Book Review: Embrace

I received a review copy of Jessica Shirvington's Embrace, one of those YA angel books.

This book was my first encounter with the angel genre romance (except for Elizabeth Chandler's dated Kissed by an Angel trilogy, which I read over a year ago), and it was not completely unsatisfying.

I was hesitant to pick up a supernatural book that focused on angels. Zombies? Okay. Shape shifters? Interesting. Vampires? Fuck yes, sign me up for some seductive, bloodsucking fun!

But angels?

This struck me as wrong.

I think primarily because I had always associated the supernatural with horror. Not that all zombies, shape shifters, and vampires in novels are evil beings. But there's always this tinge of danger and even inherent unholiness in the supernatural books that I've read (except, of course, for The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, which felt more Jurassic).

I think we can all safely say that angels are rarely thought of as "unholy," even though a lot of us think of demons as former angels.

& initially, the lack of "holy" regarding angels in Embrace did strike me as trying too hard, to make angels seem edgy or something. It does seem impossible to entirely leave religion out of a book about angels, however, and I would not be surprised if faith in God becomes more prevalent as the series waxes on...

I read this book because I was curious, and thinking that maybe the angel fad craze isn't as crazy & stupid as it initially sounded. And it wasn't particularly crazy or stupid.

I quite enjoyed the first third of the book or so.

In the middle, the book begins to feel predictable, and Violet (the protagonist) does suffer from "newbie-who's-amazingly-powerful-and-great-at-everything-and-who-all-the-guys-want-to-fuck"ness, but eh, it's a YA book, right?

Overall, I was left with the impression that this was an okay book. I went through phases where I really liked Violet, and phases where she was a bit too goody-goody for me, but since she's supposed to be some human-angel hybrid, I guess we can let that last bit go. And like I said, the first third of the book, I was very invested. I was just a bit disappointed that my initial emotional investment ended up waning.

Somewhat simplistic writing. Good for a beach read, quick read. Not a bad introduction to the "angel" genre.*

*This last criterion is based solely on my lack of regurgitation whilst reading, and might not be entirely unbiased.

Fated

I recently devoured a book entitled Fated, written by S.G. Browne. And all I can say is "Wow."

Here is the cover:

Okay. Now that you know what to look for, go to your nearest bookstore, grab a copy off the shelf, and start reading. It's really that good.

...

...

For those of you unwilling to blindly rush to the bookstore and make a purchase based on the advice of a person you've never met, I guess I'll tell you a little bit more about Browne's book.

The book is narrated by Fate. Fate, you see, that abstract concept, is dealt out by an angel named Fate, who also goes by the name Fabio. Fate is buddies with Karma, gets help from Honesty, and is Enemies-with-Benefits with Destiny, amongst many other colorful, wonderful characters.

This book that is narrated by an angel, shows what humanity seems like to someone who's not human, but who has known a lot of them. There is a lot of "WTF are you thinking" as well as understanding and compassion, and all of it is funny at the same time.

This book made me laugh - a lot - actually out loud - and yet, it still had heart. It was relatable, while still being new and different and fun.

There was one thing I wasn't particularly a fan of - the ending. The very ending, as in the last chapter, there was a twist. I don't want to give it away, but I wasn't a fan of it. Despite not liking the very end, however, I still highly recommend reading this book.

It is books like Fated, you see, that make voracious readers.