Elena Deveraux is the best vampire hunter out there, but she begins to regret it when the angels come to her for help. Archangel Raphael, who has control over the United States, hires her to track a rogue Archangel, and in the process sets about seducing her. Despite her insistence that she can’t smell angels the way she can vampires, Elena is trapped in a dangerous mission, probably destined to die either on the impossible job or afterwards when she discovers too many of the angels’ secrets.
I actually really enjoyed this book and I feel like I’m getting a hint as to why Nalini Singh is so popular. I really liked Elena for the most part. She’s an interesting character with a backstory that relates to this novel and I loved her snarky, risk-taking attitude. I have to say her decision to sleep with Raphael made little sense, though; she’s frustrated so she appears to decide that she wants to sleep with him just to relieve stress. Yes, that is a great idea when your chosen lover is so powerful he can kill you with a thought, and probably would when the relationship was over.
Minor point, though, because for the most part I found their relationship sweet, a bright point in a darker book, and I suppose women are often drawn to power, especially when wrapped in an extremely attractive package, so maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise. Plus the romance often took a backseat to the more exciting plot, and I was happy for that a romance, the ending was not what I predicted! And the characters’ stories are carried on in the next book! I think that this might actually qualify the book as urban fantasy, but I’ll have to see where the series goes to decide which way it leans.
I loved the world, too, and I thought it was a fair amount darker than most of what’s out there in urban fantasy or paranormal romance. There is a lot of brutal killing and the characters themselves don’t escape the savagery. A lot of Elena’s growth is based upon the horrors in her past and her determination to stick up for herself and what’s right even when that means death. There isn’t all that much humor when people’s hearts are being ripped out of their chests. It all feels very serious. There are some gaps in the world-building, mostly because we know very little about what angels do. They control vampires and they fly around with pretty wings, and they obviously are in charge of the world, but aside from the councils of the most important angels we just don’t see that much. I suspect this will be elaborated on in the next one, though, given how this wraps up, and so I’m willing to let the gaps rest for the moment. The angels seem to have no connection to any modern day religious faith, which was appreciated.
Overall, I enjoyed Angels’ Blood. I’m glad that this series has been picked up by a UK publisher so I can follow it in a more timely fashion. And many thanks to Tasha for sending this book to me. I think I liked it more than she did!
I’m still an Amazon Associate.
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