J’ai mis le temps à lire ce numéro 5 un peu déçue du précédent, et puis je me suis dit, plus vite terminé, plus vite débarrassé surtout qu’à force les piles de livres s’entassent les unes auprès des autres en attendant d’être rangés correctement dans ce qui me sert de bibliothèque. J’attends avec impatience le moment où nous saurons une bonne partie sur l’avenir de Riley et avec qui elle va terminer. Qui restera en vie également ?Riley, gardienne du directoire, tout ce qu’elle ne voulait pas et pourtant, elle le fait depuis quelques temps. Malgré tout, cela serait trop simple comme histoire et l’Alpha de la meute auquel les double R appartenaient (Rhoan et Riley) refait surface pour demander de l’aide. Ironique comme histoire, surtout lorsque l’on sait ce que ce dernier leur à fait subir durant leur enfance dans sa meute. Ce personnage, je vais en parler de suite, m’a fait hérisser les poils du bras, je vous assure. Des envies de meurtres me passaient pour rester dans mon esprit à tel point que je rêvais de lui faire la peau. Et ils vont aller l’aider ? Pour quelle reconnaissance ? Surement aucune vu son caractère de merde ! Autant le dire, cet alpha ne vaut pas grand-chose, à part gueuler, menacer et s’amuser de son pouvoir sur les autres, il ne connait pas les mots compassions, aides et secours. Pour lui le vocabulaire serait plutôt marche ou je te crève. Bref, vous l’aurez compris, ce dégénéré ne mérite que l’attention qu’on veut bien lui porter.Le plus ? Le moins ? Moins de longueur dans les scènes d’intimité, plus de recherches, même si malheureusement la première partie concernant la première des deux missions que le directoire à joyeusement refilé à Riley par manque de personnel à abouti très très vite à sa fin. Le vrai plus c’est la connaissance du passé des jumeaux et je ne reviendrais pas sur leur alpha qui ne mérite que de mourir enfoui sous dix mètres de terre, non, non. L’humour sarcastique entre Riley et la plupart des autres personnages, comme avec la belle plante standardiste qui ne le montre pas, mais même si elle dit haut et fort qu’elle n’aime pas Riley, elle à peur qu’il lui arrive quelque chose. A cause de son patron peut-être ? Il ne faut pas oublier que Riley à malheureusement été un rat de laboratoire et la découverte de nouveaux pouvoirs va la perturber, sans compter que nous ne savons toujours pas si cela risque de la tuer ou de la transformer totalement en autre chose.Riley semble toujours hésiter entre sa nature de louve et celle de vampire, les deux cotés ne semblent pas se compléter comme il faudrait et même si elle à envie de se mettre en couple, elle à aussi des besoins qui lui font, semble-t-il peur et par conséquent elle ne fait que d’aller de gauche à droite tout en espérant que le bon sera présent et l’acceptera ainsi. Dommage que Quinn ne soit pas présent comme dans les précédents, un tournant serait-il en train de se produire ?Et Kellen qui est de plus en plus lourd, évitons de noter mes pensées comme quoi c’est monsieur qui travaille, la femme au foyer, oups, c’est sorti… Il est gentil, beau, grand, fort, mais question mentalité il à oublié d’évoluer en même temps que le reste de la population. Bien que ce ne soit surement pas le dernier qui ne veut sa femme que pour lui entre quatre murs, j’exagère bien sur… a peine… tout cela pour dire que ce tome me fait plus penser à un tome de transition, il est là, à été écrit de manière à passer d’un point A à B, sans passer par la case départ et s’en empocher les 20 000 euros. Dommage, parce que je commençais à me dire que nous allions enfin avoir un peu plus de matière concernant la santé de Riley. Perdue, mais je ne désespère pas, il reste quatre tomes…
*sigh*Perhaps I am in a reading funk. Perhaps I am not giving Arthur's last two books a fair chance. Nonetheless, I shall write my honest opinion. This book put me to sleep. Riley Jenson, a Guardian / super non-human cop who is apparently judge, jury and executioner, wiggles her way into ... or out of... the fear of commitment to Kellen, an alpha werewolf yadda yadda ...He wants to protect her. She doesn't need his protection. He wants the white picket fence. She wants to dig her fingers into her flesh to remove that deadly and numbing silver bullet before a monster with a barbed penis comes along and whacks her in more than one way. Boring? Believe it or not .. hell yes.In Embraced by Darkness, Riley is contacted by her pack, the pack that tossed her off the cliff for being a half-breed, the pack that exiled her and her twin brother. Women are going missing, and for some reason, they have decided to bully her into the investigation by threatening her mother.Still boring.The sexual content is almost non-existent .. wtf? After the first two books in this series, there was promise of entertainment with interesting bestial intimacies between breeds and half breeds. What can I say? Rock on.My original opinion of this series, is that I would rate it at the top of my charts ... along with the Anita Blake series. Well shit ... I'll have to place her books on lower bookshelves and reserve the higher shelf for new favorite authors.Ok, I hate writing negative reviews... and there have been plenty in the past few months! That's wrong on so many levels ... bummer.So, let's find something positive to say about this book. The hunter becomes the hunted. Yup, that's about it.I recommend this book to those who intend on reading this series. I do not recommend immature adults or children getting their hands on this book, as the violence, although brief, is fun-filled with bodies are ripped apart. The sexual content is vague, brief, and borrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring.~happy reading :p
What do You think about Embraced By Darkness (2007)?
