This review was first posted on http://www.rubysreads.com. 
 How do you defy a million and one positive reviews? Ruby has spent her entire life trying to find good books. Starcrossed was not one of them. You know how I like to disclose, so I'd better tell you that I knew Logan's opinion of this book before I even started it, so I knew that if she didn't like it, there was a pretty good chance I would find myself in the same position. Self-fulfilling prophecy? Perhaps. But I don't think so. I dislike Starcrossed on its own merit. Demerits? Not sure about that one. Let me see if I can explain why. 
 My first problem with this book was Helen. I didn't like her. She was too...perfect. Too self-sacrificing and I-never-knew-how-beautiful-I-was. I don't mind characters that have low self-esteem--as long as the book is, at least in part, about the character's journey to self-acceptance. But Helen was completely unbelievable and, frankly, annoying. She doesn't want to learn how to fight because she doesn't believe in violence even though practically EVERYONE is telling her it's not about violence, it's about SELF-DEFENSE. She "protects" a character who is harassing her by not telling anyone about it despite the fact that the harassment is escalating. Oh, and she doesn't call Lucas on his s%@t. 
 Which brings me to Lucas. What a jackwagon. I still don't understand why he didn't just TELL Helen what was going on. It served him absolutely no purpose not to tell her. I wanted to bang my head against my Kindle (seriously!) every time he pushed her away without explanation. Of course, the head-banging wasn't helped by Helen's sheer refusal to say something like, "Dude, what's up with you?" And, also, what's the use of having a best friend if you can't discuss stuff like this with her, Helen? But, honestly, it was this passage that basically made my case against Lucas ironclad: 
 "Helen runs because she needs a scholarship for college," Lucas said, shooting Hector a warning glance. "We play sports because it's expected of us. It's annoying, actually, because we have to pretend to be unbearably weak and slow." 
 "And we spend as much time making sure no one gets hurt as we do playing," added Jason with a rueful smile. "The truth is we'd much rather be beating each other up than pretending to beat up mortals, but that wouldn't look normal at all." 
 Loc. 1733-37 
 There is so much that is wrong with this passage that it makes me sad. First of all, Lucas? If that's your idea of team spirit, I'd rather you stayed at home and beat up the other members of your family. You've managed to be arrogant, condescending and a braggart all at the same time, and I do not want you around. And Jason--guys beat each other up all the time. It's not normal if you don't. Especially if you're family. When my older brother and his best friends are in the same place at the same time as my younger brother, he knows he's going to receive a noogie and a headlock. It's the way they say hello. It's the guyhug. 
 I confess that I also had a problem with the way that Angelini involved Greek Mythology into her story. For one thing, she named her MC Helen and the resident prophetess Cassandra. She should've just gone ahead and called Lucas, Paris. I realize it's not a great name to give to your male character, but it's really not a secret who Lucas is. If Helen is Helen of Troy (which was obvious from the beginning), then of course that's who Lucas is going to be. Even if we're not sure about that, Cassandra proving to indeed have visions of the future clinches it. I do not by any stretch of the imagination consider myself a scholar of Greek history, but the big reveal wasn't big for me and I found myself wondering why Helen hadn't figured it out along with me. 
 Finally, I felt the writing was pretty clunky. This passage irritated me in particular: 
 "Damn it, it's me!" Hector whispered harshly. Helen saw him hiding in the shadows, shaking out his hand like it stung. 
 "What the hell? Hector is that you?" 
 Loc. 1995-96 
 Because this part is told from Helen's perspective, we know she already knows that it's Hector. Why restate it? I consider this more an editing problem than a writing problem, but the book if full of stuff like that. Dialog is hard to write, I know, and there was very little in Starcrossed that sounded like it would really come out of someone's mouth. I'm also not too fond of the late change in narration. But then, I rarely like that. I think it messes with the flow of the novel and, furthermore, it kind of feels like cheating. If we spend the majority of the book in Helen's head (which we do), then suddenly we're catapulted into Lucas', it feels wrong, like we've suddenly developed the ability to mindread. 
 I'm going to end this review with one last confession: this was a DNF for me. I got to the last 20% and I just can't make myself read the rest. I find that I'm not sufficiently interested in the characters or the story, despite the fact that I've heard there's a cliffhanger ending. I've been wracking my head to come up with something positive to say, something about this book worked for me, but I can't. The beginning was okay, but as soon as Lucas and the rest of the Delos family entered the scene, things started to fall apart. I've heard that Starcrossed is being compared to Twilight. Well, I'm not a Twilight fan, so that may explain things. I'll leave you with a link to Small's review of Starcrossed, which was decidedly more positive than mine. 
 Small's Starcrossed review