#CBR12 Book 1: "Archangel's Viper" by Nalini Singh

Page count: 367 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

This is book 10 in an ongoing series, so really not the place to start. The first book in the series is Angels' Blood. This review will contain some spoilers for that book.

Holly Chang, who for a while renamed herself Sorrow, was the only survivor of the terrible carnage perpetrated when the archangel Uram went crazy and kidnapped her and all her friends and proceeded to torture and kill most of them. He forced Holly not only to drink his blood, but to watch the atrocities he visited on her friends. The archangel of New York, Raphael, challenge and defeated Uram in a battle above New York, his consort Elena becoming an angel in the process. Elena, a former Guild Hunter, also found and rescued Holly, who was forever changed by her ordeal, not just emotionally, but physically.

Not really a vampire, but certainly not entirely human either, Holly now has lightning reflexes, small fangs, can paralyse her victims with extremely potent venom and while she enjoys and still consumes human food, she also has to drink blood to not lose control. While she's worked to process her traumas, reconnected with her family and is working with the Tower to help the less fortunate in society (so she can feel useful, and the Tower can make sure she doesn't lose control, Holly still feels like she's being kept on too tight a leash, while also being terrified of the changes she's still experiencing inside. She doesn't dare tell anyone of the strange voice that seems to be speaking to her, for fear that she will be deemed crazy and put down for the safety of everyone.

The only other individual working for the Tower with any understanding of venomous toxins and bloodlust is Venom, one of Raphael's Seven, the ones closest to him and most trusted. Turned into a vampire in India by the archangel Neha after she discovered he seemed to be immune to snake venom, Venom is a wholly unique creature, a vampire with snake eyes, whose saliva is also highly venomous. Interestingly, the Tower scientists have concluded that Holly and Venom's toxins cancel each other out. While they are both extremely dangerous to most others, they are immune to one another. Hence Venom has been given special responsibility in Holly's training, and adores frustrating and teasing her every chance he gets. For the past few years, their weekly lessons have been by phone, but now Venom is back in New York.

While Holly finds Venom extremely annoying, she cannot deny that he, like all of Raphael's Seven, is also gorgeous and very attractive. If she's being totally honest with herself, he also seems like the only one who doesn't treat her like a victim or some volatile thing about to explode and that he does seem to have useful things to teach her. Venom and Holly have to spend a lot more time in each others' company once it becomes clear that someone has put a five million dollar bounty on Holly's head. She's to be taken alive, and it seems very likely that the reason she's to be abducted is because someone wants to to figure out exactly what surviving Uram did to change her physically. Venom is assigned as her bodyguard, and the two work together to find out who's hunting her.

During their search, it's clear that whatever alien thing is within Holly is trying to manifest in some way. She starts having acid green lines glowing on her chest, and the voice inside her is becoming more insistent. Holly has no choice but to confide in Venom and Dimitri, the head of Raphael's Seven, and they need to figure out if she's going to be overtaken by whatever bloodlust drove Uram crazy.

I finished this at around 2.30 am on January 1st 2020, meaning I can count it both as my last book of 2019 (anything finished before sleep belongs to the day before - them's the rules), but also don't feel too bad about reviewing it as my first entry in Cannonball 12. Based on what a scramble it was for me to reach the double in the final days of December, I'm not going to have the luxury to skip reviewing anything I read this year (I'm aiming for a single Cannonball, but hoping for a double).

The Guild Hunter books started out focusing on Elena Devereaux, a smart and fierce warrior who through extremely unusual circumstances became an angel (believed to be impossible) and fell in love with the archangel Raphael. Some of the books in the series focus on her and Raphael and the wider changes going on in the world and the complicated politics between the archangels. Other books in the series, such as Archangel's Blade, Archangel's Storm and Archangel's Enigma focus more one particular member of Raphael's Seven, and how they end up with the love of their life. There is also Archangel's Shadows, about Elena's fellow hunter Ashwini and how she gets her man. The quality of the various instalment vary, and how interested you are in the protagonists in question absolutely play into how effective the books end up being.

