Review: Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini
From Goodreads: 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.
If you have never read The Iliad you should. It is an epic tale of love, loss, and scary demi gods on the rise to power. I love that Josephine Angelini used this as the inspiration for Starcrossed. As I have said in previous reviews, I adore anything that has to do with mythology, of course it has to be done right and Starcrossed is Mythology done right.
Helen and Lucas are starcrossed lovers. Their love is the one thing that can tear down what Lucas’ family has been trying to protect for a long time.
We begin with Helen, we find out she gets these severe cramps whenever she is the least bit in the limelight. Instead of wanting to be or trying to be the center of attention Helen does everything she can to stay out of everyone’s way. That is until Lucas shows up at school, and Helen starts seeing a gruesome threesome of sisters who begin by haunting her dreams but begin to bleed over into her reality as well.
When Helen lays eyes on Lucas she goes to the throat, seriously in front of the whole school. With the three sisters pushing her to kill, kill, kill him. Helen loses herself momentarily and Lucas is able to diffuse the situation. Helen however is even more of a freak at school.
Starcrossed is full of lore, of forbidden love, mystery and danger. Angelini’s debut puts this author at the top of my to watch list and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with in the future. I am feverishly awaiting the sequel to Starcrossed, I absolutely must see what happens next with Lucas and Helen.
ARC from a conference and digital download from Netgalley.
Review: Moonlight (Dark Guardian 1) by Rachel Hawthorne
Kayla has some issues. When she was very young, hunters mistaking her parents for wolves, shot and killed her parents in a National Forest. Now on the cusp of turning seventeen Kayla is miles away from home, dealing with her parents death by taking a guide job in that same forest. The rest of the guides are super nice, except for Lucas. He tends to just stare at her from afar, why is it he is the one who gets Kayla’s heart beating so fast? The first assignment is to take a group of research students and a professor farther into the woods than normal. Kayla finds out quick these people have an ulterior motive and accidentally aides in their attempt to find a werewolf. Who thought they existed? Can Kayla right her wrong and face her fears in time to save the wolves?
I gave this book a three instead of a four because it reminded me of other wolf books I have read. There wasn’t a lot of originality but the book was really fun. Fast paced and even though you have figured out what is going on Kayla hasn’t and watching it all unfold through her eyes is a real prize. The characters were well thought, fleshed out well, and relate-able.
The book is part of Harper Teen’s Pitch Black book set and I will be ordering the rest of this series here in a few moments. I would not pass this one up, especially if you like parnormal / lycan books. If you enjoyed The Summoning, Blood and Chocolate, or Shiver you will like Moonlight. It’s on sale at Amazon for $3.60 right now. What better time to give it a go?
