'Archangel's Blade' Guild Hunter #4 by Nalini Singh

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

The severed head marked by a distinctive tattoo on its cheek should have been a Guild case, but dark instincts honed over hundreds of years of life compel the vampire Dmitri to take control. There is something twisted about this death, something that whispers of centuries long past...but Dmitri's need to discover the truth is nothing to the vicious strength of his response to the hunter assigned to decipher the tattoo.

Savaged in a brutal attack that almost killed her, Honor is nowhere near ready to come face to face with the seductive vampire who is an archangel's right hand and who wears his cruelty as boldly as his lethal sensuality...the same vampire who has been her secret obsession since the day she was old enough to understand the inexplicable, violent emotions he aroused in her.

As desire turns into a dangerous compulsion that might destroy them both, it becomes clear the past will not stay buried. Something is hunting and it will not stop until it brings a blood-soaked nightmare to life once more...

Dmitri is nearly a thousand years old. In that time he has lived a life of sublime love, irrepressible heartache and vicious rage. Now, he is a vampire warrior. Working for the powerful Archangel Raphael, it is Dmitri’s job to keep his fellow vampires in line, and sometimes even the angels . . .

Honor is a guild hunter and broken woman. A few months ago she was captured and tortured by vampires as a part of an ‘invitation only’ game. When the Guild needs her on a new case, Honor has to decide if she wants to start rebuilding her life, or keep to the shadows. It doesn’t help that her contact on the case is the vampire Dmitri, the most cold-blooded and famous of all Raphael’s vampiric minions.

But there is something about Dmitri. A darkness in him that Honor is both drawn to, and saddened by. . .

‘Archangel’s Blade’ is the fourth book in Nalini Singh’s ‘Guild Hunter’ series. The first three books concentrated on the romance between guild hunter, Elena, and her Archangel lover, Raphael. But with ‘Blade’ we read the first departure from the usual characters. ‘Blade’ is the first, but not the last, book that will concentrate on some of the secondary characters from the series.

Dmitri was an intriguing character from the get-go. He had a few run-ins with Elena in the first three books, and definitely read as a dangerous man, not to be messed with. Well, in ‘Blade’ Dmitri loses none of his edge. He is still terrifying with undercurrents of crazy . . . he has a reputation for enjoying pain and pleasure with his (many) women, and amongst his own kind he has an even more lethal reputation for being Raphael’s unrepentant warrior. I was quite happy to read Dmitri’s vicious streak has been kept intact in this book – rather than watered down for purposes of romance.

And, make no mistake, Dmitri is mean. Although in ‘Blade’ he is being drawn and mesmerized by the broken but beautiful Honor, he is still an awful man with a deadly reputation he is scarily proud of. As much as he wants Honor in his bed, and although he likes pain with his pleasure, he doesn’t want her scared with him. So he pushes her. He pushes her to get over her fear and find her anger – by promising to hunt down all the vampires who violated her, and make them suffer . . . slowly.

Honor was a fantastic heroine. She is most certainly damaged. It’s in every aspect of her character – from her skittishness in vamp clubs to her quick draw with a knife when Dmitri gets too close. But we slowly read her rebuilding – a catharsis through violence. However disturbing it may be, reading Honor and Dmitri hunt down her abusers and bond over their torture, it is definitely interesting to track her slow progress back to the strong woman she obviously once was.

As frightening as Dmitri is in this book (and he is frightening – to the point where I thought he was lovely and sexy, but a little too intensely dark and violent for my tastes) – his story is also a slow unraveling of his past. Dmitri has a story about how he became a vampire, and it’s a sad one. He lost everything when his mortality was ripped away and immortality thrust upon him. Throughout the book we read bits and glimpses of Dmitri’s memories of the woman he loved . . .

“Have you never had a woman create such a chink in your armor?” One of Illium’s feathers fell toward the ground but was whipped away and over the water before it could touch the unforgiving concrete. “In all the years I’ve known you, never have you had a lover on whom you placed a true claim.”
“I will watch the roads for you, Dmitri.”
Illium was just over five hundred years old to Dmitri’s near thousand. He didn’t know anything of what had gone on before—Raphael alone knew. “No,” Dmitri said and it was a lie he told with centuries of expertise. “Weakness gets a man killed.”

