[Review] Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

Title: Embrace
Series:  The Violet Eden Chapters
Author:  Jessica Shirvington
Genre:  ya, angels, fantasy
Format:  ARC Trade Paperback, 367 pages
Publication Date:  March 6, 2012
Published By:  Sourcebooks Fire, Sourcebooks Inc.
Source:  ARC received from publisher for review.

Synopsis from Goodreads

It starts with a whisper: “It’s time for you to know who you are…”

Violet Eden dreads her seventeenth birthday. After all, it’s hard to get too excited about the day that marks the anniversary of your mother’s death. As if that wasn’t enough, disturbing dreams haunt her sleep and leave her with very real injuries. There’s a dark tattoo weaving its way up her arms that wasn’t there before.

Violet is determined to get some answers, but nothing could have prepared her for the truth. The guy she thought she could fall in love with has been keeping his identity a secret: he’s only half-human—oh, and same goes for her.

A centuries-old battle between fallen angels and the protectors of humanity has chosen its new warrior. It’s a fight Violet doesn't want, but she lives her life by two rules: don’t run and don’t quit. When angels seek vengeance and humans are the warriors, you could do a lot worse than betting on Violet Eden…

Embrace Cover Reveal Teaser from Sourcebooks Inc on Vimeo.

Also be sure to check out the new trailer released on the EW site today!
  

My Thoughts

I have had bad luck in the past with ya angel books. I have never really found one I thoroughly enjoyed. Embrace has changed that.

The name of the book, Embrace, had me fooled a little. The dictionary defines embrace as: to take or receive gladly or eagerly; accept willingly: to embrace an idea. I honestly expected to read a story about a young girl who willing rushes in to accept her heritage and defend the earth. It was surprising, yet very interesting, to read instead about this young girl who struggles with this new knowledge and not really wanting to accept the responsibilities and just trying instead to try to decide how to continue living a normal human life, knowing the dangers that will come with that choice.

One of the main selling points of this book is the amount of effort Jessica Shirvington puts into the explanation of all the angel types and their pecking order. On Friday, Jessica stopped by my blog and shared a complete post about the pecking order of angels in her series. I suggest you read it. It's fascinating!

As is typical in many ya novels recently, we have the two dashing young men (sort of) who are vying for the main character's (Violet in this case) attention. Although I am pretty tired of this type of story, and as frustrated as I was by it when I first saw it happening, I think the author ends it well with a nice twist that I won't share with you. It will be interesting to she what she does with it in book two however, because I can only see it getting annoying again...

The characters are wonderfully written and solid believable participants in this story. I liked each one of them for their own reasons, with Lincoln grabbing top spot, followed closely by Griffin (who struck me as a much younger version of a Rupert Giles type character). I know many readers fell in love with Phoenix, but there was something about him that just rubbed me the wrong way. So all you Phoenix lovers out there, have at him! I'll keep my quiet, dedicated partner, Lincoln (Linc). Maybe it's because he reminds me a little of Dimitri Belikov...and we all know how I feel about him... I had issues with Violet off and on as well, and I can't really explain why without giving a lot of the story away, but it all made sense in the end. I actually kind of want to go back and re-read the book knowing what I know now...

After reading quite a few poorly written angel books, Embrace was a breath of fresh air. I look forward to the highly anticipated second book, Enticed, due out in September.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a good angel book in the ya genre.

My rating?