Review: Emblaze by Jessica Shirvington (Violet Eden Chapters # 3)

While posting this review, I shall go under the presumption that you've read the previous books (Embrace & Entice) in this series and therefore nothing I write here will be, or should be considered spoiler-y.

In the past Shirvington gives us a look into Violet's angel maker and her mother Evelyn having a discussion about Violet and how she is the link between the realms and her possible future. She supposedly has the fate of both races in her hands if she ever learns how to understand her own powers and abilities.

Evelyn's own self-sacrifice, so that Violet can live, comes with some terms which are NOT revealed to readers and therefore we are left wanting to know more about Evelyn's choices. There's nothing to spoil here since we still do not know who the Angel was that helped create Violet or what exactly the terms were that the Angel and Evelyn agreed to. Plus, her so called mother has been missing in action, presumed dead, for the past 17 years so nobody can ask her what really happened on that fateful day.

Picking up the thread that was left by Entice, after returning from Jordan with the Exile Scriptures in hand while Phoenix has the Grigori Scriptures, Violet, Lincoln, Griffin, Spence, Steph, and others soon realize that Phoenix has once again played Violet like a flute and Violet becomes obsessed with training, getting stronger, and faster and understanding what she's capable of. Violet is easily persuadable when you put those she loves into harms way which happens, of course, because once again Phoenix is smarter than ALL the characters combined in this series. Violet's powers are increasing and she now as the ability to sense both Exiles and Grigori alike which she fails to tell anyone until Grigori Academy second-in-command Josephine shows up and KNOWS that Violet has this ability.

Of course, the angst between Lincoln and Violet has reached fear pitch to the point where he is trying desperately to avoid her like the Red Death plague for fear of losing their souls; something that Violet has seen first hand in Jordan. Violet, on the other hand, knows that if she sacrifices herself, Lincoln can end Phoenix, and therefore stop him from releasing Lilith onto the world. In other words, neither gives the other much of a chance to work things out before the big confrontation between Phoenix and his exiles and the Grigori which includes the bitchy bitch of all time, Josephine and her ninjas. Yeah, I don't have have anything nice to say about Josephine or her actions or her desire to see Violet in captivity under the Academy's eyes.

There are a few mysteries that still need to be resolved, but I kind of like not knowing who, or what Dapper is. He's become an important part of Violet's team and has some really unique abilities which come in handy when Phoenix goes after a team member in order to get Violet's attention and cooperation. Like I said, Phoenix knows how to play the Grigori for all they're worth and left them looking stupid most of the time. It's interesting that Shirvington wrote a chapter in Phoenix's POV when things are really getting interesting. I guess it was a way for us to realize how much he really does care for Violet when he should just kill her and be done with it.

Probably the most interesting and exciting part of this book happens in the very last chapters when Phoenix has the upper hand and the Grigori scramble like little ants in an effort to stop him. I won't reveal what happens, but, since there are tons of reviews, and book # 4 synopsis is already revealed, let's just say things are getting really interesting for Violet and trying to figure out where Shirvington is going with this series is anyone's guess.

I'm happy to see that Sourcebooks will be sending me the next book in this series called Endless, so that I don't have to wait that long to see how the ending of Emblaze plays itself out. Still though, this is an interesting series that has already gained numerous followers from Australia and elsewhere where the books have already been released!

Author - Jessica Shirvington
Title - Emblaze (Violet Eden Chapters # 3)
Publisher - Sourcebooks Fire
Released - March 19, 2013
Borrowed from Library
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy