Review: Embrace the Night Eternal by Joss Ware (Envy Chronicles #2)

Embrace the Night Eternal (Envy Chronicles #2)
Joss Ware
Published: Feb. 9, 2010 (Avon)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 4 stars

Note: While this review will be spoiler free, it will reference previous books. If you haven’t started this series yet, check out VBC’s review of book 1, Beyond the Night.

Being book two in a series, and having the basic background set up already, I was able to get into Embrace the Night Eternal quicker than Beyond the Night. After finding out that the zombie-like gangas aren’t calling for ruuuuth but in fact calling for Remington Truth, the Resistance knows that they need to find Truth and how he’s linked to the Change and the Strangers.

A tip leads the group to believe there may be answers found in Falling Creek, a settlement that years ago broke off from the original group in Envy. They are the group that believed repopulation of the human race was the most important thing after the Change, so they left Envy and formed a community where men have multiple wives and their main focus is procreation.

Lou and Theo Waxnicki’s fellow computer hack Sage comes from, and years ago escaped from, Falling Creek. She knows that she’s the best person to get back in, unfortunately that means confronting things in her past that she’d rather just leave alone. Sage is ready to get out of hiding behind her computer all day, so she’ll do what needs to be done.

Of the five men who came out of that cave in Sedona, Simon Japp was kind of the odd man out. He wasn’t associated with Elliott and his group of friends when he went in, and once they woke up to a world of destruction, his reason for being there kind of faded into the background. In Embrace we learn who Simon Japp really is, and we learn that even with the destruction of the world he’s still trying to escape from his past.

I would say the thing that I like most about this series so far is the world. The mystery behind the Change keeps getting more twisted. Just when something makes sense, another bit of information is revealed that completely changes my perspective. It is extremely interesting and Joss Ware has done a great job here. There’s also some subtle headway made on why the cave survivors came away with the powers they did.

What irritated me a lot with the book is the fact that people kept trying to make decisions for Sage. Seemingly, she doesn’t ‘know what’s good for her’ and needs others to step in and push her in the right direction (please note the sarcasm). Simon is the biggest perpetrator of this. While he is more open to Sage’s ability to help with the investigation, he takes two steps back in the fact that he tries to nudge her towards another man when he starts to feel too much for Sage. Simon is still remorseful over events in his past and doesn’t feel he deserves to be cared about–and vice versa. Considering the backdrop of Eternal takes place in a community that values more the act of reproducing than any loving bond formed between partners. I think there should have been more distinction between that and the forming relationship between our two leads, because despite my irritations, I like Sage and Simon together. Things just didn’t play out to my satisfaction.

Regardless of my irritations, Joss Ware has set up some interesting developments for the next book.

Sexual content: Sex