Book Review: Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini

Starcrossed

Author: Josephine Angelini

Series: Starcrossed #1

Release Date: May 31st, 2010

Publisher: HarperTeen

Age: Young Adult

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.

You know I love Greek Mythology, so I was very interested in reading Starcrossed.

Starcrossed is definitely a love story. Helen has always been different, and she doesn't like it. But when Lucas and his family comes to town, she discovers she isn't the only one with powers.

Helen's smart and sweet, but I'm afraid she wasn't the kind of protagonist I prefer. I don't know exactly why, maybe she was boring sometimes. But I have to say I liked her more through the book, because she became more interesting.

Her romance with Lucas was what keep me reading. They didn't fall in love at first sight, bit still they fell in love very fast. They were a cute couple, but I wished they were more passionate. I know, it's a YA book, but still! Maybe more kissing?

Sometimes the writing was too slow for me, because I prefer fast reading. But the story was very original and interesting, and I liked the way the author played with Greek mythology and every once in a while there was a turn in the story.

Overall, I liked it and I really want to know what will happen with Helen and Lucas in the next book, called Dreamless.

More about this book at www.josephineangelini.com, Goodreads, Amazon, The Book Depository, Barnes & Noble.

Me on My Date From Hell

Title: My Date From Hell
Author: Tellulah Darling
Release Date: October 31, 2013
Publisher: TeDa Media

Sophie's junior year has been a bit of a train wreck. After the world's greatest kiss re-awakened her true identity as Persephone, she fought her dragon-lady guidance counselor to the death, navigated a mean girl's bitchy trouble-making, and dealt with the betrayal of her backstabbing ex. You'd think a girl could catch a break. Yeah, right. With Zeus stepping things up, it's vital that Sophie retrieve Persephone's memories and discover the location of the ritual to stop Zeus and Hades. So when Aphrodite strikes a deal that can unlock Sophie's past, what choice does the teen goddess have but to accept? The mission: stop media mogul Hermes from turning Bethany into a global mega-celebrity. The catch? Aphrodite partners Sophie and Kai to work together and to treat the suicide mission as a date, which could work out for Sophie's plan to force Kai to admit his feelings for her. If she doesn't kill him first. Add to that the fact that her BFF's love life and other BFF's actual life are in Sophie's hands, and suddenly being a teenager, even a godlike one, seems a bit like, well, hell. Whatever happened to dinner and a movie?

My Date From Hell is a fast-paced, exciting, dangerous mission towards the truth and stopping the end of the world.

Sophie's stuck in a bad situation. She's pushed by Zeus to find the memories of Persephone hidden away in her mind, pushed to work with Kai when she'd rather avoid and/or hate him, pushed to be around Bethany when she'd rather kick her off a cliff. Her life sucks in different ways for different reasons, but that doesn't stop her from pushing back, through snark and wit and also an inner strength.

I've said before in previous reviews how retellings of the Persephone myth are multiplying and making me lose interest. This tries to set itself apart in that it's not Hades that Sophie's attracted to but his son Kai. And there's a deeper, darker situation looming overhead. One that could end in the destruction of everything. It's not necessarily new and unique (see The Goddess Test and Everneath), but the author's own interpretation of the gods and goddess, their different personalities, is what's key.

It was the banter that did it for me, that kept me entertained and reading. All of the snark and sass and jabs at everyone and everything. Sarcasm mixed with seriousness, appearing at both the best and worst times. And it wasn't just Sophie, although she is the queen of snark. There were multiple characters with the ability to toss in a quick one-liner, it was like a funny little surprise every time it happened.

But as much as the banter kept me reading, Sophie's "war" with Bethany made me bored. Bethany seems to be the quintessential popular mean girl that every fiction high school has. I understand that she's not supposed to be likable, and did she ever do her job as coming across as extremely unlikable, but I was almost at the point of skipping the parts she was in.

I was slightly lost at the beginning, I haven't read the first book and it took me a little to get into the story, but I kept going. There were moments were the action and drama were hyped up to the point where it was almost too much for me (just about every time Bethany was around). In some ways I liked this book and in some ways I didn't. Maybe there was a bit too much drama for me, but it was still a fun, exciting read. I really want to know how it ends.

