Starcrossed (Starcrossed, #1) in And So It Begins Reading Challenge

Jan 05, 2011 Ezmirelda rated it did not like it

Shelves: made-me-mad, arc, mythology, romance, dissapointing, kinda-boring, paranormal, 2011-debut-author-challenge

Can't. Stand. This. Book. -_- ...more

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Feb 17, 2012 Anasheh Satoorian rated it it was amazing

This book as intense! It was kind of like the Cullen family meets Greek Gods! I was taken in from the beginning! Can't for May and Book 2! ...more

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Nov 15, 2010 Nicole rated it really liked it

Shelves: signed-by-the-author

You can find this review and many others on my blog, The Reader's Antidote

I'm wondering if my expectations are too high after reading Divergent...

The bad: I don't know guys. I liked it. The main characters were pretty well-developed, but the problem is that Helen kind of pissed me off. I didn't like her as much as I wanted to. I also thought there were some parts where I didn't actually care how it ended because it dragged on and on. The dialogue bothered me too. Too many exclamation marks, and You can find this review and many others on my blog, The Reader's Antidote

I'm wondering if my expectations are too high after reading Divergent...

The bad: I don't know guys. I liked it. The main characters were pretty well-developed, but the problem is that Helen kind of pissed me off. I didn't like her as much as I wanted to. I also thought there were some parts where I didn't actually care how it ended because it dragged on and on. The dialogue bothered me too. Too many exclamation marks, and it sounded awkward, which really bothered me. Okay, so those were the bad parts.

The good: Mmmm Lucas. I want him. For some reason I really like the guys that will do anything to protect their woman. Even when he supposedly hated her, he couldn't stay away. And their romance was sweet, I wish there had been more of it. The mythology was really cool, and I liked how the Fates followed them around. I feel like there's so much richness on the subject coming up in the installment and I'm excited to see what she does with it. I also really liked Claire. She was such a great friend to Helen and I'm glad she sort of knew all along that Helen was different. I loved her sassy-ness. And Claire and Jason... well you'll have to read to find out.

*SPOILERS!*
Okay, I have to get this off my chest. I was just thinking about Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series and how I would love to write a book where the main character fell in love with her brother or at least a close relative they never knew about. But Clare's so ingenious that I would feel like I could never live up to the job that she did. And sorry, Mrs. Angelini, but you don't either. No, Lucas, is not her brother, but they're first cousin's and it for some reason bothers the crap out of me that this author tried that. And not only that, but then she told us a couple scenes later that it was all a rouse, that they weren't really related. Ugh, what, no tension?? That annoyed me more than anything else and why I gave this four stars, as well as the bad things I wrote up earlier.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the return of Helen's mother. What bothered me was that her mom was such a bitch. I don't trust her as far as I can throw her, but I feel like she's also too vindictive for YA lit. Okay, maybe not too vindictive, but too violent and disgustingly persuasive. I don't know, I just really want her to go away and never come back. Poor Hector has to be holed up with her.

Don't get me wrong. It was a great debut and I'm excited for the next one! It was a good twist on the popular Greek myths starting to pop up in YA and Independent Reader lit. ...more

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Jan 28, 2012 Carrie Ardoin rated it really liked it

Shelves: i-own-this, on-my-kindle, gods-and-demigods

Helen Hamilton lives a simple life with her father in Nantucket, where she tries very hard to be as averages as possible. She keeps her grade good, but not great. She runs cross-country, but never seems to come in better than third place. At nearly 6 feet tall, the other kids at school think her a freak. But no one could guess what she really is...until a new family comes to town.

As soon as Helen lays eyes on the achingly gorgeous Lucas Delos, she tries to kill him. Literally, with her bare hand Helen Hamilton lives a simple life with her father in Nantucket, where she tries very hard to be as averages as possible. She keeps her grade good, but not great. She runs cross-country, but never seems to come in better than third place. At nearly 6 feet tall, the other kids at school think her a freak. But no one could guess what she really is...until a new family comes to town.

As soon as Helen lays eyes on the achingly gorgeous Lucas Delos, she tries to kill him. Literally, with her bare hands. But Lucas and his family are the only ones who might know why Helen acted that way, because she sure doesn't. As Helen grows closer to Lucas and the rest of the Delos family, she discovers secrets--some about herself, some about others--that will both excite her and break her heart. But there's really no time to think about it, when someone seems to want Helen and her loved ones dead.

Whew, this was a long book...and yes, it did take me some time to read it. This is because I didn't really get into the story until the second half.

The first part contained a whole lot of actions, without much explanation behind them. Helen wants to kill Lucas, Lucas wants to kill her, her stomach always hurts, they are both seeing creepy bloody ghosts. But we don't find out all the reasons for all of these events until much later in the book. To me a good chunk of the book seemed like filler.

But once things got rolling, they got awesome. I loved all the interactions and training scenes between Helen and the Delos family. As someone who grew up with just her dad, it was cool to see Helen being taken in by such a huge, loving clan.

When Helen began coming into her powers and using them, I was so excited. It's sad to think that there was something extraordinary in her, that she couldn't really explore for her whole life.

The Lucas/Helen relationship...yeah, I'm not too sure about it. It was the one main thing that bothered me, as I never really picked up on their connection. It felt forced to me, and took a creepy turn in the end. I guess we'll have to see what happens next.

If you love Greek lore, not just mythology and stories about the gods, you should really read Starcrossed. I found it quite original in a sea of supernatural YA books. ...more

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