Embraced By Darkness

This is actually the first of her books I have ever read. The blurb inside the cover said it was a new series, so I thought it was the first book, opps. I enjoyed the book & she provided enough back story for it to be understood. I plan to find the rest of the books now. ( )

The ending made me cry!! ::sob:: Each book gets better and better, it's so true. Riley grows up and evolves over the series and I can't put these down. ( )

I found Embraced by Darkness much better balanced between Riley as a character, the plot and the sex and violence. However it was obvious that the club would somehow be involved in Riley's cousins disappearance and I thought it was unlikely that she couldn't make that leap so it bugged me. That said I did enjoy it. [b:Tempting Evil|74046|Tempting Evil (Riley Jenson Guardian, #3)|Keri Arthur|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170847756s/74046.jpg|71641] (#3) very nearly ruined this series for me but I'm much more willing to finish the series after reading 4 and 5. ( )

Book 5 in the Riley Jenson series. Riley Jenson, a rare hybrid of vampire and werewolf, works for Melbourne’s Directorate of Other Races, an organisation created to police the supernatural races whilst protecting humans. She is on an island holiday recovering from the events of the last year when Blake Jenson, her family's alpha male, appears and demands that Riley help the pack. Both Riley and twin brother Rhoan were thrown out of the red pack back when they had been thirteen-year-old pups. Her first instinct is to refuse but Blake threatens Riley’s mother's life. Riley must also investigate the murder of a woman who appears to have been torn limb from limb by her fiancé. Working on both investigations at the same time, she finds herself under attack from an unknown assailant as well as dealing with demands from Kellen who wants an exclusive relationship with her. ( )

Review posted here: http://offbeatvagabond.blogspot.com/2010/08/keri-arthur-embraced-by-darkness-ril...

Embraced by Darkness, in my personal opinion, is the best out of the series so far. There was an actual mystery in this for a change. In the past books, you already knew who the bad guys were That or you find out way too soon and there was not a whole lot of suspense. This definitely had more of an Anita Blake feel to it. This one actually had you guessing a bit.
This book starts off with Jensen on vacation from being a Guardian. A guardian is basically a cop for the supernatural (actually more like an assassin, given the crazy weapons they are allowed to use). While on this beautiful island she gets an unexpected and unwanted visit from her pack's Alpha Male. A man who has tried to kill her and her brother due to their mixed heritage (she is both a werewolf and a vampire, more werewolf though) and he "goes" to her to ask for her help to find his granddaughter. Jensen obviously doesn't want to help a man who despises her very existence, but he threatens to kill her mother if she doesn't. So, of course, she is on board.
Jensen has to help the Alpha Male find his granddaughter on the island she is on. So while investigating, she come across strange things on the island. A man who was supposedly there but wasn't there. She doesn't find much, so she leaves with Kellen. Kellen is the only person she is with at the moment and they want to go "solo" (solo as in both of them see each other and no one else). She, of course, freaks out and drags it along because she is afraid of going solo.
While back on the job, her new suspect is the most unusually thing ever. It obliterates the women (tear them to unnoticeable pieces and keeps their hair) and the men are somewhere, blocks away from the house, seeming as though they died of terror. It definitely a different kind of villain compared to the others in the past and I liked that there was two different things going on in this book. Mysterious on both sides.
Now I did like the past four books, don't get me wrong, but they weren't my favorites. They weren't favorites due to the lead character, Riley Jensen. Jensen is the most annoying female lead. She bitches and whines about how she wants her white picket fence and great husband to love and protect her. But when she has the potential to have them, she still whines about her freedom.
Since she is (more of) a werewolf, her and werewolves alike have sex with numerous people because...that is what they do apparently. Jensen says it is stop bloodlust, but after reading these books so far, she uses that as an excuse to be a slut. In the beginning of the series, she meets a vampire named Quinn, who, of course, is not a fan of the whole multiple partners thing. But he still gives her a chance. He tries to protect her and all, all the things she wants and she bitches to him about his human outlook on sex. She gets on my last nerve. She wants everyone to see things her way, but she refuses to see anything in theirs. That is why I liked this book. She seems to have grown a little more more. She puts Kellen first in her mind ahead of her own wants.
Overall, this is the best book of the series so far. I hope Arthur has made the rest of the books more like this one. I really would hate to see Jensen go back to her selfish ways (well mainly selfish, she does put her brother ahead most). Seriously, she was annoying as hell. ( )