DREAMLESS BLOGGER EVENT

When I got an invitation to Macmillan Children's Book's 4th of July celebration for Dreamless, I was so excited. Partly because I'm extremely nosy and I look snooping around publisher's offices. But also because Josephine Angelini was going to do a live web chat from America.

Not only did the lovely staff at Macmillan go all out decorating their office with flags, blue, white and red stars and striped banners, but they made lots of stunning food from rocky road, hot dogs and cupcakes set out like the American flag!

But to top it all off, Josephine was absolutely amazing - so bubbly, chatty and friendly. It was so lovely to hear how characters from Starcrossed are based on members of her family, from Jerry (named after her brother) to the Delos family in general which is based on her own large and loud family life. I'd never really thought about it before, but Josephine explained how thinking about her own family helped her develop the characters, by using traits and situations from real life (not including shooting thunder bolts) to embellish the characters.

Josephine explained how her initial inspiration for Starcrossed came from seeing Romeo & Juliet and the Iliad on the bookshelves next to each other and wondering why no-one had thought to modernise the story of Helen of Troy. I have to admit when Josephine said she would like to have dinner with Hector most out of all her characters, I couldn't help but agree!

We were also lucky enough to hear a snippet from Goddess, #3 in the series, which I can't wait for. Shame we have to wait a year for it. And can I also say, considering it was early morning for Josephine, she somehow managed to look flawlessly beautiful! This woman can do no wrong!

I am rather annoyed at myself for not taking any more pictures, but I was just so overwhelmed my brain kind of stopped functioning properly. But honestly, with cupcakes and Josephine on web chat, who can blame me!!

If you haven't seen the web chat, hop over to My Kinda Book's Google + site to take a look.

REVIEW: STARCROSSED

Starcrossed
Author: Josephine Angelini
Series: Yes, Starcrossed #1
UK Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books
UK release date: June 2011
Genre: YA

Sixteen year old Helen Hamilton has always felt different from everyone else on the island of Nantucket. Overly shy, she has cramps if anyone pays her too much attention. But when the Delos family moves to the island, Helen instinctively wants to kill the beautiful Lucas Delos, and she attacks him in the school corridor. To top it off, Helen feels like she is going crazy as she has strange nightmares featuring three ghostly women, who continue to haunt her when she is around the Delos family.
After Helen flies away from an attack at her home, she learns that she is descended from Greek Demi-Gods and was born into an opposing House to the Delos family, making her attraction to Lucas an impossibility.

Review: Greek mythology is inextricably tied into Starcrossed, from the history of Demigods, their part in the Trojan War and three wailing women - the Furies. I don’t know my Greek mythology and I’ve never read Iliad, but this didn’t put me at a loss. Angelini did a good job working in enough history and references to the Greek Gods such as Zeus to make the story real and believable, without distracting from the plot or characters.
When shy and awkward Helen sees Lucas and the rest of the Delos family she is filled with feelings of rage and pure hatred, not falling at his feet like the rest of the female population. If you know me well, you’ll know that I hate straight-out ‘girl falls for the most attractive guy ever’ scenarios, so the fact that the relationship between Lucas and Helen is more complex than that pleases me.

I really enjoyed the minor characters from the Delos family, although you can notice some similarities to Twilight – beautiful family with inhuman strength, the sister that can see snippets of the future etc. Don’t let this put you off though, as in Starcrossed the minor characters suffer their ups and downs and aren’t just pretty faces.

Something I’ve read in other reviews, is that the start of the book is a little stilted and slow and some of the dialogue jarring. This is true and it was a little difficult to get into at first. But as you get further into the story, the writing smoothes out and the pace picks up. There are plenty of little breadcrumb trails ready for us to follow into the next book, such as Helen’s nightmares visiting the Furies, her relationship with Lucas and a prophecy foretold about Helen. These are tied in well enough so that I was left curious and wanting to know what will happen next, but not making me feel too let down at the end because I was left without answers.

Slow to start, Starcrossed is worth persevering for: a delight of Greek mythological proportions.


Rating: 3.5*