Review: Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

“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. Nichmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damanged 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 legent. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are drawing her and Lucas together – and trying to tear them apart.”

When I first heard of Starcrossed, although the story sounded really good, the title made me want to flounce around the horse like a damsel in distress Scarlet O’Hara; not such a good thing. But Josephine Angelini took the term “starcrossed lovers” and created one of the greatest stories I’ve read in a long time. While I like the whole vampire/ wereworlf thing, it was extremely refreshing to read about a supernatural race that didn’t have sudden urges to eat raw flesh. The heroin, Helen Hamilton is probably, in everyone’s opinion, the most breath-takingly beautiful girl in the entire world – and the most self-conscious. With her tall, lean stature and long blond hair, one would think she’d have the confidence of a super model. But for the most part she just feels like an over-sized, overly strong freak that has to be carefulnot to fall in to doors for fear of ripping htem off the hinges and making sure she doesn’t run too fast during track. To add to her freak status, she tried to kill the most gorgeous guy in school – and she had never seem him before in her life! Lucas Delos seems to hate her with equal passion, yet he can’t seem to stay away from her either. Starcrossed is the triple threat of fiction. It has love, war and heartbreak. What can get better than that?

My rating for this book:

Josephine Angelini grew up the the youngest of eight, only one brother, on a farm in Massachusetts. She graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of Arts and now lives in L.A. with her husband. “She can still drive a tractor.” To learn more about Josephine, visit her website, here.