I adore Nalini Singh’s ‘Guild Hunter’ series. Her twisting and tantalizing of Angel mythology is interesting in itself – but it’s characters like Dmitri and Honor who make the series truly addictive. These characters with deadly pasts who do dastardly deeds for their Archangel overlords. I love it! ‘Archangel’s Blade’ is another darkly seductive installment in this wonderful series, and although the hero was a little too bitter for my liking, I still enjoyed the story of a woman recapturing her bravery at the tip of a blade. Wonderful.

4/5

'Archangel's Blade' will be released in Australia on October 4th 2011

'Archangels' Consort' Guild Hunter #3 by Nalini SINGH

Received from the publisher

From the BLURB:

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux and her lover, the lethally beautiful archangel Raphael, have returned home to New York only to face an uncompromising new evil…

A vampire has attacked a girls’ school—the assault one of sheer, vicious madness—and it is only the first act. Rampant bloodlust takes vampire after vampire, threatening to make the streets run with blood. Then Raphael himself begins to show signs of an uncontrolled rage, as inexplicable storms darken the city skyline and the earth itself shudders. The omens are suddenly terrifyingly clear.

An ancient and malevolent immortal is rising. The violent winds whisper her name: Caliane. She has returned to reclaim her son, Raphael. Only one thing stands in her way: Elena, the consort who must be destroyed…

The world is on edge. Vampires are turning feral and wild storms are brewing. Earthquakes, rising tides and blood-lust vampires are wreaking havoc on cities with no logical explanation . . . except one: an Ancient is awakening.

When an Archangel wearies of humanity and immortality, they go into a deep sleep for years on end. Occasionally they awaken to gauge their surroundings and the changing times, but their slumbers are often millennia long. Until now. One Ancient is awakening, and it just so happens to be Raphael’s mother.

Caliane went to slumber after she lost her mind, and her mate, to madness. So diseased and weary was Caliane’s immortal mind that she almost killed her son, Raphael, before going to ground and into deep sleep.

Now Caliane is awakening, and she is not happy with Raphael’s choice of consort, Elena Deveraux. Elena may be an anomaly as the first made angel in recent memory, but Caliane expected better for her impossibly powerful Archangel son. And when mother isn’t happy, the world knows about it.

This third book reaches a spectacular zenith in Nalini Singh’s ‘Guild Hunter’ series. Raphael and Elena’s past haunts and childhood nightmares are given form and flesh to have a huge impact on their new-found relationship. Raphael was almost killed by his disturbed Archangel mother, only to have her reawaken just when Raphael has discovered new peace with Elena.

Likewise, Elena has been estranged from her family since she was a teenager, but in ‘Consort’ she is unwittingly thrown back into the family circle when some disturbing news surfaces.

Raphael and Elena have already overcome so much – including death and grandiose Archangel’s. In ‘Consort’ they face their biggest threat – their family.

Caliane is the ‘bad guy’ in this book, and the fact that she is also Raphael’s mother is pure genius on Nalini Singh’s part. Caliane is especially frightening because, for a lot of the book, she is in hiding. While she sleeps she wreaks havoc on the world’s equilibrium and incites vampires to blood-lust . . . yet she is a formless villain, tucked away somewhere and slowly coming to wakefulness. She is a true enigma, made all the more terrifying for her unpredictability.

“There is a legend,” Raphael murmured, his wings flaring out as he tugged her into the curve of his body – as if he would protect her. “That mountains will shake and rivers overflow, while ice creeps across the world and fields drown in rain.” He looked down at her, his eyes that impossible, inhuman chrome blue. “All this will come to pass. . . when an Ancient awakens.”

The chill in his tone raised every hair on her body.

A big focus of this book is on Raphael and Elena’s ghosts. Those memories and pent-up emotions that have been haunting them since childhood are suddenly unleashed – with the appearance of Caliane for Raphael, and a family secret for Elena. ‘Consort’ definitely feels like a book of change for these two – as they shake off the shackles of their nightmares and confront their fears. This is also a book in which their relationship reaches new heights. Elena and Raphael trust each other implicitly, and love unconditionally . . . and because of that, they are not alone in battling their demons.

