Teaser Tuesday: Empower by Jessica Shirvington

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading!

To participate all you have to do is:

•Grab your current read

•Open to a random page

•Share "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)

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"She thought about this, watching me. 'What did you give?'
I pressed my lips together, my teeth biting down hard to distract me.  Finally I answered, 'I gave my heart.'"  Australian copy, pg. 197

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There are no words.  NO WORDS!!!!!  This series is just so amazing.  I'm going to be so sad to see it end.

Endless by Jessica Shirvington (Embrace #4)

Endless by Jessica Shirvington

Australian copy received from Brianna (Another thanks!)

Release date:  October 1, 2013

Reviewed by:  Middle Sis Jenn

The Sisters Say:  A Rainbow of Excitement, Love, and Loss

Love will kill us all.

Angels are real. They aren't always kind. Violet Eden is certain of all this because she is Grigori - part angel, part human. She has felt the influence of both light and dark.

When Hell unleashes its worst, Violet must embrace every facet of her angel self to save the people she cares about and the world as she knows it. But death is not the worst thing that Violet will face. For her, the endless question 'Can love conquer all?' will finally be answered.

I don’t even know where to begin, other than, Jessica Shirvington, you have ripped my heart to shreds!!!!  I don’t even know where to begin to pick up the pieces.  This is one of those series that I am emotionally attached to—putting it in the esteemed company of The Covenant Series, Harry Potter Series, Mortal Instuments and Shatter Me.  I feel like I’ve come to know each and every one of the characters, and each one, good and bad, has managed to wriggle their way into my reality.  This series is unbelievably amazing, and as I much as I want to read what’s next, I wish it would never end.

Be prepared for heartbreak—there is your warning.

Instead of doing a normal review, I have picked out a few of the chapter headings to be my focus.

 

1.) From Chapter 3, “Can you hear Destiny laugh as she tiptoes toward you?  Destiny is heartless.” –Anonymous

Fate unfolds brilliantly in this fourth installment of the Embrace series.  You finally see more about Nox and Uri, and more importantly, you get more insight into Violet’s Angel Maker.  But these revelations won’t give you peace, not when you see how Destiny careens towards such a devastating cliff.  I loved how Jessica brought in the smallest details from the first books and brought them together, culminating in a remarkable set-up for action, betrayal, and revelations.

 

2.) From Chapter 8, “No man chooses evil because it is evil…he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.” –Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

One of the things I like about Jessica’s story is that no one is without redemption, if they so choose it.  That being said, you just never know who is going to step out of the shadows and show themselves a traitor.  Everyone’s actions are circumspect, and I love the mystery that surrounds the Exiles and Grigori alike.  And Phoenix, of course, the Exile that stole my heart (even though I love Lincoln, too!) shows us the ace up his sleeve.

 

3.) From Chapter 15, “The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.”  Oscar Wilde

Oh what a tangled web we weave!  I can never seem to figure out what is going to happen next with this series, and that is truly a remarkable thing.  Books have become wholly too predictable, so it’s a breath of fresh air to not know what is going to happen with Violet, Lincoln, and Phoenix.

 

4.) From Chapter 30, “Let your plans be dark and as impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.” Sun Tzu

The climax of this book is amazing!!!  It was morose and heart-breaking, but the scene that Jessica has portrayed is as vivid as any movie you will ever see.  More so, I love seeing how Violet comes into her powers, and believe me, she does strike like a thunderbolt.

 

5.) The final quote is the quote at the beginning of the book, but I left it until the end because it illuminates the epicness of what is to come:  “Light and darkness, life and death, right and left, are brothers of one another.  They are inseparable.  Because of this neither are the good good, nor the evil evil, nor is life life, nor death death.”  The Gospel of Philip

Jessica has created a world where light and darkness co-exist and whose to tell which one is more good.  A world where good and evil exist as one, not separate entities trying to expunge the other.  It’s a world where life leads to death, and death may lead to true life.  I love this world, this book, these characters; and if I found myself on the edge of a cliff, being dared by an Angel to jump off; I might just give it a thought (you know, if there was a Phoenix and Lincoln waiting for me on the other side).

Phoenix by Elizabeth Richards

Phoenix by Elizabeth Richards

ARC received from Putnam Juvenile (Penguin)

Release Date:  6-4-2013

Reviewed by:  Middle Sis Jenn

The Sisters Say:  Action-packed, Heart-wrenching, and Perfect with a Capital P!

Weeks after his crucifixion and rebirth as Phoenix, Ash Fisher believes his troubles are far behind him. He and Natalie are engaged and life seems good. But his happiness is short-lived when he receives a threatening visit from Purian Rose, who gives Ash an ultimatum: vote in favor of Rose’s Law permanently relegating Darklings to the wrong side of the wall or Natalie will be killed.

