Starcrossed (Starcrossed, #1)

by Josephine Angelini

When shy, awkward Helen Hamilton sees Lucas Delos for the first time she thinks two things: the first, that he is the most ridiculously beautiful boy she has seen in her life; the second, that she wants to kill him with her bare hands.

With an ancient curse making them loathe one another, Lucas and Helen have to keep their distance. But sometimes love is stronger than hate, and not even the gods themselves can prevent what will happen . . .

The first book in Josephine Angelini's thrilling series, Starcrossed is a passionate love story that began thousands of years ago in a world of gods and mortals.

• ISBN10: 0062012002
• ISBN13: 9780062012005
• Publish Date: 1 May 2012 (first published 31 May 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 512
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leigha]

Helen discovers she is a decedent from the Greek Gods in this ho-hum young adult contemporary romance.

I remember reading and enjoying this series when it released many, many moons ago. My husband asked for a book recommendation when we started dating, and I recommended this series. It’s a miracle he didn’t laugh in my face. For some reason, it came across my desk recently so I decided to give it a re-read. What I remember and what I read are not one and the same.

The series is based off Greek mythology, specifically influenced by Homer’s Iliad. It had the makings to be intriguing and unique, but somewhere in book two it grew tedious. The one-on-one of each character corresponding to a Greek myth was unnecessary. The gods and goddess do eventually show their faces, which is always fun and entertaining.

The most time and attention is given to the trinity of Helen, Lucas, and Orion. Helen’s journey from shy wallflower to powerful Goddess is fun, although Lucas’ journey is the most surprising. Orion was my favorite – too bad he never had a shot with Helen. The secondary characters were all over the place. Either I disliked them, such as Jason and Clair, or I disliked how they were treated, like Matt and Ariadne. Matt’s arc was a particular sour pill to swallow. I hated how he betrays Helen, and then is killed sparring with Hector. Just *screams in eternity*

tl;dr While an interesting retelling of the Iliad, I found myself disliking the supporting characters and overall arc of the story.

[Sam@WLABB]

This is a book that I have had forever, and I am sort of glad I selected it for my reading challenge.

Things I liked:

- Both Helen and Lucas had great families. Lucas' family included his parents, uncle, sister, and cousins, and any of them would come to his aid in a heartbeat. Helen's family consisted of her dad - Jerry, Kate - who helped run her dad's store, her best friend - Claire, and her other friend - Mike. They all gave Helen a lot of support, and the bond each shared with Helen was pretty special.

- I liked the way Angelini wove the mythology into the story. The way the houses were structured and the codes that they lived by was quite interesting. I also loved learning about each of the demigods talents. It was great discovering them right along side Helen and also, seeing them in action.

- There was an interesting twist towards the end, which really made my interest grow, and really made me want to get book two and continue this story.

Overall: A forbidden love story with a mythological twist, which kept me turning the page and left me wanting more.

[Chelsea]

Reread October 2015
Quick Thoughts:
1. This wasn't your typical Greek mythology. The gods are not all mighty and perfect and it's based around the Trojan War.
2. Love the Delos family. They all have their own personalities but fit together well as a family. I liked how important family is in this book.
3. I was frustrated at the start when I knew what was happening with Helen but it took her forever to find out.
4. The houses aren't very well detailed so I got a little lost when they were mentioned. Also there are a lot of weird character names and I got a little confused.
5. I found the plot and characters were both very well done and I'm looking forward to the next book.

Read July 2013
This book is mostly based on Greek mythology which is why I love it so much. I think it’s great when authors try to incorporate the Greek gods and whatnot. I loved all the characters in this book, from the main characters Helene and Lucas to the whole Delos family. Everyone was great and very likable! Even the humans like Matt and Claire who weren’t there as much were still fantastic!

