Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

Publisher's Summary: It starts with a whisper: “It’s time for you to know who you are...”

On her 17th birthday, everything will change for Violet Eden. The boy she loves will betray her. Her enemy will save her. She will have to decide just how much she’s willing to sacrifice.

Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, EMBRACE is a compelling novel of good and evil, seductive desires and impossible choices. A centuries old war between fallen angels and the protectors of humanity chooses a new fighter. It’s a battle Violet doesn’t want, but she lives her life by two rules: don’t run and don’t quit. If angels seek vengeance and humans are the warriors, you could do a lot worse than betting on Violet Eden.

My Take: When I first started reading Embrace, I seesawed back and forth over how I felt about this book. The problem was I’d reach a point where I would put the book down and daydream about the book, thinking that what had happened was awesome. But then I’d suddenly realize that I really wasn’t all that satisfied. I started to get nervous because I felt the story was leading in a direction that would be way too similar to another book I read. I think at one point I even considered not picking the book back up. But I am so glad I finished! Because it didn’t take very long after that for me to realize that I was absolutely wrong! Luckily, at that very point, I really started to get sucked into the story that Jessica Shirvington created. And, the twist at the end of Embrace was awesome!

The more I think about it, the more I think my problem was mostly with the main character, Violet! For example, really early on in the story, Violet finds out something she didn’t know about herself, and then when she finds out that her best friend Lincoln (who I particularly think is pretty hot) knew about and had kept this secret from her, she becomes extremely unforgiving to everyone. It really bothered me how bitter she was throughout the whole book because of this personal betrayal. I wanted to scream at her, “He obviously feels bad! Get over it already!” And then when Violet meets Phoenix (equally hot), I was also bothered by his character because I just had this bizarre feeling about him. It was as if I just didn’t really like the guy!

There is a lot of craziness and action throughout Embrace! And there are some equally awesome creative scenes that take place while Violet struggles to discover who and what she truly is.

To top it all off, everything that was bothering me at the beginning of and throughout the book, actually played a huge part in the end, and I don’t think the story could have been done any better…because all of that stuff actually made the whole book so much better! And Violet actually turns out to be one truly kick-butt chick! I'm really looking forward to reading the next, because I really want to see where this series will lead.