about the history of the jewel and ALL of it’s owners, not just Rigg & Willie. The entire lifetime of the Juliet is shown, along with all the despicable things people did to each other in order possess the gem.
I will say, the novel hopped around quite a bit in the Juliet’s history, going back and forth between all the owners’ stories at once, instead of running a direct timeline. This made sense in the context of the story, but it was somewhat difficult to follow. The author DID include the dates at the beginning of each section, but I still had some trouble remembering who lived in which year, though not enough to throw me out of the story.
It helped that I really liked the author’s writing style. All the characters seemed completely believable, which, considering the wide variety, was pretty impressive. Even though most of the characters were all similarly greedy, the author managed to imbue each of them with their own sense of purpose and individuality. And, as easy as it would have been to go overboard with the ways in which the characters obtain the Juliet, you never have to throw on the “suspension of disbelief” switch in this novel. Even the most unbelievable of twists seemed entirely believable with this cast of characters.
The author also managed to encapsulate the time periods in which she was writing fairly well, without falling into the common pit of overdoing the accents & dialogue or focusing too much on historical details. The scenes in older time periods were just as easy to follow as the modern ones and, though there was some description of the locations/clothes/etc, the focus stayed where it should, on the Juliet and her devotees.
I ended up really enjoying this book. Putting all the bits and pieces of the story together into one cohesive storyline made me feel like I was also on a treasure hunt, the treasure being the Juliet’s history rather than the stone itself.
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