Angels' Blood (Berkley Sensation)

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emmejo, January 22, 2011 (view all comments by emmejo)
Elena is a vampire hunter and one of the best, due to her ability to sense vampires when they are nearby, a trick which makes finding them a lot easier. When the archangel Raphael contacts her he's not looking for someone to track down a lost vampire servant, instead he wants her to help kill a fallen angel. He believes she can learn to use her vampire-tracking power on an angel too, but Elena isn't at all sure this is a job she can handle. She takes the job; after all, who would refuse one of the most powerful and dangerous angels alive? However after a while Elena is wondering if Raphael might be more of a danger to her life (and/or sanity) than their target. He keeps pressuring her to join his bed, and she's not sure if she can say no. She's not even sure she wants to or how to tell, considering how entertaining he seems to find messing with her head and making her do things she doesn't want to do.

The "power =magic =control =sex =power" concept is very common in paranormal romance, but rarely is it done well and in a believable manner. Here it is. Raphael is shown as inhuman at the beginning, his main interest in Elena seems just to be about getting his power-trip from forcing a powerful hunter to do his bidding, slowly and surprisingly believably, becoming a relationship about something other than wrestling over who's tougher. I think the key thing that makes it seem possible is respect. Both characters learn to respect each other's abilities, weaknesses and pasts, in doing so they both learn to start letting go of the urge to try and run the whole world, which lets them realize that their relationship doesn't have to be about control and power. It's very rare for a paranormal romance to use character development so effectively, which makes this one a breath of fresh air into an often stagnant genre.

I wish the writing had been as good as the characters. It wasn't dreadful, but it felt sloppy and rushed in a number of spots. It was generally rather bland, I got the sense the author was trying not to make her writing a distraction or stand out, but instead it meant that when exciting stuff wasn't happening to keep the reader interested via the plot and/or characters, the writing had a tendency to drag and get rather dull.

Another problematic thing is that both main characters were so unlikable at the beginning and it was very difficult to empathize, like or be interesting in learning more about them until more than a third of the way through. I only stuck with it that far because of the interesting setting, a couple background characters and the fact that I had received it through Bookcrossing and wanted to write a proper review. Had it been a library book I would have put it down unfinished, which would have been unfortunate since it improved so much later on.

This is an interesting read, but one has to slog through a tough beginning to get to the "good stuff".

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kehills, November 26, 2010 (view all comments by kehills)
Elena Deveraux is a Guild Hunter (the name, also, of the series itself). The Guild is a worldwide organization that employees hunters that will track down errand vampires. Vampires, you see, owe 100 years of service to their makers - the angels. But, people - and vampires - being what they are, some try to break free of their service before their contract is up. That's where the Hunters come in.

But Elena's not an ordinary hunter. She's hunter-borne, meaning that for her, each vampire has a specific - and traceable - smell. And this specials kill is what Cadre of Ten - the Archangels who've divided the world into the territories they rule - need. Of course, although they need her, Raphael, the Archangel of New York, will be damned if he'll tell her why.

Although Elena's an experienced hunter, she has little experience with older vampires or Archangels. Raphael's one of the oldest Archangels, and his staff is full of higher ranking angels and older vampires. Elena has to overcome some of her biases, and her suicidal tendency to mouth off before thinking, in order to work with these powerful creatures who need her - and only her - for her extremely rare tracking skills.

Singh quickly throws Elena into the story; there's almost no set-up, and this works well. And of course, since this is a paranormal romance series, there's attraction, romance, and eventually sex - Raphael's drawn to the feisty disregard Elena has for her personal safety, and Elena can't keep her eyes off one of the most beautiful being she's ever seen. But the story itself isn't designed to throw the two characters together; the plot is Elena's hunt, and the slow reveal as she figures out just who - what - it is she's hunting.

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Sarah Sieker, May 29, 2009 (view all comments by Sarah Sieker)
I absolutely loved this book and look forward to more in the series. It was an intense and emotional ride all the way through. I highly recommend it.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780425226926

Author:

Singh, Nalini

Publisher:

Berkley

Subject:

Romance - Paranormal

Subject:

Fantasy fiction

Subject:

Vampires

Copyright:

2009

Edition Description:

B-Mass Market

Series:

Guild Hunter

Series Volume:

1

Publication Date:

20120904

Binding:

Paperback

Grade Level:

from 12

Language:

English

Pages:

368

Dimensions:

6.78x4.15x.98 in. .38 lbs.

Age Level:

from 18