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tita_noir 's review for:
Angels' Blood
by Nalini Singh
***2021 Audio re-read***
Still holds up great. Liked going back and seeing the beginnings of Raph/Elena.
**********************
In this new world created by Nalini Singh, there are three types of beings: Humans, Vampires and Angels. Elena Deveraux is a human who is also a vampire hunter. She is hunter born, meaning she natural has extra-sensory abilities that allow her to hunt and find vampires. She works for a firm known only as The Guild which contracts to find wayward vamps.
Vampires in this world are created by Angels. The why and how is explained in the course of the story as a closely guarded secret. But the process involves people who want to become vampires applying (like a job) and going through a battery of tests to see if they fit the physical and mental requirements necessary for immortality. If they are successful applicants then they are 'turned'.
But with immortality comes a price. They are the servants, virtual slaves, of the Angel who made them. And not all the Angels are angelic. Some are benevolent but others are cruel and capricious. Hence some vampires try to escape their servitude. That is when the Guild Hunters are called in and hired by the Angels to return the fleeing vamp. They are paid handsomely for their work as it is a very hazardous job.
Elena is hired by the Archangel Raphael for a very special job. She is reluctant to take the job because Raphael is an Archangel with a reputation for swift and terrible justice. If she fails in the job she knows that her reward will be death. Things get even worse when she realizes that the retrieval this time isn't just a rogue vamp, but an Archangel turned feral -- the whys and hows of this is also explained in the course of the story and is likewise a closely guarded secret.
So Elena has to track down an evil Archangel, while simultaneously navigating a tense relationship with Raphael.
I was very reluctant to get this book. Even though I am a stone cold proponent of Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling series the early descriptions of this book just did not make it sound at all interesting to me (I hate vampire hunter books).
But I read a review that led me to believe this might not be the boring vamp hunter retread I thought it would be and so I got the book. And I am so happy I did.
Singh does here what she did with her Psy-Changeling series. She takes familiar paranormal tropes and makes something different, fresh and utterly fascinating with them. Here is yet another twist on how Vampires get made -- They apply for the job and undergo a review and interview process like any other job. And they sign an ironclad contract. On the surface it seems ridiculously ordinary, yet underneath -- given what we learn about the Angels -- it is kinda sinister. In the process she also makes them lose a lot of the glamour that comes with vampire lore in many of the paranormal books. They are not the top of the food chain. And in a lot of ways they are less powerful and more pitiable than humans.
No, the top dog spot and true glamour is saved for the Angels and the Archangels. From the loving descriptions of their unearthly beauty and the various skin and wing colors and the awed reactions of both humans and vampires we know that the Angels are where it's at in this book. And yet she does not leave them flawless. They are also an extremely dysfunctional group who wield almost too much power. Singh excels at showing the cracks and strains and effects that holding such power creates.
The best parts of this story are the relationships. Elena's relationships with her Guildmates and her family are complex and nuanced. Raphael's relationship with the other Archangels, his Vampire Dmitri and his elite bodyguard force known as The Seven is likewise well drawn.
And then there is the relationship between Elena and Raphael. This is a true paranormal romance novel. So even though there are the awful scenes of evil and depravity and just plain yukkiness -- the central plot of this book is the romance of Elena and Raphael. It is an uneasy and at times uncomfortable courtship. They are two extremely strong willed individuals who fight for supremacy. And the pull and tug of their romance is both interesting and -- in the middle of the book -- a little dragged out. But overall, I think it is the strongest element of this story.
The weakest element, imo, is the actual hunt of the villain. I didn't find Uram particularly interesting or his story in anyway compelling. I think she made him too evil. It would have been nice if we'd gotten a little more backstory on him so we could actually see the horror of his downward spiral. As it was, it was just all evil all the time.
The ending rocks so hard I had to read it twice and it made me desperate for the next book in the series.
Highly recommend.
Still holds up great. Liked going back and seeing the beginnings of Raph/Elena.
**********************
In this new world created by Nalini Singh, there are three types of beings: Humans, Vampires and Angels. Elena Deveraux is a human who is also a vampire hunter. She is hunter born, meaning she natural has extra-sensory abilities that allow her to hunt and find vampires. She works for a firm known only as The Guild which contracts to find wayward vamps.
Vampires in this world are created by Angels. The why and how is explained in the course of the story as a closely guarded secret. But the process involves people who want to become vampires applying (like a job) and going through a battery of tests to see if they fit the physical and mental requirements necessary for immortality. If they are successful applicants then they are 'turned'.
But with immortality comes a price. They are the servants, virtual slaves, of the Angel who made them. And not all the Angels are angelic. Some are benevolent but others are cruel and capricious. Hence some vampires try to escape their servitude. That is when the Guild Hunters are called in and hired by the Angels to return the fleeing vamp. They are paid handsomely for their work as it is a very hazardous job.
Elena is hired by the Archangel Raphael for a very special job. She is reluctant to take the job because Raphael is an Archangel with a reputation for swift and terrible justice. If she fails in the job she knows that her reward will be death. Things get even worse when she realizes that the retrieval this time isn't just a rogue vamp, but an Archangel turned feral -- the whys and hows of this is also explained in the course of the story and is likewise a closely guarded secret.
So Elena has to track down an evil Archangel, while simultaneously navigating a tense relationship with Raphael.
I was very reluctant to get this book. Even though I am a stone cold proponent of Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling series the early descriptions of this book just did not make it sound at all interesting to me (I hate vampire hunter books).
But I read a review that led me to believe this might not be the boring vamp hunter retread I thought it would be and so I got the book. And I am so happy I did.
Singh does here what she did with her Psy-Changeling series. She takes familiar paranormal tropes and makes something different, fresh and utterly fascinating with them. Here is yet another twist on how Vampires get made -- They apply for the job and undergo a review and interview process like any other job. And they sign an ironclad contract. On the surface it seems ridiculously ordinary, yet underneath -- given what we learn about the Angels -- it is kinda sinister. In the process she also makes them lose a lot of the glamour that comes with vampire lore in many of the paranormal books. They are not the top of the food chain. And in a lot of ways they are less powerful and more pitiable than humans.
No, the top dog spot and true glamour is saved for the Angels and the Archangels. From the loving descriptions of their unearthly beauty and the various skin and wing colors and the awed reactions of both humans and vampires we know that the Angels are where it's at in this book. And yet she does not leave them flawless. They are also an extremely dysfunctional group who wield almost too much power. Singh excels at showing the cracks and strains and effects that holding such power creates.
The best parts of this story are the relationships. Elena's relationships with her Guildmates and her family are complex and nuanced. Raphael's relationship with the other Archangels, his Vampire Dmitri and his elite bodyguard force known as The Seven is likewise well drawn.
And then there is the relationship between Elena and Raphael. This is a true paranormal romance novel. So even though there are the awful scenes of evil and depravity and just plain yukkiness -- the central plot of this book is the romance of Elena and Raphael. It is an uneasy and at times uncomfortable courtship. They are two extremely strong willed individuals who fight for supremacy. And the pull and tug of their romance is both interesting and -- in the middle of the book -- a little dragged out. But overall, I think it is the strongest element of this story.
The weakest element, imo, is the actual hunt of the villain. I didn't find Uram particularly interesting or his story in anyway compelling. I think she made him too evil. It would have been nice if we'd gotten a little more backstory on him so we could actually see the horror of his downward spiral. As it was, it was just all evil all the time.
The ending rocks so hard I had to read it twice and it made me desperate for the next book in the series.
Highly recommend.