(I received a copy of this book to review from the author.)

Beauty's Daughter (2013)

Beauty's Daughter. Carolyn Meyer. 2013. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 352 pages. [Source: Review copy]

Beauty's Daughter is the story of Hermione and Helen of Troy. I'll be honest, Helen of Troy is more of an afterthought. The book has very little to do with her directly. Indirectly, I suppose, there is plenty having to do with Helen. The story follows Hermione and her father during the Trojan War. She goes with the armies. She befriends some of the other women. She falls in love. After they win the war, her father arranges a marriage for his daughter. She is angry but submissive. The novel then follows her through this mess of a marriage. She cannot forget her first love, Orestes, and when she learns the mess he's in, she sets out to rescue him. Accompanying her are a few of her best friends. The journey won't be easy, of course, but with the help of a god, perhaps they will succeed.

Beauty's Daughter makes Greek mythology accessible. I enjoyed it for that reason alone. Hermione may not be beautiful like her mother. But she is strong-willed and brave. She is not a particularly emotional heroine. The book isn't so much about how she feels at any given time as what she does.

Beauty's Daughter is not my favorite Meyer novel, but it is a good read. 

© 2014 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Me on Fates

Title: Fates
Author: Lanie Bross
Release Date: February 11, 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press (Random House imprint)

One moment. One foolish desire. One mistake. And Corinthe lost everything. She fell from her tranquil life in Pyralis Terra and found herself exiled to the human world. Her punishment? To make sure people's fates unfold according to plan. Now, years later, Corinthe has one last assignment: kill Lucas Kaller. His death will be her ticket home. But for the first time, Corinthe feels a tingle of doubt. It begins as a lump in her throat, then grows toward her heart, and suddenly she feels like she is falling all over again, this time for a boy she knows she can never have. Because it is written: one of them must live, and one of them must die. In a universe where every moment, every second, every fate has already been decided, where does love fit in?

Fates is a tale of two people searching, attempting to change fate and return to what once was. It is a journey steeped in fantasy and bound together by different threads. Can fate be altered? What will it take to change the future? Can a decision be reversed? If so, what will become of the world?

Corinthe has been cast aside from those she once knew and cared about. For good reason, mind you. There were rules in place, and she broke a very important one, but that doesn't stop her from wanting. Wanting to take it back. Wanting to return. Wanting to do whatever it takes to be brought back into the fold in Pyralis. Even if it means killing someone she's never met. But will she? Will she do what she's been told, complete this one last mission? She's caught between her mission and her growing attraction to Lucas.

Lucas's motivation for almost everything he does, almost every action he takes, is his sister. Sort of. He wants things to be the way they were before their mother left, when everything made sense and they were a normal, well-adjusted family. But things change, people change. Every step of his journey through the different worlds is taken for his sister. He has to keep her safe, keep her alive, he has to save her. But Corinthe both stands in his way and confuses him.

Both of their stories are told through the third person point of view. It was welcome, seeing both sides, their different needs and wants. There was no need to speculate or be overwhelmed by one character's angst. It provided another dimension to the story; a situation like this cannot be told from one side. As different as their purposes are, what motivates them is the same: home, a return to how things used to be. A return to safety, familiarity, and contentment. And neither is willing to give up.

Perhaps this was because I read this on an e-reader, but it felt like the beginning progressed almost too fast. It felt like I was rushing down a hill towards an early climax, but then things changed, then they both found ways to continue the journey, to prolong it (not in a bad way). I also wasn't totally sold on their romantic relationship. It felt a bit too quick to develop, a bit rushed at times.

As I read, I got the sense that Corinthe and Lucas were heading towards something, an event that would ripple through all the worlds, that would alter fate and change what was thought to be unchangeable, and that would be the end. What I discovered was a rather obvious set-up for a series. There is an ending, but it's an ending accompanied with a bomb being dropped. In a way, I understand the reasoning behind an ending like this. I just hope it wasn't done for shock value. That being said, I'm curious if the next book will start with a moment just as surprising.

(I received an e-galley of this title to review from Random House through NetGalley.)