Book Review- Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Title: Starcrossed

 Author:  Josephine Angelini

Series:  Starcrossed #1

Published:  3 July 2011 by Macmillan

Length: 514 pages

Source: Publisher

Summary :  Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is--now it's getting harder. She's having nightmares of a desperate desert journey, visions of three women weeping tears of blood. And why is she possessed by the sudden, unstoppable urge to kill the handsome new boy in school, Lucas Delos?

Review: Helen Hamilton is your general shy girl. Lucas Delos is your general hot guy. Obviously, they fall for each other. But there’s big problems. From ancient warring families, they’re cursed to hate and kill each other. Despite this, they still want to pursue their relationship and therefore want to find a way of escaping the curse.

The first thing I got from this was that it was a really thick book for what was described on the back. And I wasn’t sure how a romance could be dragged out for that long. then I got into it, and found a lot more to it than just  love bringing two teenagers together.

The first thing that grabbed me was Helen’s dreams. They were written really vividly and the idea behind her actuallygoing to the Underworld was really interesting.

This book heavily relies on Greek mythology, slightly more relating to the heroes’ side of things. it’s not often you see anything relating to the humans rather than the gods that come up in these stories, so the four warring family set up was really nice.

Helen, I found a little bit boring, as well as really nice. She’s strong and able to defend herself, but she’s all quiet and drawn away, which I think puts me off her a little bit.  The family was good, with a lot of different dynamics. Actually, all the supporting cast was good. Lucas...I didn’t like him.

I don’t think I’m the only one to notice how similar it is to Twilight. Strange family, understated heroine, romance that’s meant to be nice and engaging  but doesn’t turn out that way. At least there’s some improvement-no love triangle and Greek mythology being the main bit.

The plot goes through a lot of changes, some not really making that much sense. What does make sense  makes up for it and the best way to enjoy Starcrossed is to pretend that half of it didn’t happen.

The whole plot element relating to Creon and his lot was the most engaging thing for me. It’d be nice to see how that carries on in Dreamless.

Josephine really plays with Greek mythology. A lot. She plays with it kind of well, but there are some bits where I do think that there could be improvement. Demi-gods being pretty much all powerful? Helen and Aphrodite? To someone who loves Greek myths, these things really stand out. however, I do like the added mythology of the wars between the demigod houses and such.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a book that I’d recommend if you want a dose of paranormal romance that’s fun and sticks to a familiar and (sometimes working) formula, but not really deep. It’s like junk  food-you know it’s not that good a quality, but you still enjoy it anyway. And I meant that in a good way.

Links: | Goodreads | Author website |