A shudder passed through him, his hands flexing on her hips as he tugged her to his body. “You hold me to the earth, Elena.”

Able to feel the heated strength of him against her abdomen, she nipped at his lower lip with her teeth, relief a whisper of rain against her senses. “Don’t you forget it.” Moving her hand down to play over the amber he wore on the ring finger of his left hand, she used those same teeth on his jaw. “You belong to me, Archangel. And I look after what’s mine.”

Yes, there’s still a lot of sex and sensuality between Raphael and his true love, Elena. But the real intimacy is in how far these two have come since ‘Angels Blood’ – now they are at a place in their relationship where they can reveal their innermost fears.

As Raphael and Elena reach a new pinnacle in their relationship, Nalini Singh seems to be refocusing on new stories in the ‘Guild Hunter’ series. A big focus in ‘Consort’ is on Raphael’s ‘Seven’. These are seven angels and vampires who form Raphael’s most intimate and trusted circle. These cast of secondary characters have appeared in previous books, but in ‘Consort’ it feels as though Singh is getting ready to tell their stories.

There’s the blue angel, Illium, who loved and lost a human woman many hundreds of years ago. Raphael’s spymaster, Jason, who lives only to serve and has a past of unparalleled horror. Venom, the vampire with snake eyes and a penchant for violence. The brutish Galen, who loves an angel who cannot fly. Aodhan who has a history of brutal violence that still haunts him. And Dmitri – Raphael’s right-hand-man, an old vampire who was turned against his will and betrayed by a female angel.

And it comes as no surprise when a quick blog search reveals the fourth book in Singh’s series will be a departure from Elena and Raphael. ‘Archangels’ Blade’ will have a September 2011 release, and will be Dmitri’s book. As much as I love them, I'm not overly concerned that ‘Blade’ may only feature Elena and Raphael as secondary characters. Dmitri (and all of Raphael’s Seven) is interesting enough, and Singh has peppered ‘Consort’ with enough back-story intrigue, that I am quite excited to read their stories.

Nalini Singh’s ‘Guild Hunter’ series is a sensual delight. The romance between a centuries-old Archangel and his once human (now angel) consort is one of lush romance and exhilarating action. Singh’s series has gone from strength to strength, and in ‘Consort’ it feels like her main couple have reached enough of a satisfying romantic pinnacle that the series can now turn a focus towards the equally fascinating characters who have lurked on the sidelines. . . I say, bring it on!

5/5

'Archangels' Kiss' Guild Hunter #2 by Nalini SINGH

From the BLURB:

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux wakes from a year-long coma to find that she has become an angel-and that her lover, the stunningly dangerous archangel Raphael, likes having her under his control. But almost immediately, Raphael must ready Elena for a flight to Beijing, to attend a ball thrown by the archangel Lijuan. Ancient and without conscience, Lijuan's power lies with the dead. And she has organized the most perfect and most vicious of welcomes for Elena...

This is the second book in Nalini Singh’s ‘Guild Hunter’ paranormal series.

Be warned – there was a HUGE twist at the end of ‘Angels’ Blood’ and no way to write a spoiler around it in this review. . .

'Angels' Blood' SPOILERS AHEAD

Elena Deveraux was a successful Guild Hunter. One year ago she was on the hunt for a maddened Archangel, and almost lost her life in a fight against him. Now, waking from a year-long coma Elena finds herself a made angel. Thanks to her lover and Archangel, Raphael, Elena’s life was spared and made immortal. Now she has wicked black wings, longevity and the interest of every Archangel in the world.

Elena is the first angel to be made (not born) in recent memory. She is an anomaly and has drawn the interest of the oldest and most dangerous Archangel, Lijuan. Elena and her lover, Raphael, have only just found each other, and sacrificed a lot to stay together. Now, they must fight to keep their love safe.

