Review: Dark Embrace

Posted September 11, 2008 by Tracy in Reviews | 9 Comments

TITLE: Dark Embrace
AUTHOR: Brenda Joyce
SERIES: Yes – this is book 3 in The Masters of Time series
Book 1: Dark Seduction
Book 2: Dark Rival

REASON FOR READING: I really liked the first two books!

SUMMARY: (From Goodreads)
Aidan, the Wolf of Awe, has abandoned the Brotherhood and forsaken his vows. Feared by all and trusted by none, he hunts alone, seeking vengeance against the evil that destroyed his son. He has not saved an Innocent in sixty-six years—until he hears Brianna Rose’s scream of terror across centuries, and leaps to modern-day Manhattan to rescue her.…

Brie is a gifted empath who spends her time fighting evil from the safety of her laptop—and fantasizing about the medieval Highlander she met just once. Still, her life is pretty ordinary—until she awakens one night consumed with Aidan’s pain and rage. When Aidan suddenly appears and takes her hostage, Brie cannot believe how dark and dangerous he has become. She knows she should be afraid, but instead, she will fight across time for his redemption…and his love.

THOUGHS/OPINIONS:

So we have Brianna who is an empath but is kind of a mousy person who sits behind a computer all day in a basement. Her mother was very wild and she does NOT want to be anything like her mother so she hides behind her glasses and her baggy clothing so as not to be noticed.

Aidan was a Master of Time who was sworn to protect the innocent until his father, a Deamhan (demon), killed his 9 year old son. Now he’s spent 66 years trying to wreak vengeance on his father. He has turned from the good and is now supposedly evil.

Brianna has had a crush on Aidan since she had met him a year before. When their paths collide once again her crush turns to full blown love and as frightened as Brie is of Aidan at first she doesn’t believe that Aidan has turned to the dark side completely. She’s the only one who believes this but sets out to redeem Aidan and re-write history so that he’s not killed in December 1502.

I really liked this story. I thought there was great emotional and sexual tension between Aidan and Brianna. She was so bound and determined to redeem him and bring him back from evil no matter the danger to herself. Aidan for his part tried his darndest to stay away from Brianna but he just couldn’t do it.

As I read this book I really felt the emotions that the characters were having. When Aidan was trying to push Brianna away from him emotionally to try to stay evil and live for his hatred for his father I really felt his pain while he was doing it and I felt Brie’s pain from being rejected. For me it was a really well written book.

Now there were a few things about the book that I didn’t particularly care for:
They “cried out” a lot. I mean a lot! Instead of gasping they cried out and after a while it got a little old.

There were other characters in the book who were Brianna’s friends that had traveled to the past in the previous books. One of which was dressed in high heeled boots, skinny jeans and a fur jacket. Ok, I understand that she’s from the future, but this is 1502 and you just didn’t do that and try to “blend”, at least not in my opinion. Luckily this was just a very small part of the book.

The timeline is a little fuzzy for me. When Brianna got to Scotland 1502 it was November 17. She was only there for 3-5 days from what I figure. In the story it has him getting killed a day or so after she leaves. Would it already be December? Not by my calculations. hmmm…

Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again?
She isn’t new to me. I’ve read the Masters of Time series as well as most of her DeWarren historical series which is great and I will continue to read her books.

Are you keeping it or passing it on?
Definitely keeping

Did you enjoy the book? Very much

Would you recommend this book to others? Yes

SCORE: 4 out of 5

Anything else? Brenda Joyce is running a Master of Time contest until the 30th of September. You can win a Masters of Time promo kit which is pretty cool if you like the series. Find out more here.


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9 responses to “Review: Dark Embrace

  1. I just finished reading Dark Seduction yesterday. It was pretty good but I agree, she used cry and cried out entirely too much and it’s not very nice to know she didn’t stop in the other books. My mom is reading Dark Rival. I’m just borrowing her copies to read. Someday I’ll get to the others.

  2. I will say this, Brenda Joyce gets some yummy covers. However, I seem to remember reading another book in this series and having a very bad experience. Went back in my blog history and indeed, found that my impressions of Dark Seduction indicate to me that no further Joyce reading is in my future. But I will ogle over the cover! mmmm, prettty!

  3. I liked her first two but have to say that the first was not as good as the 2nd and third in the series.

    Sula – don’t give up on her historicals!!!

  4. My mom is bringing over Dark Rival tonight. She said it is much better than the first.

    I haven’t read her historicals…maybe someday. Which one would you recommend to start with?

  5. Yeah, I think Dark Rival is better than the first too.

    Um, I just happened to pick up The Masquerade at the library…someone had just set it aside and I saw it sitting there when I was in line to check out. It’s book 7 in the de Warrene series but I didn’t think I was missing anything by starting there and it was a nice introduction to the family. I’ve read all the books in that series since then but haven’t felt like I needed to go back and read the first 6.

  6. I’m so glad you read and reviewed this since it is on my TBR pile. I’m not sure if I ever finished reading Dark Rival, though. Hmm.. better look into that.

  7. I am reading this right now. I don’t think I am going to like it as much as you did. I hate that Aidan has changed so much. He is a totally different person in this book than he was in the first two books in the series. Thanks to the link for the contest though. I might enter 🙂

  8. Hey Jill. The change in Aidan did bother me at first because I, like you, loved him in the first 2 books. But I think Joyce did a great job with his character and why he had changed. Let me know what you think after you read it.

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