Review: Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

Genre: Paranormal, Romance
Format: e-book
Published March 1, 2012 by Sourcebooks Fire
Goodreads // Amazon UK

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've had some pretty lame experiences with angel books, though lately my feelings have changed! Embrace is an original take on the world of angels and humans with a decently fresh heroine. As I was reading it, I completely forgot that this was a debut novel. That's a really good sign in my book. Or in Jessica Shirvington's book.

The story itself was pretty good. Violet is thrown into the world of the Grigori and hunted by exiled angels. The mythology and background information was extremely interesting. I was constantly wanting to know more and it kept me turning the pages. I've always been fascinated by angels and heaven and their darker counterparts. This book doesn't disappoint in that department. I felt Violet's frustration of having her world change around her and being told she's special for a Grigori and not getting any answers. I want answers!

The characters were where it became mediocre to me. Not that they were badly written, it's just that I thought they were really predictable. Violet is a very resolute and strong character, it just annoyed me that she thought she could go to a night club without running into trouble when she knew she was being followed and she had been warned. Goodness. Now for the love interests, Lincoln and Phoenix. Lincoln was written as nearly perfect, so he never did any wrong except in Violet's eyes. Phoenix was just really creepy. He's manipulative and obsessed with Violet. Because of this, I couldn't get myself to care about him- I just wanted him to go away.

Embrace isn't perfect, but it was a seriously interesting page turner so I gave it four stars. Overall, I think it is a really great debut for a lot of readers. Read it if you've been spurned by angel fiction before or read it if you're really into mythology and angel hierarchy. I'll read the next instalment, as Embrace left me with so many questions.