Book Review: Starcrossed

TITLE: Starcrossed
Book 1 in the new Starcrossed series
AUTHOR: Josephine Angelini
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: mythology, romance, urban fantasy, drama
PREMISE: Helen finds out she's descended from the greek gods and is cursed to play out the greek tragedies like all the ones descended from the gods.
MY REVIEW: Okay, I admit it. I did not really expect much from this book. I figured it would be Twilight but with mythology based on the summary given so I wasn't totally eager to run out and buy it. But you guys, this is a actually GOOD. Okay, the romance is kind of cheesy (up until the revelation at the end then I found it slightly more interesting), it somewhat drags in the middle, and is guilty of occasionally cheesy dialogue.
But for the most part the writing is pretty decent, the characters are interesting and actually have personalities (I LOVE Claire). Even better is that it's creative! The author does follow mythology but like the Percy Jackson books she puts her own spin on things in a as believeable can be way and it's really interesting how she does it too. I love that she's not afraid to be as violent or dark as the greek myths either. No sugar coating the gods here or trying to stick christian ideals into it (yes, I'm looking at you Goddess Test book).
Possibly this is one of my favorite debuts of the year along with Clarity by Kim Harrington. I can't wait to see where the author takes this. Sadly the next book doesn't come out till next year.
WHO SHOULD READ: greek mythology fans, Twilight fans, Percy Jackson fans
MY RATING: Four and out of Five greek gods