Review: Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

Embrace by Jessica Shirvington
The Violet Eden Chapters #1
Release Date: March 6th, 2012 by Sourcebooks Fire (U.S. Edition)
October 1st, 2010 by Hachette Austrailia 
Details: 369 pages, hardcover
Genre: Young Adult > Paranormal > Angels
Source: Amazon Vine
Summary (Goodreads):

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…

Amazon* || Goodreads || BookDepo*

Embrace is a title I've been looking forward to since I heard of it's release in Australia in 2010. So imagine my excitement when I heard it was being released in the U.S (two years later, but still)! Of course I could had gone to BookDepo but it was never in stock :(

Embrace starts off with Violet. She lost her mother at birth, her father is hardly ever around (surprise surprise) and she has a personal friend/trainer named Lincoln. Something traumatizing happened to her years ago and Lincoln has been teaching her self defense the last few years (or year? I don't remember). Her 17th birthday is coming up and her best friend is making this huge big deal about her dressing up (to catch Lincoln's eye? Maybeee). Her dad makes reservations at a place called Hades (nice, I see what you did there Jessica lol) and that's where she meets Phoenix and her life is pretty much turned upside down.

Violet seriously annoyed me the majority of the beginning of the book. I felt awful for the way she treated Lincoln for something he was sworn to secrecy with. Like honestly, how could you be mad at someone for that?! But with that aside, Violet was a very stubborn but assertive character. She always made it a point to know exactly what was going on. To understand everything she could about her kind before she made any choices. I admired that, not completely jumping head first into something... most of the time.

Honestly, I kind of like Phoenix. You could tell he was at war with himself sometimes and he's very mysterious but very open. I'm convinced he cared about Violet and for that, I admire him. 

Lincoln... ohh Lincoln. I loved him from the beginning! He was an amazing friend to Violet and he gave her space while making sure she knew he was there for her at the same time. He's a very balanced guy and my heart seriously broke for him when he described what he wanted their first time to be like. Seriously. Shattered.

Embrace was fast paced, full of action and excitement and was a very addicting read. The twist at the end gave a lot of reason to why I hated Violet in the beginning and I just shattered. I didn't see that coming really. Angel books aren't really my thing, but this one was like a breath of fresh air. There was action, there was romance, there was suspense and there was a bit of mythology.