In the case of Holly and Venom, the romance very much takes the backseat to the twin mysteries of what exactly is happening to Holly and what the changes she's going through will mean, and figuring out who wants to kidnap her and why. Venom always seemed overly arrogant and smug to me, and as I find snakes kind of unnerving, he wasn't exactly one of the supporting characters that appealed to me all that much. Holly has appeared as a supporting characters in a few of the books, as she works through her horrible trauma and tires to reclaim her life.

Venom insists on calling her "Kitty", "Kitten" or "Hollyberry", all to get a rise out of her. Even when Holly repeatedly asks him not to, he keeps up this "fun" game, which got really tiresome to me. Good-natured ribbing is one thing, but continuing with patronising nicknames despite the express wishes of the other person in question is akin to bullying and a d*ck move. I seriously think he calls her by her actual name exactly once in the entire book. Another frustrated book reviewer on Goodreads claims that he calls her variations on kitty/kitten over ninety times over the course of the book. The really bad thing is that a few of the other supporting characters do it too, and he has the gall to be annoyed, because that's HIS thing. Urgh

For enemies to lovers to work, I need to be convinced that the initial antagonism and dislike stems in part from repressed feelings, which I really didn't get here. Venom seems to consider Holly more as a child than a grown woman in the early chapters, although he keeps having to re-check his assumptions. Holly finds Venom a pain in the ass, and considering the way he keeps patronising her and ignoring her wishes, that's not really surprising. Once Venom notices that Holly seems terrified of really using her new abilities, he starts pushing her and showing her that repressing will probably be more harmful in the long run than exploring her them in a controlled environment.

One of the things I really did like with the book was Holly's interactions with her family, who love her profusely no matter how different she is now, as well as with her new found family at the Tower. Venom's flashbacks back to his own family and how he ended up being turned into a vampire were also interesting, and I would have liked him a lot more if Singh hadn't insisted on him keeping up the "kitty"-thing throughout.

The next two books in the series (I'm really quite a ways behind, I used to read one of these a year) both seem to focus more on the bigger picture and Raphael and Elena again. I should probably get round to reading those at some point.

Judging a book by a cover: Oh heavens, does the cover model they've gotten to portray Venom look smug and self-satisfied and douchy on this. Which to be fair, seems pretty in character. I think the only think they should possibly have changed is the style of sunglasses, these don't really look like the wrap-around ones that Venom keeps being described as wearing.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 11: "Archangel's Heart" by Nalini Singh

Page count: 396 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

This is book 9 in a series. It's really not the place to start. If you want to join in at the beginning, start with Angels' Blood.

Two years have passed since the last book in the series, and Elena is slowly growing stronger, even though she's virtually a baby in angel terms. The Cascade seems to be on hold, and all the archangels are trying to investigate what exactly is going on in China in the murderous Lijuan's territory. Has she gone to ground, into (hopefully) centuries long sleep? Her generals claim she's still very much in power, but the amount of uncontrolled vampire activity in her lands seems to suggest otherwise.

Raphael and the other archangels are summoned to Morocco, to the legendary compound of Lumia, where an ancient and independent order of angels called the Luminata rule. When such a summons comes, no archangel can refuse. As his consort, Elena naturally comes as well, and they also bring the still emotionally vulnerable Aodhan with them as security. While the Cadre of archangels meet to discuss what to do about Lijuan and her territory, Elena and Aodhan investigate Lumia, and come to the conclusion that something is seriously wrong there. Strangely, it may have something to do with Elena's past, and truths she never suspected about her family.

I've been reading this series for a long time now. Unlike some fans, who seem to adore the Raphael and Elena-focused books, I tend to much prefer the ones that focus on other couples. Raphael and Elena have already found their HEA and while it's nice to check in with them and see that they're still incredibly devoted to one another, this book especially felt a bit insubstantial. It's a bridging book while Singh gets around to figuring out what's going to happen with the upcoming Cascade and its repercussions.

If you're looking for some sort of analysis of character development or the like, look elsewhere. There really isn't much. Raphael is still very protective. Elena is fierce. They adore each other. Everyone is still worried about Aodhan, without actually revealing what sort of horrors he lived through that traumatised him so. Oh yeah, and he of all the freakishly beautiful angels he is especially stunning, since he looks like he's covered in crushed diamonds (I'm pretty sure that would be more distracting to look at than pretty, but what do I know?) Raphael's mother has a voice that can spellbind mortals and angels if she feels like it. Hannah the angel consort is nice, Michaela is still a total beyotch. No one knows if she's been pregnant or not. 

