Love a girl, sadly not one to be embraced (9)
I believe the answer is:
adoration
'love' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'a girl sadly not one to be embraced' is the wordplay.
'a girl' becomes 'adora' (**).
'sadly' indicates an anagram.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'to be embraced' is an insertion indicator.
'not'+'i'='noti'
'noti' anagrammed gives 'tion'.
'adora' inserted into 'tion' is 'ADORATION'.
(Other definitions for adoration that I've seen before include "praise" , "Deep love and respect" , "Honour" , "Great affection" , "Hero-worship" .)