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mamamelreads 's review for:
Dreamless
by Josephine Angelini
Holy cow! My emotions are all over the place. This may be the very first book that I have ever read where I felt like I needed to take short periodic breaks while reading it so that I could get hold of my emotions. And the ending chapters of the book? Why could my eyes not move faster? Why couldn't my reading comprehension go faster? I couldn't eat up the pages fast enough. I needed to see Helen through the intense action of the story, but I couldn't get there when I wanted to be there. I had to pull out all of my patient book reading mojo so that I could relax and enjoy the action. So many times during the story something would happen or a member of the main trio of leads in this story would make a decision, and I would stop and say to myself, "This is not going to end up well." And I have to be honest, most of the time it did not end well.
The short story to this review: This was an amazing second book of the Starcrossed series! Read it . . . after you've read Starcrossed, book one, of course!!!
Now here are the details: First of all, this is a trilogy, and this book stays true to most formulas involving trilogies . . . bad things are going to happen -- things that are going to have to be resolved in book three. I have never seen this explained as wonderfully as Anna from annareads.com did in this post on her amazing book blog. (Watch it -- so cute!) So I know this. I expect it. But expecting it doesn't make it any easier. Oh man, this was a wild ride for our heroine, Helen!
First of all -- the romance. In book one Helen loves Lucas, Lucas loves Helen, Helen's newly arrived and borderline mental mother explains that Helen is really Lucas's first cousin. All this romantic love is now taboo, big time. But here's the thing . . . I know as a reader what Helen and Lucas do not know -- Helen's mom is a big, fat liar! Helen and Lucas are not related, so they are totally free to make googly eyes at each other all day long and even take things farther if they so desire. So for this ENTIRE book Lucas and Helen fight their attraction to one another, sometimes in rotten ways. Lucas is gone (at least everyone thinks he is gone) from the story for a good portion of the book, and he is a big grump for another good portion -- all in order to try and protect Helen and prevent the two of them from getting it on accidentally on purpose one day. This was soooo frustrating to read -- but in a good way. The writing was done wonderfully so that I never got annoyed with this story line, but it was still so frustrating for me as a reader to be rooting for the two of them to be together, knowing that there was absolutely no reason for them to be apart. I wanted so badly to insert myself into the story so that I could yell out, "Hey lovebirds! You might want to double-check your source about your family relationship. I have a huge suspicion that she might be a selfish, lying, bumface!" But I couldn't do that, and it worked out okay. Nothing has gotten resolved by the end of this book, but things aren't going to be so rocky in this regard at least.
And enter into the story romantic interest number two. Orion is able to help Helen as she descends into the Underworld to try and find the Furies. I loved this character. I have to admit I wouldn't have been totally unhappy if Helen had decided to form a romantic attachment to him. Orion has a tragic history and has been on the run from just about everyone since he was ten years old. And yet he has such a sunny and optimistic personality. It was infectious, and I was so glad he was with Helen, especially because she was feeling so much despair without him. It was a strange love triangle to read because I really was rooting for both of the guys. I liked them both equally, but I never really felt pulled in two directions. I still feel like Helen and Lucas are ultimately meant to be together, but I feel just as strongly that they will be able to do this without hurting Orion. I don't know how this will happen, but my reading heart tells me that it will be okay.
Why was this book such a harrowing experience for my nerves? Well, Helen had a crazy difficult task. Every night she had to wander the Underworld looking for the Furies, not knowing exactly what she was doing. Every night she was placed in horrendous situations, and every morning she would wake up filthy, tired, and usually injured in some way. Orion made things easier for her, but the main problem was that Helen was unable to dream, hence the name of the story I suspect. Even as a scion Helen was susceptible to the side effects of multiple nights of dreamless sleep. She never felt rested. Her nerves were completely on edge. She started to feel as if she were hallucinating. She was a complete mess, and if things didn't improve soon, she wasn't going to make it to a book three. All of this is going on in the Underworld, but in the real world she was also being threatened by this mega weird and mega powerful soldier entity that appeared to be invincible. Some plan against her was in the works, and no one knew how to prevent it. So the action of the book got more and more intense as the pages flew by. You know who I was impressed with? The human friends who continued to hang out with this band of scions, even when things got crazy and dangerous. That was amazing!
This book does not end with things all nice and tidy. As a matter of fact, everyone barely gets to the end of the book intact. There are still lots of things to sort out, and really there are a whole lot of new problems that are getting ready to smack right into this merry group of Greek tragedy stars. I thought it was interesting that in the end it was the compassion of Helen, Lucas, and Orion that doomed their plans. I am already on the edge of my seat in anticipation for the final book in this trilogy. I wonder if in the end it will be their compassion that will end up saving everyone. I have to believe that that is true. This was an excellent middle book for the Starcrossed trilogy that I highly recommend, especially if you are a big fan of paranormal romances that involve Greek mythology. I loved it, and I'm already headed out to re-acquaint myself with some of these stories from mythology that I have haven't read for ages. Great book!