People have such low standards for their heroines, it is really kind of sad. Riley does stupid stuff, treats her boyfriend like crap, and is openly disdainful to her boss. I guess that adds up to totally cool if you have super powers?I keep thinking she will start to annoy me less, but quite the opposite. Her whining about not being able to sleep with everything with a penis, her constant rudeness to everyone, and the fact that she can't think her way out of a paper bag make me crazy.The books are pure filler. Something tho read when there is nothing better available. But reading this after finishing one of Nalini Singh's books, I am just flabbergasted by the people who consider Riley capable. If she wasn't too stubborn or forgetful to carry her weapons, she wouldnt need her superpowers half the time. Not being a dumbass would avoid the other half of the need. Of course, then the books would just be about her overactive sex life, andhow unreasonable her boyfriend is to ask her not to screw every guy she sees, and her gushing to him about how great he is and then moping because he isn't Quinn. Blech. Compared to Singh's Elena, she is just another whiny werewolf.
—Ambre
This is my second book in this series, and while I thought some aspects of it were stronger than the previous volume, in other ways I thought it was weaker. On the one hand, Riley is trying to give her relationship with her boyfriend a shot at monogamy, to see if he's the one she wants to settle down with. Combining this with the sort of bad guy we have here, the story gets to focus a lot more on character and plot than on sex. Having started in the middle and missed out on the earlier characterization it was nice to just spend a bit more time with these people.But on the other hand, somehow the danger level seemed dialed back in this book. It was out there, but it never felt like it was more than Riley could handle to me. And that gave the book a lot less drive.Still, it wasn't a bad book. It was enjoyable and went really fast, especially considering its length. Riley makes a truly kick-butt heroine, and her interactions with the other characters are not always nice or happy, but it makes her feel a lot more real. Also, come on. That ending? That ending?!? I was all set to be done with this cute but not grabs-me-by-the-imagination series with this book, but now? I may have to see about getting the next one. >.> Shoot. :D
—Lissibith
Riley is supposed to be on holiday to recover from events in the previous books but she never has been one to sit around doing nothing. This time her holiday is spoiled when she is contacted by a member of her mother's pack - the pack that exiled her & Rhoan for being half breeds. Riley wants as little to do with them as they have had to do with her but now they need her help - one of their pack members has gone missing and they want Riley to find her. If Riley refuses then her mother will be killed - a threat she knows they will be happy to carry out.I'm already a big fan of this series and Embraced by Darkness was a great installment. We have seen Riley go through a lot in the year we've been following her but she has some difficult personal decisions to make this time regarding her relationship with Kellen. I started getting really bad feelings about Kellen near the beginning of the story but I'm not going to say if I was right or not - you'll have to read the book to find out. I just find it very hard to trust Riley's taste in men given her history!I liked finding out more about Riley & Rhoan's upbringing and their relationship with members of their old pack. It would have been nice to have a chance to meet their mother though. I do love the strong bond between Riley & Rhoan though - they have always been close but as you learn more about their mother's pack it becomes clear that they've only really ever been able to rely on each other. It's good that they are still always there for each other.I enjoyed the hunt scenes with the bad guys towards the end of the book and was really unsure how Riley would escape. There was a really interesting twist to the way Riley's powers are developing due to the experimental drug she was given at the start of the series, I'm very curious to see how this changes things for her in the future. I did find the bad guys abilities were a little unbelievable and didn't think we were given enough of an explanation for that. I was also a bit surprised at how easily they are defeated at the end considering how powerful they were.This is a great series for fans of urban fantasy but I would definitely recommend starting with book 1 Full Moon Rising. Riley has developed quite a lot as a character throughout the series & I think you'd be missing out if you didn't read the books in order. I liked the fact that Riley's hormones played a smaller part in this story - I don't mind sex in a story but it can get a little repetitive when the main character is repeatedly having sex with many partners, especially when it is often with people she doesn't like & just as a part of her job. If you haven't started this series yet but are an urban fantasy fan then I would definitely recommend giving it a try.
—Sarah