Possibly because this book felt more filler than some others, I was once again struck by how incredibly, inhumanly attractive absolutely everyone in this world is. With so many freakishly attractive supernaturals existing around them, ordinary humans must have to wear extra strength sunglasses just to not be blinded by the gorgeousness of every angel, vampire or other supernatural creature they see. Seriously, no one appears to be ugly in this world, at least not appearance-wise. I'd love it for Singh to write a book about a plain-looking or slightly chubby supernatural soon. But no, it appears it's going to be the snake guy and the traumatised vampire attack victim.

Judging a book by its cover: As all of these books that feature Raphael and Elena, the cover has an illustration of Elena, with her distinctive multi-coloured wings, her long pale hair and her arsenal of weapons. This time, she's wearing a sparkly formal gown and looking murderous (which considering her discoveries in the book is not all that surprising. There's certainly no doubt to anyone seeing this cover that it's an urban/paranormal fantasy novel.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR7 Book 98: "Archangel's Enigma" by Nalini Singh

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars

This is book 8 in a series, not the place to start. There is far too much stuff in this book furthering the ongoing story arc for this to be an especially satisfying book to start the series with. Start at the beginning with Angels' Blood.

There are dark rumours that Lijuan, the Archangel of Death, is about to murder one of the sleeping Ancients (powerful archangels who have gone to ground to sleep for millennia so as to stave off insanity). As this goes against everything angelkind considers holy, Raphael sends one of his trusted Seven, the mysterious Naasir, his most skilled tracker, to find the sleeping place of Alexander. Naasir has decided that so many others in his family have found happiness with their mates, he too wants one. He's been searching for seven months, with no luck, but will postpone his quest for his mate to aid his archangel.

Andromeda is a young angelic scholar, fifteen days away from coming of age (when she turns 400). The granddaughter of the archangel Charismemnon, dealer of poisons, disease, pain and debauchery, Andromeda fled his court and has been working to prove herself at the Refuge, devoted to learning, record keeping and all manner of other scholarly arts so despised by the kin at her grandfather's court. She knows that on her birthday, she has to return, bound to serve there for five hundred years, a service she dreads with every fibre of her being. Because her specialised field of study is the burial places of the Ancients, Andromeda is asked to help Naasir locate Alexander. At first she is startled by his strange manner and mysterious origins, but it doesn't take long before they form a bond - making the thought of five hundred years away from him seem even more unbearable to Andromeda.

 It's clear that while working on furthering the plot of the ongoing arc of these books, the building war between Raphael and Lijuan, the dangers of the ongoing Cascade, the changes and threats to angel-, vampire- and humankind, Nalini Singh is also determined to have fun, playing around with different sub-genres. Archangel's Shadows was mostly a police procedural, this is an adventure novel, with a quest and a chase against time at its centre. Andromeda and Naasir are the unlikely pair who have to join forces, solve the puzzles and finish the quest before their rivals catch up to them. Yet there is also the complication of Andromeda's family obligations and the service she's expected to offer at her grandfather's court. The book doesn't end when the quest is complete, there is more to solve before the two lovers can have their HEA.

Naasir's origins have always been a mystery. He is clearly unique, in that he appears to be both a vampire, yet not. He has silver eyes and hair and an unparallelled ability to track. He can sprout claws, seems to occasionally purr and in previous books, there have been hints that he may sport stripes in the right light. He is both a ferociously efficient hunter and almost childlike in his manner. His found family means everything to him, and those close to him hold him in great affection. In this book, his brutal and heart-breaking origins are revealed, and it's clear why there is only one of him. I have always liked Naasir as a supporting character in the previous books, and he was a wonderful hero in this.

Born into the court of the Archangel of plague and pestilence, with parents who went out of their way to break any sexual, physical or moral taboo, Andromeda had enough and fled while she was still considered too young to take care of herself. Lying about her obligations to her family, she found a new home in the archives of the Refuge, immersing herself in ancient texts and languages, doing her very best to forget the day when she has to return. Yet knowing she can't be weak, she's been training herself in martial arts and swordplay, so she can defend herself when she finally has to return. Because of the debauched surroundings she grew up in, Andromeda has sworn a vow of celibacy, only to be broken if she is presented with an ancient Grimoire, believed to have been lost forever. Before she meets Naasir, Andromeda never had cause to regret her vow for a second.

