Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

Normally, I toss angel-based books to the curb. There's no real reason, it's just not something that interests me. I don't do angels and fairies (Though there are always exceptions). My only reasoning for grabbing the advanced copy of Embrace from the bookstore was because of the purple cover, and the description was intriguing.

Embrace is about a girl named Violet. On her 17th birthday, she finds out that she is half angel, a Grigori. The Grigori protect humans from fallen angels. These angels blend in with normal people, but some of them want to punish humanity. Grigori can sense these angels and they have the power to strip away their powers or send them back for judgment.

All of this is understandably a lot for a teenage girl to process. What makes it all the worse is that Violet's friend, the guy she is pretty much in love with, Lincoln, is also a Grigori. He trained with her, spent practically every day with her, and never once let on that he knew who she really was. The betrayal makes Violet start spending time with her new friend Phoenix. He's one of the fallen angels, but he seems trustworthy. Phoenix actually tells Violet about herself and the whole Grigori situation, unlike Lincoln.

Meanwhile, the fallen angels have been working together to kill the Grigori. Violet didn't want to become a Grigori, but then Lincoln is injured. The only way to save him is for her to embrace, which is the angel transformation process and the title. I liked Embrace, but I expected it to be more. Violet starts out all about Lincoln, then she spends most of the book with Phoenix and Lincoln barely shows up. I ended up really liking Phoenix but kind of forgetting why I was supposed to like Lincoln. I liked that Violet was a strong character, but I thought she was a little too driven by the men in her life. In her home life, she sometimes never sees her father for days at a time...could this be related?

Sorry to go so deep into my Teen read. Something just bugged me a bit about this book and I'm trying to work out what it is. It's got the typical paranormal romance formula: supernatural element + love triangle= bestseller. The Grigori parts were actually awesome. It reminds me a lot of Season 4 of Supernatural, but I loved Castiel and all that angel stuff. I think the love triangle stuff was what brought things down a bit. Like I said, she spends the majority of time with Phoenix when Lincoln is supposed to be her one true love, and he is barely part of most of the book. Couldn't he have held a boombox over his head or punch Phoenix, be proactive at all? Despite a valiant effort, Embrace wasn't quite able to sway me completely on angel books. Maybe next time will be better.

I got my copy of Embrace courtesy of Sourcebooks. It's available for purchase now (The ebook is only $6.99 at B&N right now, though that probably won't last very long).