I really liked the plot of this book too. Helene doesn’t know what she is let alone how powerful she is and you follow her while she’s trying to figure all of that out. It’s fun to learn all this stuff with her. One thing I didn’t like however, was that the book started off a little slow. While reading you know that Helene isn’t human but you don’t find out anything until about halfway through the book. It just kept dragging on which was a little annoying. Besides that I would recommend this book to any fantasy lovers!

This is a book that I picked from my school library by singing "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" with my window-shattering voice. I didn't know what to expect from the book except for the assumptions that I made by looking at the cover. My assumptions were:
a) This book focuses more on romance than anything else
b) There's probably going to be insta-love since the words "destiny" and "starcrossed" appear on the cover.
c) It has something to do with "gods"
Most of my assumptions were negative. I was so grateful to be proven wrong!

Starcrossed revolves around Greek mythology! I'm a wannabe Greek mythology boffin. I absolutely love all the mystery, drama and chaos that surrounds Greek mythology. It didn't focus on the mythology involving Hades and Persephone nor was it a Percy Jackson wannabe. It focuses on another, known but not told enough in books mythology, the Trojan War. This made Starcrossed refreshing!

Starcrossed is told from a third person POV. This made me feel distant from the story as most of the books that I've recently read were told in first person. But as soon as I got used to the POV, I connected with the story and I started to enjoy it.

The main character, Helen, is the chosen, special Mary Sue. She has always been different and has awesome super powers. She's beautiful, flawless, and did I mention that she possesses amazing super powers and strength. That was me, admitting that I had a few issues with Helen, but I did love many of the secondary characters. Lucas and his family had plenty of personality, Helen's relationship with her father, Jerry, was cute and Helen's relationships with everybody else brought a bit of depth to her Mary Sue personality.

Two things that I do need to briefly mention:
a) Hector and his brotherly relationship with Helen was awesome
b) Claire and spoilery stuff involving Helen that made her seem psycho to me. You have been warned...Claire pushed Helen off the roof when they were children to test her theory of whether Helen could fly or not. She also tried to stab Helen. Even although there were explanations as to why Claire did these psychotic things, I didn't buy it. Instead of believing that my friend was a indestructible, gravity defying member of society, I would think that I was going out of my mind.

I expected the romance to involve extreme insta-love, but thankfully Helen's and Lucas's relationship had none of that unrealistic nonsense. Their romance was more related to it being "wrong" and forbidden, hence the starcrossed-ness. Even although their relationship wasn't I'll-ship-you-guys-until-the-day-I-die romance, I felt as though the angle that Angelini took when it came to the romance, fitted the mythology aspect of the story.

Even although it was predictable (when I started to know what the plot was all about) and quite difficult for me to read at first, this book ended up being much better than I expected it to be.

[Stephanie]

Maybe more of a 3.5 star rating, but I'll round it up because I did really enjoy the audio.

I enjoyed all of the Greek mythology in the story, it's what really made me invested in the story. I was on board with the relationship between Helen and Lucas, but after a while I got kind of bored with their 'star-cross love'.

Towards the end I did get a little aggravated because there's this big THING that nobody realizes, but it seems so obvious to me. How can they not put two and two together?! There's like 10 characters under one roof and none of them realize that some things do not add up. So frustrating.

But besides that, I really enjoyed the audiobook, and I will definitely be reading the second book.

[Katie King]

**2 stars**

I really like Greek mythology. Like, REALLY. After being disappointed so many times, you kind of start to wonder.

Maybe it's me.

Maybe I just don't enjoy Greek mythology after all.

And then I think, no, I actually really do enjoy it, I just read a lot of crap books about it. But Starcrossed is one of those books that seems like it has everything. And it DOES have everything! Just look at this list:

Starcrossed Assets

Shy heroine


Paper cut-out friends


Absent parent(s)


Unique powers


Corrupted, confusing mythology


Forbidden insta-love


Convenient conflict resolution

 
How could you NOT love this book? How could I NOT love this book?

