Starcrossed - Josephine Angelini
When shy, awkward Helen Hamilton meets Lucas Delos for the first time, she thinks two things:
the first, that he is the most ridiculously beautiful boy she has seen in her life; the second, that she wants to kill him with her bare hands.
An ancient curse means Lucas and Helen are destined to loathe one another. But sometimes love is stronger then hate, and not even the gods themselves can prevent what will happen next....
Synopsis -
How do you defy destiny? Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history. As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart.
I was eagerly awaiting this book, after Amazon suggested it to me (I think they all know me by name at the headquarters, I buy so many books hehe!) and it was on my 'To buy later list' then the lovely ladies at My Kinda Book sent them to us, in our VIP packs! YEY FOR US! :D I got to read it before it came out!
I started reading it the day I got it, and apart from putting it down to go to the loo, make my dinner and move from my bed to the sofa and back again, I did not stop reading it. I read and read and read. I couldn't stop myself turning over the pages, even at midnight when my head was dropping forward onto my chest everytime I stopped looking at the pages. I physically couldn't put it down. It has been a long time since I stayed up to the early hours to read through the final pages of an amazing book, but STARCROSSED certainly was worth the fatigue the next day!
It is 514 pages of pure yumminess! I loved the Romeo and Juliet starcrossed lovers feat, mixed with Greek mythology it certainly was a great combination. It really did work quite well together, they way Angelini got Helen and Paris of Troy's story (who are considered one of the most popular starcrossed lovers in mythology) into the modern world, with massive twists and turns of other Greek legends thrown in with it!
Helen (our Main Character) was a drag at first, in my opinion. She was beautiful (tourists stared at her face for gods sake!), sporty and seemed perfect but within the first few chapters I grew to like her. She wasn't perfect, she had trouble finding who she was, just like every teenager.
Lucas then blazes into her life, and he is the 'most ridiculously beautiful boy she's ever seen'. When that was said, I just groaned aloud, thinking oh no, another book where the guy is perfect, has super powers and the girl is some helpless weakling who can't think with her own brain. So. Wrong.
Not only does their first meeting not go as planned, but it leads to a LOT of sexual tension and pent up passion between the two. And we all know things go bang when that happens! They aren't supposed to be together, or are they? is the question repeatidly going through my head as I read on and on.
I really enjoyed seeing Helen develop as a character throughout the book, she becomes aware of herself and her powers and stops feeling as socially awkward as she did before Lucas, and his family threw themselves into her life. It was great to go on this journey with her, and see her turn into a kickass heroine, able to protect herself. I loved how her friendships and relationships with those around her grew, to match her growing confidence as she accepted herself for what and who she was.
Claire, the best friend with a lot of spunk, was one of my favourite background characters. Her comments actually had me laughing out loud because she really didn't care what people thought of her, and she had total belief in Helen and her abilities.
Simirlarly the other background characters seem just as important as the MC's which is really nice to see. Hector is a sweetie who just wants to protect his family and he really made me swoon. Jason was unbelievably sexy to me, he was the mediator between Hector and Lucas, but whenever Claire was around his laid back attitude was replaced by his super hot temper. I loved them two, Claire and Jason, but I just wished their chemistry wasn't as rushed and hastily put together. They have two more books to explore what they feel for each other, and Angelini panicked a bit I think and rushed what could have been something brilliant in the background.
There were a lot of twists and turns, which was hard to wrap my head around. I advise you don't read it as fast as I did, and have breaks to assess what you've learnt, and to allow it to sink in and to think about what it did to the story and the characters. Otherwise you just become a bit overwhelmed trying to figure it out in your head, like I did, and I still haven't mananged to start another book because I'm still working through what I learnt in STARCROSSED. I'm trying to sort out what I do know, what my theorys are and what I want to happen in the next two books before I start reading another book.
There are three other things I have to complain about. The first is the size of the book. I believe that it was dragged out, considerately dragged out. There were parts that were described to the nth degree, whereas other parts, like the action and fight scenes were rushed through and that left me with a feeling of things being unfinished. Especially as the fight was the thing that Helen had been training for all the way through the book!
The second thing is the irritating way it is written. I can easily lose myself in a good book, specially with easy POV but with STARCROSSED I found it confusing. The POV was third person, which is fine if it's going to be consistent, but Angelini kept switching from concentrating on Helen and Lucas, to Hector's POV but still in a third person way, or to Lucas's POV or to Noel's POV. It was annoyingly jumpy but I can understand why. I think she thought she had to explain every thought and feeling every character had, instead of letting the reader get that from the writing.
The third and final complaint is the ending. I hate cliffhangers, because despite the complaints I really did love the story and what Angelini did with these characters and their legends. I want to know what happens next!!
There are lots of questions left unanswered, which leads us into the second book of the trilogy DREAMLESS, which I can't wait to get my hands on next year. Hopefully, in the third and final book, all the questions will be answered and outcomes will be reached for every problem these characters have faced!
Her debut was good, and I will be keeping all eyes on her for the time being!
And she should be proud, this is the longest review I've ever done on a single book!
JB xx
