3 stars

Synopsis: Aubrey returns home to his father and his ailing sister after many years away. His cousin, of whom he was never fond, has procured a Pet for him, as all the best people have one. Aubrey has never wanted a Pet, but if he doesn't take care of Ruthven, Ruthven will die, so Aubrey allows him to suck his blood and bond with him.
Meanwhile, Stregoni, who is Aubrey's friend and a healer, is caught in a vicious circle of want and rejection with Aubrey's cousin Gilles, and Gilles' Pet Francois. No matter how cruel they are to him after they are done being sexual with him, Stregoni can't resist either of them.

What I liked: that Aubrey didn't want to have a Pet, since they were basically slaves. He kept trying to figure out a way to free Ruthven without killing him. Aubrey also tried to do his best for his sister, who had been sickly since childhood. Stregoni was honourable and loving, in spite of how Gilles and Francois seemed to treat him.

What I didn't like: the story was quite busy, with several reveals and story lines going on. You never really get a full sense of the characters, and the back story for the Pets was kind of easily glossed over, in a "with a bound, he was free" way.

*I received a copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

this was a nice, short historical fantasy with a twist on the vampire master/pet relationship - this time it's the vampires being kept as pets, not the humans.

although the lore behind it did make sense, it didn't make quite enough sense. still, it wasn't plot holey enough to cause a massive problem, just a little bit of a one.

there were two main romances here, one a m/m and one a m/m/m, and both were pretty angsty but had a happy ending, which as some of you may know, is my favourite sort of romance. the angst also made sense, rather than just being put in for the hell of it.

overall i liked this a lot. it wasn't problem-free, but it was good. this was only my second book by megan derr and since she's written kersquillions of books i'm definitely going to be reading some more.

Okay, so I love Megan Derr’s writing, but…this story just didn’t do it for me. You ever read a story and thing “wait, is this part of a series? Am I missing something?” and flipping through trying to find some sort of explanation to some of the world building with no luck? That’s this story for me. At its heart, Embrace is a vampire story, but it’s definitely a twist on the usual genre. In this world, vampires are Pets, owned by the wealthy, and generally meant as bedroom company. In exchange for, well, slavery, Pets drink from their owners, and only their owners. Following Aubrey, heir to an earl, the story tries to be a political story with a budding romance between Aubrey and his new Pet, Ruthven. Ruthven is an interesting character, if only because he obviously knows much, much more than he should, but it never felt particularly mysterious. There is, however, a secondary storyline involving Aubrey’s cousin, Gilles, and best friend, Stregoni, and it is pretty fabulous. I’d recommend reading it for that alone.

Megan Derr's Embrace is not favorite book by her. Overall, I liked the story, but that there were a lot of holes and unanswered question when it came to Ruthven, his people, and their history. It felt that there was something missing to the story. It just felt incomplete.

I think the blurb should have made it clearer that there were two POV's in this story. The first is Aubrey who is being gifted a pet Vampire called Ruthven when he doesn't want a pet. This is a new take on Vampires but I felt like it could have been expanded further and a lot of things went unexplained or weren't really believable. Although it was surprising that Ruthven wasn't submissive as I assumed a pet would be, there was too much mystery about him and not in a good way because it just made me not care about him or root for a romance with him and Aubrey.
The second POV is Stregoni and his arc with Gilles and Francois is what I loved about the book and I felt they should have been the main protagonists as they had a much stronger storyline that Aubrey and Ruthven. I would still have liked some more backstory on Gilles and Francois as a couple and how they first became involved with Stregoni. I would love to read more about these 3.
A lot of times, as much as I like Megan's stories I can nearly always predict the ending. I didn't expect the reveal about Aubrey's sister or the outcome so that was a nice surprise..

An engaging story that drew me in from the start, overall the content and plot generally clever and creative. It was unlike any vampire book I've read. it just needed ... well, more. It felt little undone, like there was more left to be explained and developed, and I would have liked a bit more romance in there too. But despite it's lacking I still enjoyed it.

3.5*

I'm very conflicted by this book.
It's a great story line, but there just seems to be something missing. Like this maybe one of the author's first stories ever written and it needs a good clean-up and makeover.