I am in love with Nalini Singh’s ‘Guild Hunter’ series. One of my favourite things about the series is the romance between Raphael and Elena. If you like Jeaniene Frost’s ‘Night Huntress’ books, then ‘Guild Hunter’ is for you. Elena and Raphael found each other in first book ‘Angels’ Blood’, and now the ‘will they or won’t they’ is over. As Raphael repeatedly states, he and Elena are going to be together forever. They are each other’s soul mates, now found, never to be parted. I love a good romantic tension as much as the next person (hello Kate and Curran!) but there’s something equally satisfying about a series HEA couple getting their ‘ever after’ from the get-go.

“Yes,” he whispered against her mouth. “I think you’ll intrigue me through eternity.”

Now, a big focus of the series is how Raphael and Elena adapt to each other. Elena is still suffering the scars of a haunted childhood, and has never given love or intimacy easily. Raphael is a hundreds-year old Archangel who thought his heart hardened. . . Now, these two misfits have to figure out how they fit together. There’s no doubt that they love each other, but it’s a matter of figuring out the nuts and bolts of their relationship.

I love how Singh combines the sex and sensuality of Elena and Raphael’s relationship with the harder side of being together. Yes, theirs is a ‘happily ever after’, but Singh is illustrating how they have to work for the ‘happily’. It’s especially heart-warming to read Raphael learning about trust and honesty with his once-human Elena.

“Blades,” he whispered, “and sheaths go together. And your sheath will only ever hold my blade.”

It took her a second – desire had fogged up her mind. Her face flamed. “Raphael, that’s –” She shook her head, unable to find the words.

“Fighting is not sexual.”

“Oh?” Eyes full of sea storms, violent and wild and exhilarating.

The action and drama of this book is fantastic. Lijuan is a wicked villain. Not only is she a mightily powerful Archangel evolved beyond caring about petty things like humanity, Lijuan is also fascinated by death. Lijuan raises the dead, and it has been rumoured that she takes them to her bed too. Her scenes are chilling for their subtlety – Lijuan’s double talk and the spymaster rumours that leak to Raphael about her goings on.

Singh’s angel mythology keeps getting better and better, mostly because it’s entirely Singh’s own. Forget cherubs and the Bible – Singh is recreating angels. These winged characters are evil and sensual - conniving and political, and completely fascinating. I love that Singh is using the bare bones of the angel mythology to create a whole new breed of supernatural.

Nalini Singh’s ‘Guild Hunter’ series is phenomenal. Everything about it is utterly unique – from the firmly established coupling to the entirely new angel mythology. I am completely in love with this series.

5/5

'Angels' Blood' Guild Hunter #1 by Nalini SINGH

From the BLURB:

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux knows she's the best - but she doesn't know if she's good enough for this job. Hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that no mortal wants his attention, only one thing is clear - failure is not an option...even if the task she's been set is impossible.

Because this time, it's not a wayward vamp she has to track. It's an archangel gone bad.

The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other...and pull her to the razor's edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn't destroy her, succumbing to Raphael's seductive touch just may. Because when archangels play, mortals break...

‘Angels’ Blood’ is the first book in Nalini Singh’s paranormal ‘Guild Hunter’ series.

‘Angels’ Blood’ came out in 2009 and has been sitting on my shelf all this time. I don’t know why. I read plenty of enticing reviews of the first two books in the series, and I enjoy Singh’s ‘Psy-Changeling’ series (if only Hawke’s book would hurry the heck up!). But for some reason I stalled in reading her Guild Hunter series.

But then the kind people over at Hachette Australia gave me an advanced copy of ‘Archangels’ Consort’ and it was the final kick in the pants I needed to get stuck into this series. And it’s about bloody time!

Elena Deveraux is good at her job. She may be single, estranged from her family and overly invested in turning her apartment into a hermit’s haven . . . but she at least excels in her line of work. Vampire hunting. Elena tracks the fanged felons and returns them to their rightful owners, the Archangels. For in this world, Angels rule. Countries are divided by the Cadre of Ten – ten Archangels to rule over each country and maintain peace and order, via their iron fist. But when one of the European Archangel’s goes on a killing rampage, Elena is inexplicably called in to help.

Archangel Raphael insists that Elena help in tracking the crazed Archangel, Uram. But Elena is a vampire hunter – and only an Archangel can kill an Archangel. Elena doesn’t know what help she will be in stopping Uram’s maddening rampage, especially when she seems helpless against Raphael’s intoxicating danger. . .

