Saturday, March 02, 2013

Review: Emblaze by Jessica Shirvington

From Goodreads: Violet has come to terms with the fact that being part angel, part human, means her life will never be as it was. Now Violet has something Phoenix - the exiled angel who betrayed her - will do anything for, and she has no intention of letting it fall into his hands. The only problem is that he has something she needs too. Not afraid to raise the stakes, Phoenix seemingly holds all the power, always one step ahead. And when he puts the final pieces of the prophecy together, it doesn't take him long to realize exactly who he needs in order to open the gates of Hell. With the help of surprising new allies, ancient prophecies are deciphered, a destination set and, after a shattering confrontation with her father, Violet leaves for the islands of Greece without knowing if she will have a home to return to ...

My Rating: 3.5 hearts 

Thoughts on the Novel: Emblaze by Jessica Shirvington, the third book in The Violet Eden Chapters, picks up right where Entice leaves off. With only six months between releases, you’d think that I’d remember what happened in prior books better! But, for some reason, by the time a new book in this series is released, I can barely remember why Violet is so special, let alone the overarching plot. I really think having a list of major characters with their powers at the end of the book and a brief recap at the beginning would help solve my problem.

In terms of how The Violet Eden Chapters has evolved, a lot of things remain the same. For example, each book ends with a cliffhanger. As well, Violet continues to be pretty immature, having secret meetings with Phoenix and withholding information from her Grigori friends rather than letting them be a source of support. I’m also getting sort of tired of the whole wanting-to-be-with-Lincoln-but-not-being-able-to phenomenon. I love though that we still get some steamy scenes and that Shirvington remains able to smoothly incorporate her angel mythology with the historical background of the different places (e.g. Jordan, Santorini, etc.) the Grigoris travel to.

The one noticeable change in Emblaze is that Violet’s absent father suddenly starts to notice his daughter. He begins to question her whereabouts and even makes an attempt to ground her. Although it was weird to have Mr. Eden randomly acting like an actual parent, I like the development and am curious to see how this will change his relationship with his daughter. 

Emblaze will be released on March 5, 2013 by Sourcebooks Fire.
  
Comments About the Cover: It matches Entice’s a lot more than Embrace’s. The darker look also goes well with the darker tone of this novel. 

In exchange for an honest review, this book was received from the publisher (Sourcebooks) for free.

10 comments:

  1. I have to say... I agree on having a recap.. half the time I was like "wait WHAT? why? when?" I think sequels need to start doing a page or two recap to save us all the time and confusion!

    as for violet... I really didn't think she is immature, I thought she was selfless.. I mean she was the one that created this big problem.. I would want to be the solution to it too...

    Anyways, I also found it so random that her dad suddenly cared but it was a change from the absentee father huh? guess Shirvington heard us when we complained about that :D

    awesome review,
    - Juhina @ Maji Bookshelf

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  2. I have that problem with a lot of series since I have bad memory and only remember the bones of what happened prior. This series sure is releasing fast because it didn't seem like that long ago that book 1 was released and now I know its because there's a new book every six months LOL.

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  3. I could do with a brief recap at the start of every book, my memory is so awful lol. An immature MC is not really appealing to me and I hate when characters withold important information. Don't think this is one I'll be picking up, but great review hun :)

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  4. Hmm, it might not be the best sign ever that the previous book didn't leave enough of an impression on you that you had a hard time getting into this one only a few months later. Though it definitely would have been been to have some sort of rehashing of events at the beginning. I'm not sure these books are for me... but I still enjoyed this review!

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  5. Sometimes I even have trouble recalling what takes place in my favourite books, so I think I'd be pretty much lost with this series. Recaps should be compulsory. ;) I really don't know now if I'll make a start on these books soon, but I'm glad to see that you liked this well enough to give it 3.5 stars. Lovely review as always!

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  6. Sometimes recaps annoy me, but more often than not they're really necessary. We all read so much and tend to forget things, especially the finer details. Nothing wrong with having them repeated.
    I have yet to start this series although I've been meaning to for some time.
    Great review.

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  7. Sorry this one didn't quite work as well for you as it did me Z! I had definitely forgotten a lot between books one and two, but this one for some reason was much easier for me to get into and remember past events, so I wasn't quite as lost as I was with Entice. The Lincoln/Violet relationship can be frustrating at times, but I like that there's at least a really valid reason for them not to be together, and I like that Phoenix isn't a real threat to their relationship, so at least we're not dealing with a love triangle that's dragged out book to book:) Oh, and I'm curious to see what's going to happen with Violet's dad too!

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  8. And that's why I need to wait untill the next book (or all of them) are publised and then read them after each other. I forget easily! :(

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  9. This series is new to me. I should probably start at the beginning though. LOL I'm always impressed with your reviews. I love the honesty and the effort you put into each one of them.

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  10. I remember reading the first book and not liking it as much as everyone else did. There was so much hype for it, and everyone loved it, but I thought Violet was too immature for me. Because of that, I didn't continue the series. I'm sorry to hear that Violet is still being a not-that-intelligent protagonist. And her feelings for Lincoln sound really frustrating! Sorry to hear this one wasn't amazing, but I'm glad you liked it overall, Zahida!

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