Naasir initially doubts that Andi, as he calls her, can be his mate. She appears soft and bookish and no mate of his would swear a vow of celibacy. He quickly discovers that the angel has secrets, however, and that there is much more to her than he first expected. As the two grow closer, and their attraction to each other increases, Andromeda declares herself willing to break her vow for Naasir. He refuses to let her, because he's learned that it is imperative to keep one's promises, especially to oneself and swears he will track down her stupid Grimoire, and afterwards, she will let him do whatever he pleases. She willingly agrees, hoping that he can fulfil his promise before she has to start her forced servitude in her grandfather's court and give him up for centuries.


For all the darkness that is spreading in the the universe of these books, and for all the pain in both Naasir and Andromeda's past, their courtship is a playful one and this book was so much fun. It's by far my favourite of the Guild Hunter books since probably the second book in the series. I hope that some of the lightness can continue in future books, even as the overall story takes a more serious turn.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 96: "Archangel's Shadows" by Nalini Singh

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

This is book 7 in an ongoing series, and as such, not the place to start reading. This review will contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, because it's impossible not to mention some of the things that have happened before this book began. The first book in the series is Angels' Blood and I highly recommend it.

After the devestating attacks on New York, archangel Raphael and his consort Elena are trying to re-group, rebuild and calm the population. When a dessicated body is found, it looks like it was killed in a way reminiscent of how Lijuan, the insane archangel who tried to destroy New York, Raphael and his people, would drain her victims completely of life force to gain strength. Releasing the news of the body would only cause panic, so the death needs to be investigated with subtlety and stealth. Ashwini, one of Elena's old Guild Hunter colleagues is recovering from a near-fatal cut she sustained during the battle and is eager and willing to do some investigating. Like all Guild Hunters, Ashwini is a skilled tracker and can handle herself in a fight. She's also gifted and sometimes haunted with the ability to sense the secrets, memories and experiences of those she touches, often suffering terrible nightmares after just brushing against someone by accident. With older immortals, like some of the angels or vampires in the city, she doesn't even need to touch, their mere presence is enough to trigger her visions.

One of the few people who doesn't affect her in such a way is Janvier, the centuries old Cajun vampire who has sometimes been her target, but more often her ally. He has wanted Ashwini since the first time he saw her, and as the years have passed and they have sparred, flirted and co-operated more frequently, his feelings for her have only grown. She keeps him at a distance, but after she nearly died in the battle for New York, Janvier is determined to never leave her side. He knows that there are secrets in her past that make her reluctant to take their relationship to the next level, but having lived for centuries, he's not averse to waiting a while for her to make up her mind. Now they need to track down the monster who slowly tortured and murdered a young woman, making sure her killer doesn't hurt anyone else.

Unlike in most of the books in this series, Ashwini and Janvier already know each other well by the start of the book. Their first encounter involved Ashwini having to hunt down the vampire, who had gone rogue from his angel master and him leading her on a merry chase through the bayou of Louisiana. Over the course of the series, Janvier has gone to work for Raphael, the archangel of New York and he and Ashwini are allies rather than antagonists. There has always been strong attraction and sexual tension between them, but due to her abilities, Ashwini keeps herself from getting too close to anyone. While Janvier is one of the individuals she can be around, and who seems to actually keep her grounded, she can't bring herself to actually initiate a relationship with him, as there are secrets in her past that make it impossible for her to commit to anyone.

Janvier loves Ashwini and is none too happy that she nearly died recently. He wants to spend the rest of his immortal life with her, but due to the effect of older immortals on her abilities, Ashwini hates the idea of being turned into a vampire. She's worried it will amplify her powers, causing her to go insane from the sensory input. So she keeps flirting with Janvier, but taking it no further. Her near-death experience and the tender care that her Cajun took of her while she was recovering makes her want to tell him the full truth about why they can't be toghether. She's just terrified that the truth will drive him away forever.

