neha

Review: Archangel’s Storm by Nalini Singh

by Stefani

Archangel’s Storm by Nalini Singh

Published: September 4th, 2012 by Berkley

Picture and synopsis from the Goodreads book page

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:

With wings of midnight and an affinity for shadows, Jason courts darkness. But now, with the Archangel Neha’s consort lying murdered in the jewel-studded palace that was his prison and her rage threatening cataclysmic devastation, Jason steps into the light, knowing he must unearth the murderer before it is too late.

Earning Neha’s trust comes at a price—Jason must tie himself to her bloodline through the Princess Mahiya, a woman with secrets so dangerous, she trusts no one. Least of all an enemy spymaster.

With only their relentless hunt for a violent, intelligent killer to unite them, Jason and Mahiya embark on a quest that leads to a centuries-old nightmare… and to the dark storm of an unexpected passion that threatens to drench them both in blood.

Rating (out of 5):

Review:

I absolutely loved this book!  I have been having mixed feelings about the last few Guild Hunter books, but this ended with this book.  Jason is a character that I never expected to love and his story is one that I wasn’t too terribly interested in knowing.  Mainly, I looked forward to reading this one to learn more about Neha and how she is coping after the death of her daughter, and now her consort.  She was teetering on the edge of madness after losing her daughter, to lose her consort too I suspected might push her over the edge.

This is where Jason enters.  He is Raphael’s renowned spymaster, who has the ability to literally blend into the shadows and go completely unnoticed.  He offers to help Neha find the killer, hoping to stave off a rage that could end in war with millions of casualties.  She demands from him a blood vow to her niece, Mahiya, basically meaning that anything he learns he cannot reveal to anyone else about her family or how she runs her court.  This story intrigued me and I wanted to see what we would learn about Jason and Mahiya, and what would ultimately be the result of his investigation.

I was apprehensive when we got the first few chapters that continues the stories of Raphael and Dmitri, but excited to see what is going on with their characters at the same time.  I was concerned that these chapters were added because Jason’s story was going to be very thin and needed some buffer material.  Thankfully that turned out to not be the case, and Jason’s is my favorite story so far. Like all of the angels (vampires too) that we’ve met, Jason has a very troubled background.  It didn’t take me long to figure out what was going on with his flashbacks and what his story would end up being.  Although, even though I guessed it, it was still heartbreaking.  Mahiya has also had a hard life and has her own reasons for wanting to appear invisible.  But she’s not invisible to Jason and he is not invisible to her.  They find themselves drawn to each other and drawn to the darkness they recognize in the other.

In a way the story of the murder of Neha’s consort was secondary to the story of the budding relationship and trust between Jason and Mahiya.  Though I was much more interested in Jason and Mahiya, my jaw still dropped in shock when the murderer was revealed.  I don’t think I would have ever seen it coming, and I appreciate a story that can surprise me.

I appreciate Jason for being a flawed character and for having very dark demons that haunt him.  But he’s not looking for someone to save him and Mahiya knows she can’t save him.  Neither is trying to change the other and that makes their relationship all the more special.  They each hold to the other out of love and trust that the other will stay despite their flaws and that perhaps together they can begin to make a new future and leave behind their dark pasts.  When we arrive at the final paragraphs and Jason flies away on assignment, my eyes filled with tears.  Jason found a way even through his darkness and pain to show his princess the things he couldn’t say.  I have found this book entering my mind constantly for the past few days and I need another Guild Hunter book.  I can’t stop thinking, who is next?  Who’s story will we discover after Jason?  Aodhan perhaps?  Venom maybe?  We haven’t seen much of Galen of Illium lately.  I want to know what happens next and I look forward to reading it when it gets here.

 

 

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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.