Review: Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

Title: Embrace
Author: Jessica Shirvington
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Age Group: Young Adult
Category:  Paranormal/ Romance
Release date: March 6th, 2012
Pages: 369 (ARC)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Source: Won

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…

Embrace seems to be the kind of book that doesn't quite keep a death grip on your attention, yet you still want to keep reading in order to find out more about its main character.  I had high hopes for this book when I started it because I was assured that it was amazing, but by a certain point in the book, I got bored with Violet.   If I don't like the main character, chances are I won't like the book.  Thankfully, I'm about to tell you how all of that turned around and became a pretty interesting read.

Before this, I hadn't read any other books about angels.  Sure, I know enough about them from watching Supernatural, but I never really immersed myself in the much-loved topic when it comes to books.  That being said, after reading Embrace, I will dip my toes into the genre a little more.  Violet started out as a young girl who has a good head on her shoulders.  Though her life hasn't been exactly ideal, you can tell that she's determined to do whatever she sets her mind to.  When she finds out that she's part angel, any hope that Violet has of a normal life is gone.

On top of finding out about the powers she holds within herself, Violet has to deal with complicated relationships between two boys.  She first falls for Lincoln, the one who befriends her and begins to train her without her knowing it, and the other is Phoenix, the mysterious man that's shows up wherever she happens to be.  Love triangles never bother me, but this one had me roll my eyes a few times.  Lincoln wanted to be honest with her, to give her time to cope with the new information.  He was, essentially, perfect.  Phoenix, on the other hand, was kind of sketchy.  This happens to be one of the reasons I didn't want to take Violet seriously.

Slightly silly romance aside, Shirvington creates a world that will truly captivate her readers.  I loved each description she used to express everything Violet was sensing.  Though I started to lose interest when Violet became whiny and less of a kick-ass heroine, everything began to make sense near the end of the book.  Of course, realizing this made the story about a star better than I originally planned on rating it.  Needless to say, I am now excited to get my hands on the sequel to find out what else could possibly happen in Violet's life.