Review: Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Published: May 31st, 2011; HarperTeen
487 pages

From Goodreads:
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.

My Rating:
4.5 stars

Thoughts:

I’ve been meaning to read Starcrossed for about a year now, and after a few delays, I finally got around to it! It’s definitely a book I don’t regret reading, and although it didn’t knock my socks off, I’m still giving it a solid 4 star rating.

The story centers around 16-year-old Helen Hamilton, and is mostly your run-of-the-mill girl discovers she has superpowers and falls in (forbidden) love kinda story. It is very similar to the book Carrier of the Mark, and therefore Twilight plot-wise. But where Carrier of the Mark was a total flop for me, Starcrossed held my attention and was a really enjoyable book.

Josephine Angelini added enough detail to the story that it became original even though the plot is one that has been done many times. There were some points in the book that bordered dangerously close to info dumping, but nowhere near as bad as some books. I was overjoyed to find out that this book dealt greek myths, something I’ve been interested in since I was small – and based off my general knowledge, Angelini got her facts right.

There were some parts where the relationship between Lucas and Helen did move a little fast, but not in such a way that made their relationship less believable. There was a great amount of sexual tension going on between them because of certain circumstances, and I loved it! I really can’t wait to see where their relationship goes in the next book.

Even though the plot wasn’t completely original, I thought the characters really were. Yes, some of the relationships that developed were visible from a mile away, but the characters and their actions were otherwise unique.

I’ll try not to go on all day about this book, even though it was a great book, and I probably could. To put it short, Starcrossed wasn’t perfect, but was still well worth reading. It’s a bit on the long end (487 pages!) of books, but I barely even noticed. I’m putting the next book in the series at the top of my to read list, and I think you should too!