Customer Reviews

Embrace the Night

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

What woman wouldn't love Gabriel? Just the thought of having someone watch over me the better part of my life, sent chills through me. Good chills. Gabriel watched Sara grown into a beautiful (though sad) young woman. When all hope was gone and she felt as though she couldn't take it anymore, she tried to take her life. Gabriel stops her in the guise of her guardian angel. Sara went from thinking she was worthless, to knowing she was loved. Their story of love contiued to grow from that point. Sara is very innocent in the ways of.......well everything. Gabriel is just the man to help her grow and learn. Is it his fault he just happens to be a vampire? This book brings a smile to my face and warm feelings of love to my heart everytime I think of it. A must read!

Amanda Ashley has created a wonderfully memoriable book. I have enjoyed all of her Vampire books because the Vampire is not an evil being who kills for pleasure as well as need. Her vampire heros are all tortured souls that have consciences. Gabriel is that vampire. The year is 1881 and he has lived for hundreds of years alone and when he finds a beautiful, innocent, Sara. He tries to pretend for a while that he is again human. Sara is a very young child when he finds her. She can't walk and is all alone in the world. He finds her a home in an orphanage but can't walk away from her. He has watcherd her until she is a young woman. Sara is very depressed and its only his intervention which saves her life again. He soon finds himself meeting her every night and falling so in love with her that he is in physical pain. Sara has no idea of what he really is. She only knows that he is hers and hers alone and that she loves him and that because of him she can now walk and dance. Gabriel knows that he cannot let her find out the truth so he sends her away from him. Years later he enters her life again. He can't help it. He is like a moth drawn to a flame. Sara is a changed woman. She has grown and is not afraid of what he is. They have many obsticals to overcome to be together but it makes their love all that much stronger.
The story then shifts to 1995. Gabriel is alone again. His precious Sara has been dead for 50 years. She never became what he is. They shared a wonderful life and now that she is gone he is lost again until he meets another soul who is greiving a loss as well. Her name is Sarah. Sarah has just lost her family and is all alone in the world. She is drawn to the dark stranger who offers her confort and love. Gabriel wonders if love can again enter his life and make him whole. H knows that he cannot be without her ever again and will risk the unknown to be with her.

This book touched me so much it had me crying. If you like romances where two tortured souls find each other and you know their love will last forever, read this book.

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.

Gabriel is a vampire. He's already 379 years old, world-weary and achingly lonely. His undead existence dooms him to a half-life in the hours between dusk and dawn and the need to live off (warm and fresh) human blood.

Sara Jayne, an orphan, is crippled and seemingly destined to live out her life in the care of the nuns. But Gabriel, her 'guardian angel', saved her life when she was a small child, and he's watched over her ever since. He rescues her again when she's close to death, and takes her under his wing, providing for her and, once she can walk again, sending her to a new life in Paris. But she longs for Gabriel, and eventually he comes to her.

But she doesn't know what he is, and as much as he loves her, he can't bring himself to take the risk of telling her, in case she rejects him. Their relationship, for a time, is based on his demand that she ask him no questions about his unusual lifestyle, his refusal to eat with her, the fact that he's never around during daylight hours, the strange and very intent looks on his face sometimes, his almost superhuman strength... Until one day, when she finds him trapped in a run-down cottage behind a wall of holy water and garlic, starved for blood, she finally realises what he really is.

And then, can Sara really accept a vampire as her lover? What about her own mortality, as compared to his immortality? Can they possibly be happy together? Those questions are tough enough, without the added complications of Sara's would-be lover Maurice (whom I ended up liking very much) and Gabriel's ex-lover and the person who initiated him, Antonina.

And who couldn't love the brooding, sad and angst-ridden Gabriel? Or Sara, faced with such a discovery and learning to live with the reality of who her lover is?

This was my first vampire romance, and on the basis of Embrace The Night I'll be looking up more by Ashley. Four stars instead of five only because I wanted more at the end, and also in comparison to my all-time favourite romance authors such as Beverley and Balogh.

I have to admit that out of all the books Ms. Ashley has written, this is my absolute favorite! I fell in love with Gabriel, the lonely vampire hero. Gabriel saves Sara Jane and makes himself her self appointed guardian. Sara Jane is also very lonely and one night decides to take her own life but Gabriel steps in, reveals himself to her and stops her. You can feel the love the two characters share and feel for them as they struggle to solve their problems. This was just a most memorable story and one I will never forget.

This story was so well written that I often found my heart aching for Gabriel. If you can make it through the book with your emotions in tact, it is a beautiful story of enduring love. Painfully emotional but wonderfully beautiful.
Although it is a completely unrelated genre, if you like having your emotions twisted you should also try East of the Sun, West of the Moon by Carole Bellacera. I would say the same thing about it as I do Embrace the Night - painful yet beautiful love.

Classic Amanda Ashley. I thought this was the best of the her vampire books so far. Much better than A Darker Dream or Deeper Than The Night.

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.

Hi...Just thought I'd let you know this book is being REISSUED in March of next year (in case you'd rather pay the regular price for a NEW copy instead of a ridiculously HIGH PRICE for a USED copy.

Amanda

" A creature doomed to wander the earth in eternal darkness,
he searches the ages for someone to share the endless night of his existence,
for that one woman who would recognize tha man within the monster.

An angel of purity and sunlight, she feared the mysterious stranger whose eyes
promised endless ecstasy even as he whispered dark secrets she dared not believe.

They were two people longing for fulfillment,
braving the danger of a love like no other.
Alone, they faced desolation and despair;
Together, they will share undying passion, defy, eternity, and ....
EMBRACE THE NIGHT "

Despite the very unattractive front cover, I decided to give this book a go, after reading so many positive reviews about it everywhere. And I must say, that I was/am not at all disappointed. Amanda Ashley is definitely a talented writer, and even though the story in not "one-of-a-kind", the author managed to make it special, by adding her own unique twists and turns to it.
The book is divided into two parts: in the first part, the reader is introduced to the story of Gabrial and Sara from the very beginning, how it all started, and is gradually being led throughout the story as it evolves, becoming more and more complex.... Gabriel, a vampire and Sara, an innocent, young girl (an orphan).
And in the second part we meet Sara once again, though slightly different ..... I guess it is a matter of taste, but I found this twist very romantic.
I am not going to go into more details, but will say, that when reading this book, you will feel sadness, happiness, distress, relief and sympathy. I can only recommend this book. So give it try ....