Saturday, November 9, 2013

Embrace by Jessica Shirvington Review


"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…"

And some more lies and broken promises. Wow, I'm on a roll with the angel books. Er...Half-angel book since Violet and her friends are mostly half-angels. Violet is like three-quarters from the hints and clues about her mother.

Romance. Certainly there's romance. After all the synopsis said, "...guy she thought she could fall in love with ..." and yah-yah-yah. Here I am again. I'm cheering for the bad boy (I mean really bad bad bad boy). And I shouldn't be, but he has that irresistible charm that will get Violet into trouble. (So does Warner from Unravel Me, but Warner has charm unlike this dude).

As I read every book (or what it feels like) about angel, I feel as if I see more from different views. One book sees angels as bad. Embrace sees angels as good, fallen angels as bad, and demons as really, really you-are-going-to-die bad. It's fascinating to see each fantasy world as it is. Embrace's world isn't that bad. The angels give their powers to a recently born child whose mother has died within a certain time after the baby's birth. The angel's opinions will not be transferred to the baby, but its powers will be. Not too hard to understand, right?

The plot goes up and then goes down. I'm horribly reminded of Hush, Hush and its plot at every turn Embrace's plot makes. The writing is not as good as Hush, Hush, but many of the characters remind me of Hush, Hush.

For instance, "the guy she thought she could fall in love with" happens to be quite similar to Scott. Then Phoenix reminds me of Patch without the nice guy act. Violet seems to be similar to Nora Grey, who sometimes becomes this clueless bimbo (not blond) because the author pretty much made her that way. (Mary Sue, look it up. Actually, don't. You'll be seeing them everywhere if you do. Typically every written character is a Mary Sue).

And the ending. We meet fallen angels that aren't as hot as Patch. And that's all I'm going to say.

Rating: Two out of Five

No comments:

Post a Comment