Well, it was easy. You know what else meets these high standards? The Twilight series. Basically the author decided to rewrite Twilight, but add in some Greek mythology and remove the vampires. It makes for a better read, but not by much. The same exact events that happen in Twilight, happen in this book. Right down to the guy-gets-hit-by-car-but-car-takes-more-damage-and-omg-everyone-is-looking-how-did-you-do-that part. If you've read Twilight, you don't need to read Starcrossed. You already know the whole story.

However there were some things I did like about this book. There wasn't a real love triangle, more like a pyramid with a really blurry, somewhat transparent sidewall. The war with another paranormal species was also absent. And as much as Bella floated around like a plastic bag in the wind, Helen was capable of Doing Stuff. I was so proud of her.
 
Summary
As much as I loathe to admit it, I can't exactly hate this book. It's pretty much a carbon copy of Twilight and yet...there are little things that prevent me from giving it one star. I did give Twilight 4 stars after all, even if that was 3 years ago. Starcrossed was boring, predictable, and convenient, but I never thought about abandoning it.

[anne]

Lot of Greek mythology. Sort of a cross between I am Number Four and Percy Jackson series and City of Bones...Yes...really.

[Ashley]

As posted on booknook - book reviews and hot chocolate!

I think I went into this book with my hopes too high. I love Greek mythology and stories of starcrossed lovers, so I thought that Starcrossed would be perfect for me! I did enjoy the book, I just didn’t love it as much as I thought I would.

Helen lives her life trying to get by under the radar. She lives with her single dad on the small island of Nantucket. From the beginning of the story, we get hints that Heleny isn’t quite.. normal. She seems to have super human strength and speed, but tries her best to hide it so that she still appears normal. She also has major issues with attention, which is where my first gripe comes from.

Helen hates the spotlight. She avoids any kind of attention at all costs. When the spotlight is cast on her, she feels physically sick. Helen is also very self-degrading, always going on about how she’s not pretty, she’s a huge nerd, she has a horrible reputation in school, complaining about people hate her, etc. This really, really bothered me. Towards the end of the book we do learn that the whole “feeling sick when she gets attention” thing isn’t really her fault, but it still bugged me a lot. During most of the story, Helen felt like such a weak character. I couldn’t like her when she was constantly complaining, feeling sorry for herself, and generally acting childish. One of the other characters, Hector, actually told Helen that she needed to grow up. I definitely agree with that statement!

So, moving a head a bit, Helen meets a new boy at school named Lucas. For some reason, she has an uncontrollable desire to kill him. She’s filled with so much rage and hatred towards him but has no idea why. We later learn that this is because of The Furies. The Furies basically turn the different ‘Houses’ (based on lineage) against each other. But Helen and Lucas fight against this, believing that they’re actually destined to be together. And so, they fall in love. Cue issue #2.

I kind of feel like there was no “falling in love” phase for Helen and Lucas. One minute they hate each other’s guts, then Lucas saves Helen’s life and suddenly they’re holding hands and stuff. But then here’s the even more annoying part: Lucas is always holding Helen’s hand and making remarks that suggest he likes her, but then he tells Helen that they can’t be together. But even after he says that, he continues to hold her hand every chance he gets. Talk about leading a woman on! I thought that was just so annoying… I would be so pissed if a guy did that to me in real life. If he thinks they can’t be together, he shouldn’t be treating her like he wants to date her!

The last character I’ll talk about is Claire. Claire is Helen’s best friend. As Helen is figuring out that she’s actually a demigod, etc., she doesn’t tell Claire about any of it. Eventually Helen tells her and Claire is basically like “I knew that already.” How did she know? She found out she could fly by pushing her off a roof when they were kids (just to find out if she could fly). She also tried stabbing her once just to see if it would hurt her. At first I liked Claire’s character but after that, I just thought it was a bit weird. I thought it was too convenient that Claire did all those things (which is psycho in itself) and then actually put the pieces together. I mean if I pushed my friend off a roof and saw her “float gracefully to the ground,” I’d think I was going crazy. I wouldn’t automatically think, “Okay, she can fly.” The whole thing just seemed too ‘easy’ to me.

