Review: "Starcrossed" by Josephine Angelini

Title: Starcrossed

Author: Josephine Angelini

Format: Print

Synopsis: How do you defy destiny?

Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.

As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart.

Review: Sometimes I feel so dumb. I can’t believe that I had such a wonderful book at home and it took me almost two months to start reading it. This is really something that I don’t know how to explain to you. As you can see in the image below, the Portuguese cover is gorgeous (the others as well, but I felt a special connection with this one) and the publisher gave us a synopsis which turns irresistible for readers.

Josephine Angelini arrival in Portuguese Literary Market was made in a spectacular way, I’m completely in love with this book and wishful for the release of the second one.

To be honest with you all, in the beginning I thought that maybe the story was a little too childish, it was only when Lucas appeared that everything was set in motion and star to develop in an enthusiastic way. Unfortunately, the first chapter has low quality if we compare to the book as a whole. Forgetting about the first chapter - especially the first five pages – and we have a great surprise which end’s with the introduction of the Delos’ family in the story. This is the moment that the veil of mystery is uncovered, we totally forget about time and we only want to know some more about what’s really happening.

I really enjoyed the book, in some way it seems that we only have erotic books in our bookstores, so this story was, for me, something new and separate from our market tendency. Mythology is such a great theme, there are so many topics to explore, so I don’t understand why we – Portuguese readers – don’t have more of these books to read.

The characters are great, it was a job well done with their construction, just like it was the scenery. For me, everything was so well set that it was almost normal to see people using special powers; it was just like this was something that we see every day in our neighborhood. Although they were only teenagers, I keep forgetting it, because their behavior was similar to an adult and not a 16 year old teenager. I loved the relationship between Lucas and Helen, just like I loved Jason and Claire. Since the beginning I noticed that something special was waiting for them. Another character who made me curious was Hector, I believe we are going to see more of him on the next books.

Josephine Angelini, you have conquered another fan!