Book # 20: Starcrossed

Title: Starcrossed

Author: Josephine Angelini

Date started reading: Feb. 27, 2013
Date finished reading:  March 1, 2013

Publish date: May 2011
ISBN: 978-0062011992
Number of pages: 496

Official summary: "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." (http://www.josephineangelini.com)


Official book trailer:


How I obtained the book: Checked out of library

My commentary:

• I'm rarely this impressed by a book... especially the first one in a series. It literally blew me away. There was a little lagging in the beginning, but once it picked up, I didn't want to put it down and I definitely didn't want it to end. I'm glad that I have the second book to immediately start next, and that the third and final book in the trilogy comes out soon.
• I didn't think I'd be that interested in the concept of demigods, but the author created this amazing story using the mythology of Greek gods that already exists and adds to it. 
• Helen and Lucas have an epic-type of love. I don't like using the word "epic" to describe love very often because there aren't too many couples that I feel have that strong of a love story, but Helen and Lucas really do. I think it's a little funny that there is a quote from Lauren Kate on the cover of this book because Helen and Lucas' love story gives me all the same feelings that Kate's "Fallen" saga does with Lucinda and Daniel, who also have what I consider an "epic" love.

Memorable quotes:

• “I don’t care how hard being together is, nothing is worse than being apart.”  ~ Helen to Lucas
• “She decided that if Lucas was gay then she was going to have to get a sex change operation. He would be so worth it.” ~ Helen
• "Decide which of the two options is harder, and do the other. That way, no matter how hard your choice turns out to be, at least you can find comfort in knowing you're avoiding something even worse.” ~ Helen
• “Never say never. The gods love to toy with people who use absolutes.”
• “You've got the killer instincts of a houseplant”  ~ Hector to Helen
• “You and I are way too fabulous to be ordinary.”  ~ Claire to Helen
• “The Gods know what it is to be eternal, and they love to toy with mortals who use absolutes.”  
• “And I don't just WANT you, Helen. I LOVE you. Big difference.” ~ Lucas
• “Helen felt as if the whole world had turned into some gigantic punch line that she had waited patiently for, and then when she heard it she found it insulting. If she had been in a comedy club she would have gotten up and walked out, but instead she had to go to the comedian's house after school and let his cousin beat the crap out of her.” 
• “She would have to leave the country, or at least Nantucket, because there was no way she could live down the fact that she had tried to strangle the hottest boy on the island.”  ~ Helen
• "Lucas, I swear to whatever god you think is holy that I will get out of this car and walk to school if you go inside and talk to my dad." ~ Helen
• "It never fails. She's like the Einstein of guilt." ~ Jason about Lucas' mom
• "Everything felt duller to Helen. Muffled, like her feelings were in storage, buried under mounds of packaging peanuts." 
• "Helen, you don't need to run away from yourself anymore. ... You can't be afraid of your power anymore, Helen. You are the strongest of us all, but all that strength is for nothing until you own it." ~ Lucas
• "The humans who love us never last long. Scions are tragedy magnets. It's safer for them if we leave before the trouble starts." ~ Daphne

Buy on Amazon.com: Starcrossed