EMBRACE THE NIGHT ETERNAL

Author: Joss Ware ISBN: 9780061734021 2/2010 PARANORMAL/FUTURE Publisher: AVON

Everything they knew is gone. From the raging fires, five men emerge with extraordinary new powers. They must learn how to survive this dark, ravaged world . . . but they cannot do it alone. Simon Japp will never forget his violent past. But when civilization is all but destroyed, he sees his chance for redemption. Blessed with a strange "gift," he's determined to help the resistance against the Strangers, the mysterious force that stalks them at every turn. He can't afford to get distracted, even by the stunning, soft-spoken woman fighting by his side . . . Sage Corrigan has learned to be careful where she places her trust. But she sees something good in Simon, even if he can't see it in himself. Posing as lovers to infiltrate a group key to their fight, they find that their staged affection soon develops into a desire that will leave them fighting for their lives in the night eternal . . .

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

EMBRACE THE NIGHT ETERNAL fulfills the promise of BEYOND THE NIGHT, and then some. The post-apocalyptic world has expanded both geographically and historically. The main characters are well-rounded, and the experience of reading this novel is quite intimate. I think the romance aspect was very successful this time, and I enjoyed every page.

Sage Corrigan is a “cor-whore” and computer genius. Right after the “Change”, the surviving humans had different ideas about what humanity should focus on. One group splintered into the “rebuilding” mentality, forming polygamous marriages and putting reproduction above all else, including independence from the vampiric Strangers. Sage escaped this group and found her way to Envy, once Las Vegas, where she allies herself with the resistance group fighting the Strangers.

Simon Japp is one of the men who were adults at the time of the Change, then trapped unconscious in a cave for fifty years after. He was bad news in the old days and is trying to find a new identity in this world free of the people and drugs that once held him in thrall. That’s all passed, or has it?

The Cult of Atlantis contained many of the movers and shakers of 2010, and Simon knew some of them. Is his past as far behind him as he thought since the cult members survived to become the Strangers? And how can a man with his past deserve a woman as pure as Sage?

An excellent second entry in this series. The third, ABANDON THE NIGHT, completes the love story of two characters that’s been developing in these first two novels.

Heather Hiestand