Release Date: March 6th, 2012
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Format: ARC
Age Group: Young Adult
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…
I love angel stories. I kind of feel like a collector of them. I don't always love them and it makes me really sad when I can't finish one, but as I'm sure I've said before, if it has angels it's going on my bookshelf. That being said, EMBRACE was an angel book that I absolutely adore! My favorite part about this book was definitely Violet. I don't know how anyone could not like her. She's sarcastic, funny, caring, kick butt and vulnerable all rolled into one awesome chick. Sometimes she made me so mad, because she was being petulant and ignoring Linc, but at the same time I totally got it. If I'd been told my whole life is about to change and that things were never really what I thought they were, I would probably get super pissed and act like a child for a bit. Of course, this is probably the only part where I thought the book really suffered, and that's only because we were without Lincoln for so long. YOU GUYS! Lincoln is ALL of the wonderful words. He's hot, older, totally kickass, obviously enamored with Violet and forbidden. What else could a girl want in her newest book boyfriend?
I really liked the Angel/Grigori mythology in the book. I thought the way the Grigori's were made was really unique and their purpose on earth made for an excellent back story. I thought it was really cool that even the angels need to make sure they had a system of checks and balances, so that no one group could ever truly take over another. We only really got a little of the history of the Grigori's, the exiles, and the angels, but I'm sure we'll get to find out more in the next book. I can't imagine Violet not wanting to find out everything she can, now that she is officially part of this whole new world. Which brings me to another thing, I was so stoked that she was able to clue in her best friend, Steph. I hate stories when the main characters can't ever tell their friends what is really going on. When you are in a crazy situation like Violet, you need your friends, and I can't imagine a better friend than Steph. That girl was such a riot. She is the kind of person I want as my best friend and I can't wait to see more of her in book two. Also, her overexaggerated religious references once she found out, so funny! Griffin was another favorite character of mine. Violet only meets him when she is finding out about her heritage, but he quickly becomes someone she can trust and is always around to look out for her. I definitely want more Griffin in my life, and if anything bad happens to him, I will be so sad!
You'll notice I haven't mentioned Phoenix. There is a really good reason for that. I don't like him. I didn't like his character from the start and I only grew to dislike him more as the book went on. That's not to say he was a completely terrible person, because he wasn't, I just never warmed to him. He was a good source for some information, but I won't be sad if he doesn't come around again, although I know he will.
So overall I loved this book and I can't wait for the second in the series. I want to know what's going to happen next in this world and I just know that Violet will handle it with so much awesome!
I WANT THIS BOOK! *-* I mean, for one, the cover is just gorgeous. That can't be ignored. But for another, everyone says that the mythology is absolutely fantastic, and I love when authors actually research their mythology and make it realistic. I definitely have to pick this one up. Awesome, awesome review!
ReplyDeleteThe cover is gorgeous and it has that soft texture going for it, at least on the ARC. So I like to pet it...haha. The mythology in this was just so cool, I love that books can have the same basic paranormal beings, but make their own mythology for them!
DeleteJust had a sample sent to my Kindle!
ReplyDeleteI hope you like it! Prepare for swooning :0)
DeleteLovely review, Sarah! I find it kind of funny that Violet was your favorite part of the book, when she was my least favorite. That girl drove me absolutely bananas. I could barely stand her most of the time, haha! However, I'm happy you enjoyed this book! A lot of people did. :) Lincoln was definitely swoon-worthy. I liked Pheonix, though something about was always really off. wink-wink. Great review, Sarah! I hope you love the sequel EVEN MORE.
ReplyDeleteIs it weird that I think it's awesome when we have opposite opinions of a book? I mean, it's cool when we both like something, because we can be all YAY! But I think it's more fun to see what someone didn't like about something you did. I can totally see where she would have driven you crazy, because there were a couple of times I wanted to strangle her, but she just reminded me so much of my teenage self (other than the part angel thing)...I couldn't help but love her :0)
DeleteI thought this one sounded pretty interesting, and after your review I think I may definitely pick it up sometime. I haven't read very many angel books and I need to change that. I also haven't heard of Grigori, so I must find out about this :)
ReplyDeleteGreat review! I have an ARC of Embrace and I keep hearing wonderful things about it. I can't wait to get started on it finally. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking for new book to read, and so confused because there are a lot of book..
ReplyDeletereally interesting with this book after read your review.. thanks
oh, and i really like the names of character