Mini Reviews: The Almost Girl by Amalie Howard and Night Embrace by Sherrilyn Kenyon

The Almost Girl
by Amalie Howard
Released |January 7th 2014 by Strange Chemistry|
Edition |eARC|
Source |Netgalley|
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Seventeen-year-old Riven is as tough as they come. Coming from a world ravaged by a devastating android war, she has to be. There’s no room for softness, no room for emotion, no room for mistakes. A Legion General, she is the right hand of the young Prince of Neospes, a parallel universe to Earth. In Neospes, she has everything: rank, responsibility and respect. But when Prince Cale sends her away to find his long-lost brother, Caden, who has been spirited back to modern day Earth, Riven finds herself in uncharted territory.
Thrown out of her comfort zone but with the mindset of a soldier, Riven has to learn how to be a girl in a realm that is the opposite of what she knows. Riven isn’t prepared for the beauty of a world that is unlike her own in so many ways. Nor is she prepared to feel something more than indifference for the very target she seeks. Caden is nothing like Cale, but he makes something in her come alive, igniting a spark deep down that goes against every cell in her body. For the first time in her life, Riven isn’t sure about her purpose, about her calling. Torn between duty and desire, she must decide whether Caden is simply a target or whether he is something more.
Faced with hideous reanimated Vector soldiers from her own world with agendas of their own, as well as an unexpected reunion with a sister who despises her, it is a race against time to bring Caden back to Neospes. But things aren’t always as they seem, and Riven will have to search for truth. Family betrayals and royal coups are only the tip of the iceberg. Will Riven be able to find the strength to defy her very nature? Or will she become the monstrous soldier she was designed to be?

The Almost Girl was something that interested me when I received a copy for review. The synopsis and the cover made me really intrigued in reading the story. When I finally found the time to read it I just could not get into the story. Sci-fi has never been one of my favorite genres, but I have enjoyed books with the genre. I found the main character to be fairly interesting, but when the romance started up I wasn't all that into the book anymore. I was curious to find out more about Riven, but things wasn't holding my attention enough to continue on. I also think another reason why I wasn't into the story is because I wasn't in the mood for this type of book when I started it, so maybe that's my fault.

DNF

Night Embrace

(Dark-Hunter, #2)

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Released |July 1st 2003 by St. Martin's Press|

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"Night Embrace" spins the story of Talon, an ancient Celtic warrior who killed the son of the god Camulus.
Camulus cursed Talon, decreeing death for everyone he loved. Now a Dark-Hunter in modern-day New Orleans, Talon meets Sunshine, who is key to ending his curse once and for all. Not to mention helping him to save New Orleans from an ancient god bent on total destruction.
See original cover listed below. The cover shown here is the reissued cover that was done seven years ago.

I've been wanting to continue on with this series for quite sometime and I've been determined to read the books in order (I started our reading book Acheron, which is like book 15 and then I went back and read books 1 and Fantasy Lover). I've read the author's Chronicles of Nick series which is something like a spin off of this one but it's YA and have been loving it. Night Embrace started off pretty good. We got a bit of back history on Talon and we were also reunited with other characters from other books and I was happy. But then we're hit with the romance at about 15% of the book and I started to get annoyed because it was too much too soon. Talon gets hit by a parade float and she takes home a random stranger and the next day when he wakes up they end up having sex? No, I was not happy anymore. I tried to push through the book because I've enjoyed all the other books in this series that I've gotten the chance to read, but with Night Embrace I just couldn't do it. By the time I got to 30% of the story I was fed up with the insta-love. The characters knew absolutely nothing about each other, but yet they couldn't stay away from each other. I wasn't feeling it and I definitely wasn't convinced with it. I will probably read other books in the series, but I think I'm just going to pick out stories of the characters I'm actually interested in.  

DNF