Book Review: Dreamless by Josephine Angelini

Title: Dreamless 

Author: Josephine Angelini
Series: Starcrossed, #2
Pages:  503
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Date of Publication: 5th July 2012
Source: Publisher
Synopsis from Goodreads: Can true love be forgotten?

As the only Scion who can descend into the Underworld, Helen Hamilton has been given a nearly impossible task. By night she wanders through Hades, trying to stop the endless cycle of revenge that has cursed her family. By day she struggles to overcome the fatigue that is rapidly eroding her sanity. Without Lucas by her side, Helen is not sure she has the strength to go on.

Just as Helen is pushed to her breaking point, a mysterious new Scion comes to her rescue. Funny and brave, Orion shields her from the dangers of the Underworld. But time is running out—a ruthless foe plots against them, and the Furies’ cry for blood is growing louder.

As the ancient Greek world collides with the mortal one, Helen’s sheltered life on Nantucket descends into chaos. But the hardest task of all will be forgetting Lucas Delos.

My Thoughts:
I adored the first book in this series, Starcrossed. I thought the beginning was a little slow but the end was full of excitement and action and just pure awesomeness. It made it onto my top 10 list for 2011, and so obviously I was super excited for Dreamless. I reread Starcrossed as quickly as I could and started Dreamless soon after.

And then, I realised there was a love triangle. ARGH it was SO frustrating! I adored Helen and Lucas together, and I totally understand (because of the mythology and everything) why he had to rip apart their relationship, but I had a little bit more hope for Helen - that she'd be able to resist any other pretty boy who happened to throw himself at her. I thought she was so in love with Lucas that she'd be able to keep her thoughts away from Orion, but no... It was just annoying. I hated Orion at the beginning*, so, like with Starcrossed, I found the beginning a little slow.

For a while I was worried that Dreamless might end up suffering from Second Book Syndrome: the middle book; the filler - where nothing particularly spectacular happens and it's just building up for an explosive final book. Then I got to about half way, and I found out I was completely wrong. It hooked me in and wouldn't let me go until I'd read the very last page. Literally, I read half the book in two sittings, because once I'd put it down half way through the last half, I couldn't stop thinking about it and needed to finish it. I needed to see if Helen would be successful in her quest to free the Scion race from The Furies, and I needed to know whether she could resist Orion and stay faithful to Lucas despite them not actually being in a relationship.

It was fast paced and full of twists and turns and I had to keep reading quickly to keep up. Helen's much more interesting in this book (not that I didn't really like her before) because she finally knows how to control and use her powers properly and effectively. It was more about the family disputes and the mythology than the romance, I thought - which is good because it meant there was nothing (much) between Helen and Orion romantically (yay!) and also because I got to understand the world that Helen is a part of a lot more than I perhaps previously did.

I did get confused pretty easily though. It goes so fast, and there's so much going on that if my mind wandered just a little bit while reading (which it often does) I found I needed to go back and reread a page or so just so I could keep up. Helen's trips down to the Underworld combined with everything going on in Helen's real world made for a lot to keep up with and I'd just recommend that you make sure you're not super tired when you read this because it might not make that much sense (speaking from experience)!

Overall though I thought that Dreamless was even better than Starcrossed and I absolutely cannot wait until the last book, Goddess, is released so I can find out how the whole thing will end. I'd most definitely recommend this series if you haven't read it already and are a fan of Greek mythology and/or YA romance, and if you've read and loved Starcrossed you really must get to Dreamless as soon as you can! It will NOT disappoint.

*(although I do have to say that having now finished the book I don't hate Orion as much... Or at all, but don't get confused - I'm still most definitely TEAM LUCAS.)


Huge thanks to Macmillan for sending me this in exchange for an honest review! In no way has this affected my opinion of the book.