Angels’ Blood by Nalini Singh

Favorite Line: “She wanted to peel off his clothing and find out if an archangel really was built like a man, to lick his skin, mark him with her nails, ride him, possess him. . . be possessed by him.” (p. 86)

Being the best isn’t always a good thing and Elena Deveraux is about to find that out. When she is called in front of  an archangel in Manhattan, she assumes it’s to hunt a wayward vampire. She receives a major shock when Raphael, the archangel, tells her the job is to hunt another archangel, Uram, the Marquis de Sade’s teacher. An angel on the verge of darkness.

Raphael is a dangerous creature and to capture his attention is not a good thing. He is brutal and spends little time on human matters. . .  until he meets Elena. Soon he is contemplating her as a new toy. He is immortal, but the mortal Elena is mystifying and beautiful. Electricity pops when they are together, and the magnetism is wild.

A killing spree is taking place in Manhattan, dangerous vampires and archangels are all around, and an archangel is on the brink of evolution putting Elena’s chances for survival at slim. But she is the best.

Nalini Singh, bestselling author of the Psy-Changling series, has a winner with her newest series the Guild Hunters. Angels’ Blood, book one, is an urban fantasy romance. The world building is awesome and complete. There are humans, vampires, and angels. They all co-exist, but the angels live above and people live in awe of them. There are human governments, but everyone knows that the archangels have the final say in everything.

Vampires work for the archangels, but when they try to run away Guild Hunters are called in. The hunters track, capture, and return the vampires to the angels. Singh’s vampires have abilities that come as they age and  hopefully will be explored more as the series progresses, because almost all of the vampires introduced in Angels’ Blood are intriguing.

I loved the romance aspect of this story. It isn’t instantaneous. It builds up over time, unlike the instant lust. It is the hottest part of Angels’ Blood. The foreplay is ongoing, starts in chapter two, and burns through the story. It’s a passion that lingers and creates the slow burn of lust.

It is also how Raphael showed his lack of humanity. Singh makes sure that we (the reader) never forget Raphael is an archangel. He is physically compatible with a human, but is an immortal. She builds upon that major difference, and uses the heat between Raphael and Elena to burn away some of his inhumanity.

I can’t wait for the next installment of Singh’s Guild Hunters series! Other people have reviewed Angels’ Blood, too. Go check them out. Angieville. . . Reading, Wriging & Ranting. . . Leslie’s Psyche. . . Good Books, Bad Books, & Everything in Between