By Josephine Angelini, published by Macmillan.

When sixteen year old Helen sees the new boy, Lucas Delos, for the first time, the first thing she feels is that she wants to kill him with her bare hands. The second thing; is that she is in love with him. Helen discovers that an ancient Greek curse set by the Greek Gods is forcing her to hate him, but as she finds out that he is descended from the fabled Greek Gods as well as herself, they find themselves drawn to each other.  But they were never meant to be able to love one another, because of the war between the Gods thousands of years ago, which split the supernatural scions into four separate houses. As Helen begins an exciting adventure to find out what house she descended from, can she escape the clutches of the scions that want her dead? And can Helen control her feelings for Lucas, who the Gods have decided cannot be hers?

I received this book ages ago, and had already gotten halfway through, before I got distracted by some other reads. I rediscovered this the other day, and began from the beginning again. I was so annoyed I had left it- it was so brilliant! Josephine’s writing was great, and I couldn’t stop reading. The plot was epic and with lots of great shocks. I enjoyed how there was a small mention of a mother who had left home that Helen couldn’t remember, and then how the mother made an entry towards the ending and played a big part in the way the concluding events played out. The novel, as a whole, was terrifically structured with some great cliff-hangers at the end of the chapters. The ending was satisfying, but I would have preferred it to end on a climatic cliff-hanger, which would be resolved in the next book (‘Dreamless’ is the sequel, and yep, I’ll be reading that soon as I have a copy)!

Helen was a really effective protagonist. She was three dimensional, with some realistic emotions and a determined, adventurous personality. As I found out which Greek Gods she descended from, I looked back in the book and realised that the God’s traits (Aphrodite’s traits, among others) really reflected in Helens actions- which I thought was very clever. Helen had some great visible relationships with the other characters, too, especially her best friend Claire and Lucas (the love interest). Claire herself was a funny supporting character, and really made me laugh at points. It was fun to see how she played a big part in the ending, just like Helen’s mother.  Lucas, on the other hand, was serious, strong, and an overall very likeable character. He made a great crush for Helen, and his ancestors reflected well in him too.

In all, Starcrossed is an absolutely amazing book that I couldn’t put down. I really loved it, as the plot was complex and kept me guessing at the ending. I can’t wait to read Dreamless, now, to see how Helen and Lucas’s story plays out!