Starcrossed

"Starcrossed" by Josephine Angelini
Hardcover: 514 pages
Published: Harper Teen (May 31, 2011)

Description:
How do you defy destiny?
Helen Hamilton has spent her entire sixteen years trying to hide how different she is—no easy task on an island as small and sheltered as Nantucket. And it's getting harder. Nightmares of a desperate desert journey have Helen waking parched, only to find her sheets damaged by dirt and dust. At school she's haunted by hallucinations of three women weeping tears of blood . . . and when Helen first crosses paths with Lucas Delos, she has no way of knowing they're destined to play the leading roles in a tragedy the Fates insist on repeating throughout history.
As Helen unlocks the secrets of her ancestry, she realizes that some myths are more than just legend. But even demigod powers might not be enough to defy the forces that are both drawing her and Lucas together—and trying to tear them apart.

This book is the first one in a series.  I'm glad it is, because I want to know what happens to these characters.  This book is different in the fact that the characters and storyline deal with demigods...the ancestors of the big gods like Zeus and Athena, etc.  The main female, Helen, has no idea who she really is or what her powers are until a family moves to her island.  Of course, they are fated to meet and be together.  Destiny plays a big part in this book.  I really enjoyed the characters and how they developed and how we learn about their existence.  I was a bit confused at times with all the different names and background, but overall it is a good book.

Hereafter

"Hereafter" (Hereafter #1) by Tara Hudson
Hardcover: 404 pages
Published: HarperCollins (June 7, 2011)

Description:

Can there truly be love after death?
Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life—or her actual death—she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive.
Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.
Thrilling and evocative, with moments of pure pleasure, Hereafter is a sensation you won't want to miss.

I thought this book was pretty good.  It had a nice different kind of storyline that I haven't read before.  Sometimes it gets tiring reading the same kinds of books, and this one was nicely different.

This book was fast paced and the writing was good.  Sometimes with YA books, you'll get the "teen talk" that authors think teens talk like.  It gets annoying.  This one was good.  This book was full of the otherworldly supernatural, yet romantic.  A love story where two people can't really be together.  Maybe in some future installment they will be.  I noticed that all books I choose to read are becoming sequels.  This one I can see having a sequel.  You want to know more about these characters and if they ever will be together.