When I first encountered Embrace, by Jessica Shirvington, in the YA section at Chapters I was attracted to the luminous cover of a girl with feathers falling around her and a hazy view of smoky wings on her back. I immediately picked it up, read the intro on the inside flap, and thought “Oh something to do with a teenage girl figuring out mystical things about herself? NEED TO READ!” I raced off to the cash register before more books could jump into my overflowing basket.
The book starts with a quote from the bible, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” When authors start books with quotes, they tend to have something very important to do with the story, and when I read the quote again after I’d read the book I definitely see why the author chose it. Once I made my way past the quote and into the book I was attacked by a slew of thoughts emotions and memories. At first I was confused and a little disappointed but soon it captivated my attention and I got caught up in the spiralling world of Violet Eden.
Embrace features Grigori-human, angel hybrids, exiled angels, and a big old love triangle. When Violet’s life starts to change into something very different than she’d thought, she discovers she’s been betrayed and lied to for years by the person she trusted the most. She soon figures out that there are monsters that hide in the dark…and she’s one of the people who must fight them.
This book was a decent read. It wasn’t fantastic but yet not horrible and though I wasn’t very fond of the main character, I really liked the storyline and plan on continuing the series. I give this 4 out of 10 stars.
The Mind's Eye 