Book Tour: Embers by Karen Ann Hopkins

I'm so excited to be hosting one of today's stops on Karen Ann Hopkins' Embers Virtual Book Tour. Released October 21st, 2014 Embers kicks off The Wings of War series with a bang!

For all the stops on Embers's Virtual Book Tour, check out Kismet Book Touring.

The Book

There are descendants of angels walking among us. Ember is one of them. And she may be the only hope mankind has as the rapture approaches and evil rises.

Embers is an epic paranormal adventure about an eighteen year old girl who discovers that she's immune to fire and any other injury when she’s in a horrific car crash that kills her parents. Following a violent episode with her aunt's boyfriend, Ember flees Ohio to live with an old relative in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Ember's exuberance at escaping a bad home life soon turns to trepidation when she finds out that she's a Watcher, a descendant of angels. While Ember learns about her heritage and the powers that go along with it, she strikes up friendships with two young men who live in a frightening walled compound in the forest. Inexplicitly drawn to one of the men in particular, an impossible romance develops. But it is cut short when Ember discovers that her new friends are fighting on the opposite side of a war—one that’s been raging between two factions of Watchers for thousands of years. When the compound’s inhabitants threaten the townspeople, Ember takes action, sealing her fate in the ancient battle of good versus evil—and the grayness in between. Ember is up to the challenge, until she realizes that she isn’t only fighting for the lives of the locals and the souls of her new friends. She also might be one of the few champions who will make a stand for all of mankind as the rapture approaches and the end of days begin.

Embers is a dark and gritty YA novel that’s the first book in the series, The Wings of War.

Embers is available now!

Goodreads | Amazon

My Review:

Young adult paranormal is a really packed, popular genre these days. Fortunately, there's always room for more, particularly a book like Embers that embraces angels and demons, good and evil, and the murky space in between.

Because Embers is setting the stage for a series, there's a lot of material to cover, a lot of worldbuilding and information to get across. The pacing isn't always perfect - the start, in particular, is a slow build - but there's good reason! Have faith! I liked that Ember feels both a sense of rightness about learning who she is, that her feelings of otherness now make sense. It kind of made me wish I was a teenager reading this because isn't that sense of being slightly apart and other part of the common experience? I think this book provides excellent 'what if that explains me?' daydream fodder!  The connection between Ember's power and her confidence was particularly intriguing to me.

I appreciated the push and pull between Sawyer and Ember as they figured each other out, as well as negotiating the various roadblocks that stood in their way. I liked that there was a period of literally having to figure each other out, despite the existence of some chemistry. 

I also loved the setting. The forest and the walled-in compound - heck just the wall itself really made an impression on me as I pictured the story. It's a gorgeous place made dangerous and threatening by the local residents.

Bottom Line

If angels and demons are your thing, check out Embers by Karen Ann Hopkins. A very promising start to a new paranormal YA series, this one covers a lot of ground and I look forward to seeing where the next installment will take us!

4 stars

About The Author

A native of New York State, Karen Ann Hopkins now lives with her family on a farm in northern Kentucky, where her neighbors in all directions are members of a strict Amish community. Her unique perspective became the inspiration for the story of star-crossed lovers Rose and Noah. When she’s not homeschooling her kids, giving riding lessons or tending to a menagerie of horses, goats, peacocks, chickens, ducks, rabbits, dogs and cats, she is dreaming up her next romantic novel.

Find her on the web:

Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

The Contest

There are several opportunities to win on the Embers Virtual Book Tour. One winner will receive a $100 gift card, another will receive a signed Temptation Series book set, including Temptation, Belonging & Forever, and ten lucky winners will receive an eCopy of EMBERS! 

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