Review: Star Crossed by Luna Lacour

Star Crossed by Luna Lacour
Published March 28, 2014
ARC Received from Author, In no way did this influence my opinion
Goodreads
Interview with Luna Lacour

It started with a game - seduce the new teacher.

Eighteen-year-old Kaitlyn Laurent is living the American Dream. Born into a wealthy, socialite family with more opulent surroundings and material things than any girl could even fathom, Kaitlyn is the fresh, young face amidst a sea of morally-amiss Manhattan Debutantes. She is educated, poised, and on the outside - entirely virtuous. Her life, in short, is perfect.

Or so it would seem.

Inside the walls of her Upper East Side mansion, Kaitlyn is struggling. After her parents' divorce and her father's remarriage to a beautiful but otherwise utterly vapid woman, Kaitlyn quickly finds herself living in a realm of self-created fantasy, completely detached and entirely clashing with her new family – particularly, her classmate-turned-stepbrother, Marius. Arrogant and with a penchant for playing games, he is intrigued and infatuated by Kaitlyn's faux-chaste outer facade that she uses to cover an otherwise calloused heart.

When the two of them enter into into their final semester at Trinity Prep, and the buzz around campus is that a gorgeous new teacher has set foot in the classroom, Marius makes Kaitlyn a bet: seduce the man who is now her Literature teacher.

Are the forbidden or are they simply star crossed? I’d been looking forward to Ms. Lacour’s debut novel for a while, and I have got to say, she is one talented writer! The words felt SO LYRICAL! It was a spin on a classic (one of the MANY I have yet to read) that simply blew me away. There were some issues, but I mean, there’s issues in every book. Unless it’s The Fault in Our Stars or Anna and the French Kiss. And the ones in Star Crossed were small ones that made a big impact. The biggest one being that I couldn’t really connect to the characters. It’s one of the things that determine how much I like or dislike a book: the way I feel about the characters.

 “We were neither lover nor friends, pupil or instructor. At that moment, we were just two faces with two names that I'm not sure, if asked, either of us could have even remembered.” 

This book was written to a way so that it felt like poetry but felt empty. Maybe it as supposed to feel empty, because the main girl really was living the life of a shell for a significant part of the novel. But. I don’t know. I like feeling connected to the character. She was in a situation I didn’t understand and felt completely forbidden. And it was fabulous. I thought that the characters were a lovely blend of simplicity of complex; they all had their own struggles that made them human. That’s the essence of what this book is, I think. Humanity. The whole teacher/ student relationship was completely taboo: I mean yeah, it was love, it was mistakes, it was passion, it was heartbreak, but, more than any of that, it was human.

My favorite part was that it was human.

 “Sometimes I don't know if this is real, or if I'm just dreaming,” I said. “But either way, I wish I could do everything in this life with you.” 

Overall, I adore this books quotes and the way it was written, but because of my inability to form a connection to the characters, sadly, I can only award this book three stars. (but those three stars glow very bright)

Star Crossed was a collection of stolen kisses, mounds of heartbreak and secrets that are rather. . . secretive? I don't know, I wanted to fall head over heels with this. It was so complex. But at the same time, so simple. It was love? It was want? It was. . . forbidden. 

So. . .what's your take on the whole forbidden stuff that seems to be coming up more and more in the New Adult genre? Personally, I think it's kind of cool to see all the fresh ideas rolling in. 

Thoughts?