While a lot of the previous books in the series (especially the ones focused primarily on Raphael and Elena) have driven the story arc forward, this is a quieter book, with a murder investigation in its centre. While trying to negotiate the new status of their relationship, Janvier and Ashwini try to identify the withered husk of a woman they found in a dumpster, so they can narrow down the suspects and discover who murdered her. Because the way she was killed is so similar to Lijuan's power, the Tower is very determined to track the guilty party quickly. As they keep investigating, it seems the murder of the young woman might be connected to a strange new drug that causes uncontrollable blood lust among the vampires in the city. All signs point to someone further trying to destabilize Raphael's territory, making his subjects feel unsafe.

There have been some hit and miss books in the series, but the last few, this included, I have very much enjoyed. I liked that Ash and her Cajun already knew each other well and that they just needed to figure out a way to really be together, without any of the drama of falling in love and acknowledging their new feelings. There is a big, established supporting cast in these books, including Raphael and Elena, and the vampires and angels that make up Raphael's most loyal followers, the Seven. Now several of them have spouses of their own, and it's clear that Naasir, the most feral and mysterious of all of them is ready to find a special someone of his own. I like that Elena is so determined to discover what he is, which seems to be some sort of cat shapeshifter/vamprire hybrid. I'm very much looking forward to discovering the truth behind his origins and who his intended turns out to be.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR6 Book 5: "Archangel's Legion" by Nalini Singh

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 3 stars

This is book 6 in the series, and as such, not the best place to start reading. If you're really interested in the series, start at the beginning with Angels' Blood.

During a terrifying five minute time period, birds and angels start plummeting from the sky, leaving almost half of the archangel Raphael's forces incapacitated. Shortly after, his consort, the Guild Hunter Elena, discovers a mysterious and highly infectious disease that impossibly enough only targets vampires. All over the world, other archangels are developing new and terrifying powers that could be used for further warfare, while Raphael so far seems only to be developing healing abilities. Is it his relationship with Elena that's keeping him from becoming more powerful?

Elena and Raphael have to discover which of the other archangel or angels are causing the attacks, and figure out a way to stop them before New York is lost.

As well as dealing with the external threats to her and Raphael's home city, Elena is trying to force her father to accept that her younger half-sister Eve is also hunter born (basically driven by an urge to fight supernatural creatures and track down vampires), and let her have the proper training. Her father is threatening to have the girl sent away to Europe to keep her safe, and in their heated arguments, Elena discovers secrets about her family she never suspected. She's also trying to figure out how to properly be the consort to an archangel, while many of the archangels consider her a mere plaything for Raphael.

I very much enjoyed the early books in this series, while some of the later ones, which have focused on members of Raphael's Seven, his core advisers and lieutenants. In this, the focus is wholly back on Elena, the vampire hunter turned angel and her immortal and immensely powerful archangel. There are a lot of tensions, and war seems inevitable. There are various interesting developments over the course of the book, suggesting changes to come. I'll probably keep reading the series, but I'm no longer waiting impatiently for each new release.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

CBR3 Book 75: "Archangel's Blade" by Nalini Singh

Publisher: Berkley
Page count: 336 pages
Rating: 3 stars
Date begun: September 12th, 2011
Date finished: September 14th, 2011

This is the fourth novel in the Guild Hunter series, but can actually be read fairly independently from the other three. Still, for a more comprehensive understanding of the backstory of some of the characters, and a richer understanding of the world the story is set in, you may want to check out the three previous books, as well.

Dmitri is a vampire, and has been for nearly a thousand years. He's the archangel Raphael's right hand man, and controls the group of seven who guard and assist him. When the severed head of a newly turned vampire shows up with a mysterious, but distinctive tattoo, Dmitri knows that there is more to the case than just a simple scuffle. He needs help from the Guild of Vampire Hunters to decipher the symbols of the tattoo, however, and is intrigued at who they send to help him.

While a rogue archangel went crazy in New York, Honor St. Nicholas was kidnapped by a bunch of vampires and kept captive for months while they fed on her, tortured her and sexually assaulted her. She nearly died, but was saved by her colleagues in the Hunter's Guild, and has slowly been trying to build herself up again. Still scarred, both physically and mentally, she's not sure she's ready for an active assignment, but as one of the Guild's foremost experts on ancient texts and languages, she is the person Dmitri needs to identify the mysterious tattoo. Before her accident, Honor had a strange obsession with the powerful vampire, trying to find out as much as she could about him. Now she has to work closely with him, while trying to get over her fear of vampires.

