Wednesday, 2 May 2012

REVIEW: Embrace (The Violet Eden Chapters #1) by Jessica Shirvington

 

Author: Jessica Shirvington
Series: The Violet Eden Chapters
Pages: 382
Genre: Young Adult
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Amazon: Embrace

Synopsis (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.

REVIEW: 3.5 out 5 stars

Embrace by Jessica Shirvington is the first book in The Violet Eden Chapters and follows the story of 17 year-old Violet Eden who has just found out she is only half human.

Violet dreads her birthday, each year it is a reminder that this is the date she lost her mother during childbirth. But her 17th birthday is going to be different, there are changes coming and a whole new world she is about to learn about.

As unusual marks begin to appear on her body and she starts to have realistic, disturbing dreams; She finds out her destiny is to protect humans from the vengeance of exiled angels and she is what is known as a Grigori and a very powerful one at that and has found herself in the middle of an age old war between the two. The plot was certainly enjoyable and the history of the Grigori and Angels entertaining.

Now the love triangle; I am not a fan of whatsoever! I adore both Lincoln and Phoenix – they are chalk and cheese, Lincoln the forbidden adorable protector who will become Violet’s partner if she chooses to embrace her heritage and Phoenix the gorgeous bad boy who seems to understand her but has a bit of a history that isn’t all too appealing. Now in the initial stages I was torn in who I wanted Violet with, but by the end Lincoln was a clear winner but it was only due to something deceitful Phoenix had done (I wont reveal what this was to avoid spoilers).

Violet wasn’t a character I found appealing initially, she was confident, independent and accepted what she was which I liked but her attitude towards Lincoln drove me batty! Of course there was a reason for this but it made her look like a complete and utter she-devil considering their relationship prior to this.

Secondary characters were great, I especially liked Griffin and Steph; I felt sorry for Violet and her barely there relationship with her father. The exiled angels were also written well, I am eager to learn more in the next installment.

I enjoyed Embrace and the world Ms Shirvington has created. Angels are certainly portrayed in a different light which I enjoyed, they weren’t all good and they had an agenda of their own; I also liked the role played by the Grigori. The many twists we were given kept me wanting to know more.

I liked the plot and Ms Shirvington’s writing was engaging; I am eager to see what will happen in the next book, Enticed.

Books in Order:

  • Embrace
  • Enticed
  • Emblaze
  • Endless
 

4 comments:

  1. *perks up* This one just keeps calling to me. I won a copy awhile back and I REALLY need to make time to read it already... I'm usually not a fan of love triangles, so it should be interesting to see how I feel about the one in this book. I just feel like too many authors use them to over-complicate books needlessly!

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  2. I've had about the same feelings on this one. The triangle. Ugh. So cliché! I did like the plot itself the angel lore was original. I'm curious to read book 2! Great review Sharon!

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  3. I agree that the plot was based on the way overused love triangle YA fiction formula, but I still loved it... and trust me book 2 is awesome!!

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  4. WOW! I cant believe I put off buying and reading this book for so long! It always caught my attention, and the cover is absolutely amazing.

    Grace Crawford Hoodoo River Fly Fishing Alaska

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