Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow! - What a great Intro to Singh's Incredible new Guild Hunter Urban Fantasy World of Angels, Vampires and Hunters, March 3, 2009
This review is from: Angels' Blood (Guild Hunter, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
Darker than her Psy-Changeling series and more urban fantasy suspense than romance. Singh's new Guild hunter universe is fabulous with its combination of angels, vampires and human hunters. And even though it is not super romantic, the relationship between the leads in Angel's Blood is still compelling.
As the best hunter of the Guild, Elena comes to archangel Raphael's notice when her talents are required for a special hunt. This time the target is not a vampire trying to opt-out of the hundred years of servitude that is the angels' price for immortality, instead the quarry is far more dangerous - the supremely deadly archangel, Uram, gone rogue. Elena knows that even should she survive the hunt and deliver her blood thirsty prey, she will likely loose her life for her inability to swallow her pride and act the nice little mortal in order to treat the powerful archangel Raphael and his immortal vampire cadre with the submissive deference that they expect - she will not crawl, no matter the price. But it just that combination in of suicidal bravery along with an innocence and forthrightness that captures Raphael's interest and Raphael soon begins his own hunt with his seductive pursuit of Elena. Despite his arrogance and cruelty, Raphael's beauty and power is attractive. And even knowing the danger of becoming one of Raphael's toys, Elena may find it hard to deny her overwhelming desire for the magnificent winged immortal.
Angel's Blood definitely lives up to - and surpasses - its prerelease buzz. I loved this one, even with some dark horrific moments showing the handiwork of the violently insane rogue `blood angel'. The Guild Hunter world is fascinating with its twist on the vampire mythos and the presence of angels on Earth. I really liked Singh's take on angels as dangerous ancient powerful inhuman beings and I loved that she doesn't make the mistake of turning Raphael fluffy and cherubic by the end of the story - she just gives him enough of a touch of humanity to make his transition work in the context of his relationship with Elena. Add to this flying scenes, Singh's evocative descriptions of the angels' beautiful wings, and the nod to changes in the angels' environments to accommodate a winged being and Angel's Blood captures the top spot on my list of angel paranormals.
But even with all the other great things going on in Angel's Blood, it is Singh's amazing cast of characters who really make me excited about this new series. Raphael and Elena are terrific and there are so many standouts in the supporting cast: deadly vampires Dmitri and Venom, Illium the gorgeous flirtatious blue-winged angel with a weakness for mortals, angel spymaster Jason, and Elena's fellow hunters Sara and Ransom, not to mention hunter Ashwini and cajun vamp Janvier from Angels' Pawn: A Companion Novella to Angels- Blood who are not on stage here.
If you'd like another little taste of the Guild Hunter world do check out Ashwini and Janvier in the companion story available only on Kindle and E-book, it has a slightly different flavor and explores another corner of the Guild Hunter world, but shows the same deft hand with the leading characters. For me, I've already read Angel's Pawn and I liked Angel's Blood so well that I actually read it twice - a very rare occurrence for me - so I guess I'll just have to console myself with Singh's upcoming Psy-Changeling stories ( Branded by Fire and Blaze of Memory) until we get finally get another trip to the Guild Hunter world in "Angel's Judgement" (in Must Love Hellhounds) and full length Angel's Kiss next year.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
40 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Angieville: ANGEL'S BLOOD, March 18, 2009
This review is from: Angels' Blood (Guild Hunter, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
Prior to reading ANGEL'S BLOOD, I was a Nalini Singh virgin. I'd heard nothing but good, but just never found myself in the mood for paranormal romance. My feelings on the genre are uncertain. However, this book, the first in Singh's new Guild Hunter series, is being billed as urban fantasy, which made it seem more palatable and like a good place to start. It does have several of my favorite urban fantasy characteristics. Kick-A** heroine, deadly vamps of the non-sparkly variety, strong world building, etc. But. It remains a paranormal romance at heart. So if extremely heated situations make you cringe, giggle, or otherwise react unfavorably, tread lightly here.
