/ Starcrossed by Josephine Angeline

Starcrossed
by Josephine Angeline
487 pages


Summary
This is kind of a girlier version of Percy Jackson. Helen has always been different. Not only is she abnormaly beautiful, but she is also very strong and fast and weird things seem to happen around her. Her whole life she has just wanted to be like everybody else but when Lucas and his family move to her small island of Nantucket she discovers she isn't the only one who is different. 


At first she HATES Lucas and she doesnt' know why. Every time she sees Lucas or a member of his family she sees three ugly old women whaling and gets this overwhelming desire to kill them. They end up saving each others lives which makes the "I want to kill you" curse end.


Turns out that they are all decedents, or scions, from the ancient mythological Greek Gods and the fates have doomed each generation to play out the tragedies of Greek history. Helen and Lucas (once they're not enemies anymore) feel this unavoidable pull towards each other that they can't fight because they are literally destined for each other. Problem? If they are together then a huge war will start between the Gods and the other scions, because their tragedy to play out is the Trojan War.


My Review
writing
So I actually really liked this book! I was a little skeptical at first because I am a total first line snob and the book started out with dialog in the middle of a conversation. But other than the beginning it was for the most part pretty well written.


I don't know a whole lot about Greek mythology, probably about as much as the average person's public school education so I don't know if there are any big mistakes that the author that the author made. It all seemed pretty researched to me. 


Plot
I thought that this was such an interesting twist on well known mythology. It's kinda like "Percy Jackson" but girly. A modern girl finds out that mythology is real and she is part of it.  


Although it does kind of remind me of a certain book I liked with vampires in it....


but it's not like it takes place in a small small town and the heroin lives with her single parent dad and can't wait to get the heck out...oh wait...


ok, but it's not like a big mysterious family full of ridiculously good looking people comes to town and moves into a giant house with a garage full of expensive sexy cars...oh, oops. maybe that does happen...


Well, there's definitely not the part where one of their own kind wants to kill the heroin of the story so they all take turns watching her house as she sleeps, unbeknownst to her...aw crap...yes there is!


But similarities aside, this is not Twilight. So if you didn't like that story you may still have a chance of liking this one. Helen had more of a personality and interests and friends before these guys came along. The story has a pretty decent plot line and kept me entetained.


My only complaint is that, like many first of a series, the majority of the book was a lot of setting up characters and getting the plot for the overall series established. There was a plot for just this book, but it wasn't amazing (does that even make sense?)


The end is kind of a heart breaker, but what else could you ask for in the first book of a series?


Romance
So this was another love at first sight thing (after Helen and Lucas broke the curse) but it totally worked. I really believed that they would do anything for each other. Very rarely does that happen. I think it worked because they are pretty much being compelled by the Gods to be together and that's a lot of pushing together. Plus there's the whole war will start if they are together thing so it makes for a lot of forbiddeness. Is that a word? Probably not, but it was there.


Overall
This was a good easy read. It's not life changing by any means, but it is a good excuse to escape dirty diapers and house work for a few hours! Very much recommended if you like a cute love story. I will be patiently waiting for the sequel Dreamless coming out May of 2012.


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