Starcrossed (Early Review)

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Starcrossed #1

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.

Helen has always tried to hide her differences and knows that her face holds a beauty like no other, yet instead of this being a asset in her eyes, she finds it be a major flaw as it draws attention to herself. She is painfully shy, to the point where she experiences horrendous pains whenever any attention is drawn to her. When she starts having nightmares that come to life as well as startling visions of three screaming women who cry tears of blood she knows that she won't be able to hide her true self much longer. To make matters worse those three women go into an absolute fury driving Helen with the need to kill whenever she runs into one of the Delos teens, especially Lucas. What Helen doesn't know is that the fates have ensured that these two will replay the roles of one of the greatest tragedies of all time, destined to be star crossed lovers with the highest stakes imaginable.

I've always loved anything to do with Greek mythology, especially books that turn the myth into reality in a modern setting. Starcrossed does exactly this. However, what is different is that it paints the gods as petulant beings that no longer have a role in human's lives. Well, as long as the demigods keep their end of the bargain that is. This was a really interesting twist on the typical mythology story, and made Starcrossed really stand out from the crowd. The idea of fated roles is really intriguing, especially since there is still the possibility that the characters could potentially find a way around that destiny and choose their own paths.

This may seem to be a little funny, but I couldn't help but be a little frustrated at the major roadblocks standing in the way between Lucas and Helen, especially considering the title. I knew before I even started reading that things would be rough between them, perhaps their love being forbidden but not by insurmountable odds. Of course that thought got quickly put out of my mind once things started to be revealed. Considering how sweet things were between the two of them and how much their heartache sucked me in, I really hope that they find some way to overcome those obstacles so they can be together. As Lucas points out, never say never, as the gods like to torment those who use absolutes.

The best thing about Starcrossed is that while you are kept in plenty of suspense to keep you sucked in, you are also given just the right amount of information to ensure that you never get overwhelmed or frustrated from a lack of information. This can be a hard balance to find, but Starcrossed does it perfectly. I'm really eager to see what happens next as there was a twist at the ends that can only spell trouble for the future. All in all Starcrossed was a really great read, that may have been a little slow to build at first, but it never once lost my attention. Prepared to be sucked in from almost the start and make sure to give yourself plenty of time to read this one as you won't be able to put it down. Definitely a fantastic debut that you won't want to miss if you are a fan of mythology in the YA genre.

(Received from Netgalley)

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