Embraced by Darkness

Promosso a pieni voti anche questo quinto romanzo dedicato alla nostra Riley, mezzosangue metà licantropo e metà vampiro, che assieme al fratello gemello Rhoan si troverà nuovamente invischiata in una caccia all'assassino veramente particolare e sanguinariamente intrigante, per gli amanti del genere.

In questo romanzo, che vede mancare interamente il nostro beneamino Quinn (anche se il signorino si è più volte comportato male con Riley, ci manca), abbiamo il piacere di veder investigare assieme i due gemelli, rileggere di alcuni capitoli interamente dedicati ai due, senza amanti assatanati intorno, è veramente piacevole. Come è piacevole e incredibilmente divertente leggere dei loro scambi di battute e punzecchiature continue, show more Rhoan è sicuramente un fratello straordinario.

Un'altra nota molto, molto e ripetiamo "molto", positiva è la nostra Riley che, forse per la prima volta, si dimostra come qualcosa di più che una lupa in calore. Non che la ragazza non abbia avuto un profilo interessante, nei precedenti libri, tutt'altro, semplicemente usava continuamente la scusa del suo essere "lupo" come uno scudo dietro cui ripararsi e giustificarsi per il suo non riuscire (o non volere?) impegnarsi esclusivamente con Quinn, il vampiro che ama.

In questo caso il suo rapporto con l'Alfa Kellen si sta facendo sempre più importante e, alla proposta del suo compagno di renderlo esclusivo, Riley va in tilt dimostrando che, a tutti gli effetti, sente il bisogno di essere libera, ama la sua natura di lupo... o molto semplicemente che Kellen, per quanto perfetto per il suo sogno, non è perfetto per la sua realtà. Fare i conti con questi dubbi ha reso Riley più riflessiva e molto più profonda come personaggio; decisamente un passo avanti rispetto ai primi due libri.

Avremo il piacere di seguire Riley, caparbia e avventata come sempre, lungo una tortuosa caccia all'uomo, la ricerca di suo cugina scomparsa, la comparsa di nuovi poteri e la scomparsa di qualcuno di importante; dopotutto era stata avvertita.

Una profezia sul suo futuro farà impazzire, letteralmente, il lettore fra supposizioni, paure e speranze... Chi saranno i tre uomini importanti, nel bene e nel male, per Riley? Chi le farà del male? Chi si prenderà cura di lei? E perchè la Morte sembra osservarla senza toccarla?

Non ci resta che attendere con ansia il prossimo romanzo di Keri Arthur. show less

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 show more 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. show less

Liked it better than the previous one, after all the love-triangle situation seems solved, but the conclusion of both "mysteries" was too rushed in my point of view.
The author built really well the increasing suspense but it seemed to me that, at the breaking point, after saying for 300 pages how difficult was to kill the bad guys, it all ended a little too quickly. I don't know how to explain it but I had the impression that, while Riley worked hard for the whole book trying to have the upper hand, at the end the bad guys die as they suddenly run out of luck...does it make any sense?! Am I the only one that had this impression?

In general I find this series enjoyable despite what I see as some major issues. It's not that the entire book is ever bad, or even entire subplots. But for some reason I have these moments of frustration and boredom when I read these. A big example for this book was every scene when Riley entered the club, Mirror Image. I'm sick to death of those clubs and the role they play in these books. I think that the author need to diversify settings and situations a bit.

The plot of this particular book was fairly interesting to me. First, Riley is pursuing men who have been kidnapping werewolves and other shapeshifters--most often beautiful females. Additionally, Riley is called upon by the Directorate to investigate what appears to be the show more serial murders of unfaithful women. I thought it was clever that the plots surrounding fidelity and emotion so closely mirrored what was going on in Riley's personal life. Her lover Kellen, is pressuring her to go solo with him, a major step for her. Unlike some of the previous books, this one showed Riley go through significant self realization as she matures as a character. She has an independent spirit, is tough as nails, but still manages to show heart.

I feel like with this book, Keri Arthur is finally pushing the series toward its potential. Based on that potential alone, I recommend this series to urban fantasy fans. show less

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.

There's a *lot* of non-con going on in this series. It's somewhat made up for - at least for me, where non-con gets my hackles up - by having a pretty darn decent world build.

It's about what you'd expect. I do have to say, it's kind of refreshing to read a "romance" that doesn't try to wrap the sex scenes in a fluffy padding of euphemisms. The plot may have been overly predictable, but the honesty alone makes Arthur's books worth reading.