Also WTF at the whole "Helen and Lucas are actually cousins" thing? First of all, I'm really sick of characters falling in love and then being related. I didn't like it in City of Bones and I didn't like it in Starcrossed. I was seriously like "WTF?" It came out of nowhere. Then a few pages later we find out that Helen's mom was actually lying and Helen and Lucas aren't cousins... Okay... another "WTF" moment. I just felt like I was being jerked around and it wasn't done in a tasteful way. It was just a bit annoying, and even confusing.

Overall, I did enjoy the Greek mythology aspects of this story and the whole blood feud, but I think I overhyped it for myself. I went into it desperately wanting to love the story, but there were too many let downs for it to be a 4 or 5 star book. I probably will read Dreamless eventually, but I’m not in a huge hurry.

[inlibrisveritas]

This is such an awkward book to review, mainly because I'm really confused on how I feel about it. I like it but I really don't. It's frustrating.

The premise is one that I, as I've said before , really enjoy. I love Greek mythology and I've come to love seeing authors intertwine their ideas in with the myths of old. This is an interesting concept and that's the part I really like. I love the idea of their being different Houses and that the Fates take such a direct approach to seeing things through. I like that it's a sort of weird retelling of old myths. But then there is all the things I didn't like...and they are many. I really didn't like Helen...or Lucas, they were really see through and as soon as they started on their trip down the inevitable 'love' road I knew exactly how things were going to play out. It's so frustrating to read about a relationship that they tell you is 'destined' but then they keep flip flopping all over the place. I also couldn't get a read on how Helen looked, in the first parts of the book she comes off as this awkward tall girl who is pretty...and then later on she's drop dead gorgeous. So in the end all I couldn't picture her at all. The personalities didn't come off as real either. Helen has no sense of curiosity the entire time people are clearly explaining things half way, and then she wants to be angry when she finds out something later. Apparently the concept of asking questions is one that doesn't apply to a fictional world. She's also incredibly selfish and has her "Bella" moments when it comes to Lucus.

I think this may have been said before but to me this book comes off as a weird mash up of Percy Jackson and Twilight. I would lay out a huge comparison for you but that would involve a lot of spoilers. Some however are obvious. For the Percy Jackson aspect you have the different Houses, you have the demi-gods, you have the abilities and some minor characteristics that match up.The main similarity between Twilight and this is the writing. It's super simple and the quality of writing is low, but unlike the others it's super slow. It took me weeks to get into this book, and then after awhile I was only reading so I could finish. So I'm at odds with this book and I'm not entirely sure I'll read the next one when it comes out.

I would only recommend this to Twilight fans really since the feel is similar. I know tons of other people have loved this book so make sure to look at other reviews before making a decision.

[ladygrey]

I hate finishing a book and knowing I have to read the next one. Well, I don't mind it as much when I have the next one on hand, but when it's not going to be published for another year - it kind of drives me crazy.

Which was unexpected with [b:Starcrossed|9462795|Starcrossed (Starcrossed, #1)|Josephine Angelini|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1358266716s/9462795.jpg|10862992]. Gorgeous cover aside, as I began reading I really wasn't into it. There was something just off putting with Helen and her perception of a lot of things so I only got exasperated with her and with the awkward exposition and forced nickname-attempt-at-cuteness of the beginning.

And then things changed and the story really started coming together and I was interested. So much happens in the book which was exciting and the dynamic of the characters was fun. I sort of hate that some of the elements were similar to [b:Twilight|41865|Twilight (Twilight, #1)|Stephenie Meyer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1361039443s/41865.jpg|3212258] only because no author should be bound by what someone else has done before. But I kind of couldn't help myself from recognizing a few new tropes of the genre.

Still, I really enjoyed [a:Josephine Angelini|3406550|Josephine Angelini|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1395869610p2/3406550.jpg]'s book and I really, really want to read the second one. now please.

ETA: increased to four stars because I keep thinking about the characters and really like them.