This just wasn't my jam. Kinda comes off as fanfic more than anything. It's not to say that the writing is bad because it's not, I just couldn't jive with the story.

I loved the concept! The idea of being sucked into a computer game, of course is wonderful! Though the "romance" - got a little too much for my taste, so i did not finish.

Better than your average sword, sorcery, and romance tale, Embellished breaks down new barriers into a genre all it's own. How many gaming geeks haven't dreamed of going into the magical worlds they navigate through their computers, how many play to escape real life if only for a little while? But would actually being stuck in that world be all that your imagination has cracked it up to be? And is the price of staying there to stay alive worth it? What do you do when two powerful princes both want to claim you? Exciting, intriguing, and well written.

This book is over 300 pages but the writing is awesome so you won't mind! The book is well written and you will adore the characters. This book is unlike anything I have ever read. It is about teenagers playing MMORPG, lightening strikes and they wind up in the game. It is full of adventure, and twists and turns. I can't wait for book 2. I am giving a voluntary, honest review of an ARC from NetGalley.

I have been putting off writing this review, because I can tell that the author has put a lot of work and love into this book, but I have nothing very nice to say about it.

I desperately wanted to like this book. It sounded like it might be similar to K A Applegate's EverWorld series, which was my favourite as a teenager. I wouldn't have even minded some immature writing for the sake of the high school nostalgia. Sadly, the book reads more like the first attempt at a novel by someone who is still quite a few stories away from being published.

The dialogue varies between cringily awkward and haltingly formal. The pacing for the story is way off - it felt like it should have ended several times but just kept on going. And going. And going. I think this was meant to be an epic tale of romance and fantasy, but it just felt like a weird fan-fiction with weird hypocritical characters.

The different races and the world that the story is set in seems to be interesting, but we are drip-fed information at such a slow pace that it's hard to conjure a vivid mental image of anything or anyone. I received a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for a review, and my copy at least was very poorly edited. Dialogue ran into itself, there was sometimes no clear differentiation between voices, and it was at times difficult to follow.

I am truly sorry that I can't recommend this book.

I didn't finish this book. I tried to keep going, I wanted to like it, and I read much more than I would have if I hadn't agreed to review it, but ultimately I got to a point where I couldn't make myself keep going.

The teenage gamer boys were so obnoxious, and not in a "teenage gamer boys are generally obnoxious" way, but rather in a "non-teenage-boy-gamer author is trying too hard to sound like a teenage gamer boy and failing miserably" way. The language was definitely out of date ("noob") and the fact that no one used any actual curse words but instead replacements like "fracking" just didn't fit with the attitude the boys were supposed to display.

Bekka's internal thoughts were too exposition-y for me. Show don't tell! And her attitude seemed inconsistent. She's excited to talk to her step-mom but then is immediately sarcastic to her once she suggests shopping. This on its own could work if we were given more insight into Bekka's exhaustion/desire to die/lack of caring about anything, but it felt like whiplash the way it was actually written.

I think the concept of this book has potential, but I don't think that potential was fulfilled in the writing of this book.