REVIEW Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

Embrace
by Jessica Shirvington
Hardcover
Sourcebooks Fire
March 6, 2012
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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… 

 Okay, let me just say one thing, and then I can get on with the review.

TEAM PHOENIX!

Ahem.  Okay.

This was a really fun start to a series.  It begins just before Violet's seventeenth birthday, right before her entire life changes.  Before her birthday her biggest problem was trying to figure out how to tell her super-hot trainer Lincoln that she wanted to go out with him.  After her birthday, well... that's less of a concern.  Because now she knows things are different.  There are dangerous fallen angels wandering the earth, and apparently Violet is supposed to help stop them.

The only problem is that she isn't sure if she's ready for all this.

Torn between her loyalty to Lincoln and her hot new friend Phoenix (sigh...Phoenix) who isn't what he seems, Violet has to decide whether she wants a normal life where she'll be hunted for what she is, or if she wants to be a hero.

Now, I know I'm not easy to please.  I have issues both with the whole "I'm keeping secrets from you to protect you but it's clear you'll find out later and etcetera" and the "info-dump: here's everything you ever need to know about EVERYTHING that's ever happened in our universe" and I'm pleased to say that while Embrace did scoot close to the edge of both these issues at times, it didn't topple over.  This made me happy.

I also liked the fact that Violet managed to keep her best friend in her life while this was all going on, even if the book did have a bit of absent-parent-syndrome going on.

And, oh, the love interests were dreamy.  Lincoln and Phoenix.  At first I couldn't decide, but in the end I have to go with Phoenix.  Because while Lincoln was all noble and protective, he was also jealous and did the whole "I'm keeping secrets to protect you" thing a little too much for my liking.  Phoenix was just a bad ass.  A pretty, sarcastic bad ass and I loved him.

Embrace was a great start to a new series, and I can't wait to see where it goes!

Happy Reading!

-geekgirl