Review: Star-Crossed by Luna Lacour

Title: Star-Crossed
Author: Luna Lacour
Pages: 284
Publisher: Luna Lacour
Release Date: March 28, 2014

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.

If she wins, she gets his trust fund. Money that she can use to finally escape a life that she has come to loathe.

If Marius wins...he gets her virginity.

When an initial spark turns into full-blown obsession, and her affections are inevitably returned – Kaitlyn learns that there are no actions without consequence, and some affairs are simply star-crossed.

My Thoughts: Star-Crossed had me intrigued from the very beginning. It was hard to put down. But I have to say... The last 30% of the story definitely amped it up and had me on the edge of my seat! What happened to the characters almost felt like a never-ending train-wreck. I could not look away, nor could I help but to get emotional. I was extremely anxious to know how Kaitlyn's story would end, so props to the author Luna Lacour for keeping me guessing all the way to the final lines of the book.

The story focused on eighteen-year-old Kaitlyn Laurent, who no longer wanted to live the life her wealthy and out-of-touch father already planned out for her and who becomes immersed in a game to seduce her teacher Mr. Tennant. Kaitlyn was an interesting character. I couldn't relate to her life or her choices, and I thought she sometimes came off as cold and distant. However, she grew on me. I understood her reasoning behind some of the reckless decisions she made. Her unhappiness with the way her life was going didn't cause me to roll my eyes or make me wish she would be happy that she at least had money. I just ended up feeling immense sympathy for her and hoped things would work out for her, even though it seemed impossible.

The males in Kaitlyn's life fascinated me as well. Her stepbrother Marius stood out to me a lot. He was the one who started the game, the bet, between himself and Kaitlyn. There were times I wanted to know more about him and times I wanted to shake him. It wasn't easy figuring him out, and his motives weren't clear to me till the last part of the story. I just felt really bad for him by the end, and it made me wonder how differently things would have been had he not hid behind all the games. Tyler was another stand out. He was a loner at school because of his status and somehow became best friends with Kaitlyn during their final semester. I loved how normal he seemed compared to everyone else. He was sweet, had morals, and viewed the world in an entirely different way compared to the all rich kids at school. I'm so happy with his outcome and glad Kaitlyn had him by her side.

Last, but not least: Will Tennant. He was the new literature teacher at school and the one Kaitlyn had to seduce in order to win the bet (the prize being Marius's trust fund money) and escape the life she no longer wanted. I really liked Will. He was kind, patient, and intelligent. There was also a bit of mystery about him, and it didn't hurt that he was hot and British. I felt him and Kaitlyn were a perfect match. They both seemed lost and shared an immediate connection that was hard to ignore. As for the bet, it became really hard for Kaitlyn to go through with, especially once she realized how deep her feelings were for Will. Keeping their student/teacher relationship a secret from everyone was hard enough, and if Will found out about the bet, Kaitlyn knew everything would come crashing down. It did give the story excitement, but at the same time, it gave me much anxiety because all I wanted was for them to be happy and together.

Star-Crossed was about a girl who wanted to live her life the way she wanted to with the man she loved but got caught up in all the secrets and lies. It was alluring and at times thrilling and not the usual new adult read. I don't want to spoil the ending, but I will say that it was unexpected and fitting and left me breathless. Star-Crossed was a wonderful debut novel by Luna Lacour, and I'm looking forward to reading what she writes next!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars