Reviewed by: Sue Eaton
TITLE: An Embrace to Hearten Me
SERIES: The Magi Accounts Companion Stories
AUTHOR: Michelle Notaro
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 404 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 23, 2023
BLURB:
I can’t seem to choose between the two shifters who mean the world to me… but what if I can have them both?
Trying to navigate my feelings has never been easy. Growing up, I had to keep my emotions locked down and hidden from the world or suffer the consequences. But now, well, now I’ve had a taste of freedom, and with it, my heart has been running wild.
Between trying to find witches—members of the Red Cloth—at work and sifting through my overwhelming emotions, I’m a mess. And two certain shifters seem happy to help sort me out, which is great, but it’s making all these feelings hit me at once.
How in the world can I tell River and Kulani that I… that I like them? Both of them. At the same time. This is going to end in disaster with one, two, or three hearts broken. But what if it doesn’t? What if there’s a way for all three of us to get what we want?
REVIEW:
I was so happy that Jude was finally getting his own book, he has been a central character in all the books in the series because he is bonded to Mad and is his magical focus. There have been tantalising hints in the other books that Jude was getting closer to River and Kulani so to finally get their book is great.
There is a bit of repetition from the other books, which to be honest is unavoidable. I thought Michelle handled the repetition really well and used it to show the others points of view during the events of the other books. So I didn’t find it off putting, in fact the reverse, it was a nice reminder where they all came from and their interactions. This book was a study in the importance of communication and how difficult and scary that communication can be.
All three character River, Jude and Kulani have had traumatic childhoods / pasts that makes them emotionally reticent and also very vulnerable to baring those emotions to others, even people that they like. River and Kulani have known each other for years and have a fantastic friendship that they are both so afraid of damaging. They both think that the other only wants them as a friend and nothing beyond that and so they have been stuck in the friend zone for years, through the fear for pushing for more and worrying that pushing for more might irretrievably break their friendship. When Jude joins the pack, they are immediately drawn to both River and Kulani and they all strike up a strong friendship but the attraction to each other simmers away in the background.
I admit I spent a lot of this book, shouting at the characters, just take a chance, take that leap of faith and I also was really worried that they wouldn’t take that leap, or that 2 of the 3 would take the leap and leave the third heartbroken.
It was great to find out more about Kulani’s background, we always knew something really horrific had happened to Kulani but he had always kept that a secret. So to find out the truth of what had happened to him as a child was heartbreaking, the ramifications of what happened so many years ago suddenly start to impact what is happening with the Red Cloth Witches and the terrible truth of events then and now are revealed.
I cheered when the three finally got their courage up and admitted their feelings for each other and decided to try being a triad. I was so happy for them all to have such a happy ending after their traumatic backgrounds and all the soul searching of “does he like me like I like him/them” between them all.
Another brilliant book in this series that I really enjoyed reading,
RATING: 
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