Customer Reviews

Angels' Blood (Guild Hunter, Book 1)

5 star:		(90)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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).

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.

With the reviews on this new urban fantasy/paranormal romance being 5 star I was excited about jumping into to a new adventure. The book is about Elana the guild hunter who can smell vampires and Rapheal the archangel who is very powerful and in need of Elana skills to hunt down an out of control archangel.If you enjoy your heroine and hero arguing, back biting, and silently panting after one another then this book is for you. Personally it was all I could do to make it thru until the story took on some adventure and the two started working together instead of making cruel comments to one another. There is so much potential with this story line and the author does a beautiful job of describing the world with angels and vamps in it. I'm not sure I would read the next book in the series, especially after reading the preview of the next book and elana wakes up to start a fight with Raphael by throwing a knife at him,,,,Enough already!!!!!!!

Not enough back story. Sexuality is a subjective thing so I'll just say that if you don't mind reading about fingering and lots of panty dampness and angel's, er, male parts (rhymes with "tocks") then you might enjoy this.

I am not sure I could be more disappointed with the writing, when most parts are on the whole are well done. Confused? Me too. Good characters, story line, plot and development will usually get you at least three stars. Where the book looses me is the narrative's description method.

Elena Deveraux's constant comparison to the apparent barometer, moisture meter and muscle tension devices located in her nether region every other paragraph really started getting on my nerve! She compares one of those three pieces of information almost always located in her lower abdomen to every single thing that happens to her.

With the first two chapters I was actually relieved that the author had the fortitude to be so sexually aware in her character! I thought it was a relief to see some sexual honesty from the author and her female protagonist until I realized that it seemed to be the only way the character could compare her world to her feelings. There seemed to be nothing but either tight throbbing swamps at the thought of vampire scents or the Archangel, or tight scorched clinching of fear... which seemed to read the same between sexual fear and fear for her life. It was so over done that it distracted what was sincerely the better of the currently two books in the series judged by plot, story arc and character development.

It is frustrating but true to say that the first one was a better story and the second one had a much larger selection of descriptive methods and better over all word use! She was still a sweltering, guitar chord tension, Southern Florida swamp for her boy, and all the vampires.. but the description wasn't placed into every situation in the character's life.

Variety is the spice of life or in this case it would have made for a pleasant read to go along with the goods of story arc, character development and yes sexual tension... It was just way too much. I played the audio book with my wife and we were both looking at each other asking ourselves "Did she really just compare that to how wet and ready she is/isn't?" If we hadn't bought both audio books at the same time we would have thought the author was incapable of performing well constructed and various methods of description. After we reluctantly started the second novel and enjoyed how it was written, we were sad that it had far too much predictability and really didn't perform well leaving the final climax unspectacular and rather limp.

The first book however drags it's sopping wet hair out of the gutter just long enough to have a brilliant and beautiful climax (narrated by another character at both points in the narrative) enough character development to care about them (even if they aren't particularly original) and decent pacing. Since we went through the Herculean effort to start the second novel (even though it was better written though a worse story) we delved into the author enough to hear wonderful things about an entirely different series she wrote which seems to be hand, hoof and wing better than this unsatisfying fling with a book. We will be taking the Psi series out onto the dance floor.

To be honest this was more in the way of 1 1/2 star book. They really should allow us the leverage to be more accurate.

Rated 3.5/5

Summary: Elena Deveraux is a Guild Hunter. In Singh's vampire world, angels and vampires live openly amongst the human population. The angels are all but worshipped, and the vampires are revered for their powers and physical attractiveness. Angels are responsible for turning humans into vampires, and in exchange for the promised immortality, the vampires must serve the angels for 100 years after their rebirth. If they run away before their service is complete, then it is the job of the Guild Hunters to capture and return the rogue vampires to their angel owners.

Elena is considered the best of the Guild Hunters. Her ability to track vampires by their scent has resulted in a very successful career. It is her success that draws the attention of New York's archangel, Raphael. He has hired Elena to track an angel who has succumbed to blood lust and evil, making him far more dangerous than a rogue vampire. Elena has no choice but to accept the job, but she refuses adamantly to allow herself to become a plaything for Raphael or his team. They will not take her very seriously since she is only a mortal.

As Elena and Raphael work and hunt together, it becomes obvious that she won't be able to resist his physical advances forever. She is very attracted to him, but she doesn't want to give in to his allure if he can only see her as disposable. What Elena doesn't know is that another archangel has warned Raphael to kill Elena or he may die himself. She could be just as dangerous to him as he is to her. Regardless, they must work together to hunt the lost angel or the entire world will be in danger.

Review: I had high hopes for this book after having read several positive reviews. I liked it, but I didn't love it. The problem was that it couldn't hold my interest. I kept vacillating between enjoying the book and being completely irritated with the main character.

