Starcrossed ~ Josephine Angelini (ARC) review

Starcrossed (Starcrossed #1)
HarperTeen
May 31, 2011
496 pages
Goodreads/Amazon

Starcrossed, Josephine Angelini’s debut novel is a must read for anyone who enjoys reading about Greek mythology. Sixteen-year-old Helen Hamilton has spent her entire life living on Nantucket, a sheltered area to be sure. But Helen’s always been the little bit different one, a fact only compounded now that she’s tortured by what have to be hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood.

Then, there’s the new family that’s moved to the island. Helen’s best friend couldn’t be more intrigued by them and everyone else can’t help noticing how gorgeous they all are – but Helen, known to be very beautiful herself – has a very different reaction. To one of the boys, Lucas, in particular.

No one can know, though, the role Helen or the new family is destined to play in each other’s lives. Truly destined, too, by the Fates.


With hot summer heat, gorgeous boys, witty banter, complicated relationships, and adults involved in the story in such a way that they actually contribute and enhance the plot (this is a thing of mine), Starcrossed has so much going for it.

Then you add in the originality of its mythos, which some of the book and buy sites delve into more but I’m not going to because I think it’s spoiler-y, and you really can’t compare Starcrossed to much else.

A few similarities could be found to Twilight (Lucas has the family and they all live in the big house together, plus a few other, I-say-spoiler-y things), but that’s really about it—and something that is so general you can likely find it in a lot of paranormal books.

Personally the relationship between the two main characters just didn’t have that extra special oomph for me (for a reason I can’t quite put into words), but I’m still really excited to read the next books in the series and see if that develops for me.

7/10—thanks you to the publisher for an arc and to the publisher (HarperTeen) and NetGalley for the eGalley.