The short story to this review: This was an amazing second book of the Starcrossed series! Read it . . . after you've read Starcrossed, book one, of course!!!
Now here are the details: First of all, this is a trilogy, and this book stays true to most formulas involving trilogies . . . bad things are going to happen -- things that are going to have to be resolved in book three. I have never seen this explained as wonderfully as Anna from annareads.com did in this post on her amazing book blog. (Watch it -- so cute!) So I know this. I expect it. But expecting it doesn't make it any easier. Oh man, this was a wild ride for our heroine, Helen!
First of all -- the romance. In book one Helen loves Lucas, Lucas loves Helen, Helen's newly arrived and borderline mental mother explains that Helen is really Lucas's first cousin. All this romantic love is now taboo, big time. But here's the thing . . . I know as a reader what Helen and Lucas do not know -- Helen's mom is a big, fat liar! Helen and Lucas are not related, so they are totally free to make googly eyes at each other all day long and even take things farther if they so desire. So for this ENTIRE book Lucas and Helen fight their attraction to one another, sometimes in rotten ways. Lucas is gone (at least everyone thinks he is gone) from the story for a good portion of the book, and he is a big grump for another good portion -- all in order to try and protect Helen and prevent the two of them from getting it on accidentally on purpose one day. This was soooo frustrating to read -- but in a good way. The writing was done wonderfully so that I never got annoyed with this story line, but it was still so frustrating for me as a reader to be rooting for the two of them to be together, knowing that there was absolutely no reason for them to be apart. I wanted so badly to insert myself into the story so that I could yell out, "Hey lovebirds! You might want to double-check your source about your family relationship. I have a huge suspicion that she might be a selfish, lying, bumface!" But I couldn't do that, and it worked out okay. Nothing has gotten resolved by the end of this book, but things aren't going to be so rocky in this regard at least.
And enter into the story romantic interest number two. Orion is able to help Helen as she descends into the Underworld to try and find the Furies. I loved this character. I have to admit I wouldn't have been totally unhappy if Helen had decided to form a romantic attachment to him. Orion has a tragic history and has been on the run from just about everyone since he was ten years old. And yet he has such a sunny and optimistic personality. It was infectious, and I was so glad he was with Helen, especially because she was feeling so much despair without him. It was a strange love triangle to read because I really was rooting for both of the guys. I liked them both equally, but I never really felt pulled in two directions. I still feel like Helen and Lucas are ultimately meant to be together, but I feel just as strongly that they will be able to do this without hurting Orion. I don't know how this will happen, but my reading heart tells me that it will be okay.
Why was this book such a harrowing experience for my nerves? Well, Helen had a crazy difficult task. Every night she had to wander the Underworld looking for the Furies, not knowing exactly what she was doing. Every night she was placed in horrendous situations, and every morning she would wake up filthy, tired, and usually injured in some way. Orion made things easier for her, but the main problem was that Helen was unable to dream, hence the name of the story I suspect. Even as a scion Helen was susceptible to the side effects of multiple nights of dreamless sleep. She never felt rested. Her nerves were completely on edge. She started to feel as if she were hallucinating. She was a complete mess, and if things didn't improve soon, she wasn't going to make it to a book three. All of this is going on in the Underworld, but in the real world she was also being threatened by this mega weird and mega powerful soldier entity that appeared to be invincible. Some plan against her was in the works, and no one knew how to prevent it. So the action of the book got more and more intense as the pages flew by. You know who I was impressed with? The human friends who continued to hang out with this band of scions, even when things got crazy and dangerous. That was amazing!
This book does not end with things all nice and tidy. As a matter of fact, everyone barely gets to the end of the book intact. There are still lots of things to sort out, and really there are a whole lot of new problems that are getting ready to smack right into this merry group of Greek tragedy stars. I thought it was interesting that in the end it was the compassion of Helen, Lucas, and Orion that doomed their plans. I am already on the edge of my seat in anticipation for the final book in this trilogy. I wonder if in the end it will be their compassion that will end up saving everyone. I have to believe that that is true. This was an excellent middle book for the Starcrossed trilogy that I highly recommend, especially if you are a big fan of paranormal romances that involve Greek mythology. I loved it, and I'm already headed out to re-acquaint myself with some of these stories from mythology that I have haven't read for ages. Great book!