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Angels of Darkness by Meljean Brook, Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, Sharon Shinn

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mrhaveries's review against another edition

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4.0

It was very good, I liked all the stories but I loved Nalini Singh s better.

elliefufu's review against another edition

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4.0

Angels of Darkness by Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook and Sharon Shinn
Grade: B

“If you’ve never made love to an angel, I highly recommend the experience.”

Angels of darkness is an anthology of four short stories by four of the best paranormal romance and urban fantasy authors writing today. Together they take us on four separate but amazing journeys into the world of angels, vampires and supernatural creatures out to save humans. Each story is a fast paced ride of danger, adventure and most importantly love.

In Angel’s Wolf we are taken back into Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunters series and the amazing world of angles and vampires. Noel was mentioned in a previous GH book where he was tortured and broken both mentally and physically. He has been sent to New Orleans by Raphael to help the angel Nimra discover who among her court is a traitor. I love the GH series and this story fits in perfectly with the rest of the series. Both Noel and Nimra are great characters and it was very fun to watch them open up and heal some old wounds that they had and start really living again. The mystery of who the traitor in Nimra’s court was great and kept me guessing until the very end. Reading this story just reminded me how much I love this series and I can’t wait for the next installment to come out. Grade: B+

Ilona Andrews is another favorite author of mine and her Kate Daniels series is my favorite of 2011. Alphas: Origins is unlike anything I have ever read before and I mean that in the best way possible. Mrs. Andrews takes us into a world with beasts and creatures with special powers that are trying to help save human kind and the world. In this story a woman and her daughter are kidnapped and the woman, Karina, is forced to become a donor for Lucas, a man/beast who needs her blood to stay alive. This story is some urban fantasy and some science fiction all rolled together with a whole lot of darkness and I loved it. I have never really read anything like it and I found myself completely sucked into this new world and I never wanted to leave. For me this was my favorite story out of the four and I hope it turns into a full series. Grade: A

Nocturne by Sharon Shinn takes us to a boarding school for orphans where we meet Corban, an angel who is now blind and recovering from his injury in the main house on campus and Moriah, a girl with a past hiding out from a shady past and posing as the night cook in the cafeteria. As these two become friends, after so heavy pushing from Moriah, Corban starts to try to build back his life slowly with his new friend’s help. They more time they spend together the more they each want to help the other but some secrets are too big to tell and could destroy everything they each have worked so hard for. This was my least favorite story in this book and it’s mostly because I really disliked Moriah. maybe it was her approach to Corban but something about her rubbed me the wrong way and made it hard for me to read about their journey together. Grade: C

Meljean Brook writes one of my all time favorite series the Iron Seas Series, which is steampunk, so it was very fun for me to read a paranormal story from her. Ascension takes place in a small town in southern Illinois where a demon is taking over and a young vampire has been killed. Radha and Marc are both Guardians, immortals with special powers who protect humans from demons, and ex-friends and ex-lovers. Together they must solve the mystery of who this demon is and save the town from utter destruction. This was a super fun, sexy and suspenseful story and I loved it. Mrs. Brook does a great job of intertwining a fast paced crime adventure with a very heartfelt love story. The Guardians are very fascinating and I really hope that we get a full Guardian book in the future. Mrs. Brook has proved that she is a wonderful storyteller no matter what type of genre she chooses. Grade: B+

Angels of Darkness is one of the best anthologies that I have ever read. The authors in this book are amazing and so great at telling a really good tale in less then a hundred pages. Unlike most anthologies there wasn’t one story that was horrible and for the most part all were excellent. I highly recommend this book to all paranormal romance and urban fantasy readers.

emreadswhatshewants's review against another edition

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5.0

Delightful insight to the Guardians' world. I loved Radha and Marc, wish there was more of them to read

katleap's review against another edition

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4.0

4.5 Stars

I bought this anthology for Ilona Andrew's Alphas. I read part of the story when it was on her blog and enjoyed it.

Angel's Wolf - Nalini Singh
I haven't read anything by Ms. Singh but she has been on my list, specifically her Archangel series. I enjoyed this short a lot. I will be moving this series up on my to-read stack.

Alphas: Origins - Ilona Andrews
I bought the book for this story and was not disappointed. I loved the dark sci-fi take on origins and angels. I thought the powers were wicked cool and the intriguing. I hope to see a continuation of this world in the future.

Nocturne - Sharon Shinn
I am a fan of Sharon Shinn. I own her 12 houses series and I enjoy rereading those books. I have not read her Samaria series. It seems I may have to investigate it. The idea of a blind angel learning to fly is awesome. I also really enjoyed the narrator's voice.

Ascension - Meljean Brook
I enjoyed this novella a lot. Especially because I have hits and misses with Ms. Brooks, particularly with her Guardians series. The illusions, dyed skin and the identity of the antagonist all made for an enjoyable read.

Overall I like the anthology very much.

eb00kie's review against another edition

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3.0

Angel's Wolf was good, not incredible, maybe a 3.5, with the old Singh cliche present, with their ups and downs.

Whatever it's name was by Ilona Andrews was unusually vulgar, maybe a 1. Lucas, especially, if you are to believe the old extremely sexually active("He's a beast!!") cliche, he doesn't even seem to believe in self-control. The dialogue isn't any better either...

Nocturne was unusual, considering all the badass/cocky stereotype for heroines nowadays, and rather preferable for that. I would give it a 4, considering the unelegantly long descriptions.

Whatever it's called - I generally dislike Meljean Brooks stories that are not from the "Iron Seas"

nikkisreadingx's review against another edition

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4.0

Angel's Wolf -- Nalini Singh: 4 stars.

I really enjoyed the world in this one. I've only read the first two books in the Guild Hunter series so stepping away from New York and Raphael was a nice break. I loved Noel; watching him grow back into his own was interesting and pairing that against Nimra who was trying to find the betrayer in her court. Singh is a favorite author of mine and I'm biased, so take that as you need.

Alphas -- Ilona Andrews: 4 stars.
Honest, I was expecting to hate this one. I was expecting it to be the rapey, awful, Stockholm-esque story in a world far too big to explain in a short story. I was so surprised! There's a scene in the beginning that is exactly what I expected and then it shifted. The end followed a few tropes I thought were a little cheesy

Spoiler

(Karina becomes something powerful at the last second before they die and kills all the enemies, yay they live to see another day, thank you heroine who only discovered that she would become something a chapter earlier)

and there were a few Holy InfoDump, Batman moments, but it was good. I was sorely disappointed to discover the series would not be continuing because the authors wanted to write the story I expected, but there's not much more to do.

Nocturne -- Sharon Shinn: 2 stars.
My opinion and my rating are weird. The story is good, it was nice to read, I loved the world it was set in, and the author had a really neat voice that pushed the story along effortlessly. Why the 2 stars? Because it should have been a YA novel. I haven't read the genre in over a decade and it doesn't matter that the characters are both in their 30s, it reads exactly as the young adult novels I used to read -- POV, writing style, plot line, character arcs, everything. Not really what I was expecting and my rating probably would be higher if it had been in the right anthology.

Ascension -- Meljean Brooks: 5 stars.
When I read the blurbs of each short story, I guessed that I would love Singh's, like Shinn's, but Brooks and Andrews were tied for what I thought would be worst. I was so wrong and very happy for it. I loved this story. I usually do not like the ex-lover returns trope because those story tend to skip the building chemistry that I prefer in my books, but this one had it. There was a good backstory that was told over the course of the story, the world was very interesting with information doled out naturally, and I really loved the characters. Reading them reconnecting, addressing the past, and then moving from it was amazing. I was completely surprised.