Starcrossed (Starcrossed, #1) by Josephine Angelini - Review

I am a huge fan of Greek Mythology retellings in the YA genre. I'll read almost anything from Percy Jackson to the Goddess Test and I've had Starcrossed for a while now. For some reason, I had read some really bad reviews for this book so I wanted to make sure I was in the right mood to read it. And I was! I waited until I was unbelievably sick, home from work and it was raining. For me, that is the perfect combination for reading and I devoured this book... in one day.

Starcrossed tells the tale of a young and beautiful, Helen who lives on the island of Nantucket. Living alone with her father, she's always known that she was different and her best friend, spunky and outrageously outgoing, never ceases to miss a chance to remind her. Helens life of living in the shadows changes when a new family moves to town. Everyone gossips about how attractive the Delos family is and when she finally sees Lucas, the youngest of the family... she definitely has strong feelings. Helen feels the unrelenting urge to kill Lucas. From the moment when Helen tries to strangle Lucas in the crowded hallway at school, her life spirals out of control in this tale of action, adventure and star-crossed lovers.

Like I said before, I was super nervous about this book. I had heard some very bad things and so I was very hesitant and as a result, I didn't have very high expectations going in. My low/nonexistent expectations I think were very good things for my enjoyment of the book. I liked it! It was a sort of Percy Jackson for hopeless romantic girls, if you will. Was it the best book I've ever read? No. Will I be reading the other books in the series? Definitely.

Angelini took Demigod myth, Greek history and mythology and brought it out in a new way. I loved reading the Iliad and the Odyssey and all of those other wonderful Greek tragedies and stories of Gods gone awry. This story really took those old stories and made them modern.

Demigods hale from different houses and because of what happened during the Trojan War, they are bred to loathe (and try to kill) one another. I think my favorite aspect of Angelini’s mythology is that history repeats itself throughout history with different generations. I love it. I'm a publically acknowledged hopeless romantic and so reading a sort of do-over of the Helen of Troy myth was so wonderful and extremely inventive on Angelini's part.

If you're a Greek mythology fan or if you love reading about star-crossed lovers, then this book is for you!

7 out of 10

Happy Reading :)