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Embrace the Night

Embrace the Night

List Price: $5.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A very wonderful romance with vampires and humans.
Review: I enjoyed this book very much. It kept me reading chapter after chapter until I finished it. The unsuspected hero is a vampire. He has to deal with the conflict between his primal urges to drink blood and his longing to have companionship. Love wins out in the end.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I have one word for you..... Insipid
Review: I love vampire romance. I've been reading some really good ones and I guess I've spoiled myself with Maggie Shayne, Nancy Gideon, Keri Arthur, and Jaye Roycraft because this one really [was very bad]. I mean, I threw this one down like three times and even after promising myself I would finish it out of loyalty to my beloved sub-genre I just couldn't.
The story opens up with Gabriel watching over Sara Jayne, a crippled ophan who is the essence of sunlight and purity. It's bad enough that the hero is displaying obsessive stalker-like behavior on page one, but Sara Jayne is one of those characters who you just want to slap. She's pathetic, and clings to Gabriel like a barnicle on a ship and has no idenity outside the fact that she obsesses over Gabriel. Apparently 'essence of purity and light' means too stupid to live. Gabe, on the other hand is a man of many facets.... exactly two. He hates himself for being a vampire and obsesses over Sara Jayne. Their relationship stuck me as being unhealthy...
Honestly, the plot is jumble of stuff meant to give them conflict. It's either I-am-a-vampire-this-love-cannot-be, Maurice, Sara's beau bend on Gabe's destruction, or Gabe's ex-lover, a vampiress who comes out of left field and tries to kill Sara for some really lame reason.
When I thought it could get no worse, Sara dies eventually and is reincarnated as Sarah, a sad, pathetic widow in the modern era. And so we go through it all the insipid angst and paltry emotions again.
I also feel I should mention the 'love scenes'. While they are numerous, they are also disapointing. Seeing how heavily steeped in eroticism the vampire mythos is, I was expecting more than what Ashley gave us. Gabriel and Sara, our obsessive lovers, should have been able to fire up more than tame,luke-warm passion. I'm not saying the author should have written them like Betrice Small does but just have thawed the couple out some more.

Well, I thoroughly hated this book. Unfortunatly, the have to wait until July before I can get my hands on Shadow Image, a vampire romance than promises 3-deminsional characters and a suspencful plot held together by more than random stuff happening.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must read Amanda Ashley novel
Review: I loved this book, and had all the elements of a wonderful romance novel. Gabriel being a Vampire gave it a wonderful twist. It was a story of true love, and an inspration that love can overcome everything! This is one of my most favorite books!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I wishd it nevered ended
Review: I never wanted to put it down it was one of the best books that I have ever read. I loved the way she found out that he was a vampire and how she offered her blood to help him. And I loved the way Sara had came back in the 1990's. And even the part where Sara loved him even though he was a vampire.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A vampire romance sadly lacking any real "bite"
Review: I think I should start off this review by stating that I've read so many vampire novels and vampire romances that I fear I may be jaded. I used to love anything that had to do with vampires but now it takes a lot of originality (or humor and/or gut-wrenching emotion) to "wow" me and hold my interest and this book, the first of what I believe is a series, just didn't do it for me.

Gabriel is your standard vampire hero. He's gorgeous, sensitive and oh-so-lonely. He's loved and lost in the past and vows to never lose his heart to a mortal again. But all of that changes when he first sees Sara Jayne, an orphaned child who's life he saves. He becomes her self-appointed guardian angel and watches over her as she grows from a sweet child into a beautiful woman. Sara Jayne has emotional problems and one desolate night decides to take her life. This is when Gabriel breaks his pledge and shows himself, thus giving her someone to love and a reason to live.

And then the conflicts begin. Gabriel loves Sara but she's mortal and he refuses to subject her to his dreary and cursed existence. Sara loves Gabriel but she's also frightened of him. They pledge their love to each other but things keep happening to force them apart: Gabriel pushes her away because he wants her to experience life (he does this about 3 times), a former lover of Gabriel shows up to make trouble, and eventually Sara gives up hope of ever having a normal life with Gabriel and gets engaged to another man (who could blame her after being rejected so many times?). Inevitably they do find happiness but it's not an easy road to eternal bliss.

In all honesty I had a hard time finishing this book because I kept getting the feeling that I had read it all many times before. And during more than one of the separations I had an eerie sense that I had already read the exact same scene some 40 pages earlier. If the characters were more engaging, or the angst-ridden plot lightened with a bit of humor, I may have enjoyed reading this standard vampire scenario again but as it was written I just can't recommend it with any enthusiasm. I never truly cared what happened to either character, I never felt any spark between the pair and I found the repetitive plot slow going.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best Ashley book ever!!!
Review: If I had to choose which one of Amanda Ashley's books I loved the most, it would definitely be this one. I first read this book when I was 16 and instantly fell in love with the genre. Now at 23, I own all but two of the books written under Madeline Baker's pen name, Amanda Ashley and I so look forward to the next installment. This one is definitely a page turner and a tear jerker. I've actually read this one 3 times. Of all the writers I've ever read, Amanda, you are the best!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: This book was a conplete waste of time
Review: It managed to suck hours out of my life. The story itself started off with good enough ideas but only went downhill from there. Sara is an extremely brainless character without an ounce of wit. Gabriel often does very strange things and when Sara questions him he simply says "No questions" and the little dweeb complies. I don't buy the no questions policy or the relationship between her and Maurice. And I really think the idea of reincarnating her was stupid, she was bad enough the first time she was alive, never mind the second. The book was too long, too drawn out, and too sappy for my tastes. If your looking for something with a little bit more humor and poignacy this is not the book for you. Madeline Baker can do much better. I was really dissapointed by this so called novel.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bitter Sweet!
Review: My first Vampire book was Deeper then the Night -but, turned out he wasn't really a vampire so I suppose this is my first REAL Vampire book to read. I had trouble getting past the first 110 pages. After that I couldn't put it down. It's a page turning, tear jerking, keep you up half the night type of story. If it wasn't for the first 110 pages I would give it five stars. Bitter sweet, heart wrenching read. :-)

www.lunarayo.com

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the Best Vampire Books ever Written!!
Review: Only Madeline Baker (writing as Amanda Ashley) could warm your heart and soul with this enchanting and intriguing Vampire story. Gabriel, the dark, mysterious, handsome man, a caring man, who cared for a helpless young girl, Sara, bound in a wheelchair, learns what his heart desires most. Sara, a beautiful, young lady bound in a wheelchair, not wanting to live any longer finds an angel in Gabriel. Almost dying by a fire, Gabriel comes to rescue her. Wonderful things start to happen to Sara. You must read the book to find out. Many years later, Gabriel finds Sarah again, over a half century later - reincarnated. Sarah and Gabriel take on the most daring events. THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good story but too repetitive.
Review: The vampire hero Gabriel is enthralling. The heroine Sara is sweet and pretty, though not too bright. At several points in the story I found myself wondering what a character like Gabriel (once past the pity he felt for her initially) could find to attract him in airheaded Sara. Still, for plot and the Gabriel character alone I would have given this book 5 stars, except that the author kept having Sara(h) rehashing the same emotional dilemmas over and over again until I was throughly sick of her airheaded angst.


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