I have to admit, I initially rolled my eyes at this being ‘another angel novel’. . . But Singh is writing Angels like you’ve never read them before. Her angels are base and lustful creatures – inhumanly beautiful and proud of it, these angels wear cat-suit outfits and take human lovers when it pleases them. These are angels who make and mingle with vampires – a sensual race who treat humans like amusing playthings. These are a completely new breed of angels – ones who have human faults and lusts, but are above reproach for their wing-span and impressive powers (invisibility and mind control among them). Singh’s angels have houses in New York and keep human servants. . . Really, these angels have little to no connection to their biblical roots whatsoever. And that is one of the many clever tricks that Nalini Singh writes in ‘Angels’ Blood’.

Conspicuously missing from Singh’s world-building of the Guild Hunter universe is talk about God and religion in relation to the angels. Sure, characters throw the words around – heaven and hell – but Singh never goes into any explicit detail about the inner religious workings of the Cadre of Ten. It even seems as though the Archangels are the highest order – with no God above, commanding them. Raphael himself has a place in the Bible as we know it – Saint Raphael the Archangel – but he bears little resemblance to his healing role in ‘Angels’ Blood’. I kept waiting for the obligatory filler-information about the angel’s background and connection to God. But it never came. Perhaps because Singh’s angels bear so little resemblance to their benevolent good book characters. And there’s no mention of the most famous (fallen) angel of all, Lucifer.

I was quite impressed by how Singh completely departed from the religious connotations of angels. She has really made them her own; a new breed of supernatural beings to be dissected and imagined. Impressive, to say the least. Admittedly when you mention ‘angels’ a whole plethora of images and references bombard the mind – and it is hard, at first, to distance yourself from those holy relics when reading Singh’s book. But at some point you just have to accept that Singh is using the bare bones of the angel characters to build a whole new mythology.

And even if you are clinging to the common conception of angels, the character of Raphael and his relationship with Elena will soon banish such connotations. Raphael is lust personified, and erotic danger. He is a frightening being, powerful and old beyond comprehension. Elena is equal parts terrified and drawn to him – and it makes for a spicy and complicated romance.

Her face shifted, becoming less and less of this world, a caricature of angelic features, paper-thin skin over bone glowing from within. “There are some humans – one among half a billion perhaps – who make us something other than what we are. The barriers fall, the fires ignite, and the minds merge.”

He stayed absolutely silent.

“You must kill her.” Her pupils had expanded to devour the irises, her eyes black flame, her face a burning skeletal mask. “Unless and until you do, you can never be certain when the barriers will fall again.”

“What happens if I don’t kill her?”

“Then she will kill you. She will make you mortal.”

Elena is a wonderful match for Raphael’s cocksure self. She is a fiery heroine who doesn’t back down and never gives in. . . and Raphael is utterly perplexed by her. I loved these two together; Nalini Singh writes a heated duck and parry between them, a complicated tango that reaches a romantic crescendo by book’s end. . . while also creating a whole new cliff-hanger for them. Brilliant.

I found it interesting that, throughout the book, Nalini Singh offers little information on some major aspects of the story. As I said before, there is no information given on the Archangel’s religious connections. Furthermore, Elena is haunted by a nightmare from her childhood that Singh literally delivers in drips and drabs – a menacing ‘drip, drip, drip’ permeates Elena’s memory in moments of distress. These loose-ends are never tied up (obviously, this is a series after all) but they’re not even acknowledged as being open-ended. They are simply dead-ends; if you don’t like the lack of religious world-building, tough. I was impressed by how unconcerned I was by these gaping holes in the story – yes, it would have been nice to know if the Archangels are acting on the word of God, but I wasn’t overly concerned by the lack of information by book’s end. The action and romance is enough to pull you along in the story – heightened enough to distract you from the more nitty-gritty absent details.

I was really impressed by this first book in Nalini Singh’s ‘Guild Hunter’ series. And yes, I am kicking myself for not reading it back in 2009. The action and romance of the book carries the story, especially when Singh’s world-building seems to be a lesson in ambiguousness. Elena and Raphael have a heated and complicated romance, and set amidst angel politics it makes for addictive reading.

5/5