Review: The characters in this book are my fictional favorite friends!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 5, 2013
Please be advised: If you did not read Emerge, book 1 in the Evolve Series, this review may contain spoilers for you.Embrace knocked my socks off! I loved Emerge so much and I couldn't wait for book two in the series to come out and now that I have read it, I still want more. This book is full of such a dynamic group all with varying personalities and attitudes, but in the end they each have one important thing in common, they have each other's backs, and I love it!Laney and Evan grew up the best of friends and had just begun to dabble in the relationship side of things, but when they went off to college something happened. Laney met Dane. Everything changed. And in a big way when Evan showed up at the end of Emerge with his letter of transfer, knowing that Laney and him were finally going to be together. But Laney ultimately followed her heart and stayed with Dane.Evan, heartbroken and feeling lost, has to now figure out how to live again. Can he accept Laney's apology? Can he move beyond the hurt inside? Can they salvage a friendship with Laney and what happens when Whitley enters the picture again, but this time looking at Evan and not Dane?It was no secret that Whitley was not a favorite of Laney in the first book, but reality was that she was just so misunderstood. It seems the only person that could see this was Evan. Evan and Whitley formed a tight bond almost instantly. They became fast friends and Evan loved spending time with her, but he knew he would never change her from a friend into a relationship, EVER. Nothing good ever becomes of that... his only evidence of this was how things ended between him and Laney.Meanwhile, Laney discovered that she didn't really have a stalker all those years and in fact her mother was only a couple of hours away. But can she find the courage to mail the letter she wrote to her or could she be even braver and go and visit?We spend some time in Dane's past as well. Things he knows he has to deal with but is too afraid for Laney to find out about. If she finds out, she will certainly leave him. But what happens is anything but what you would expect.I still have not gotten my fill of these characters. I still love Laney and I still think her sass is awesome, but I have this new found appreciation for Whitley. The one scene where she goes all out just threw me over the edge. I could see standing there and I am sure the look on my face would have matched that of her friends. Priceless! Evan grew on me again in this book and I realized that yup, I was team Dane, but I was also team Evan! I loved them both and by the end of this book, I wanted to climb in and hang out in the mud with all of them.I wanted to play on the farm with the piggies and I wanted to hang out and laugh with this group. They are my favorite fictional friends and I cannot seem to get enough of them. S.E. Hall did such an amazing job with Emerge and outdid herself with Embrace. I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next!*I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*