The concept and plot were interesting. When Elena and Raphael were hunting, fighting, investigating, etc, I enjoyed the book and found myself enthralled with the story. There was a fantastic element of suspense and tension every time Elena actually followed a scent and tracked her targets. This was the best part of the book, and the reason I kept reading.

However, the repetitive bickering, power struggles, and jockeying for control between Elena and the other characters was unbelievably annoying. I understood that Elena's attitude came from her need to maintain her independence, but I got so sick and tired of her constant bitchiness. Bitchiness does not exude power in my opinion. I had a hard time buying that any of the immortals, including Raphael, would have any respect for her after she continuously opened her mouth with yet another sneering comment. Would you put up with attitude like that? I sure don't.

I also wasn't impressed with Elena's aversion to blood and murder scenes. She is a Guild Hunter. She is supposed to be a warrior. How can someone do this for a living and still freeze up at the sound of dripping blood? Or vomit at the sight of victims? I bet there are plenty of homicide detectives in the real world who have a stronger stomach than this supernatural Guild Hunter. If she intends to strut around with her hostile independent attitude, she is going to have to get over obvious weaknesses.

Despite my criticisms, I will continue to read this series. Why? Well, the book ended with a fantastic cliffhanger. It was so unexpected that I have to find out what happens next. Elena might undergo enough change to rise above her argumentative mannerisms. I sure hope so, because this could make the difference between an okay series and a great series. There is a lot of potential in the storyline, as long as the author doesn't sabotage the appeal of her own characters.

An avid reader of all things science-fiction and fantasy (with a particular taste for paranormal romances), this book has been on my to-read-list for a while, and I only recently caved and made time to read it. I cannot say I am unsatisfied. While the story has lots of room for growth, readers of Christine Feehan and Kenyon will certainly enjoy this. Those who love Saintcrow or Hamilton's earlier works will likely feel a unsatisfied.
Angel's Blood has a unique plot among paranormal romances, centering upon angels rather than the usually vampire or demon as a love interest. The heroine is a quirky, often foul-mouthed, young woman that is reminiscent of Anita Blake without all the character development and a harem of beautiful men. With a hidden, pain-filled past that isn't miraculously forgotten through the story (as is unforunately common among the genre) and an almost cynical outlook on life that keeps her from panicing, Eliane manages to remain interesting but rather one dimensional.
This is a problem that plagues most of Singh's characters. While flash-romances based on lust and inexplicable "connections" proliferates the genre, in this particular novel it only feels cheap.
The beautiful and surprisingly vulgar, archangel Raphael has a strong sexual interest in Eliane from the first and while she too is captivated by him, the line between lust and love isn't clear. Relationship development is nearly nonexistent, and unless your definition of romance is ethereally beautiful and sexy men who spend half the novel trying to sway the heroine into sex with suggestive lines about where they want that heroine's mouth, this is not a particularly romantic novel. indeed, given Raphael and Eliane's personality it seems unlikely that such a powerful love would develop from little more than fascination and a few tumbles between the sheets.
The language use isn't all that skillful either. While far from the worst of novels, as an adult-novel this book reads more like one targeted at teens or young adults with its simpler vocabulary and sometimes inelegant descriptions. The flow is sometimes choppy, particularly when using onomatopoeia, and the dialogue often feels half-cliche-half-porno, but that need not deter readers.
The main aspect that will keep readers in, is the wonderfully promising plot and set of characters. So many aspects of the story remain unfinished and untouched that readers will want to read the sequel if only to see if those aspects are further developed.
Overall, a promising novel that does a good job at setting up the future events of the story, but that works poorly as a stand-alone novel.

I was so pleased to see Angels Blood come out as an audio book at [...]! Then even more than pleased to have the book narrated so well.

I admit I was nervous that the narrator wouldn't do the book justice as Angels Blood is an all time favorite read for me. But Justine Eyre does a really excellent job! Her interpretation of each character's personality and tone was perfect to my ears. Loved the accents she did for Illium and Dmitri. Elena sounded just right too. As for Raphael, there is just enough of a "distant" sound to Raphael's tone to make you believe the description of him that goes something along the lines of ... "he never was, nor ever will be, human"

I pick up something new about the "world" Nalini Singh has built, or one of the characters each time I read or listen to this book. And the second book, Archangels Kiss is now also on audio, fabulous!

Elena Deveraux is a vampire hunter. She's hired by the archangel Rapheal to track down another archangel who is going to go on a hunting rampage. In Elena's world, archangels live among us like vengeful gods, that is, when they haven't gone bad. Vamps are made by them too. I had problems with both of these facts. To be honest, I couldn't warm up to the archangels at all.

Nalini Singh is also author to the series, Psy-Changeling. I read the first one and fell in love with her writing style. In this case though, it's the story and characters I have a problem with. Although I won't be continuing on with the Guild Hunter, I will do so with the Psy-Changeling series.