Just Finished: Julie and Romeo

Jeanne Ray's Julie and Romeo was my choice for the Romance category of the Mixing It Up challenge.  As I have said, I would rather do almost anything than read a Harlequin-style romance.  So, I looked for a book that could be considered a romance, but wasn't a "romance novel," if you know what I mean.  Browsing Amazon eventually turned up Julie and Romeo. 

From the jacket:  "A deliciously funny and wickedly sexy novel of love found (finally!) and love threatened (inevitably) by the families who claim to love us best: Romeo Cacciamani and Julie Roseman are rival florists in Boston, whose families have hated each other for as long as anyone can remember (what they can't remember is why).  When these two vital, lonely people see each other across a crowded lobby at a small business owner's seminar, an intense attraction blooms that neither tries to squelch.  They're not sure what fate has in store for them, but they're not about to let something as silly as a generations-long feud stand in the way of finding out."


Well, it's a romance.  Very light, often amusing, and occasionally truly wise about mothers and daughters.  Initially, I was, honestly, reading just to finish the Romance requirement of the challenge, but it's a winning, good-natured sort of tale.  Although I wouldn't have chosen it for my own pleasure, I ended up liking Julie and hoping she'd get her man.