“I spent my life folded between the pages of books.In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.”

― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

Embrace (The Violet Eden Chapters, #1)Embrace by Jessica Shirvington
Summary from goodreads.com

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…

Look for the sequels ENTICED in September 2012 and EMBLAZE in March 2013!


...........................................................................................................................................

Some of you my know this was my Random Reads (last month) and I didn't get around to reading it (couldn't get my hands on it!) until now! So here it is....My Random Reads for this month (July) is Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. I am not doing an official post on that Random Reads but just to let you know a review is coming soon because I am currently reading it!
I am rating this book 3 stars (maybe 3.5) because of many reasons. When I read the ending, I understood why it was the way it was but while I was reading it I didn't have the explanation and therefore didn't like it at the time. That probably sounds confusing, so I am going to break it down like this:

Things that did not work for me: The main character Violet seemed likable in the beginning, but then she became very whiny and hateful. (I know it drives me crazy when other people call main characters whiny but Violet truly was and I now know what everyone means...) She made tons of unnecessary issues and problems out of things. She was exaggerating and really annoying. Stubborn. I knew there was something wrong when she started saying how much hate she had toward Lincoln.....if someone is in love with someone, you don't randomly develop HUGE feelings of very strong hate toward them...it's just not right. So in the end I completely understood (it made the book more enjoyable and now I definitely want to read the next book) **More about this in the Spoiler-y discussion**

Another thing I did not care for was all of the religious comments. They were disrespectful and annoying. I don't think they were needed. I could understand maybe one or two (at a max) comments but there were way to many.
Lastly Phoenix (and her extremely immature relationship with him) did not work for me. But I see it's importance and I can almost let it fly (almost.)


Things that did work: A Grigori was something I wanted her to become. And the waiting made the book more exciting. The fact that she is so powerful is really amazing too. (best scene was at the end!) The idea of the book was well put together and brilliantly staged.

Lincoln really worked for me. (I LOVE Lincoln!) I like the different approach of a love triangle for this one because lately, all the books I have read are square cutouts. All the same (girl likes both guys, both guys like girl) but this one was different (although the mask may seem the same for a while)

The first chapter at the end of the book was perfect. I honestly needed it to move on....to grab hold of me for the next book and it did (so glad they put that in there.)

Now for the Spoiler-y discussion:

Highlight between the brackets for the spoilers (we don't want any skimmers to accidentaly read this)
{ first of all, as I mentioned before, I LOVE Lincoln (I think Vi and him would be PERFECT together!)

Throughout the book, she was very whiny. Even though I know it wasn't her, she kept making problems out of everything (i.e. Lincoln: JUST TELL HIM YOU LOVE HIM!! aghhh!) but now I know who it really was giving her the hate I like Violet (the girl who we met in the very beginning....the girl with Lincoln) Looking back, the fight Linc and Vi fought in her living room was really immature and I feel bad for Lincoln...who thought that Violet really hated him (even though he had suspicions) he even went back to calling her Violet (broke my heart!!!)

I never liked Phoenix from the beginning (though there were times when I said "maybe I'm wrong") but I got less and less sure as I read on to the end. I think know Vi is pretty kick-butt amazing...there is proof of that in the end. (I LOVED that part.)

There was a ton of praise in the beginning of the book (not all of which I agreed with completely) It was like I needed convincing that the book was good, when all I really needed was the cover and tag line. That cover is so beautiful!! (yes I judge books by their covers. read that post here )

How about the first chapter of the next book? With Lincoln—WOAH! Who read that!? I have a feeling Linc and Vi are an exception to the partners being together rule. Linc says them being together weakens their powers but you can tell when they are around each other (and kissing!) their power thrives....anyone else agree? }


Despite what our ratings says I recommend this book. You need to read a novel you love/hate once in a while! (it feels good to write about things I didn't like for once) I feel bad giving a 3.5 because it makes it look like I hated it....but I really didn't. I couldn't put it down!

We recently started a new segment to our reviews where (if) we have a song that goes with the book we put it here. (we love matching music with books!) You can see all of the music we put under the "Playlist" tab here. The song I think goes with Embrace is Dark Side by Jessica Shirvington. (it is Violet talking to Lincoln) Do you guys have any songs that go with this book?

Tell me all that you think. Do you plan on reading it? Are you currently? Or have you already? I want to know!






Since we are a user friendly blog and want all of our readers to be able to read the comments please add " **SPOILER ALERT** " to your post if it applies. Thanks for your consideration!

4 comments:

  1. Great review! I love the way you do spoilers :)

    Brandi @ Bound 2 Astound

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! (the spoiler thing was not my idea....I know a few other people who do it so I can't take the credit!)

      Delete
  2. I've had the sample for this on my Kindle for awhile. Premise sounds good, but haven't gotten around to it yet. New follower via GFC. Heather's Book Chatter (http://authorheather.com)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for following! I would definately reccomend you read it! I am thrilled for the next one and believe it will be very different!

      Delete

Since we are a user friendly blog and want all of our readers to be able to read the comments please add " **SPOILER ALERT** " to your post if it applies. Thanks for your consideration!

We love love love your comments! When you leave them it just makes us so happy! Thanks for visiting!

-Kait, Mari, and Rach

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...