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A review by lara_cvj
Starcrossed City by Josephine Angelini
3.0
2.5 stars
Helen is a shy teenage girl living on island Nantucket with her father. She has always sensed something was wrong with her and tried to hide her supernatural abilities from her friends and her family. But after strange family from Europe arrives on island, everything changes. Helen finds out she is Scion- descendant from demigods who fought in Trojan War. With help from Delos family, Helen learns to use her abilities and defend herself from people who want her dead.
Tbh I am feeling generous about giving this book 3 stars. I still have mixed opinions about how I feel about this book, but if I had to pick one word about my mental state after finishing Starcrossed, it would be ANNOYED.
The thing is when I started this book I had no expectations. It could either be good or bad, because I got different recommendations and diverse ratings. And that enabled me to form a opinion completely of my own.
Writing was good in some parts, allowing the story to flow naturally and made it interesting to read. But while it made some scenes interesting, some sentences were simplified and chopped, making it seem unfinished and hurried.
There was a lot of repeating thoughts in Helen’s PoV, especially those about Lucas and how tired she was all the time.
When the whole thing started, I found world building interesting, but as the story went on it was just too many... prophecies and stories for me. There was a lot of undefined facts from past and Cassandra’s prophecies about “the chosen one”. I guess it was supposed to make the plot mysterious, but it was repulsive and forced. It’s like, everyone has these amazing powers, but the thing is... no. There is no system of inheriting those powers, everyone is just so powerful with all kinds of cool abilities. I would rather have characters with one power they are able to control and it actually makes sense where does that power come from.
Plot wasn’t particularly good or bad, it was intense since Helen was in danger all the time and there were few attacks on her, but there should be more action before the very end. It was all a bit too slow with A LOT (too much if you ask me) love interest complications.
Romance in this book was one of the most annoying things ever. I saw a lot of people comparing it to Twilight, it had some similarities, but imo it was still better than that. First of all I can’t stand insta-love. They met, hated each other for 5 minutes, broke the ancient curse just like that and yay! they’re in love forever. There was just no chemistry and development between them and all those playing with feelings, she thinks he uses her blah blah I almost died every time Helen thought about Lucas.
While the main romance was pointed out, other relationships like Jason and Claire and Matt and Ardiane were sided and barely mentioned. There could be more development from their perspectives so that everything wasn’t about Helen and Lucas.
While romance and love interest where predictable and boring, I liked how friendships where represented and valued. Bond between Claire, Matt and Helen was special and I’m glad it wasn’t sided.
Characters were fun to read about at first, but in the end the only character I actually liked was Jerry.
Miss “perfect but she doesn’t know it” aka Helen is probably the most boring type of main character to be written. Aside from being perfect and smart she is also annoying. From the beginning I found her repulsive as a heroine because she had no fight in herself. She had these amazing powers and abilities, people who were actually willing to help her train to protect herself and people she endangers, but no! Helen doesn’t want to train or practice she does not want to learn to defend herself, BUT she feels sorry for Delos boys who sleep at her roof in order to protect her. Aside from her all time whining about Lucas and lack of fight, I liked her relationship with her friends and family.
Other characters weren’t anything special at all: Lucas was kind of plain (aside from of course being incredibly handsome) and others were no more than basic characteristics to contribute to plot and MC development.
I’m continuing series with hope to see more action and characters beside Helen and Lucas and hope it gets better (as much as I have seen for now it does).
Helen is a shy teenage girl living on island Nantucket with her father. She has always sensed something was wrong with her and tried to hide her supernatural abilities from her friends and her family. But after strange family from Europe arrives on island, everything changes. Helen finds out she is Scion- descendant from demigods who fought in Trojan War. With help from Delos family, Helen learns to use her abilities and defend herself from people who want her dead.
Tbh I am feeling generous about giving this book 3 stars. I still have mixed opinions about how I feel about this book, but if I had to pick one word about my mental state after finishing Starcrossed, it would be ANNOYED.
The thing is when I started this book I had no expectations. It could either be good or bad, because I got different recommendations and diverse ratings. And that enabled me to form a opinion completely of my own.
Writing was good in some parts, allowing the story to flow naturally and made it interesting to read. But while it made some scenes interesting, some sentences were simplified and chopped, making it seem unfinished and hurried.
There was a lot of repeating thoughts in Helen’s PoV, especially those about Lucas and how tired she was all the time.
When the whole thing started, I found world building interesting, but as the story went on it was just too many... prophecies and stories for me. There was a lot of undefined facts from past and Cassandra’s prophecies about “the chosen one”. I guess it was supposed to make the plot mysterious, but it was repulsive and forced. It’s like, everyone has these amazing powers, but the thing is... no. There is no system of inheriting those powers, everyone is just so powerful with all kinds of cool abilities. I would rather have characters with one power they are able to control and it actually makes sense where does that power come from.
Plot wasn’t particularly good or bad, it was intense since Helen was in danger all the time and there were few attacks on her, but there should be more action before the very end. It was all a bit too slow with A LOT (too much if you ask me) love interest complications.
Romance in this book was one of the most annoying things ever. I saw a lot of people comparing it to Twilight, it had some similarities, but imo it was still better than that. First of all I can’t stand insta-love. They met, hated each other for 5 minutes, broke the ancient curse just like that and yay! they’re in love forever. There was just no chemistry and development between them and all those playing with feelings, she thinks he uses her blah blah I almost died every time Helen thought about Lucas.
While the main romance was pointed out, other relationships like Jason and Claire and Matt and Ardiane were sided and barely mentioned. There could be more development from their perspectives so that everything wasn’t about Helen and Lucas.
While romance and love interest where predictable and boring, I liked how friendships where represented and valued. Bond between Claire, Matt and Helen was special and I’m glad it wasn’t sided.
Characters were fun to read about at first, but in the end the only character I actually liked was Jerry.
Miss “perfect but she doesn’t know it” aka Helen is probably the most boring type of main character to be written. Aside from being perfect and smart she is also annoying. From the beginning I found her repulsive as a heroine because she had no fight in herself. She had these amazing powers and abilities, people who were actually willing to help her train to protect herself and people she endangers, but no! Helen doesn’t want to train or practice she does not want to learn to defend herself, BUT she feels sorry for Delos boys who sleep at her roof in order to protect her. Aside from her all time whining about Lucas and lack of fight, I liked her relationship with her friends and family.
Other characters weren’t anything special at all: Lucas was kind of plain (aside from of course being incredibly handsome) and others were no more than basic characteristics to contribute to plot and MC development.
I’m continuing series with hope to see more action and characters beside Helen and Lucas and hope it gets better (as much as I have seen for now it does).