Series Review: ‘Embrace’ (The Violet Eden Chapters) by Jessica Shirvington

5 stars!

This series is action-adventure with clean romance and a paranormal backdrop.

Debut author Jessica Shirvington has skillfully mastered the art of combining a feisty and independent mature teenage girl with a slowly revealed supernatural world that she becomes part of on her seventeenth birthday.  Readers get a strong sense of Violet’s relationships with parents and friends before she discovers all that is hidden.

The supernatural world, in this case, is the existence of angel-human hybrids called Grigori and fallen angels (both light and dark) called Exiles.  Grigori are warriors who are assigned (preordained) fighting partners.  While the series includes a fair amount of religious history as a backdrop for explaining fallen angels on Earth, I would not consider this a “Christian” book.  No specific religious ideas are pushed onto main characters, or the reader.

Shirvington does an excellent job of not overwhelming Violet, and the readers, revealing only so much information at once.  Violet discovers her partner, her abilities, her strength, and some insight into her own family history at a slow and believable pace.  She is a realistic teenage narrator, providing reactions that will resonate with readers, as well as enjoyable snark and sarcasm where applicable.

Readers are quickly introduced to Violet’s family and friends.  Though Violet has a hefty crush on her mentor/fitness instructor, Lincoln, she finds that he is not the only good looking young man to capture her attention.  Phoenix and Lincoln seem to be polar opposites, which may confuse Violet, but is refreshing for the rest of us.  Though they do form a love triangle of sorts, there is no insta-love involved.  I found it easy to see why she likes both Lincoln and Phoenix, and the occasional romantic tension is an asset to the series.

Check your local library for all five books of the ‘Embrace’ series, or start the series for less than a dollar on Amazon.