The Best Book You're Not Reading (9)

I just happened to check amazon for the ranking of this book and was surprised at what I found.  It's currently ranked at #1,703,859.  That is very low on the list considering this book is absolutely fantastic!  If you like a story that is an epic love story or just an epic story, then this one is for you.  And if you read this now or in the upcoming weeks, the second book in the series is out at the end of the month, so you can read both books at once!  I bet you're wondering what book it is, aren't you?  I will add that I am a bit biased because this author is a Massachusetts native and I love pushing local authors!  So here ya go:

Starcrossed is the story of Helen Hamilton and Lucas Delos.  When Helen first comes across him, the rage inside of her is so great that she literally wants to kill him.  It always seems to happen when she sees images of three girls crying.  And so, Helen learns that she is a scion and she is the Helen from Trojan War and Lucas is the love of her life, Paris.  Yeah, we get the Iliad in a young adult form!  I loved this book and it's a meaty piece of work.  Josie Angelini knows her Greek history and she deftly weaves Homer's epic poem into a beautiful novel. I think everyone should read this book and fall in love with these characters just like I did. The second book, Dreamless, comes out at the end of April and is just as fantastic as the first one.  I hope these characters continue on for a while.

From Goodreads:

Set on the island of Nantucket, STARCROSSED tells the tale of Helen Hamilton, a young woman whose destiny is forever altered when she meets Lucas Delos and tries to kill him in front of her entire high school. Which is terribly inconvenient, not only because Lucas is the most beautiful boy on the island, but also because Helen is so achingly shy she suffers physical pain whenever she is given too much attention. 

Making matters worse, Helen is beginning to suspect she’s going crazy. Whenever she’s near Lucas or any member of his family she sees the ghostly apparitions of three women weeping bloody tears, and suffers the burden of an intense and irrational hate. She soon learns that she and Lucas are destined to play the leading roles in a Greek tragedy that the Three Fates insist on repeating over and over again throughout history. Like her namesake, Helen of Troy, she’s destined to start a war by falling in love. But even though Lucas and Helen can see their own star-crossed destiny, they’re still powerfully attracted to each other. Will they give up their personal happiness for the greater good, or risk it all to be together?