Romances where the heroine is getting over a trauma are difficult. It's clear that at some point, the heroine needs to heal and get stronger, better and confident again, or there is no real chance of a Happy Ever After. Yet, hurry that recovery along too fast, and the story becomes unbelievable. Now, I'm not saying that I'm not willing to suspend my disbelief a bit when it comes to romance, far too many stories the couple fall madly and passionately in love and decide they want to spend the rest of their lives together in less time many would take to choose a room mate or select a new home, and because I'm entertained, and the story is well written, I'm willing to take that with a grain of salt. Here, however, quite a lot is made of the horrors that Honor experienced. She really did go through hell. She has trouble trusting anyone, even her closest friends. Yet a couple of meetings with Dmitri, and she's pretty much good as new, if not better than before. The main problem is that the story is set over too short a period of time. Had the story spanned several months, preferably longer, then yes, I might have been convinced that Dmitri could draw Honor out of her traumatized shell, and made her heal and realize that she was still strong and capable and that not all vampires and/or men were untrustworthy. This just went too fast.

There is also a subplot concerning Dmitri's long dead wife and family, and how remembering them is creating difficulties with regards to his attraction for Honor. I think the way Singh resolved this was a bit too "having your cake and eating it too", which felt like a bit of a cop out. I would have liked to see her be braver about the resolution of the romance, which would have made the ending feel stronger and more satisfying. All in all, this was an entertaining book, but clearly the weakest of the four Guild Hunter novels so far. I hope the next one is better.

CBR3 Book 7: "Archangel's Consort" by Nalini Singh

Publisher: Berkley
Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars
Date begun: January 28th, 2011
Date finished: January 29th, 2011

First of all, there are almost certainly what some people would call spoilers for the first two books in the Guild Hunter series in this review, so don't read it if you're sensitive about that sort of thing and haven't read either of the two first ones already. Secondly, for the slow kids at the back - this is the THIRD book in a series, and it wouldn't make much sense to someone who hasn't read the other two - so if you're curious, go start with Angels' Blood, it's dead good, I promise.

There are natural disasters occurring all over the world - earth quakes, flash floods, tsunamis, volcano eruptions, monsoons, freak cold spells, you name it. There are also incidents of vampires breaking free of the control of their angel masters and going on murderous rampages, sometimes even teaming up in large groups. Angels and Guild organized vampire hunters have their hands full trying to stop the murderous vamps and contain the damages, while trying to prevent further bloodshed and carnage. All of these things are portents that one of the most powerful supernatural beings in the world is waking from its millennia-long slumber.

Elena Deveraux, Guild Hunter turned angel, is returning to New York for the first time since her remarkable transformation. She and Raphael (Archangel of New York and her lover) are aware that despite the many other things going on, there will be a media frenzy, as Elena is the only created angel in history. Elena worries most of all about the reaction of her father, who coldly threw her out of his home when he found out she was a Hunter. In addition, she's plagued by the recurring nightmares of her two older sisters' brutal murder and her mother's subsequent suicide. Only her growing feelings and increasingly stronger bond with Raphael keeps her from breaking down.

Elena is called to the prestigious boarding school upstate where her two younger half-sisters attend. One of the out of control vampires has broken in and killed two girls, one of them the best friend of Elena's sister Evelyn. Shortly after, Elena's summoned to her father's home and discovers that her father's callous treatment of her years earlier was massively hypocritical, as vampire hunting clearly runs in the Deveraux bloodline, and unlike Elena, her half-sisters have a mother around to stand up for them and protect them.

Several of the Archangels around the world are behaving in erratic and unexpected ways, influenced by the awakening of the sleeping Ancient. Raphael starts having visions which suggest that the Ancient is his own mother, the oldest known Archangel, who was completely insane when she went into her hibernation, but who also left Raphael with every bone in his body and wings broken on a field in the middle of nowhere the last time he tried to stop her from causing massive destruction. The damages she's causing unconsciously when still rousing suggests that her power still vastly surpasses that on any other living Archangel, and if she's still insane when she fully wakes up, Raphael may have no other choice but to try to kill her again, to prevent her from destroying the world...

