Review of Starcrossed

My review of Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini is based on a hardcover copy of the book that I won in a giveaway. The following review is my honest opinion of the work.

Goodreads Summary: "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."

The first fifty pages of this book didn't capture my attention the way that I had hoped they would, in all honesty I had gone so far as to think of putting Starcrossed down and giving another book a shot in its stead. But I had heard so many good things about this novel I just wasn't read to give up on it quite yet, so I continued...and things started to get interesting.

There was a lot of information to absorb in this book but I was thrilled to discover there were none of the information dumps that some writers are prone to, all of the information that readers needed to discover they did through the story itself. Josephine Angelini did an amazing job of recreating history and fabricating just enough to make the story perfectly plausible. I was entranced with the world that she had created and eager to discover more.

I liked Helen from the beginning. There's something about a socially awkward teenage girl that I can just totally relate to and is a pleasant change from all of the perfect heroines you'll find lurking about the shelves.

Lucas was a great male lead in my opinion. I can't honestly say that he's my newest fictional crush but he was great for Helen. Their romance thrilled me to no end.

Also, I loved the camaraderie  between Lucas' family. Being an only child myself I love reading about boisterous families so that I can get my fill, I used to spend lots of time at my friend's houses that had big families for similar reasons.

Despite it's hefty size once I got invested in the novel I was done with it before I knew it. I'm giving Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini a four out of five stars review. Can't wait to get my hands on the sequel to find out what's in store for Helen, Lucas and their families. :]