SERIES REVIEW: The Violet Eden Chapters by Jessica Shirvington

Title: The Violet Eden Chapters/The Embrace series

Author: Jessica Shirvington

Publication Date: 2010 - 2013

Publisher: Hachette

Format: Paperback

Rating: 5/5

(of book one, Embrace)

It starts with a whisper: “It’s time for you to know who you are…”

Violet Eden dreads her seventeenth birthday. After all, it’s hard to get too excited about the day that marks the anniversary of your mother’s death. As if that wasn’t enough, disturbing dreams haunt her sleep and leave her with very real injuries. There’s a dark tattoo weaving its way up her arms that wasn’t there before.

Violet is determined to get some answers, but nothing could have prepared her for the truth. The guy she thought she could fall in love with has been keeping his identity a secret: he’s only half-human—oh, and same goes for her.

A centuries-old battle between fallen angels and the protectors of humanity has chosen its new warrior. It’s a fight Violet doesn’t want, but she lives her life by two rules: don’t run and don’t quit. When angels seek vengeance and humans are the warriors, you could do a lot worse than betting on Violet Eden…

 

I’ve done mini-reviews of a few of the books in the series on Goodreads, but I want to do a big series review. I haven’t ever done this before but I read through this series so quickly that I thought it deserved it. I’m going to break this into parts, firstly a kind of overview of the series, then some stuff about the characters, the plot etc. So, I warn you now- this is going to be an incredibly long review so I suggest you get some tea or something. Anyway, here we go.

Firstly, I read this series in the space of about two weeks. I would have read it quicker, but there was a bit of a gap between the first two books for me. That being said, I read the last three books back to back within about 24 hours or so. So, it probably won’t surprise any of you when I say that I’m kind of obsessed. I have to say, Embrace (Book 1), Endless (Book 4) and Empower (Book 5) were my favourites, I love Enticed and Emblaze too but those three really stuck out for me and I’ll explain while later on.

As for the characters, I’m going to start with Violet, of course. I didn’t actually realise until I read these series how in the last couple of books I’ve read, it’s usually the love interest or a side character who becomes my absolute favourite character in that book. This was different for me because Violet is definitely my favourite character. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Lincoln, Phoenix, Steph etc. but Violet was my favourite in the series. In the first book, I wasn’t sure that I’d like her but I grew to love her very quickly. I loved how she developed over the series, and I especially loved how badass she was. I think she’s become one of my favourite YA protagonists.

Now onto some of the other characters. Starting with Phoenix, OH MY GOD. I love him so much and my favourite parts of the series were always the bits where he was included. I never wanted him and Violet to be together, I just wanted him all for myself. I should move on before I fangirl too much! Lincoln...oh Lincoln. There were moments where I seriously hated him because of the whole thing with Violet, but they are just too perfect together. I love them too much. As for the other characters, Steph, Spencer, Onyx and Gray were definitely my favourites. I love them all for different reasons, but I love equally as much.

Plot time. I haven’t read a lot of Angel books, before this I’d read the Halo trilogy and Unearthly, but I’m not the biggest fan. That being said, I loved Jessica’s interpretation. It was so awesome to read about these badass half-angel, half-human (plus others) and I found it really fun to read about. There wasn’t anything that was particularly hard to get through, and on a whole I just found the entire series to be really enjoyable. One of my favourite things, actually, was all the different locations. Rather than just having it all set in the one place, it moved around a little which was really great. I think what made it even better was that it was mostly places that aren’t overly popular in YA novels, sure New York and London are mentioned quite often but I loved reading about Santorini, Jordan and New Orleans. It was really interesting!

I don’t believe these are widely popular books , especially out of Australia, but I really urge all of you to give this series a chance. Like I said, it’s a lot of fun but it’s also a lot of ‘OMG FEELS’ and a bit of ‘WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?’ and a bit of demanding support from people on Twitter and then a bit of joining a group on Goodreads to vent out your feels. My thoughts of the last book alone were a bit more like ‘I don't even know where to start. I read the whole series in two weeks and now I just feel empty. Like what do you mean that's the end? THERE HAS TO BE MORE’ and a bit of ‘PHOOOOOOOOOOOENIX. I LOVE YOU. LET ME LOVE YOU. I'LL NEVER HURT YOU OR LOVE ANYONE MORE THAN YOU, I PROMISE’ and some ‘AHHHHH. I JUST...IT WAS SO PERFECT AND THE ENDING AND HOW IT CONNECTED AND OH MY GOD. I'M GOING TO BE A MESS TOMORROW.’ Yeah, it’s one of those series that will just take over your life. So, remind me...why aren’t you reading it right now?

Special thanks goes to Renee who was half the reason I started this series and also for providing me with some screaming/crying/Phoenix-loving support after I was done.