The decision seems obvious to Ash; he must save Natalie. But when Ash learns about The Tenth, a new and deadly concentration camp where the Darklings would be sent, the choice doesn’t seem so simple. Unable to ignore his conscience, Ash votes against Rose’s Law, signing Natalie’s death warrant and putting a troubled nation back into the throes of bloody battle.

I have had a copy of Black City since its release, but since my sister Amy had already reviewed it, I kept putting it off for others I needed to read first.  After receiving an arc of the sequel, I decided to pick it up and see what it was all about.  Reaction?  Why did I wait so long to read this one!!!  If you’re a book blogger or just a bookie, you’ve been struck by this epidemic before—letting a great book get further and further down your TBR pile, and then when you finally read it, it’s like BAM!  Anywho, I,  for one, can say that anything by Elizabeth Richards will make it to the top of my TBR pile, never again becoming a victim of the “Waiting Too Long To Read” disease.

Okay…so let’s get to Phoenix.  I just loved it!!!!  It starts out pretty much right after Black City ended, and the rebellion is staring to get really heated.  The vote for Rose’s Law is about to come, and it has divided the country—but not just in two.  Purian Rose, the Hitler of Elizabeth’s world, is ready to go after everyone he deems impure.  As a result, it become a dog eat dog world where everyone has to look out for themselves.  One of the parts I loved about Phoenix was that Elizabeth brought more species forward, including Lupines and the mysterious Bastets.  There is just so much more to this world that we don’t know, and I found all its inhabitants interesting and dangerous in their own way.

One of the things I am always worried about with sequels is the second book slump.  Most of them follow the same old formula—the love interests get torn apart by something and the world falls into an even deeper disarray.  Now, Phoenix does follow this formula in its own way, but it’s done in a way that will not bore you.   There is so much action in this one that I was constantly sitting on the edge of my seat.  Just when you think that they are out of Purian Rose’s grasp, they make a wrong turn and go crashing back into his net.  It’s spine-chilling and heart-breaking, and the discoveries that Natalie and Ash make along the way will cut you deep.  But, there is very little time to mourn, because just around the corner is something even more atrocious.  Elizabeth will keep you guessing and keep you anticipating the next disastrous event.

My favorite part of this installment was getting to see more of the United Sentry States.  This story takes place all over the country, and seeing the different cities and the Barren Lands was extremely interesting.  Even more so, we see into the past persecution of the Darklings, and it is both eye-opening and disturbing.  I found haunting similarities between this war and our own tragic past during World War II.  These similarities added to the chilling tone of the novel and the gruesome paranoia of the tyrant, Purian Rose.

The only thing that got me frustrated at times was Natalie and Ash’s relationship.  They keep secrets from each other, even though they claim to be so in love.  I understand the reasoning behind keeping such secrets, but I still think they were being selfish and immature by not being honest.  As a result, their actions became very much like a middle school romance.  I found it hard to see the love that had blossomed between them when they both were willing to sacrifice their lives after Gregory’s death in the first book.  However, this didn’t deter me enough to keep from loving the book.

OH…and the ending!  Talk about a cliffhanger I didn’t see coming.  There were some predictable aspects of the books (although I suspect Elizabeth of planting a few red herrings in there to throw us off), but the ending—DIDN’T SEE IT COMING!!!!!

Elizabeth’s world is full of rage, hatred, deceit, and darkness; and born of these horrible acts and feelings is a world that persecutes and murders in the name of peace and faith.  It’s a broken world left to crumble beneath the weight of its sins, unless a handful of outcasts can defy the laws, break down a despot, and spark a flame of resistance.  I can’t wait to find out if Ash and Natalie can truly rise from the ashes to build a better world.

Teaser Tuesday: Emblaze by Jessica Shirvington

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading!

To participate all you have to do is:

•Grab your current read

•Open to a random page

•Share "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!

(make sure what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)

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Emblaze by Jessica Shirvington
Published by Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date:  TODAY!

"I wasn't me; it wasn't some stupid crush.  I wasn't even love.  It was more--much, much more.  It transcended anything he and I could ever be individually and was all about what we were together.  My soul was screaming for him, demanding that it have his." 
eARC, Location 2116-2117

(Phoenix to Violet) "'Love will kill us all,' he said sadly 'First, it makes us lie furiously so we can be what we must in order to appear deserving.  Then, it tears us apart with raw truth.  Whether we are man, exile, or angel--it doesn't matter.  For us all, the nature of truth is unforgiving.'" eARC, Location 3455-3457

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This book is amazing.  I was drawn into the pain and drama of Violet and Lincoln's relationship, and let me say, love is pain.  It might be beautiful and unrelenting and passionate and perfect, but above all those things, love is pain.  Emblaze was the best yet in this series, and Jessica has a forever fan in me.  Plus, we get quite a bit of Phoenix in this one, and I still can't help it; the guy could hold a gun to my head and I'd still want him to kiss me.  He's undeniably sexy--evil and all.  Emblaze....it was just awesome, and if the CW doesn't give this series the green light for next season, then I'm going to throw the hissy fit of all hissy fits.