“While the scuffle ensued below me, unthinkingly, I must have reached out with one hand and clutched the balcony railing. I find that hand still extended from the shadow that hides me, still gripping the rail, still exposed to view, as the young man does indeed glance back over his shoulder. For a moment, his face is turned toward the gated front of our house…And then his chin tilts upward, catching the glow of the gaslight. I am sure he sees my hand, pale against the dark wrought-iron. His gaze is fixed on it.” (8)

This re-imagining of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet recasts the Bard’s star-crossed lovers as Roland Montgomery and Juliette Carondel, a Union soldier and young Creole girl living in occupied New Orleans after the Civil War. Though a concise 185 pages, Poole-Carter’s story provides plenty of sweet (and not so tragic) romance, as well as thought-provoking glimpses into the lives of nineteenth-century American women of different ages and stations--set against a convincingly rendered, voodoo-tinged Louisiana backdrop. Juliette Ascending should appeal to fans of Shakespeare’s classic, who will enjoy witnessing the familiar story unfold in an imaginative new way, and to anyone who enjoys Young Adult romances. ( )