I'm not sure about Ruthven. I feel like there is so much more story to hear, like he still has so many secrets. The story starts off mainly about Aubrey, but is told in multiple POVs. So there's a lot of Stregoni and Gilles. (and Francois, of course) I just feel like Gilles dominated this book.


I am pretty sure this is a stand-alone? with a potential of more. Will there be a Resistance? What will Gilles and Aubrey do now that Aubrey is back and is the main heir? A story about Camilla's trips would be cool.

Yes! A new, old story by Megan Derr! Embrace is a revised and re-edited. I like stories about vampires and especially the take this author has on them. If I read the story just for me I would have rated this a lot higher, but as this is a review I have to be objective, so here goes.

Embrace is told from Aubrey’s point of view who’s just returning home after studying in the city. He’s not exactly keen to go home, because after the death of his mother and her pet his father became cold and distant. The story is also told from the pov of Stregoni, the family physician who is in a toxic fuck and run relationship with Aubrey’s cousin Gilles and his pet Francois.

There is a lot going on the story and in typic Megan Derr fashion, we’re thrown in the middle of it. I liked that, we get to know the world bit by bit as we do the characters. Even though the vampires are called Pets, they are far from it. In fact they hold more mystery than an Agata Christi novel. Ruthven holds a lot of mystery and is far from a pet.

While I liked Ruthven and Aubrey seperate, I didn’t much like them together. From the first moment Ruthen mentally manipulates Aubrey on so many instances that there is nothing real about their relationship. The story moves fast and therefore their relationships moves fast. That made it that any romance between them doesn’t feel real, but shallow.

I did like the mystery aspect of the story that involved Ruthven and Aubrey and how the went about solving it.

Then there were Gilles, Stregoni and Francois. A lot goes on there and for most of the story, Stregoni us used as a pawn. While the story makes it clear that they are meant to be together and that there is much more to it than we know, the relationship has a air of abuse to it that is, for Stregoni, pretty intense. Up to the point that he has pretty and dramatic thoughts. Thoughts that I didn’t think were properly incorporated in the whole of the story. Except for that scene, it wasn’t acknowledged at at and pretty soon they are together and it’s all okay. While that is part of the author’s charm, this was an instance that I didn’t find quite fitting.

Apart from that I liked the world building and the background of the vampires and how they came to be pets. I would have liked it if there was more to it, but it is possible that there will be more stories set in this world.

There were some questions about the history of Pets that left me wondering if I missed something or if it was overlooked in the editing, but all in all I liked this little gem. As I stated above, I did really like this story, but objectively there were some things that didn’t add up properly. Should you read it? Fans of the author definitely should. If you’re new to reading books by this author, then there quite some other awesome books to start with and then make your way back to this one.

Aubrey has never wanted a Pet, but after returning home from being away at school for a few years, his father gifts him one. Yet, Ruthven is unlike any Pet Aubrey has encountered before and the secrets Ruthven and everyone else in the household are keeping might destroy them all in the end.

I first read this story years ago. I bought it during LT3's earliest years (I actually have it in print), and at the time I thought it was completely indicative of LT3's work: It was in desperate need of better editing, which LT3 struggled with their first few years, but had a sweetness and charm to it that had me hooked regardless. It wasn't, however, indicative of Derr's work of the time. Derr was publishing light and fluffy romances that were heavy on the characterizations, but very light on plot. (Please don't take that as a complaint, because it's not.) Her books from that time are still very enjoyable, but they don't have the level of depth, nor the sheer brilliance of the twists and turns of her more recent ones. Embrace, on the other hand, did have plot and some very interesting twists. I honestly feel like Embrace was a gateway book that allowed Derr to blossom from good to great. There was so much potential in Embrace, particularly in the plot, but at the time it felt unfinished. Derr hadn't completed her transformation just yet, so there were still weaknesses in Embrace (which I won't go into detail here in order to avoid spoilers). Needless to say, I've always hoped Derr would republish and would clean the story up in the process.

Unfortunately, the ARC I received was an exact replica of the original story. What this means to me is that Derr will likely clean up the missing words and improper grammar before it is officially published, but nothing substantive will be added. That said, the story is still very enjoyable. Watching Aubrey try to figure Ruthven out, Stregoni and Gilles' interesting courting, the mystery of the Pets, and the secrets everyone is keeping, definitely kept my interest. Overall, I had a good time rereading this story, and that's what really mattered to me the most.