Review: Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

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…

Publisher: Hachette Australia
Series? #1
Pages: 382 (Paperback)
Release Date: October 1, 2010

LONG STORY SHORT:

Against all odds I liked this book. It is Paranormal Romance, it has a love triangle, it has the typical girl-plus-supposed to be funny - best friend. It's everything I usually hate turned into something I somehow like...You should believe all those people who said it before and read Embrace - I promise it's going to be worth it.

REVIEW:

Looking back I don't even know what it was that made me fall in love with this book. It wasn't love, either. It was more that feeling when you get sucked into a story and you can't stop turning the pages and then you look up and realise you've made it through the first half of the book.

I do blame the characters, too. Violet did have that rather stereotypical cynical tone to her voice that most PR heroines have but it was not too much. She still seemed unique. And all those martial arts, and the running and boxing she did made her a real believable kick-ass female lead that I could take seriously.

The best friend had some of those stereotypical features, too but like Violet she really got to have her own personality. She wasn't over present, but she had a few occurrences and played a role that actually mattered!

The love interests...oh well...number one - my personal favorite - was SO so cool. Endlessly cool! I wouldn't even have to think to decide which boy I'd want. I didn't really get all the affection for no.2 actually, but he was alright, too. Sometimes it just bothered me how long it took Violet to realize when people were...not quite honest with her.

The story was so believable because it was so close to the real world and Violet's life. The paranormal aspects made sense, they were explained, they didn't just exist.

All in all, this is Paranormal Romance how I think it should be :)