Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Summary/Cover Image from Publisher's Website:

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.

Review:

I have been looking forward to reading Josephine Angelini’s Starcrossed for what seems like ages now due to a few simple reasons. First, I adore the cover. Simply stunning, it caught my eye the first time I saw it. Second and third, the premise sounded amazing, and after following Josephine’s blog tour hosted by Kismet Book Touring, I knew I just had to read it. Sadly enough, Starcrossed was just not my book. I really wanted to like it, don’t get me wrong, and while I did enjoy certain parts, I felt underwhelmed for the majority of the novel.

Helen has always been one of the shyest girls in her grade but for some important reasons of course. Because for some reason Helen is extraordinary, and due to her moments of super strength and speed, Helen has gained some unwanted attention in the past few years. However, when the Delos family arrives in Nantucket, everything begins to get just a little more extraordinary as well as startling. She starts to have the most realistic and nail-biting dreams, and bizarrely enough, whatever happens to her in the dreams (getting mud on her feet for example), is there when she wakes up. In addition, that is not adding in the fact that she has unusually drawn to Lucas, and after an especially odd encounter, she is begins to wonder if there are superior things occurring… things that just may make the Greek myths she always heard real. What is a girl to do? Will Helen ever figure out what is occurring around her? Moreover, what is exactly going on between her and Lucas? Are the feelings between then more than just an average teen crush?

One thing that makes or breaks a book for me is the main character. I have to like the main character, or at least understand them in some sense, but for Helen, I was left feeling annoyed for the most part. I am all for people being shy, but Helen’s shyness was just too much for me. It was easy to see Helen was widely liked in her school, but she left her own silly habits and fears get in the way of her having a good time. Secondly, she was so naïve at times, especially when it came to the Delos and all the different things that come with their arrival. She was always so quick to go along with what anyone said or did to the point that I truly felt like she did not really have a backbone, which just bothered me to no end.

I did enjoy some of the other characters, though, such as Claire, Helen’s best friend, some of the Delos family members, and most importantly the “villain” who was evil in the best kind of ways. I was always happy to see them make appearances.

While the premise behind Starcrossed is fantastic, the overall execution was not my favorite. Some parts of it were good, and that is what saved the book in some ways. I enjoyed seeing how everything was set up and put into to play. However, I didn't really see the reason behind Helen and Luca's romance. Instant love connections are commonly in YA, and while I do enjoy the most of them, this one was just a bit too forced. I could never really see why Lucas and Helen liked each other so much. Friends? Yes. But anything more than that? No. In addition, some of the plot was all over the place to the point where it began to get confusing at times, because more and more plot lines were introduced without former ones being explained let alone resolved.

Angelini’s writing was decent. I thought she did a good job of switching between narrators as well as using the third person narrative to her advantage. However, I felt some scenes were a bit dragged out with unnecessary details, and some scenes were just a bit too wish-washy.

In all, Starcrossed was not the book for me for numerous reasons. However, I still suggest that if you try it, especially if you enjoyed Twilight saga because the two are similar in some ways. Other readers and bloggers have enjoyed it, and I can see why they did but I just didn't see the same light.

And the big question: Will I be reading the sequel(s)? As of yet, it is undetermined, because while in some ways I want to know what occurs next, in others I don’t. Maybe I’ll give it a try someday.

Grade: C

Starcrossed is now out!

Source: Publisher via Netgalley- thanks HarperTeen/Netgalley!

To find out more about Josephine and her books, be sure to visit her website. 

Book Trailer: