A review by eesh25
Archangel's Consort by Nalini Singh

3.0

This is the third book that follows the same characters as the first one and I am officially done with Elena. And not "done" to say that I don't like her anymore. I'm just not sure how much substance you can squeeze out of her. And the author trying to stretch her for as long as possible is just making the books drag. And this one dragged a lot.

The plot of the book revolves around strange events happening, like vampires going rogue or constant earthquakes, which signify that an ancient angel that has been sleeping is about to wake. And there's a good chance that the angel awakening is Raphael's mother, Caliane.

We've heard about Caliane in the most vague ways because Nalini Singh loves making things dramatic by giving info in miniscule dozes. But we know that she was a very old archangel who used to be very kind but went psycho after killing her, also psycho, husband. She left her young son, Raphael, to die after a free-fall from a great height. He almost didn't survive and Caliane was never to be seen after that. So her waking is obviously a matter of concern.

And do we focus and her and the problems she's causing before she's even woken up? Yes, we do. Caliane and the strange happenings are a big part of the novel. The problem isn't with that. The problem is with Elena.

We've already read about what happened in Elena's childhood, her strained relationship with her father and how it affects her, and her need for freedom and hunting and how she feels about Raphael. And that means we can move past those things. But it seems Nalini Singh disagrees because we're still being told the same things over and over again. The repetitiveness is getting exhausting. And Elena's meetings with her father and how she gets torn up with one sentence from him (likes of which she's already heard about a dozen times), make her look weak. Move on and focus on the story!

Honestly, Raphael may be an endlessly interesting character who still has many secrets, courtesy of being over a thousand years old, but I just don't think there's much more to explore in his and Elena's relationship. Especially since they seem to forgo talking and skip right to screwing each other's brains out. Many times.

The author needs to acknowledge that Elena's narrative has gotten extremely repetitive and so have her problems. We need more substance than her being depressed over her childhood trauma for the millionth time or crying because her daddy was mean to her again. Either change Elena's narrative and give her new stuff to think about, or give us a new character.

Overall, this was an okay read with some good parts that got buried under all same old stuff from the other books. The pace of the novel was very slow and the plot didn't get the attention it deserved. I'm hoping the next book will be better.


1. Angels' Blood
2. Archangel's Kiss