Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

I got this ARC at work, courtesy of sourcebooks. And it has such a gorgeous cover! The cover clearly makes it an angel book, and I sort of told myself I’d stop doing the cheesy angel YA books, but I couldn’t help myself with this one. It was free and just so pretty! Plus, it’s a debut and I can finally start adding more books to my challenge.

I did have a lot of fun reading this one. It was a little cheesy, a little “done before,” and certainly a little predictable. But, oh did it have some fantastic romance! It’s about a girl named Violet, who grows up with her dad because her mom died in childbirth. Her dad is a workaholic, and Violet is an artist, spending most of her free time in her art studio.

Violet has a bit of troubling past that involves a teacher cornering her in a classroom, and almost raping her. Another teacher came in just in time, but not in time to prevent all the sad mental after effects. Violet has as strong inner voice that prevents her from running away from problems. She works hard to not to stand out too much and she is so hard on herself about being weak. She signs up for a self-defense class and meets Lincoln. She and Lincoln have a long lasting friendship. And it’s clear from the beginning that they are both in love with each other. However, it’s understandable for why Violet doesn’t push a relationship, but it’s not so clear why Lincoln doesn’t do anything.

On her 17^th birthday, Violet’s dad gives her a box that her mother wanted her to have on this day. She gets her baby charm, a letter, and a poem that refers to good and evil. Violet also starts getting weird marks on her arms that she hides. And she starts sensing some weird things. Soon, she realizes that Lincoln has been lying to her and that actually she’s part angel and he’s her angel partner. If a baby’s mother dies soon after her child is born, the child will grow up to be part angel. Though, apparently angel partners are not allowed to be romantically involved, hence Lincoln not making a move.

Violet gets so mad at Lincoln lying to her all this time. She learns about angels from someone else who seems to be in love with her. There’s clubs, dancing, best friends, special powers, spiritual journeys, some interesting angel folklore, angel hierarchies and politics, good joining forces with evil, dead/mutilated bodies, fight scenes, and a lot of learning about trust.

I really liked Violet. I only ever wanted her to succeed and get over her hard past. I also loved Lincoln. And I did fall along with her for the bad-ish angel Phoenix. I liked how Violet didn’t want anyone else to get hurt, not just because she’s the main character and the main character always has to have the best conscience in the world, but because she knows what getting hurt feels like and doesn’t want it for anyone else.

I really did not find her dad to be all too believable. He was conveniently working most of the time. And he knew about what happened to Violet, yet still besides from a few snarky comments to Phoenix, never really objected to Violet hanging around all these older men, and that’s so not real for me. I also feel like the whole art thing was just a convenient way to show Violet dealing with her angst, and that wasn’t real for me either. I needed to see some of her art. The only piece mentioned was a wall in Lincoln’s apartment that she hadn’t gotten to yet. I wanted to see her other stuff, learn who inspired her, and maybe get why she became so interested in art to begin with. Without something, I find her hobby just kind of fake.

I also think she was way too hard on Lincoln, who was clearly doing what he had to do. I get that a lot of her anger is explained through something at the end, but still. I so would have forgiven the guy!

Any way, this book was still a lot of fun. And the romance was so good! The love triangle was excellent. The moments with Phoenix could have been pulled from an adult romance novel! And Lincoln just sounded like every girl’s dream. I give this one a 8/10, and I know I will have to continue with this series when the sequel come out later this year.