Elena Devereaux is a vampire hunter. She's what is known as hunter-born and so it's not just her job. It's her calling. She could no more walk away from it than she could sprout wings and fly. Elena belongs to the Hunter's Guild and, as such, is hired out to those willing to pay to have an expert hunt, capture, and/or kill rogue vampires. In this world, vampires aren't the top man on the totem pole. That honor belongs to the angels. Specifically, the archangels. Archangels rule the world and, get this, they create vampires. Who are then at their beck and call for at least a hundred years of servitude. The vampires are pretty much evil incarnate, but interestingly enough, the angels are not their polar opposites, i.e. paragons of virtue and goodness. In fact, they're sort of outside the whole good vs. evil spectrum. They run the show. They use who and what they need to to keep the vampires and humans in line and, if you value your life, you stay out of their way. Life spices up for Elena when Raphael, the Archangel of New York, enlists her services to hunt down a rogue Archangel who has done the unthinkable and become a vampire himself.
Here's the thing about ANGEL'S BLOOD. It grew on me more after I finished it than it did while I was actually reading it. While I was reading it I spent a fair bit of time on the fence. Since finishing, I've found myself thinking about it throughout the day, wondering what will happen next and what the characters I particularly liked are getting up to in my absence. That's a pretty good sign, after the fact, I have to say. I had two main issues with the story, the romance and the backstory. I love me a good antihero so Raphael was right up my alley. So much so that I wanted his gradual transformation to something resembling something human to be even more gradual so that I could savor the process. And while I'm a big fan of protracted tension between the two main characters, this one tended heavily toward the sexual variety and I tend to like mine a little more cerebral. I kept wishing Elena and Raphael would wrangle a little more over the differences in their species and background and a little less over their mutual desire to jump the other's bones. Similarly I liked Elena, but I really wanted more on her backstory to push that like over to love. There are all kinds of hints at a dark past and I felt like a little more reveal earlier would come in handy sympathizing with her position in the present and understanding where she's coming from. That said, I still think this was a good place to start and I'm glad I read it. I'll be picking up the sequel to find out what happens to Elena and Raphael (and Ilium and Dmitri--love those two).
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I wanted more..., March 5, 2009
This review is from: Angels' Blood (Guild Hunter, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
For weeks there have been many pre-reviews of this book out in Cyberspace. I've searched for them and read them all, and perhaps because of that, and because of my enjoyment of Singh's Psy/Changeling series, I had rather high expectations of Angel's Blood. Maybe that's why, then, I read the book and wound up feeling disappointed.
It's certainly not a bad book. It's a GOOD book. I enjoyed it, I'll keep it, I'll re-read it from time to time, and I'll buy and read the others in the series as they are published. But while this book was good for me, it wasn't great. That's the part that's so disappointing.
A lot of the pre-reviews talked up the worldbuilding of this book. It's an interesting premise, no question. But at the same time, I thought the worldbuilding and characterization was not particuarly complex or layered, especially compared to the Psy/Changeling series.
Another issue I had with the book was the sizzle factor, or lack thereof. I'm a fairly old-school romance reader. I'm not necessarily a fan of the new super-hot brand of erotic romance. I don't want to read a romance in which the sex plays so significant a role that it overshadows the rest of the story and the characterization. But on the other hand, I've read all of Singh's Psy/Changeling books, and as a result, I have certain expectatins about the degree of sexuality in her books. Most of the pre-reviews really "talked up" the sexual tension between Elena and Raphael and so I went into this story expecting a little something extra. However, in my opinion, there was less sexual tension here...less of a sizzle factor...than there is in her Psy/Changeling stories. For instance, the big scene between Judd and Brenna from Carressed by Ice was WAY hotter than the one sex scene between Elena and Raphael. (And Judd was a virgin, for crying out loud!)
My last "complaint" had to do with Raphael and Elena's respective backgrounds. I know that this is the first book of a new series, so I fully expect that Singh will be more forthcoming about their pasts in future books. However, I thought that in Angel's Blood there was a lot of build-up with regard to their pasts, but then no follow-through. It felt like a loose-end to me, like unfinished business.
If I had never before read any of Singh's books, I think I would have liked this one much, much more. The writing here is terrific. The characters are interesting and likeable. The premise is fresh. There's no question that if that had been the case, my rating for this book would have been a resounding 5 stars. But I HAVE read her other books -- I LOVE her other books -- and I have rather specific expectations of her stories. And in this case, Angel's Blood just failed to live up to those expectations for me.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
