Everybody who knows me knows about my slight *ahem* fascination with mythology. I take a course on it at uni, I spout random facts about it to people who now think I'm completely crazy and I read about 3 books each week somewhat revolving around it. But never within the two years that I've been scrambling for information about mythology have I read a book as riveting, as tense, as good as 'Starcrossed' (and its sequel 'Dreamless') by Josephine Angelini.
I told myself, when I started this blog, that I wouldn't post reviews on books or movies on here, merely because my taste in entertainment in sometimes questionable at best (and I'll be the first to tell you that). But now, I've come across a book that makes me want to buy a million copies just so I can give it to everyone I cross and have them share in the pure awesomeness that it contains.
Yes, there are romantic themes in 'Starcrossed' and 'Dreamless', but that isn't the reason I love it so much. There's a kick-ass central character who isn't overly-anything. Some authors tend to make their central characters either overly-timid or overly-charismatic, but Josephine Angelini managed to find the perfect balance and have an actually likeable main character.
'Starcrossed' was released last year, and the reason I'm bringing up this series is because its sequel 'Dreamless' was published only a matter of days ago. I bought it and read it within a day. I almost, almost, posted something on Josephine Angelini's Facebook page accusing her of being a scion (descendant of one blessed by the gods) with the power to mesmerize people with her words but I thought I might come off a little crazy so I held myself back (up until now, that is).
I'm not going to say what it's about. If I try and describe the storyline, I know that everyone will that it lame and probably not read it so all I'm going to say is trust me!
And this book isn't the only one incorporating mythology in one way or another. I've seen countless books within the past 6 or so months trying the retell certain stories in a modern way (and as someone who loves to say they discovered something first, I'd like to mention here that I liked mythology way before it was cool) but some of them, to put it bluntly, are either completely confusing or fail abysmally. Last week, I read the Mythos Academy series by Jennifer Estep and, while decently entertaining, it mixed Greek mythology with Norse religion with a few Romans mixed into the storyline just to cover the major bases. The plot had major flaws and you weren't always cheering for the right characters. I don't know how to explain the frustration I had with this series (which is why I don't think I could be a good book reviewer) but suffice to say Estep is no Angelini.
Check out this article about YA books incorporating mythology, it made me smile :)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-parkin/interview-with-josephine-_b_1588387.html?utm_hp_ref=books
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