Book Review: Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

Review: Embrace
Series: Violet Eden Chapters – Book 1
Author: Jessica Shirvington
No of Pages: 382
Release Date: 1 October 2010

THE WRONG CHOICE COULD COST NOT ONLY HER LIFE, BUT HER DESTINY.

All Violet wants is to be with Lincoln. But he has a secret so great it could tear them apart.

Then there’s Phoenix. He’s intense and enigmatic, but always there for her.

Caught up in a battle between light and dark – where angels seek vengeance and humans are warriors – Violet must decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice. And who to trust...

My Thoughts:

Embrace was more than I expected, and I absolutely loved it.

Violet Eden’s life is turned upside down when she finds out that her best friend and man she is secretly in love with has been keeping a secret, about her. Violet is a Grigori, a half angel-half human protector of human kind against exiled angels, evil fallen angels that wish to control mankind.

After finding out that Lincoln has been keeping such a terrible secret about her identity she shuts him out of her life, a hard thing to do to your closest companion over the last two years. She meets Phoenix, an exiled angel who seems to have a darkness about him, but is fiercely protective of Violet when other exiles are around.

Violet was an interesting and well fleshed out character. After losing her mother at birth and being terrorized by a former teacher at school she has developed a habit of not letting much get to her and never fleeing from something too hard or scary. She broke that rule when it came to Lincoln and her destiny of becoming a Grigori leaning on Phoenix to help her get through her life upheaval.

Lincoln was a hard character to like for me if choosing between the two boys vying for Violet’s attention, he keeps secrets, lies and is condescending when around Violet but he also had that irresistible charm that Violet has been in love with ever since they got close. Violet’s and Lincoln’s love for each other was obvious from the first page, no matter how much Lincoln tried to keep his distance from her it was still clear that he loved Violet as much as Violet loved him.

Phoenix on the other hand is your typical bad boy; he is an exiled angel who takes a liking to Violet when he meets her. Violet tries to stay away but is inexplicably drawn to him. She admits that she doesn’t love Phoenix, but he can give her so much more, and is willing to give so much more than what Lincoln is.

Embrace was beautifully written, if a little confusing. I had a hard time keeping track of which angels were what and up until mid-way through the book exactly who the bad guys were. Even the motions of Embracing were a little sudden and rather confusing.

Other than the slight confusion Embrace was an engrossing read. Each time I was forced to put it down all I could think about was getting back to it. Having had some bad experiences with angel books in the past I highly encourage everyone to give Embrace a try.

Embrace is an addictive read, and left me salivating for more not just answers but for more beautiful prose and engaging characters. I cannot wait until I can dive into the next instalment in this intriguing series.

Also in this series:
Enticed
Emblaze

Book Review: Burned by PC Cast & Kristin Cast

Review: Burned
Series: House of Night – Book 7
Author: PC Cast; Kristin Cast
No of Pages: 323
Release Date: 27 April 2010

Y’all need to get yourselves together. Here’s a newsflash from the only High Priestess you have left at this dang school: Zoey isn’t dead. And believe me, I know dead. I’ve been there, done that and got the fricken t-shirt.

Zoey Redbird is the youngest High Priestess in the House of Night history and is the only person – vamp or fledgling – that can stop the evil Neferet from raising all kinds of immortal trouble. And just she might have a chance if she wasn’t so busy being dead.

Well, dead is too strong a word. Stevie Rae knows she can bring her BFF back from her unscheduled va-cay in the Otherworld. But it’s going to take a lot more than hoping to bring Zoey back. Stevie Rae might have to give up a few secrets of her own...

My Thoughts:

The seventh instalment in the House of Night series has somehow kept me intrigued in continuing on in Zoey’s journey.

Continuing directly on from Tempted, Burned launches straight into the predicament that Zoey’s soul has been shattered and Aphrodite must work with the nerd-herd and Stark to get her back. We also have Stevie Rae’s ongoing struggle with her feelings for Rephaim, the raven mocker.

I did like that Burned didn’t focus wholly (it ended up being rarely) on Zoey and all her “me, me, me”. We got a good insight into the other characters, Stevie Rae especially. It felt like nearly the whole story was flipping back to Stevie Rae whenever it could. It wasn’t entirely bad, but in the middle of Burned, it became extremely tedious to hear her stuff up and summoning evil beings by accident.

I think my favourite character, apart from Stark and Zoey (yes, I like her even if she is self-centred), is Aphrodite. She is continuing to grow into what it really seems Nyx has planned for her. Everything that is thrown at Aphrodite she completely takes in her stride, whilst also managing to keep everyone else together as well and still successfully pulling off her “I’m a bitch” routine.

It was Aphrodite that kept Zoey’s body safe, Aphrodite who figured out how to help her and ultimately, Aphrodite who saved the day, which was really cool on her part considering her lack of Vampyrness now.

Although I do love the Cast ladies writing style, I am really starting to get over the language. It’s not bad or vulgar; it just seems to try way too hard now. Before it was cool, unique and well done. Now it’s just overused and really tiring to think you just read someone speaking terrible English and having to go back and confirm that the House of Night doesn’t teach grammar lessons.

Aside from the characters voices, the only other thing that is puzzling me is how on earth they are going to drag this out for another five books...I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Kalona and Neferet are only so evil, there isn’t too much more that they can do.

Aside from those things though, Burned kept me intrigued for the most part, and I think we’re in for Zoey, Stark, Aphrodite and especially Stevie Rae to do some major maturing in the next couple of books because it looks like Zoey is going to be taking on some pretty big roles in the next instalment, one in which I am looking forward to reading.

Others in this series:
Marked
Betrayed
Chosen
Untamed
Hunted
Tempted
Awakened