Starcrossed (Starcrossed, #1)

by Josephine Angelini

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.