Emblaze Review

TITLE Emblaze (The Violet Eden Chapters #3)
AUTHOR Jessica Shirvington
PUBLICATION March 5th 2013 by Sourcebooks Fire
READ February 23 to 24, 2013
SOURCE From Raincoast Books in exchange for an honest review

Once again Violet Eden faces an impossible choice ... and the consequences are unimaginable.

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 realise 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...

I don’t know if I have ever been as conflicted as I am right now by this book. I read Embrace last year and became a fast fan of The Violet Eden Chapters and I loved Entice even more than the first. Did I really like Emblaze? Yes. Will I continue on with the series? I don’t think so. So I am going to do this review in two parts, I’ll start off with what made me like Emblaze and then move onto why, even though I really liked the book, I won’t continue on with the series.

So, what did I love about Emblaze? This series so so action packed and Violet is one of the most kick-ass female MC’s I have ever had the pleasure of reading about. She is so head strong and physical, it’s awesome. She takes charge of every knife in the road that is thrown at her and refuses to sit back and be protected by the men around her. She is more than capable of kicking ass and taking names and is by no means afraid to do so. I also adore Lincoln, he is a total alpha and utterly oozes sexiness to me. He knows Violet so well and is perfectly willing to take a back seat because he recognizes just how capable she is and is constantly praising her for it. Those are the two characters that are most talked about from the series but I have to say that the supporting characters here are just as great as the main ones. Everyone from Hades bar owner, Dapper to Violet’s father are so well developed and feel like they are just as important as the heads of the tale.

I also have come to really love the unique angel lore that Shirvington has so expertly weaved. The back history of the exiles and the role of the Grigori in the grand scheme of things all comes together so well to create a backdrop of an epic war of the worlds. I definitely appreciate that while this is a tale of angels and those that have fallen, it does not feel like a religious tale at all. There was even a scene where Violet had mentioned seeing someone praying and was uncomfortable with doing so herself because that had never been a part of her life. I am always so pleased with the authors ability to have such religious figures be so present in the story and yet make religion feel like a subtle undertone to it all.

So at this point you are probably thinking “that is all so positive, why would you not continue on with the series?” Well I really think that the angst is what has killed it for me. Through the three books in this series that I have read I have loved Lincoln and Violet and thought that there reason for fighting their attraction to one another was well done and believable. I understood why they fought it so adamantly and while I wanted them to be together it made sense why they weren’t. But by the end of Emblaze I have to say I am over it. I am done with the back and forth. I mean these two people KNOW that they are soul mates, they ache when they are around each other and they ache even more when they are apart. I had hoped that we would get some resolution and togetherness from them by the end of this one but I really felt like there relationship went no where, and I can’t deal with them fighting it anymore. The worst part is, had they decided to stop fighting the attraction when Emblaze ended, I most definitely would have continued on with the series so I could have had the pleasure of finally reading about them together. But this is an instance where it’s just getting dragged out far too long and it’s really becoming quite tedious and too annoying for my taste.

My reason for not continuing on is totally a personal reason and I know a lot of people probably won’t agree with it but I am just ready to say goodbye to the characters. I will definitely read spoilers to see where these characters go in the last two (possibly 3) books in the series but I won’t be putting myself through them, that’s for sure. So take this review as you will, it’s a positive review that ends in an unhappy way I guess.