Nalini Singh's Guild Hunter series is very enjoyable, and the growing closeness and bond between Elena and Raphael makes the core romance of the series interesting rather than sappy. Because they are both strong personalities, not used to compromising, they rarely agree even though they love each other passionately. Raphael is overprotective of his fragile, newly immortal consort, and Elena is pissed off that he won't let her go anywhere without a bodyguard. The reaction of her chosen family in the Guild to her miraculous change is nice, and Singh has created a very colourful (literally - I don't think I've come across anyone in this world whose not at least bi-racial, with a wide range of skin, hair and eye colours) cast of supporting characters, both in the Guild and among Raphael's most trusted advisers, a mix of angels and very strong vampires.

There is a build-up of tension all throughout the story, with not just one, but two necessary confrontations needing to be resolved towards the end. I'm not sure I'm entirely satisfied at the conclusion Singh gave this book, she leaves a few too many plot strands dangling in thin air for my taste, and there are some things that just don't get a satisfactory explanation. There are also seeds planted for future stories, with Raphael suggesting that Elena's mother was more than just a normal human woman, and as the book was a quick and enjoyable read, I will absolutely be continuing with the series.

CBR2 Book 26: "Archangel's Kiss" by Nalini Singh

Publisher: Berkley
Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: February 3rd, 2010
Date finished: February 5th, 2010

WARNING! REVIEW AND EVEN BOOK COVER CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST GUILD HUNTER NOVEL!
Elena Deveraux is a Guild Hunter, and hunts vampires. Not like Buffy, or Anita Blake. In the complex world created by Nalini Singh, angels and archangels rule all significant cities in the world and have the ability to create vampires, who are then under contract with said angel for a specified amount of time in return for their immortality. A lot of vampires try to escape their contract, and its Elena and her fellow Guild Hunters' job to track these vampires down and return them to their angel masters.
At the beginning of Archangel's Kiss Elena has just woken up from a year in a coma, and to say that she has changed is an understatement. After a battle to the death with a fellow archangel gone horribly evil, Elena's lover Raphael, the archangel and ruler of New York, gained the once in an angel's eternal lifetime's ability to create ambrosia. He changed Elena into an angel to prevent her from dying. After a year in the healing coma, she is now an immortal and has glorious angel wings, but is still extremely weak, and needs to gain strength and learn how to master the art of flying much faster than Raphael would prefer. However, the most ancient of the archangels, Lijuan, who has gained the power to raise and control the dead, has invited them to a ball in Beijing in three months' time, and seems extremely interested in meeting and playing with Raphael's mate.
To complicate matters further, there are clearly others who have it in for Elena as well. One of Raphael's vampires is found beaten to near death, and there is a clear message that the perpetrator wants Elena dead. When an angel child disappears, the situation quickly escalates. After waking up from the coma, as well as having to learn how to fight efficiently with her new wings, build up her strength and get used to her new status as an immortal, Elena seems unable to control the flashbacks to her childhood, when she and her two older sisters were brutally tortured and tormented by a sadistic vampire. That Lijuan is aware of this past and clearly won't hesitate to use the horrific death of her two sisters to get to her, does bode well for Elena's visit to Beijing.
I discovered Nalini Singh's first Guild Hunter novel last year, and have been eagerly awaiting Archangel's Kiss for months' now. I'm so happy that the book didn't disappoint. The world that Singh has created in these books is very well realized and you get all the information you need portioned out without ever feeling as if there are just huge chunks of exposition thrown at you. Elena is a very strong and independent heroine, and the relationship with Raphael which began in Angels' Blood, continues to develop and as the book is not first person POV, you get insight into both sides of the relationship in a very satisfying way. Raphael is extremely powerful, and quite terrifying at times, but Elena is determined to not just become a pet or a plaything and stands her ground against him. Raphael is concerned that his love for Elena might be seen as a weakness by others, and is determined that nothing and no one should be able to use her against him, while also making it clear that no one harms her again.

I really love these books, both the paranormal and romance side of the books are great, and I will probably need to reread both books soon. I am also tempted to check out Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling series, to see if they are as compelling and sexy as the Guild Hunter books.