Starcrossed - Josephine Angelini

When shy, awkward Helen Hamilton meets Lucas Delos for the first time, she thinks two things: the first, that he is the most ridiculously beautiful boy she has ever seen in her life: the second, that she wants to kill him with her bare hands.
 
An ancient curse means Lucas and Helen are destined to loather one another. But sometimes love is stronger than hate, and not even the gods themselves can prevent what will happen next …

 

 

Picking up the book in the store I was reluctant to buy it, I don’t exactly know why, possibly: okay I’m not going to lie it’s a big book – probably one of the thickest on my book shelf (along with Pride and Prejudice and Harry Potter) but that didn’t really deter me; what put me off was when I read  the Dreamless blurb it mentioned another boy that Helen was torn between, and I hate books were a girl is torn between boys and can never make a decision.  However a trilogy of books based around Greek mythology was too good for me to miss. I love Greek mythology in books! (For example the Abandon trilogy by Meg Cabot is brilliant.) So I had to buy Starcrossed and Dreamless; I set about reading straight away.

Starcrossed was a fabulous read but once I finished I felt sad, I can gather a few reasons for this: first the amount of death; the blood for blood idea in the book was vivid and the idea of killing anybody in your own family is horrible; next was the fact that Lucas and Helen think they’re cousins that is one of the main reasons why they are apart – and I really want them to be together; lastly is the thought of reading Dreamless after the build up of Lucas’s and Helen’s relationship I really don’t want someone to just come and break it up.

All relationships in this book are great. I wish I had a friend like Claire who is very protective over Helen and cares for her deeply (so much to push her off a roof).  All relationships in this book are about control and love: the brothers in the family have to cope with the desire to use their ‘extra skills and strengths’ not to kill each other; trying to protect someone else they love, whereas Jason has to control his feelings for Claire by suppressing them and pushing her away. I love their relationship and knew they definitely should be together.  But the most control of all is Lucas’s and Helen’s, they know so much is at stake for them and they’d do anything to be together which ultimately means that fate doesn’t want them to be together. Lucas is the perfect boy and the key to Helen’s dream to get off the island and see the world; with his flying abilities he can take her anywhere.

This story is about discovering yourself and what it takes to do that; clearly the key in this book is: love, friendship, trust, family and flying lessons with the person you love most.  But with a great, big dollop of Greek mythology it has a certain twist. A great theme in this book is what goes around comes around, and through all of the fights, warnings, disguises, nightmares and lightning bolts, this message stays the same. You kill him – we kill you. You ancestors have failures – they’re your problem now. You save my life – I save yours. And this constant circle of events feel like something the characters can’t break free of, so I have an unwillingness to read Dreamless (despite the brilliance of Starcrossed) until the next book comes out, when they can hopefully be masters of their own destiny. And Helen makes an absolute decision – I just hope she chooses Lucas.

Overall a good book, that I recommend for any fans of romances, a very addictive read - so only start if you have lots of time to have your minds warped with worrying about the characters problems. It was brilliant. I just love, LOVE books based on Greek mythology!

 

4 stars out of 5