“Review Courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales
Quick & Dirty: A young woman, two beautiful older men, immeasurably powerful.
Opening Sentence: Birthdays aren’t my thing.
The Review:
Violet Eden is a now 17-year-old teenage girl, who just wants to be a normal girl, with a normal life. Unfortunately for her, life isn’t always fair, and we can’t always get what we want (insert song lyrics here). You see it turns out that Violet is a Grigori, a half human-half angel with a destiny to protect the human race, and with powers beyond anyone’s imagination. Violet spends the majority of the book denying her fate, rejecting her powers and her place among the Grigori. When an unforeseen circumstance threatens to take away the only person that had mattered for so long, she must embrace her destiny and her powers to save him, and eventually save herself.
Lincoln is a man with many secrets, and a soft spot for his soon to be life partner of sorts. Born the first half of this pair of Grigori, it is Lincoln’s job to prepare Violet for the life and trials ahead, and he seemingly does a decent job. That is, until Violet finds out what his true motives are, well some of them anyway, and she rejects him. Poor Lincoln is then forced to step back from his role in her life, and watch, guilt ridden and alone, as she fraternizes with the enemy, a rather shady guy named Phoenix.
Phoenix is an exiled angel, with secrets of his own, and a not so pleasant past. Born the son of the original bad a**, Lilith, Phoenix drops into Violet’s life and takes advantage of her sadness, confusion and anger, turning her against those of her own kind. With ulterior motives, he seduces his way into Violet’s heart (as well as other places), at times stealing her free will, influencing her decisions and, apparently, actually tainting her very soul.
I officially do not like this Phoenix character…emotionally that is. His character is rather well written, and excellent for the plotline and story, but boy does he make me angry. That boy needs a face slap, and his butt kicked as well. So I suppose this makes me firmly Team Lincoln. Though, Lincoln is certainly no hardship, let me tell you.
Set in what appears to be present day inner-city, like New York or Chicago or somewhere, Embrace takes traditional religion, young adult fantasy, adventure, danger, love and deception and delivers it all in one tasty package. The characters, as I stated above, are all incredibly well-written, their storyline unique, the action, adventure and romance nicely done. I’d highly recommend this read for anyone. Oh, and I call dibs on these sequels too…see this Angela…DIBS
Notable Scene:
I wrapped my arms around my stomach, trying to ignore the most frightening sensation that was welling up inside me, pushing at the very fibers of my being: pure pleasure. Whoever, whatever, had done this had experienced ultimate joy in the process. And I could feel it too.
Desperate to avert my gaze, I switched my attention back to the other body. This time I really saw it. I’d heard of it before, the way a person’s mind can somehow protect them from processing things that are too disturbing. The male, still dressed and moderately undisturbed, lay in a state of emptiness—not like he was dead, more like he was lost. Dead bodies are supposed to look like they are finally at rest, but I knew now what Griffin had meant when he said we would find no peace. There was none to be had. I stared at each one, horrified, my heart crying for them. I felt suffocated.
As soon as I tasted apple on the tip of my tongue, I knew the rest of my senses would follow. I stumbled a few steps, trying to get away. It was futile.
Images of morning and evening flashed before my eyes, blinding me. It was…violent. Painful. I dropped to my knees and screamed. I heard Lincoln cry out, though he didn’t touch me. I wanted to stop it, but I couldn’t. Cold heat rushed through my body. I felt like a rigid statue of ice with a volcano erupting from within. I could hear my screams—worlds away.
My back arched, my arms falling behind me, dangling to the ground, my knuckles grazing the concrete floor.
An arm encircled my waist, holding me up as I arched back even farther. Another hand gripped the side of my face, keeping me still. I felt myself slipping away, losing myself to the senses. I tried to concentrate, tried to remember what Phoenix had told me. Emotion. I needed to control my emotions. Or distract them with something that could totally consume me.
I hoped it was Lincoln’s arm around my waist.
“Kiss me,” I whispered.
The hands on my face froze. Another wave of the senses pummeled through me.
“Kiss me, please!” This time I was screaming.
He slammed into me, crashing through barriers. So perfectly molded to my mouth, he pushed my lips apart and…we melted. The same cool, pure breeze I had felt after Lincoln had touched me when I first held the wristband galloped through my body, through my soul. It blew the overpowering smell of flowers away like a breeze through a field. I felt the apple fade until all I could taste was his very real mouth. My body poured the cool heat and humming energy into him, until he absorbed it all. The birds circled us and flew into the distance.
He pulled me closer. Kneeling in front of me, he kissed me intensely and I felt…right. Morning and evening slipped away. It was just us. Silence surrounded us. My heart leapt and I kissed him back, knowing so truly that I loved him. My heart cried and I pulled away, knowing so truly that he had betrayed me.
I fell to the ground.
He fell to the ground.
I cried.
He screamed.
The Violet Eden Chapters Series:
1. Embrace
2. Enticed
3. Emblaze
4. Endless
FTC Advisory: Sourcebooks Fire provided me with a copy of Embrace. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.”
