When I was nine or ten, my parents had us all watch the BBC production of Romeo and Juliet. I thought it was the stupidest story in the whole world. I also kept acting out alternate endings with my Barbie dolls, which probably should have been my first hint that I didn’t hate it as much as I thought.
And now I have a new book deal. Here’s the official announcement:
Kristin Daly Rens at HarperCollins imprint Balzer + Bray has bought, in a six-figure deal, two books in a YA fantasy series by Rosamund Hodge, author of Cruel Beauty. The new series, pitched as “Romeo and Juliet meets Sabriel,” re-imagines Shakespeare’s story of feuding families and doomed lovers in a city threatened by necromancers and protected by “the Juliet,” a girl born in every generation with powerful magic. Publication will start in spring 2016; Hannah Bowman of Liza Dawson Associates negotiated for North American rights.