3 star

Review: Archangel’s Consort

by Stefani

Archangel’s Consort By Nalini Singh

Published January 25th, 2011 by Berkeley Sensation

Website: http://www.nalinisingh.com/consort.php

Picture and Synopsis from Goodreads

Synopsis:

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux and her lover, the lethally beautiful archangel Raphael, have returned home to New York only to face an uncompromising new evil…

A vampire has attacked a girls’ school—the assault one of sheer, vicious madness—and it is only the first act. Rampant bloodlust takes vampire after vampire, threatening to make the streets run with blood. Then Raphael himself begins to show signs of an uncontrolled rage, as inexplicable storms darken the city skyline and the earth itself shudders. The omens are suddenly terrifyingly clear.

An ancient and malevolent immortal is rising. The violent winds whisper her name: Caliane. She has returned to reclaim her son, Raphael. Only one thing stands in her way: Elena, the consort who must be destroyed…

Star rating (out of 5)

Review:

Time for an embarrassing confession.  When I read the above synopsis, I think I might have actually squeed like a fangirl.  Just for a minute, and that is something I have not done since I was quite firmly in my teen years.  I had thought that kind of enthusiasm was past me, but I was wrong.  I am so in love with this series that I just couldn’t contain myself.  We have heard tales of Caliane for two previous books now, and the very thought of her started to give me shivers of dread.  I was so excited that she was going to be involved in this one.  And more or less it was a satisfying book but not quite as spectacular as I had anticipated or hoped.  Let us begin with the disappointments.

Disappointment One: As much as the synopsis makes it sound like Caliane is a major part of the plot, she really isn’t.  Now, granted, she manages to cause some apocalyptic bad weather and really put a cramp in angel’s flying style.  And she appears to be responsible for some of the vampires having issues with being unable to control their blood cravings.  Her increasing power is also responsible for causing some mood instabilities with the archangels, most pointedly Raphael.  But Caliane herself is not actually present, just the looming threat of her.  Yet, when we finally do see her, it was mostly in a totally sane and normal kind of way and it failed to live up to my expectations of her as the “monster to the monsters”.  Maybe she gets more crazy later, but it definitely wasn’t in this book.

Disappointment Two:  The synopsis makes it seem as though Caliane finds Elena to be a threat to Raphael and she intends to do something about it.  Since she’s not really even conscious for most of the book I failed to see that.  Even when she is somewhat conscious and able to influence things directly, her threat to Elena was minimal compared to other characters.  Mostly I just felt let down.  I wanted to see her present more of a threat to the characters and the plot and it just….didn’t.

Disappointment Three: The sex scenes in this book lost their spark.  The last two books were steamy and sexy and awesome.  This time it just seemed like a requirement.  Is there a checklist somewhere for where they’ve had mad, passionate, rough sex?  Air, got it.  Bathroom, got it.  Bedroom, got it.  Maybe the local park will be next I don’t know.  I just didn’t think there was much point to it and most of the time I found myself thinking, “Wait, why do they feel horny at this moment again?  Oh right, they haven’t used enough possessive sentences toward each other yet this chapter so we much be possessive this way instead.”  I just didn’t care as much this time.

However, I still enjoyed the book just not as much as the previous two.  We learn much more about the seriously dysfunctional relationships with Elena and her father and with Raphael and his mother.  This was interesting to me and I enjoyed learning this but really just made me wonder why we should care about these people?  Why does Elena care about her father?  Why does Raphael care about his mother?  Because they’re “family”.  No, family doesn’t try to kill you Raphael and family doesn’t abandon you Elena.  But we did get a few teasers in there about Elena’s family and I am very anxious to find out more about that, hopefully we’ll address that in a later book.

I also liked the progression of Elena and Raphael’s relationship.  They made a lot of progress toward not being completely dysfunctional and I liked that.  Though I was frustrated with Elena a lot.  Raphael knows this world honey and he’s trying to protect you and all you can do is stomp your feet about how you’re not going to allow it.  Now a few times Raphael might have been a bit too protective and a tiny bit controlling but he is trying to keep her alive in spite of herself, and she has a history of being painfully unreasonable.  So I’m on Raphael’s side on this one.

The twist of having Lijuan be using Caliane’s wakening as a cover for some bad stuff was really good.  I enjoyed that a lot and didn’t suspect her at all.  I thought someone might be using it as a cover, but my bet was on Neha.  Having it be Lijuan was a twist that I didn’t see coming.

Overall the book was a good one and I am happy that I read it, but I enjoyed the previous two books much more than this one.

Partials by Dan Wells

by Stefani

Image

Partials by Dan Wells

Published by HarperCollins Publishing on 2/28/12

Synopsis from Barnes & Noble website:

The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out.

Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what’s left of humanity to the brink of civil war, and she’s not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them—connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.

Review:

Once again, let me warn you this review may contain spoilers, pretty much everything I post probably will!  I was really excited about this book.  I saw it on the shelf at the bookstore and I thought it looked interesting and then when I picked it up and read the quote on the back I was sold.  I took the book home that day and eagerly waited for the right moment for me to read it.  Overall, I will give this book a solid 3 stars, maybe closer to 3 and a half (out of 5).  I enjoyed it even though I felt that some of the plot was very flawed.

The main problem with this book was the predictability of it.  Pretty much everything I thought would happen, happened.  No matter how passing the thought might have been, it came true.  I really doubt that I’m that good of a guesser!  Just being a writer doesn’t mean I know secret plot formulas for books and movies, I can be surprised just like anyone else.  For example,the author makes it a point to tell you that Kira is different from everyone else around her.  My first thought was, well maybe she’s a Partial.  I was correct and I didn’t want to be correct since it seemed like a cliche.  Another terrible cliche in this book was the old “the government is the real bad guy”.  I spent most of the book praying that wasn’t the case.  I have read that plot a million times and I didn’t want this to be one of those books.  To a certain extent I was correct on that aspect as well, though not in the way I expected.

However, even though I felt the plot had many flaws and holes, there were some moments of brilliance that I just loved.  The world building in this book is above reproach. You can see everything that is being described to you and you can feel what the characters must be thinking and feeling.  It takes a talented writer to achieve that without falling into the trap of just telling you what’s going on rather than showing you.  The characters were equally well constructed and I emotionally connected to all of them by the end.  Kira was the most likable character and that was a good thing since she’s the main narrator.  But I also found myself liking characters who weren’t quite a likable like Marcus or Jayden.  They were a bit more objectionable and had more annoying qualities but I still liked them.  Samm presented an interesting dilemma as a character because you are not supposed to like or trust him, but you can’t help it.  And that lulls you into trusting him, even when you know you shouldn’t, and then a potential betrayal from him is all the more emotionally jarring.

The ending of this book was what clinched it for me however.  Up until that last chapter or two I was not liking the book nearly as much as I expected.  But that last 30 pages was spectacular!  I never suspected it was going that way and I felt caught off guard by the last sentence.  It was a great way to end the book and made me ravenous for the sequel just to get some answers for the questions that were raised.  Unfortunately I will have to wait for February 2013, the expected publication date of Fragments.  I will also have to read Isolation, a short story, available as an ebook only, about the events which led to the Partials War and the release of the RM virus.