Romeo Blue

About this book

When Flissy Budwig's parents first dropped her off in Bottlebay, Maine, she hated everything about it. She hated the big gloomy house she was to live in. She hated meeting her long-lost and highly eccentric Bathburn relatives. Most of all, she hated knowing that she was safe in America while her parents faced the guns of WWII in Europe. Especially when she discovered her parents were spies. Especially when she learned her parents were missing.

But a year has passed now, and Flissy has grown to love life in Bottlebay and grown to love Derek, the boy the Bathburns have adopted. Then a man claiming to be Derek's true father arrives, and soon he's asking all sorts of strange questions. Flissy has a nose for trouble. Has Derek's new father come to take him away from Flissy forever . . . or is there something even more sinister afoot in Bottlebay, Maine?

Secrets, spies, and sleuthing abound in this charming follow-up to Phoebe Stone's The Romeo and Juliet Code.

Reviews

“Coming of age in a time of war, feeling both loved and abandoned, clever and yet perplexed, Flissy is an engaging protagonist.” – The Wall Street Journal

“Compelling, and with plenty of heart and soul.” – Booklist, starred review

"Romeo Blue is the best sort of sequel: one you didn't know you wanted but are ever so grateful to have…Both lyrical and propulsive.” – Horn Book Magazine, starred review

“Charmingly lyrical and also notably authentic…” – Kirkus Reviews

“Readers will get caught up in this story of young love, espionage, and war-torn families while still far away from the frontlines of the battlefield.” – School Library Journal

Praise for The Romeo and Juliet Code:

"Delightful" – The Wall Street Journal

"Phoebe Stone's The Romeo and Juliet Code is quite simply the best novel for young readers I've read since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." – The Boston Globe

"Stone's intricate and lyrical novel, set during WWII, resembles The Secret Garden in all the best ways." – Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Flissy is a kick, her ever-so-proper manners and stuffy Briticisms belied by her abundant curiosity and consequent meddling." – The Horn Book Review, starred review